I fell asleep midday today. I had the best dream. Our Braves were on a long winning streak. The starters were going deep into games and the bullpen was strong. Best of all, the batters were getting on base a great clip, and they didn’t waste those opportunities, driving in runners with timely hits. As a result, they were scoring runs in bunches. Lots of crooked numbers on the scoreboard.
But then I woke up, and the Braves were playing a day game against the Nationals. The great winning streak flew, forgotten, as a dream dies at the op’ning of day. Cold hard reality slapped me in the face. This was the 2025 Braves I was watching.
So you can guess what I saw this afternoon. A one run loss, of course, by a score of 4-3. Bryce Elder got the start and was pretty good but not quite good enough. Seven innings, six hits, three runs, two solo homers. James Wood knocked a solo homer off Kinly in the 8th, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.
The Braves had 3 solo homers on the day–from ROY Baldwin in the 6th, Ozuna in the 8th, and Eli White as a pinch-hitter in the ninth. They had ten other baserunners on the day, and stranded all ten. They were 0-11 with RISP. So many wasted chances. Take the fifth (that, by the way, is always good advice from your lawyer). After all, Skip Caray said his favorite part of the game was the bottom of the fifth. Michael Harris II reached third base with no outs, but Nacho popped out. Then the bases were loaded with one out with our two best hitters coming up. Matty O popped out and RAJ grounded out. Goose egg.
Or how about the seventh. Runners on second and third with one out. Ronald and Baldwin struck out (but Drake is still ROY).
Yet another prototypical 2025 Braves loss. Since this is my last game recap of 2025, it’s fitting that this game was about as 2025 as it gets.
Still, the dream of timely hitting and huge innings was sweet.
I dreamed a dream, so different now from what it seemed…
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed…
I’m getting the feeling that you really did sleep through the game. CB Buckner having the last two plays of game overturned by replay isn’t exactly the kind of thing you see everyday, even for him.
I was awake and unfortunately for me I was watching closely in the 9th. White’ s home run to cut the lead to one got me into it. Ronald hit a slow grounder to short, Abrams double clutched on the throw and he was clearly safe at first. I was really into it then. Bucknor’s out call was so obviously wrong that everyone knew that Ronald could stay at first and the Braves we’re still alive. Didn’t take long to reverse that one. Then Baldwin’s slow roller to second put Buckner on the spot again. The flip throw to first and Drake’s foot hit the bag at nearly the same moment. That one wasn’t as obvious in real time. But once again the replay made crystal clear that Buckner was wrong.
The striking thing to me wasn’t just that the last two calls of the game got overturned, as unusual as that may be. You know how so often the announcer will say, I think the ump got it wrong, but I don’t think the video is clear and convincing enough to overturn it. This was not one of those situations. Both calls were clearly and convincingly wrong as soon as you saw the replay.
I think it says a lot at this point of the season that Ronald and Drake were both busting it down the line on fairly routine ground balls to try to keep the streak going.
Quoting sdp from the last thread: “ I’m mentally preparing myself for AA sitting on his hands this winter and keeping this team pretty much the same for 2026.”
This is probably a safe bet. A couple “value signings” for the pen or depth are probable. A big splash is not. If Kim opts out, he’s probably gone because AA won’t play the Boras game of heads we win, tails you lose.
If there is to be a middle infield acquisition, it will probably be through trade, since AA just won’t pay top dollar for free agents. I’m not sure who would be available. Could the Orioles part with Gunnar Henderson to rebuild their pitching staff? Not bloody likely, and the package required for such a cornerstone player is incomprehensible to me. I do love Xavier Edwards even though he has little power, but that’s exactly why he might be gettable. I don’t know enough about other teams’ situations to speculate.
Is this really AA or this the organization? I know it doesn’t fundamentally matter since either way, the Braves are sitting out the chance to improve themselves…
Jeff, good question. I think some of each. AA tries to play the shrewd value game, to his credit and also to his detriment. From the Kelenic acquisition, I sense that he enjoys the chess match. But the organization definitely has long-standing philosophies about free agents, opt outs, no-trade clauses. And then the corporate ownership seems locked into a profit model with the team that says making $20 million in additional profit while being competitive enough not to drive away fans is more important than going after titles. A lot of speculation on my part, but there is blame to go around.
Thanks, tfloyd, for a season better played than the field exploits merited. You didn’t lose a recap by one run all year, even with some shaky closing.
Last day off before months off. I will post some ROY meandering maunderings sometime late this afternoon.
Alex has said repeatedly he wants to keep the championship window open as long as possible, but at some point he’s going to have to overpay for a critical need like shortstop. Acuna is under contract until 2029, and in my mind, you have three solid years to contend for a title. Even if you extend him past 2028, by then Olson will be 35, Riley will be 32, Murphy will be 34, and Ozzie is probably out of baseball, so you’re probably nearing the end of the window anyway.
Also, the team is finally going to get a new TV deal in 2027. They won’t get Dodger money, but my guess is they’ll receive a healthy increase, so they can afford to eat some dead money.
The thing about considering what an “overpay” is that, fundamentally, if the market price of a thing you want is more than you wish it cost, paying the market price isn’t an overpay, it’s just expensive. In roster construction, you want to do as much as you possibly can by internal farm development and trade. Then you can fill in your bench spots with cheap free agents. You want to minimize the number of positions you have to fill by paying the price for marquee free agents because they cost a ton and they’re usually on the wrong side of 30 and they often get hurt and perform a bit worse than you wished. (Dansby Swanson has been quite good in Chicago, mostly because his defense has remained excellent, but his bat remains pretty mediocre, and fans feel he was overpriced. I think he just cost what it costs to buy a free agent shortstop.)
Yeah, it’s not an overpay; we just can’t afford it.
We just need a two year stopgap at short. We just spent most of our early picks on shortstops, and I know people hated that, but I’d do it again this draft too. Just keep piling up on SS’s until you get a generational one.
Nick Allen was available for the league minimum, and he produced 0.6 bWAR. How much would a 1.5-2 WAR SS possibly cost? And give a guy like that a 2 year deal and hopefully one of the SS’s are ready.
AA sitting on his hands and doing nothing worked really well last off-season.
I think it’s kinda dumb for Charlie to get a start. He’s not Greg Maddux. He doesn’t need a victory lap.
Recapped… Rob, I’ll carry your comment over