It’s hard to say what the Braves are wanting to do with their remaining games. Presumably they will want to continue to look at Joey Wentz and Hurston Waldrep. Will Spencer Strider ramp up further in his recovery from surgery, or is this his new normal? If we are reading correctly, there is an extra draft pick at stake if Drake Baldwin wins Rookie of the Year (h/t Rob Copenhaver.) And based on their lack of trade deadline activity, it looks like the Braves are going to try win enough games to suck every last dollar possible out of the Battery before the end of the season.
31,203 was the reported attendance who saw the 4th place Braves take the 4th out of 5 from the 3rd place Marlins. Check. Joey Wentz made it through 5 1/3 innings and 88 pitches. The countdown: 4 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts, 1 run, earned. Check. The famously not-traded Marcell Ozuna hit his 3rd homer in 2 days, DHing in place of Drake Baldwin. Check. ROY is Baldwin’s to lose; barring an injury or a prolonged slump, he’s the favorite to bring it home. It probably is a good thing if he takes a few days off. So… check?
Matt Olson added his 19th homer in support, and Michael Harris II continues to rebound, hitting his 12th homer and adding a double. Jurickson Profar added 2 hits and scored 2 runs.
Xavier Eadwards (sp?) had 2 hits for the Marlins.
Assuming a good portion of profit gets put back into payroll for 2026, it’s probably in our interest to keep up our support. If it doesn’t, it would just about be stupid to keep giving them our money. We’ll see which side blinks to avoid a death spiral.
But, the Mets will keep the gate starting Tuesday, at 7:10 Eastern. Strider and Clay Holmes scheduled.
Shame about the Mets 7 game losing streak. Would hate to see them slip out of the playoff picture after such a good season.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer team.
Greetings from Atlantic City,
Wish I could be back in Queens to catch the series — sure seem like the Metropolitans are in a bad way again — but I gotta be here in PhilliesLand all week. (I’ve already seen 437 Eagles hats, t-shirts or jewelry items.)
At the beginning of the season, this seemed like some really bad scheduling luck, but now… eh. Still, I hope we help ruin some things in Flushing.
Can Joey Wentz be “Norm”?
His K/BB last 2 starts: 5 K’s, 4 BB’s. He really wasn’t missing bats yesterday even with a generous strike zone. I doubt Atlanta is fully sold on him yet.
Are you concerned about wasting a perfectly good nickname? 🤣
It would be cool if everyone in the ballpark yelled out “Norm!” every time he entered the game.
I heard the radio announcers alluding to changes Wentz has made since joining Atlanta. I don’t know if they are sustainable, but if they are,, the Braves pulled off a steal. 3 walks and 2 ks yesterday is a little concerning. I would love to see a rundown of what has changed.
Interesting nuggets from the Braves’ business side: https://www.si.com/mlb/braves/news/braves-holdings-second-quarter-revenue-increase-brutal-season-01k22mpqa24h
I wonder if AA went after Buxton, knowing it would leak, to wake Harris up.
When do we accept that Harris is a 2nd half player only?
As for a nickname for Vidal Brujan, “bruja” is Spanish for witch, so maybe he could be “The Warlock” or even “The Gorelock” if we want to work in his first name. The accent sort of messes that up, though, because his name isn’t pronounced like the Spanish word for witch. I have a feeling he won’t be around long enough for a nickname to be very useful.
From July 29 to August 9, he played exactly three games for three different teams. That’s got to be unusual in such a short period.
Let’s take it one step further. Warlock. Gore Vidal. Gorelock. Al Gore. Lockbox. Lockbox it is. Makes sense.
Brujo is the masculine form.
Night off tonight, so I decided to post something about Episodes