The Atlanta Braves (thread 1)

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#6,504
#6,504
Bases loaded with nobody out in the top of the 1st inning in a bandbox ballpark . . . and Philadelphia has the infield in???
 
#6,506
#6,506
Cody Johnson hit HR's #10 and 11 today. Kid has monster power. He also hs about the same OPS. in his career as Freeman and Heyward.
 
#6,511
#6,511
Fun game to watch tonight, even thought it's only 1-1. Two outstanding pitching performances. The Braves have actually had more opportunities than I thought they would but they squander them, as usual.
 
#6,512
#6,512
ESPN has a love fest going on for Santana. He has gave up 1 run, 7 hits in 6 1/3, Lowe has been every bit as good as him (if not better) he's leaving with a ND and they have done nothing but show replays of his every pitch! They act like the Braves are there to highlight Santana's talents. DAMN!
 
#6,515
#6,515
GAVol said:
You can't possibly be surprised by this.
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The only thing that surprises me about it is that the Braves have already signed up for four more years of this. He's missed 7 out of 32 games so far this year, which puts him on pace to miss his usual 35 games or so. If I were Frank Wren, I think I would have negotiated the whole extension, and then at the last second said, "Okay, well, we're only going to actually pay you 75 percent of what we've agreed to because we all know that that's all the games you're going to play."

On a more optimistic note, I will say that most of my doom and gloom about the Braves' season was predicated on the assumption that the Mets and Phillies would actually be decent this year. If everybody in the division other than the Nats are about a .500-ish team, as it appears now, then we may actually get to watch meaningful games in August after all.
 
#6,516
#6,516
V, even you have got to admit if we can muster any kind of offense with this pitching staff we should be able to play with anybody in the national league.
 
#6,517
#6,517
Buddy Carlyle sure makes mop up duty nerve racking.

Great win tonight. The offense is still weak, but McCann's presence in the lineup at least provides enough depth to make it respectable.
 
#6,518
#6,518
**ORANGEBLOOD** said:
V, even you have got to admit if we can muster any kind of offense with this pitching staff we should be able to play with anybody in the national league.
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Well, that's the problem. Wren did a great job rebuildling the pitching staff in essentially half an offseason (after waiting and waiting and waiting on the Peavy deal that never materialized), but unfortunately he left the lineup pretty much as it was: abysmal. You're not going to score many runs when your lineup consists of seven guys who ought to be hitting 7th wrapped around two good hitters who will miss 40 games apiece. Given an average offense, this would indeed be a pretty good team, but when I look at this lineup, I just can't see where even that is gong to come from. Even if half the guys have career years it's still going to be pretty flaccid.
 
#6,519
#6,519
GAVol said:
Buddy Carlyle sure makes mop up duty nerve racking.

Great win tonight. The offense is still weak, but McCann's presence in the lineup at least provides enough depth to make it respectable.
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See, I think it's a crappy lineup even with both Jones and McCann in it. Nobody can drive the ball. We're halfway through May -- a fifth of the way through the season already -- and nobody on the team has more than three home runs. That's pathetic.

It's not that Kotchman and Escobar and Diaz and Johnson and Francouer are terrible hitters or anything; it's just that they're all low-power guys who don't draw many walks. Which means that, in order to score, you're usually going to have to string a bunch of hits together. That's probably a sound basis for an offense if you have a team full of Tony Gwynns, but not with a bunch of guys who hit about .270-.280.
 
#6,520
#6,520
Well, this explains a lot:

For Atlanta outfielder Jeff Francoeur, the search for a more disciplined approach is elusive and the source of occasional torment. Francoeur began this season with loose goals of 80 strikeouts and 50 to 60 walks. But he's always been an aggressive player, and he's wary of becoming too passive in the quest for a higher OBP.

"If on-base percentage is so important, then why don't they put it up on the scoreboard?" Francoeur says.
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From here:

Jerry Crasnick: Plate discipline enormously important in today's game - ESPN
 
#6,522
#6,522
OBP is important, but IMO it's importance has been a little overrated by the Moneyballers.
 
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