No Game Thread From Last Night
First, I didn’t see the game. Second, I’m boycotting Bryce Elder starts until he does something unElderly.
Pick On Someone Your Own Size!
I think we are slowly coming to that point in the season where you no longer lick your chops at teams with much worse records than you, planning to make games up quickly. Having lost a series to the seriously meh Angels, we now have a four game series against the Orioles, a team I’d say has a terrible record except that it’s only two games worse than our record.
The Orioles are 22nd in runs scored, those chumps, while the Braves sit comfortably in… 24th. Our pitching, though, is much better, led by Sale and Schwellenbach. As long as we have those guys, we should have no trouble with the Orioles at all. If not, we can always sign Huascar Ynoa or somebody.
The Orioles answer to Sean Murphy, Adley Rutschman, is currently on the IL with an oblique, just like Murphy had last year. His backup, Chadwick Tromp, the Orioles’ answer to Drake Baldwin, is also on the shelf so they may choose to go without a catcher. This should improve the Braves’ chances, and certainly would if we could ever get someone on base. Just kidding…. the Orioles catcher is now Gary Sanchez, a hitting catcher who seemingly can’t hit any more. It doesn’t really matter…. they’ll probably get hits out of their fifth string catcher, Jacob Stallings, who spent a few weeks unemployed after the Rockies cut him loose. I’m not sure what it takes to lose a job in Colorado.
Optimistic? You betcha.
Fireworks
Old home week for the 4th of July as Charlie Morton returns tonight to take on Spencer Strider. Charlie will no doubt get a very appreciative greeting. He will then proceed to strike out 15 or so Braves who feel sorry for him. Like all 4th of July games, this one will end around 4:30 am once Stuart Fairchild hits a homer. (Did you know Stuart Fairchild hit 8 homers last year? Did he then decide he was too bulked up?)
Nabil Crismatt opted out of a minor league deal with the Phillies. He was starting for the Triple A team and was pitching well with a 3.81 ERA. He’s a soft tosser, but has big league experience and the Braves are in need of warm bodies to fill out the rotation.
Kolby Allard was DFA’ed by the Guardians. He was pitching in long relief. Had a good ERA but was pitching above his peripherals. We know him.
These aren’t sexy options but we currently don’t have a starter for Saturday, and 2 of our other starters are a 20 year old who has barely pitched above A ball and Bryce Elder.
Notably, I’m at the point where I’d prefer that they start Fuentes instead of Elder. The experience might help Fuentes.
As good a time as any to point out we could’ve retained Laureano for nothing and most of the folks here wanted to. Imagine what sort of acumen has a front row seat to his exploits last year and says nah miss me wit dat
Are his initials AA?
The MHII contract is a fireable offense alone for AA. Woof.
In the case of Harris, I’m convinced signing a massive contract extension three months into his big league career was to his detriment.
The financials won’t cripple the Braves but it is looking like an unforced error.
Radio broadcast just noted that the last run scored via means other than a home run was last Saturday.
Recapped