I guess we don’t have to worry about Drake Baldwin anymore.
Drake went 5 – 5 with 2 home runs to finish the first series after the All-Star break 10 – 15. With his track record, I think it’s pretty safe to say that his post IL struggles were just a blip with an assignable cause.
Austin Riley‘s struggles have gone on too long to be turned around in a day but maybe he could start today. Austin went 3 – 4 with 2 home runs off actual major league pitchers, and drove in 4. Matt Olson, Michael Harris II, and Brewer Hicklen added 2 hits each.
The Braves scored single runs in the first 4 innings to take a 4 – 0 lead, but the Rangers came back with 3 in the top of the 5th off Grant Holmes. That was the final inning for Holmes, who finished allowing 7 hits, 2 walks, and a couple of strikeouts.
The Braves kind of broke it open in the 7th with 3 more runs. One key play was Olson escaping a rundown to get back to 2nd base. We can shut down the internet – all possible combinations of words have now been typed. It looked as if Matt stopped for a split second as if he was surrendering to be tagged, then sailed past an annoyed Nicky Lopez back to the bag while a surprised Josh Jung was left with nothing to tag. The other key play was an overturned challenge where a hustling (again) Mauricio Dubon beat a potential force out at second. These led to a 2 run single by Riley and a 1 run double by Hicklen. Baldwin’s 18th homer of the season in the 8th concluded the Braves scoring.
Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias allowed a run each in the 8th and 9th to account for the final score. Iglesias needed only 8 pitches in the 9th despite allowing a solo homer by Wyatt Langford.
The Braves are 57 – 41 and hold a 3-game lead over the Phillies. San Diego comes to town Monday at 7:15 Eastern, Bryce Elder and JP Sears scheduled.
![[Insert Overworn Phrase]: Braves 1, Fish 2](https://i0.wp.com/bravesjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/f2iaq37tjo3p13o5ezxf.jpeg?resize=440%2C264&ssl=1)
Nice job, Rusty, but there are a number of sentences that have never been typed. I’ll use up just a few of them:
(a) Alex Anthopoulous’ marriage dissolved after his wife discovered that he was having an affair with Mrs. Met.
(b) The Braves today retired Melky Cabrera’s number 53.
(c) Francoeur’s patience at the plate secured the win.
(d) Chip Caray’s Nobel Prize in Physics was rescinded today by the Committee.
Forget it, I’m rolling. Also – have you seen Mrs. Met?
She’s mid, unless you’re 4 whiskeys deep
As luck would have it…
HA! Love it. What kind of Whiskey is the big question.
I just got an ad for a Mr. Met bobblehead, so this is my life now.
Answering Roger from the previous thread (quote from MLB web site)
For the 2025 season, any player who was on the 40-man roster or 60-day injured list as of noon ET on Sept. 1 is eligible for the postseason.
Those on the restricted list at that point are also eligible if they haven’t been suspended for performance-enhancing drugs during that season. (All players who have served a suspension for PEDs in a given season are ineligible for postseason play that year.)
A player who doesn’t meet said criteria for postseason eligibility can still be added to a team’s roster in the postseason via petition to the Commissioner’s Office if the player was in the organization on Aug. 31 and is replacing someone who is on the injured list and has served the minimum amount of time required for activation. (For example, a player on the 10-day injured list who has been on it for at least 10 days, or a player who has been on the 60-day injured list for at least 60 days.) Players who are acquired in September or after are ineligible.
So Schwelly qualifies for the postseason
https://x.com/mlbbowman/status/2079248180651122802?s=20
Pen is taxed and Elder is on the mound. Do we know who the bulk reliever would be tonight? I guess it could be Ritchie?
I’m guessing Elieser Hernández
Elder just needs to do what Yamamoto did yesterday: pitch a nine inning complete game. What are the odds?
Elder has one complete game in 96 starts. There are 119 active pitchers with at least one complete game. Elder ranks 84th among active pitchers in CG/GS ratio. Now some statistics nerdery: using the Wilson score, the 95% confidence interval ranges from 0.0018-0.0567, so the odds range from 18:1 to 555:1. Somewhere around 200:1 is probably fair. So I wouldn’t give the bullpen the night off.
[I’m going to write a piece on this week for Friday]
Thanks, JF! For most that would be a rhetorical question, but with you around I figured I would get an answer!
I imagine Kinley, Young, and Hernandez are the only ones available for sure. Gonna need Elder to be on his A game.
Battery Power’s signing tracker shows 7th round pick Brenner as signed, now.
Yes – more than a million bucks, not bad for a 7th-rounder. In fact it looks like they’re showing us as having signed all 20 draftees, including the 13th rounder, Dorland, another projectible prep pitcher with a college commitment. It seems like they did an exceptionally good job of prenegotiating with the players they were interested in.
I’m sick and tired of making random Triple A lefties look like Koufax.
There we go!
Hurston Waldrep left his start early yesterday because of arm discomfort. His velo and stuff were down.
Time was we were excited about our collection of young arms
Ozzie Albies, hitting righthanded, has a career OPS of .875. This would be the second-highest OPS for any second baseman in history (minimum 1000 games played) if he could do that lefthanded. As it is (OPS .772), he has the 28th highest OPS for second baseman, but that’s the difference between being Charlie Gehringer and being Scooter Gennett. And if he always hit like a lefthanded hitter (OPS .732) he’s Delino Deshields, around #55.
I think I know what you mean lol
Thanks… I botched that badly, but it’s fixed now
Thought we were doing that Abbott and Costello routine about a righty named Lefty and a lefty named Wright.
Thanks for this. I have wondered what Ozzie would be like hitting from the right-side only. Maybe this is what you get when you pay someone half-salary for years for full-time work.
Why would the Braves ever draft a pitcher at the top of the draft again?
Why do you say that?
I’m talking the top 1-2 picks, but all the injuries and busts. Waldrep just the latest…
Not to speak for someone else but I assumed because their arms all turn into meat pulp within 4 years. This is the ongoing conversation we’ve had on here. Does drafting pitching early make sense given the low conversion rate? Our best young pieces have been bats that were drafted in the 3rd and 4th rounds of late. I like how we did it this year—draft bats early and then gamble on numerous high upside arms. Most will implode but maybe you’ll get lucky on an ace.
Am I the only one that thinks that our pitching is actually in a pretty good situation comparatively? We’re one of the best teams in baseball. We have a gaggle of arms that have so far kept us there with duct tape and chewing gum, and then we have another gaggle of arms that could still play a factor as the season goes along. You’re just not going to have the 1998 Braves rotation. No one has that. The Dodgers have more money than Solomon and have already used 9 starters. And they’ll probably use more with Ohtani out. 3 of their top 4-highest paid starters (Ohtani, Snell, Glasnow) are on the shelf. Sasaki and Sheehan have been terrible. They have 2 good starters. “Your money is no good here!”
I tell you who’s been weirdly lucky is the White Sox. They have 4 actual good starters. One of them is Erick Fedde. Didn’t have that on my bingo card. They lost 121 games 2 years ago, 102 games last year, and they now have a nearly playoff caliber rotation. Ok, universe, you win.
I started playing fantasy baseball last year because I wanted to be more knowledgeable about the rest of the sport. I’m tied for first in my league this year because I just stacked pitching on pitching on pitching on pitching in the draft and then keep playing the waiver wire like a Roulette wheel. That’s modern day baseball.
In response to AA being asked on 680 The Fan yesterday about whether he will get a bonafide playoff starter, he said, “We’re just focusing on mapping 27 outs”. He said that during the season you can’t really plan it, but in the postseason, you can get this guy or that guy to get you 2 innings here, 3 innings here, etc. and “map your way” to 27 outs. I think he’s got the right idea. If it takes you 6 pitchers on average to get through a playoff game, then so be it. “Can you throw 2 innings? Great, you’re hired.”
Not at all. We have a great team ERA. This is not a criticism of our current roster. Our major league starting staff has nothing to do with our draft strategy the last 5 years except Bryce Elder. Sale, Holmes, ReyLo, Perez, those were acquired. Ritchie could figure in but he’s more suited to long reliever. I don’t see how you think it’s no big deal that we’ve prioritized pitching in the draft and all the arms have broken down. Early in the year you were saying our draft strategy was fine and “we might have a fully homegrown rotation,” but it’s just the opposite now due to injuries and your analysis is not affected by those events?
recapped.