If loving you is wrong, Braves, I don’t want to be right.
If being right means being without you,
I’d rather live a wrong doing life.
The sports world pundits say it’s a shame,
It’s a downright disgrace.
But as long as I’ve got you on my mind,
I don’t care what people say.
Your friends tell you there’s no future
that the window is now closed.
Media fights mean I can’t see you when I want,
So, I will see you when I can.
Loving you’s not wrong, but I want to be right.
Loving you’s not wrong, but I want to be right.
Dennis Green said “you are what you are.”
You scored 9 for me, but that didn’t work yesterday.
And am I wrong to hunger for some standings rise?
Knowing that brings misery to some other fans.
We know we’re wrong to expect this thing to change.
We know we’re wrong when the IL is our range.
Loving you’s not wrong, but I know we’re not right.
Loving you’s not wrong, but I know we’re not right.
Giants starting pitcher walked 3 to start.
And I cringed that Drake would ground ball DP.
The ball went in the gap, and it was 3 to zero.
So, on this sad team, again Drake’s a hero.
Elder isn’t old, but this season sure is.
We need too many wins, like Boston in ’14.
Somehow this team survived, when it usually would fold.
Somehow we love right on, when chaos is our friend.
Drake and Shabbos Schwellenbach have been extremely bright spots in an awfully dark summer.
Drake has such a professional approach at the plate. I’d be surprised if he has significant slumps going forward. He seems to have a strong command of the strike zone and stays disciplined.
If this is the end of the road for the Big Bear in Atlanta, then he will have been paid around $95M to produce 10.8 fWAR, which is a $8.7M cost per WAR. So even though it was extremely streaky, the Ozuna ended up being worth pretty close to his contract after all.
Another interesting thing is that for most of that time, as well, there were no natural ways to fill that slot in the roster, UNTIL AFTER DRAKE BALDWIN PROVED HIMSELF AND MURPHY SHOOK OFF THE RUST.
One very under-discussed aspect of the position player core that we have locked up is the overwhelming lack of speed. We’re 100 games into the season and these are our stolen base totals from lineup regulars:
Baldwin/Murphy – 0 (fair)
Olson – 0 (fair)
Ozzie – 8
Allen – 6 but caught 5 times, probably has a stop sign now
Verdugo/Profar – 3 (Profar 1, Verdugo 2)
Harris – 12
Acuna/White – 10 (Acuna 4, White 6)
I’m not expecting to have multiple guys steal 40 bags, and Acuna has been injured, but Harris on pace to lead the team with 18 stolen bases at a time when it’s easier than ever to steal bases is another aspect of why this team has under-performed. Even the bench doesn’t have a true speed threat; Williams had 3 and Fairchild had 2, and those are your leaders.
Lack of speed and stolen bases may be an issue, but it pales in comparison to the lack of ability to get on base in the first place.
Agreed, professor Floyd. Give me a station-to-station team that can draw a bleeding walk any day of the week. Can’t steal first.
Brilliant, Cliff. Your song parody perfectly captures my feelings about our deeply flawed team. The only problem is that the song is now an earworm I can’t shake. It wouldn’t be bad if it was the original Luther Ingram version, but for some reason the stupid Barbara Mandrell version is in there and I can’t get rid of it.
What is the going rate for $$$ per WAR?
Something like $7-10 MM per WAR, but it’s not really linear. I bet Jonathan could tell us about that.
Well, nobody’s earning their money tonight… what a stinker.
How’s it going? Are we winning?
Oh, man. Recap’ll be up tomorrow
Hector Gomez says we are rumored to trade Ozuna to the Padres for 2 45 FV pitchers, which is more than I thought we might get for him.
One of them, Ryan Bergert, would probably join our rotation right now.
Reminds of the Whalen/Gant haul from the Mets a decade ago. Both meh but ended up as trade fodder.
Recap is both up and not up.