Sunday marks the 60th anniversary of the Braves first game in Atlanta. I was 2; I don’t remember it.
Also happening on April 12th, in 1861, a man probably more well known for something he didn’t do fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter. The story that Major General Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball is well debunked, but his efforts at Gettysburg may, through the butterfly effect, at least have had some bearing on Major League baseball eventually coming to this part of the world.
Moving to current events, the Braves chose this weekend to unveil their new City Connect uniforms, a powder blue callback to the uniforms of the ’80s. In a vacuum I might like them. 1982 was my favorite season as a Braves fan, but the rest of the decade is one I’d just as soon forget. I like the ’90s uniforms. Don’t get me started on the ’70s.
In other, even more current events, the Braves jumped on top of the Guardians 3 – 0 in the bottom of the 2nd on a Mauricio Dubon RBI double, a Jorge Mateo single, and a Ronald Acuna Jr. double, and they never looked back. The Braves added 2 in the 4th, 4 in the 5th, and 4 in the 8th. Mateo went on to go 4 – 4 and Dubon finished 3 – 4. Dominic Smith added a 2-run homer in the 4th. Ozzie Albies added 3 hits, and Austin Riley added 2 hits and 2 RBIs.
Chris Sale pitched around 8 hits and a walk in 6 innings, the only run coming on a Rhys Hoskins homer in the 6th, which cut the lead to 9 – 1. Sale struck out 6. Dylan Dodd pitched 3 innings of 1 hit ball to pick up his first save. Let’s see if he is rewarded with a trip back to Gwinnett.
The Braves take the series 2 – 1. Miami comes to town on Monday, Grant Holmes and Eury Perez scheduled for 7:15 Eastern.
Photo credit Time magazine.
I coulda given a thousand monkeys a thousand dimes and I never would have wound up with a bingo card that had “Mauricio Dubon and Jorge Mateo go 7 for 8.”
Anyone wanna tell me how the hell Dubon is doing this? He reached out for a ball and one-handed a double to the gap! How in the world?!
How is Dubon (and Mateo) doing this? As Jayson Stark would say, Baseball!
We all remember Pablo Sandoval’s first month as a Brave in 2021. Four pinch hit home runs in the first month. After that, he hit .095 until they finally let him go. I don’t expect any significant offense from Mateo the rest of the way. If everyone is healthy, he’ll get very few ABs anyway.
Dubon, on the other hand, will likely see a lot of action all season long. Even after Kim returns, Dubon will play a lot. WW has shown that he will give guys rest. Dubon can sub at any position, and I bet he will get several starts a week at multiple positions. If he has an OPS of between .700 and .750, he will be quite valuable. His career OPS is .676. I hope he will finish somewhere between that career mark and his current OPS of .934. But we can be certain it will be a lot closer to the career mark than the current one.
Agree with the professor. Mateo went 5-5 with 2 doubles against the Rays on 8-12-22. Anything can happen.
Now Dubon, he is a little more accomplished as a hitter, and he’s still in the window where hitters can continue to improve before bat speed starts to fall off at 32. His bat speed is Bichettian anyway.
IIRC, Panda and cash considerations were traded for Eddie Rosario. That worked out okay.
Don’t forget, Dubon got lessons from Chipper in spring training and thought he was improved. And, if you think you are improved, it can be like the 34% placebo rate for drugs to aleve pain (Got that from chief attending rheumatologist at Emory in 1996).
…and Dodd to Gwinnett and Rolddy Munoz called up. Thanks for the 3 one hit innings Dylan, here’s a 95% pay cut.
There’s a lesson here if you are young and have options (pitch well for 3 innings and get sent down). I suppose the reality is two-fold here, as well (pitch badly for 1/3 of an inning and get sent down).
Saw that one coming.
Someone the other day mentioned Omar Infante. Dubon reminds me a lot of him. (That’s a good thing.)
I like this comp a lot.
Fuentes, Richie then the Spencers, Waldrep and AJSS. A tentalizing Braves pitching future.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2026/04/12/walt-weiss-manager-atlanta-angels-fight/89574282007/
Nice article about WW. Saw the link over at BP.
WW, the real American badass…
Kolby Allard and Jared Shuster both got DFA today.
Hoo boy that 3rd inning is going to raise Roger’s hackles.
Trusting Aaron Bummer in a tie game is the first problem.
He was always on the edge of the volcano and now his velo is down. His FIP was 4.65 coming into tonight. This is going to be a problem.
Surely Martin Perez had more value than Aaron Bummer as a long reliever.
Yeah, I didn’t get that one at all. He wasn’t tearing up the pea patch, but he understood the assignment.
Bummer’s in midseason form!
I don’t know that Rolddy’s big league ready.
Putting Jose in is waving the white flag.
Another game tomorrow. This series is winnable like the rest.
Thought we were still in the game when it was 6-4, but I guess Weiss knew we weren’t going to score anymore and took the opportunity to give the good ‘pen arms another day off.
To my eye, Bummer has lost some velocity. Haven’t looked at Fangraphs to verify that though.
I’d guess Munoz will be back on the shuttle today for another fresh arm.
recapped.