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Talking Chop

Spring Training Open Thread: Mets at Braves

The Braves take on the Mets for the third time this spring. Jason Heyward apparently has a sore back from running into the outfield wall in last night's game, and he is sitting this one out. Jeff Francoeur also didn't make the trip with the Mets, as New York brought what looks to be their C-team (which begs the question, "why didn't Francoeur come along). Here is the Braves lineup:

Nate McLouth, CF
Martin Prado, 2B
Chipper Jones, 3B
Eric Hinske, 1B
Melky Cabrera, RF
Matt Diaz, LF
Omar Infante, SS
David Ross, C
Derek Lowe, RH

Following Lowe on the mound should be Takashi Saito, Kris Medlen, Kyle Cofield, Mariano Gomez, and Jonny Venters.

I'm excited to see if Lowe can continue his success, and to see if Cofield can come out and show us something.

0 recs  |  419 comments

Comments

Play Ball!

Let’s kick some Mets a$$ today!

Hello afternoon game thread, I missed you.

We missed you too ole scruffy.

How bout Werth’s beard last night? Good lord, that was impressive.

He frightened my nephew. Looked like the Geico caveman.

Yes it was impressive, that’s for sure. I thought he was going to go out and cut down a tree to use for his bat!

Looked like he just got back from Bonnaroo.

Do work Bravooooooooooooooossssss

Perfect opportunity

for Bobby to try hitting Diaz leadoff. With all the righties at the bottom of the lineup, I’d like to see how Nate does hitting 6th. oh well… Guess I’m resigned to the fact that we’re going to have a platoon in the LF/8 hole

McLouth will bat leadoff as long as he’s healthy unfortunately….

I've been saying until Heyward.....

Remains healthy for an entire season I’m going to temper my excitement.

It is kind of hard to fault the guy for being a little sore from running into the wall while aggressively playing defense. Could also paritially be a function of playing an afternoon following a night game.

At any rate, I don’t think there is any reason for concern here. It is only the second day off he has had since ST began.

I don't see the big deal either.

All the reports say he could play, and if this were the regular season, he probably would play. But it is spring and he’s played a lot already, so why not give him the day off?

Yeah, I thought when I saw him hit that wall,

he’ll be sure tomorrow. I don’t think it’s any big thing, just giving him the day off because it’s ST. I think he would be playing with the sore back otherwise.

Sore not sure
link to the game??

Lowe’s getting hammered already…super

3-0 Mets

Lowe isn’t doing so well thus far. Just gave up a homer.

Not good, especially against their C team.

2 run homer by Chris Carter….who’s that???

They sent 8 players to the plate.

So much for Lowe and his “continued success” this spring.

Only regular in the lineup for the Mets is Daniel Murphy at first and Omir Santos catching.

Nate McLouth walks
Much better than another K, he's not been impressive in the leadoff spot.

So we’re already down 3-0, is that right?

Prado reaches on a dribbler to 3rd, infield single

Runners on 1st and 2nd, 0 out.

Chipper dribbles one to the pitcher

1-3, 1 out, runners on 2nd and 3rd

where are you guys watching/listening?
I'm dependant on what I read on here.......
Eric Hinske up

1 out, runners on 2nd and 3rd

Gets hit by the pitch

apparently he’s ok though as he takes first

Lets go Hinske, tie this sucker back up
Melky Cabrera up now

Bases loaded, 1 out

He rips one down the line for a double, 2 score

Melky delivers, very nice

Braves 3 - Mets 3

Diaz grounds out to 3rd, 5-3 and a run scores from 3rd.

Melky Cabrera goes to 3rd on the throw to first.

Omar Infante up now

2 out, runner on 3rd

Infante Walks

Runners on 1st and 3rd, 2 out

David Ross up now
Braves 3 - Mets 3

Hits a grounder, off the pitcher to the SS and out to first. 1-6-3 putout.

End of first.

OK, now let's see if Lowe can hold.
Does anyone know if this one is on the radio anywhere?
radio

It’s on 1230/1340 in Atlanta or braves.com

Just found it

1340 AM. Thanks.

Glad somebody is able to tune it in!

I’ve been craving a Mexi-Dog for two weeks

Frenchy (not appearing today, I presume) is 1-11 thus far this Spring.

Thank you for this nugget.

So happy we were able to get rid of him.
trade

Would the Muts take McLouth for Frenchy? WHAT THE HELL AM I SAYING!

Virtual dope slap

feel better now?

schitzo

starting to worry about me, or that other me

WOW Lowe out after 1 inning?

Good thing Meds is around…

May be worth watching the tweets to see if Lowe hurt something.

tweets

The braves radio network is on twitter twitter.com/bravesradionet

Great – thanks – I’m watching DOB’s

who is calling the game with lemke? he’s not bad (like buck and whoever that was last week)

With Lemke...

Ben Ingram, voice of AA Mississippi Braves.

Brian Jordan was awful last night. Everything out of his mouth was just plain incorrect.

Don’t talk about Brian Jordan. Thats Gondeee’s buddy now that he works for FSS.

Funny thing is

He made Ron Gant sound like a seasoned broadcaster

I swear that I’d heard Jordan before, but I don’t remember him being so bad. He said that Melky was going to bring alot of power to our lineup!

Cosign, everything he said was pronounced wrong.

Ortegano was an embarasement to Braves baseball last night.

Did any of Y’all see him “try” to pitch. I know it’s ST, but geez, he sucked.

Would have liked to see it, but alas, DirecTV had a blackout for a game 700 miles away that didn’t count.

You didn't miss much,

I would have to say it was the worst ST of the season. Of course we were playing the Phillies.

I did send an inquiry to DTV about the blackout. A quick response suggested channel 617 in lieu of Peachtree Network (which they don’t offer), but the more complicated question about the spring games needs to be investigated… it would be nice to resolve since several more are on the docket.

I think I can guess the answer.

The game was televised on Comcast SportsSouth (CSS). Therefore, MLBN will be blacked out in CSS’s viewing area because they are using CSS’s feed. (They aren’t independently producing the telecast.) Because, for obvious reasons, DirecTV doesn’t carry CSS, you can’t get the game if you are in the CSS area but don’t get CSS. It isn’t a baseball territory issue, it is a cable/satellite issue. CSS makes the broadcast, so they want people to have reason to switch to them for having the broadcast.

what sucks is that we live out in the country and can’t get Comcast, but got blacked out anyway.

Curious… I technically live in a Comcast service area, but my house cannot have Comcast service — I tried to get it first (yeah, just like you, 10-4). There are about five of the CC sports channels in the DTV ‘SportsPack’, though CSS wasn’t one of them.

I called Customer Service, and got a guy that was totally clueless. His first response was “Sometimes teams black out games to get people to come to the actual game”. I told him it was a spring training game in Florida, and that doesn’t make any sense. His second response “I don’t see a Braves game listed. There is no game on right now.” I told him we were staring at a black screen with “Atlanta Braves vs Philadelphia Phillies” as the title. I then hung up.

He probably took a break after that call.

yeah

was really looking forward to seeing him, had a real bad outing, probably not that strange in ST

hopefully

like Lowe today, hope they get it figured out

I saw it…it was sad. His Fastball didn’t have much pop on it.

There was nobody in the bullpen the whole time. It was his mess to clean up. Pissed me off. I actually thought we would win a game I went to.

I understand it's ST, and we have to see what a pitcher has, but he should have been taken out for his own good.

That had to kill any confidence he had in himself.

I wasn’t pissed about the lack of bullpen activity, but the fact that he pitched so poorly.

Yep, me too :(

Hola mis amigos!

I love the afternoon gamethreads.

I had this thought yesterday: Does Chipper Jones have a single RBI in ST so far?

2-8

with 2 BB and 0 RBI

I think we have an update...

Yes.

Medlen still pitching

Cabrera pops out to 2B

Nieve bats for himself... wacky.
Nieve, then Pridie ground out

1-2-3 inning for Meds.

Ross with a double
Cody Johnson pinch hits for Medlen

And he grounds out to 1B, Ross to 3rd

How many outs?

Now 2

McLouth grounds out

Prado walks on 4 straight pitches

I just looked something up: did you guys know that in 2008, JoJo had 12 games in which he gave up 3 runs or less?

I think I do remember that…I thought he was gonna figure it out after that year even though it was a little up and down.

Anybody see Torii Hunter’s latest verbal diarhea? He’s got some ‘splainin’ to do!

what was he ranting about?

he refers to dark skinned latino player’s as “imposters”.

Yeah..

what’s up with them dudes trying to look black?

I missed it. Was it good?

Full quote:
As African-American players, we have a theory that baseball can go get an imitator and pass them off as us," Hunter says. “It’s like they had to get some kind of dark faces, so they go to the Dominican or Venezuela because you can get them cheaper. It’s like, ‘Why should I get this kid from the South Side of Chicago and have Scott Boras represent him and pay him $5 million when you can get a Dominican guy for a bag of chips?’ … I’m telling you, it’s sad.”
I'm sorry..

besides everything else, that’s just stupid. I mean, it makes no sense whatsoever.

That's a big bag of chips...

that A-Rod’s getting…….

no kidding. he could afford the more expensive kettle cooked ones.

They moved the south side of Chicago to Africa?

because AfAm players never go high in the draft
Chipper with a double!

Ross and Prado score, 5-3 Braves.

Atta boy Chip!
Braves 5 - Mets 3

Chipper doubles down LF line, scores 2

Chipper Jones...

Met killer.

Yeah,

I forgot about that!

atta boy chip
Hinske with a single

Chipper scores. 6-3 Braves.

Braves 6 - Mets 3

Hinske singles to score Chipper

M-Cab grounds out to 1B.

End of the 4th.

Thanks for the updates, guys!

I gotta go make a sandwich.

You’ll have to live without any updates for a few minutes.

Are you going to use some fine ham?

Sadly, no ham on this one. Salami, pepperoni and turkey with provolone.

Dang, that sounds good.

sounds better than my lunch

I won’t lie. It was rather tasty.

O'Brien Tweet
Lowe leaves after just one rocky inning (three runs, five hits, two strikeouts). Waiting for word from clubhouse as to whether any injury.

Somone needs to get Lowe some blister cream.

Wren’s worst move as a GM (FUGA included) $60MM
Wow.

I was just thinking the exact thing!

Get outta my head. :)

If signing one of the better pitchers in the game is his worst move, I am ok with that.

I was thinking of the 60mm, long contract, for a pitcher of his age.

If he was pitching well for us, no biggie, but for that kinda $, I have high expectations.

4.67 ERA
1.51 WHIP
111 SO in 194 Innings.
88 ERA+
1.76 SO/BB

Yeah, he was very mediocre good last year.

He was worth $12M last year. I would much rather have that on our team than on the Mets, as those were his only two likely destinations.

This again?

I thought you would have gave up using the Fangraphs dollar values as if they actually mean anything after that post where you kept going on and on about what a horrible contract Joe Blanton had just signed at $8 MM a year, and then I pointed out to you that Fangraphs says that Blanton has been worth more than $8 MM in every single season of his career.

Hey cool. Let me go dig up old arguments and use the fact that I won them in my current discussions too!

Usually when someone loses an argument they stop making the same one. But here you are still trying to use the Fangraph dollar value mechanic to say that Lowe was worth $12 MM last season.

Which he was. You never proved that fangraphs was bad – just that I was underestimating Blanton’s value.

I don’t see how my underrating of Joe Blanton has anything to do with how good of a pitcher that Derek Lowe is.

So, according to Fangraphs

We overpaid by 3 million already, in the first year of his deal? And he has 3 more left?

And don’t forget that the approximate going rate for 1 WAR, this offseason, definitely dropped-significantly. About $3.5 MM per. If he repeats last year, we’re talking about $9.45 MM in value.

That would mean we’ve overpaid, already, by $8.55 MM over 2 years. Assuming he repeats last year. In order to the WAR $$ for this offseason, he has to have at least a 4 WAR year.

I think that while Lowe is not worth his contract, and probably won’t be, to call him the worst signing ever is a bit extreme. It isn’t like the guy hasn’t been good for us.

He has been very solid and reliable and actually had a decent year last year – even though it was one of his personal worsts.

It’s like Chipper – horrible year by his standards, career year for most players.

He was like the 57th most valuable SP

in the major leagues. He got paid as though he was much better than that.

Agreed. He got paid like he was better and he gets treated by us like he was worse.

Being almost as good as Brian Bannister

is nothing to celebrate.

Right, Lowe was top 10 among pitchers in salary at $15 MM a year. The 10th best pitcher on Fangraph’s value was worth $27 MM last year.

Fangraphs value system is simply on a different scale that what anyone uses in the real world when evaluating contracts.

Oh, and you were probably right about Blanton

Just looking at the WAR$$ number doesn’t tell you all of the pertinent details. Everything has its own context.

Phillie chose 3 years of Blanton(plus some marginal prospects) over 1 year of Cliff Lee. The issue is that Philadelphia likely has a very short window (about 2 years) of being championship level because of guys like Utley, Howard, and Victorino all being due big pay-days.

One year of their current crop with Halladay AND Cliff Lee would have really made them favorites to go to the World Series, and afterward they could spent that 8 million again the next year for someone like Erik Bedard or Justin Dushcherer to be a third/fourth starter.

So you honest to [whatever deity you choose], believe that Joe Blanton was worth a $9.7MM contract last season, and that the Phils are getting him at under value by signing him for $8 MM a year, and not that your original assessment of Blanton was more or less correct, and that the fangraph’s system isn’t an accurate measure of value?

The Fangraph’s system is designed to represent the value of replacing a WAR value IN FREE AGENCY.

The issue is, of course, that a big part of this amount is the unpredictability of Free Agency, you get players like Oliver Perez and Braden Looper who sign for $12 MM a year last season, and then produced negative WAR seasons, this inflates the value of a win in free agency.

Their system means that you might have to spend around $12 MM in free agency to replace Lowe’s win value last season, but that’s because it takes in to consideration that there’s a solid chance that you’ll sign a guy to a big contract and he’ll play like crap, and then you’d have to sign another guy or two to make up for that guy that sucks. That doesn’t mean that a team should consider the season that Lowe produced last year to be a good use of $12 MM dollars.

The actual value of a win in baseball (not based solely on the FA class) is around $2.3 MM or so. This is low, of course, because there are many young cost controlled players. Personally, I’ve found that if you take the ACTUAL win value, and the FA win value, and find the median between the two, it’s a more accurate assessment of what a win is actually worth to a team.

And there's also guys like Roy Halladay

who make $12 million, but gives you 7 WAR. There’s steals, and there’s busts.

Halladay doesn’t count toward the figure though, as he’s not a member of the most recent FA class.

No. I don’t. I still think that Blanton is being over paid. But you said it yourself – it is based on the Free Agent market.

Let’s look at Lowe’s free agent class: AJ Burnett, Derek Lowe, Oliver Perez, etc.

Who pitched closest in value to what they got paid? Derek Lowe.

He might not be over paid

But he was a bad signing for the Phillies, who should have kept Cliff Lee and gone for a championship this year.

I agree completely.

Closest between the actual contract and fangraphs’ dollar value?

Not looking over everyone, but Burnett signed for $16.5 MM, and was valued at $14 MM by fangraphs. Which is closer in value than Lowe.

Unless you count Smoltz who was valued at $6.6 MM by Fangraphs and probably made around $6 MM in actual money when all was said and done. Then I guess he was the closest.

without him...

we keep Vasquez and have a great deal more financial flexibility this year, last year, and going forward.

If only all things could be looked at with 20/20 hindsight vision.

Do we honestly need him last year?...

It’s a gamble, and not anymore than the year before, but we could have tried without him. Maybe sign a lower level FA or just go with what we did and spend the money on Dunn instead of FUGA. Vasquez deal, sign KK, so you got those two, plus Jurrjens. That’s a decent 3. You got Hudson coming back down the stretch possibly so you only need 15-20 starts until then (Jojo?). Then there’s Glavine, maybe plan on a full season of Hanson, or let him start in AAA and replace Medlen or Reyes in late May/June, among other options internally and externally.

True

I mean, yay-he helped us only miss the playoffs by 6 games. What a victory.

At what cost?...

And miss the playoffs by 6 games, or 26, you miss the playoffs. Kind of like horseshoes and hand grenades.

Again, hindsight is great.

Not really much other way to look at things...

you can try foresight, but you’ll be wrong more often than not. The only way to evaluate things is after they’ve occurred and you can assess the effects.

So, just like the Tex trade, you pull that trigger 10 out of 10 times.

You may...

others might have disagreed at the time and felt vindicated in their opinion by how things ultimately played out.

Possibly. I wasn’t around here when Tex was traded, but I can tell you that the places I was active in, not one person was upset with the trade. Most of us (and by that I mean about 80%) felt that the trade would give us the best offense in the NL and take us to the WS.

I was around here for the Lowe signing, and I can tell you that the vast majority of us were excited about it. The ones who weren’t were the ones who still wanted to trade for Peavy. Lowe was the best SP available and we went out and got him.

Now, to be fair, some of us were not ecstatic about the price we were paying, but at some point, we need to accept the cost of doing business in Major League Baseball today.

And at one time...

80+% of people thought the world was flat and the Sun revolved around us. Majority opinion doesn’t mean much.

Now you’re just being difficult.

And justin isn't?...

I’ve said a few times on the deal cb hates so much, I did not think that put us over the hump with problems in the pitching staff both bullpen wise with Wickman and following Smoltz/Huddy in the rotation. We had too many holes to fill for Tex to put us over the top, so bad deal in giving up that much with so many other holes around. And Lowe I felt at the time was just too long, and too much. He’s a decent pitcher, but at that price I didn’t think he was worth it. Justin can cry hindsight all he wants, but some people can use the effects after the fact to show why their opinion at the time has proven accurate.

Were you against the Lowe signing from the beginning? If not, then shut up. If so, then congratulations, you might be right.

You really can be a disagreeable douche

fun conversation.

Majority opinion does mean something when we are discussing opinions on something.

Someone’s opinion on a fact is irrelevant, but someone’s opinion on a subjective issue is totally relevant.

And majority opinion can be wrong...

or based on incorrect facts, or sometimes the idiots outnumber the intelligent.

When things are black and white, like say, the sun being the center of the universe, then yes, people can be (and were) wrong.

However, when saying something was a right decision or a wrong decision (something that is subjective), no, opinions cannot be wrong.

If you say so...

but if not “wrong”, they can certainly be misguided, foolish, mistaken, or many other descriptive words of that ilk.

Agreed. However, if someone were to consider trading for one of the best 1B in the game to help get to the postseason, or signing the best available free agent pitcher as good moves, then it is hard to suggest that those opinions are any of the descriptive words that you chose.

We've carried this on long enough...

especially since if I recall correctly, we’ve already hashed out Tex in length.

But trading for a 1B, when you’re pitching staff isn’t up to snuff for a post season run isn’t much help. It’s like a junk car and you fix the bumper, but leave a busted transmission. May look nicer, but still doesn’t work.

And best FA pitcher is considering others available. While Lowe may have had the best results in the past, it is not inaccurate to say it could be misguided, foolish, or a mistake to pay a P in their late 30s $60m/4 years.

Let’s wait a little more than one season before we start throwing comments like that around, shall we?

What have we told you about using common sense around here???

But seriously...

if he can’t bounce back and pitches at the same level or worse than last year for the next 3, that’s a pretty awful move. That and Tex for Kotch/Marek are the two worst off the top of my head. It looks good through 20/20 hindsight but not at the time, but if only it was Morales instead.

If he does pitch poorly this season I will fully agree with you.

They’re talking about how Mike Hessman has hit 311 homers in the minors.

Real life Crash Davis

And he promptly strikes out on queue.

I thought that Crash Davis was the real life Crash Davis …

Exactly what I was thinking

But then again, I decided to let that one stand.

Russ Adams hits a triple past McLouth

Carter scores, tie game. McLouth maybe shouldn’t have dived there…

so what did we miss? Last I saw it was 6-3…

Something like...

Single, Hessman grounded out and moved the runner to 3rd, then someone hit a double.

Santos pops out to Conrad at 2B
Freeman makes a "nice play at first"

Inning over.

Who was pitching?

Is Meds still in?

Saito
He's not been very impressive thus far, imo
Just joined in...Yikes,

what happened to Lowe?

Diaz grounds out(?)

The play-by-play is taking a back seat to talking about Mike Hessman.

Infante with a single to RF

So wait, did Saito give up runs again??

Yes. 3 ER, I believe.
3 of them...

for an ERA of 22 so far this spring

Jesus.

I’m trying to have faith in Wren, I really am. But Chavez, Saito, Lowe, McLouth, FUGA, are all Wren products. And Wags isn’t looking like a dominant closer at age 50 either.

Mike Minor may be the best thing Wren has going for him.

The only ones you mention that hold any water

are FUGA and Lowe

We’ll see.

Well you can’t use Chavez. We were bent over a barrel there by Soriano, and we got something in return for him.

Saito is a wait-and-see candidate. You’re right about FUGA, and I’ll give you Lowe for now.

McLouth was a stroke of brilliance. A great, affordable contract for a guy to play centerfield with an above average bat, and we gave up what? A prospect still living off the hype of a good half-season, a lefty pitching prospect we didn’t care for, and Charlie Morton. It was a damn steal

That's not to mention

He actually traded Francoeur (great move to get a breathing body for him).

The GREAT signing of Troy Glaus. A really solid move to add Hinske (IMO).

Hey,

if the jury is still out on Wags and Saito, then it’s still out on Hinske and Glaus too.

Not for the money

Those guys were steals. Even if Glaus trips and breaks both legs before camp breaks, you can’t put that on FW. A half season of average play from Glaus is easily worth more than $2 million

Well, if we hadn’t jumped on signing Saito so early, we would have had the option to keep Soriano and not be so much “over a barrel”.

It’s still too early to write him off, but his age and the way he was handled with kid gloves last year combined with how he’s pitched this spring are worrying.

lies and damned lies

Soriano is making $7.25 million with performance incentives.
Saito is making $3.2 million with performance incentives.

this

we couldn’t afford Soriano any way you slice it.

So we’d rather pay 3.2 million for an over the hill set up guy that can’t handle heavy work loads?

We could have worked something out with Soriano, we were apparently ready to spend $4 MM or so on Damon. We’d have also had more power in any trade talks if other teams believed that us keeping Soriano was an option, even if it really wasn’t.

4 million

with deferred money. Anyway, Soriano was an arbitration case – it’s basically guaranteed he would’ve seen 7.5 million, we couldn’t have just “worked something out”with him.

Uh, sure, we could have, guys sign contracts rather than go to arbitration all the time …

Braves don’t like signing relief pitchers, with low marginal value, to long term multi-million dollar deals. It doesn’t make as much sense financially. Soriano wanted a long-term deal, he was not going to take any one-year offers, and in arbitration he might have taken us for 8 or 9 million.

Instead, we’re on the books for one year of $3.2 million and we’ve got guys like Kimbrel, Moylan, and Gearrin on the cheap in the future.

Um, Soriano took a one year offer from the Rays …

for how much?

7.25 million plus performance incentives. The Braves couldn’t afford him…

Uh, that’s basically what we paid Saito combined with what we were ready to pay Damon.

Damon would've made 2 million this year

3.2 + 2 = 5.2 million, not 7.25 minimum. Plus, who knows the Braves plans, they could’ve got rid of Diaz’’s contract if they got Damon.

The Rays were in a different negotiating position.

Yes, because they hadn’t already signed two big money relievers.

So far...

based solely on his numbers with Atlanta and NOT with Pittsburgh, he’s been more of a hole in our lineup. And his defense is really not that great.

his defense is slightly below average

for center, that’s not bad. And, last year with us he was still decent even though battling nagging hamstring injuries and having vision problems.

He played average CF defense last year

League average CF defense = really good. And a .342 wOBA from a CFer? That’s basically Grady Sizemore last year.

Standards too high, anyone?

Oh come on, you cannot compare him to Sizemore. He has half the range of Sizemore and not much of an arm. There are no stats on the amount of balls he could’ve made plays on and let drop in for base hits.

Actually, UZR is the stat that shows you that. Not exact balls he could’ve gotten to, but it shows you his range.

Last year

His time with the Braves was worth approximately the same WAR as Grady’s injury shortened season. I think it’s a fair enough comparison.

this

we’ve seen Saito, what, three times? Ditto Chavez… plus he’s a kid.

McLouth has been fine so far, even though he’s not a natural leadoff guy.

Yep, he's looked sharp.
Minor that is...
not to mention

re-signing Hudson and trading Vazquez

Huddy’s typical year > Vazquez’s typical year.

And Huddy’s doing it for less money.

11m vs 9m

Vazquez was consistently awesome last year. Some guys pitch better in humid conditions. Huddy is a huge question mark.

Vazquez >> Huddy

So, one great season in a career...

…means that a pitcher is far better than another pitcher just because it happened to be last year? That defies logic.

Funny you mention that about humid conditions being the reason for his success last year. He was better away from Atlanta. And how is Huddy a huge question mark?

Ross hit a ball as far as you can...

…without going out. Flies out to RF.

Freeman grounds out to SS

End of the 5th.

Mariano Gomez on to pitch

Some guy I’ve never heard of with an unspellable name its a single

Mike Cerviniak (sp?)

Hicks in to play SS

Okay, I get excited about this team every year, but I really DO feel good about the Braves this season.

In retrospect, I kind of knew I was kidding myself last season when I got excited about this team. I had reservations about a ton of positions, but then got caught up in the hype of a couple of rookies (Schafer and Hanson). I really didn’t feel good about this team last year until opening weekend, when we should have swept the Phillies but for a bullpen explosion.

This year, I really DO feel good about this team.

Pridie strikes out
Base hit by Tejada up the middle

Runners first and second

I feel good about our offense esp if glaus keep swingin the bat like he has so far and chipper has a “normal” year.

If these two players click and heyward bats .300 with 30 or so dingers we can give the phillies a run for their money or win the WC easily

I am a little concerned about our bullpen

I was hoping Moylan would get the closer role,

but maybe FW thought his arm might fall off after last season of over use.

If JHey goes .300/30HR, then the bullpen can probably mail it in!

As an aside: 100 minutes since Lowe left the mound – no word on whether he’s okay.

He’s probably fine. He seems to be a feast-or-famine kinda pitcher, as we saw last season.

Yep, he may have just told Bobby he didn't have it today.

I feel like Lowe says he “doesn’t have it” almost every day these days…

I will say that it’s not unusual for a vet to go out and throw, say, nothing but sliders since that’s what he wants to work on. As soon as the other clubs figures it out, they sit on the slider and shell him.

Other the other foot, though…

Uhh, yeah, but then get pulled after only one inning?

See below. The questions have been answered.

Murphy hits into a FC

2 outs, runners at 1st and 3rd

Hessman’s up again, the ass-kissing continues.

Hessman grounds out to 3rd

Middle of the 6th

Parnell on to pitch for the Muts

Bowman is sayin on his twitter blog it was a blister under his right big toe that knocked Lowe out

From Gondeee on home page:

From a DOB Tweet:

Blister under r. big toe led to Lowe’s troubles. It’s messy, cropped up after 3rd pitch. Said he taped it whole career until this spring.

And here I thought his blister problems were on his hand…

I vote that we nickname Derek Lowe, “Mister Blister.”

Rubber arm, crepe paper skin.

Ooooh, I like both of these.

… I wonder why you’d tape it up your whole career and decide to make a change like that now?

Because he gets paid no matter what he does.

That makes sense.

/sarcasm

A blister under big toe after only 3 pitches,

sounds like a crop of $hit to me.

I totally called that way up in the thread.

lol

Hinske...

is as hot as a fresh cooked corndog!

what

does that make glaus?

McLouth K’s looking at a “96 MPH fastball”

Conrad fouls out to 1B
Thurston K's swinging.

End of the 6th.

Kyle Cofield on to pitch for Atlanta

Blanco in CF

Adams pops out to LF

Or, “Brent Cleveland” if you’re Ben Ingram

Santos hits into 4-3 DP

7th inning stretch

Mitch Jones flies out to LF
Cofield,

Other than the walk, it sounds like he did well.

Brett Cleveland up to hit

Or Brent Clevlen if you’ve been paying attention

Thanks, John Miller!
Brandon Hicks up
Grounds out

Clevlen to 3rd

Sammons flies out to RF

End of the 7th

Venters on to pitch

Carter grounds out to SS

Sorry, not Carter. Bowman. Hard to keep track with all the subs.

Pridie singles to RF

Tejada hits into 4-6-3 DP

Middle of the 8th

Blanco up first in the bottom of the 8th
Freeman grounds out to 2B
Matt Young up to hit
Ground out to 1B

End of the 8th

Cory Gearrin on to pitch the top of the 9th
Murphy grounds out to 2B
Thanks for the updates

im still here

Thanks for the play by play, Fine Ham.

I’m working on things so I can’t comment but I am still looking over!

Not a problem.

Seems like we had quite a drop of in attendance when Heyward’s not in the lineup.

Thanks man, I'm always here, Heyward or not.
haha true

that and most of the regulars have been replaced by the young guys

Yay, fresh blood.

Thanks,

for calling me a young guy!

haha...

I meant that regulars like Chipper had been replaced with scrubs, but you can still be a young guy if you’d like

Heck of alot younger than most of you guys & gals. 47 soon. I’m practically done.

The fact that you’re 47 and can effectively communicate on the internet puts you ahead of most other 47 year olds. My mom’s 52 and the other day she asked me how to get to Google.

I’m half Japanese, we’re “born with it”. lol

Thole strikes out.

The announcers are talking a lot about Gearrin’s motion and how deceptive it is because he’s a sidearmer.

That's good to hear.
Always the same talking points with side-armers.
Base hit to RF by Feliciano
Error by Conrad

Runners first and third, 2 outs

I have no idea who just grounded out to SS

But inning over.

Is the game still tied?
Yep.

We’re up to bat going into the bottom of the 9th

Thanks man,

now let’s get a run and win this game.

Eric Niesen (sp?) pitcher for the Mutts

Conrad grounds out to 2B

Thurston up

Mitch Jones next (I think)

Bottom 9, 1 out, right?

Thurston K's swining

2 outs, bottom of the 9th, Mitch Jones up

3-1 to Mitch Jones

Walk

Runner on 1st, 2 outs. Brett Cleveland up up.

I am liking this Mitch Jones more and more…I hope he makes the team!

I agree. I think having that kind of power threat on the bench would be a nice asset.

no, he struckout in the first game of the spring. he’s worthless.

Plus, he has shown patience at the plate.

I like him also.

Strikeout.

Free baseball!

I didn't know they had OT in ST.

They don’t go past a certain inning, I think. The other day I saw the final score was a tie after the 10th.

The announcers mentioned something about “one extra inning being standard in ST.” Dunno if that holds any water though.

yeah I think that's right
Oh ok,

nice to know.

Kimbrel on to pitch

1st pitch was 97 MPH. No complaints there.

holy jayzus

The last one just now was 98

Davis walks after a full count

One of two outcomes that Kimbrel is capable of.

Basically

Yep, he's gotta have command of it.
Bowman K's

83 MPH breaking ball (slider?)

Mets pitchers

Niese
Nieve
Niesen

Niether… ha.

I thought the box score had a bunch of typos at first

Hernandez steals second
Pridie strikes out swinging
Pop out to CF

Middle of the 10th.

Kimbrel’s line: 1 IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K

Muy bien.
typical Kimbrel

walk, K’s and gets out of it with 97 mph stuff

Brandon Hicks up
Walk

Runner on 1st, no outs

this old man took a nap

haven’t said thanks for the play by play…..so thanks

Sammons bunts hicks to 2nd

1 out, runner on 2nd

Grounder to second

Hicks moves to 3rd, 2 outs

1-2 pitch hits Freeman in the back

Jesus Sucre to bat

Runners at the corners, 2 outs

Freeman steals 2nd, uncontested

2-0 count on Sucre

Braves win 7-6 on a walkoff from Jesus Sucre

walkoff or walkoff HR?

cause if it was a HR it should be 9-6

9-6, yeah. I temporarily forgot about the 2 runners on base.

7-6

after sucre stepped on first he started celebrating, so it technically counts as a single (a la freeman)

Yes, I am serious.

hahaha

OMG, what an ending!
awesome

Sucre is the man

Sweetness. I would just like to point out, the bunt did not help this outcome at all!

: )

Gotta love waiting for the 3-run HR

Jesus Sucre is coming along nicely it seems...

the next trade bait C we come up with? Not Salty or Flowers, but he could be a nice piece for a deal.

Been real guys.

I gotta go and get some of those stupid cable box things from Comcast.

Thank you,

and yes Comcast closes soon.

dope.. thanks for the play by play everybody

even without Heyward

Yes.

Thanks for the play by play, what a way to end it.

Jesus Sucre

RALLY KILLER

hahahah

+1

(this is a joke that will never get old)

I'd like to see Cody Johnson get more AB's though..
So what was the final score?

The radio announcers said that it was officially 7-6 Braves, because Sucre got to first base and the runner came in, and then Sucre ran to his teammates, so he didn’t round the bases. Is that true? They may have revised that statement, because I turned it off as soon as the game was done. Either way…good job by Sucre!

sucre never rounded the bases and touched home plate, so it should technically only count as a single and it should be 7-6. however, mlb gameday has it has a homer and the score as 9-6 as of right now.

Yeah, gameday changed their score from 9-6 to 7-6

This is hilarious. Two over the fence singles in less than 10 days.

But this time, the 3-run HR only counts for 1 RBI!

HAHAH!

I would have rounded the damn bases to get my stats! ;-)

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