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Talking Chop

Spring Training Open Thread: Braves at Nationals

I'm about to pick myself up off the couch and make the drive to Viera to see the Braves take on the Nationals. I'm worn out from a full day in the Florida sun -- that stuff will drain you, and I tried my best to stay in the shade (being the pasty white boy that I am).

I'm excited to see Jason Heyward, who will be in the lineup tonight. I'm less excited to see Derek Lowe, who will be on the mound. I'll once again be sending some pithy updates via Twitter, so make sure you open up my twitter page and refresh often, or check the right sidebar of Talking Chop, where my Twitter feed auto-updates. Really, I won't have too many comments, just enough to make it interesting. I'll also try to once again take plenty of pictures and get back in time to post them suckas.

The Nationals, by the way, are win-less this spring -- 0-for-freaking-10. I know spring records usually don't mean anything, but that goose egg has to start gnawing at the Nats at some point. Let's hope the Braves don't help them out tonight.

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Comments

DOB has JHey in the 3 slot tonight
Guess I should of read all of it first

    * 1. McLouth CF
    * 2. Prado 2B
    * 3. Heyward RF
    * 4. McCann 2
    * 5. Escobar SS
    * 6. Cabrera LF
    * 7. Hinske 1B
    * 8. Infante 3B
    * 9. Lowe RHP

No DH?

Interesting.

I wish Bobby would move McLouth out of the #1 spot.

Nate said last year he didn’t feel comfortable batting lead off, and I think he has proved it, Ugh….

indeed

it really depends on how Heyward does the rest of camp and how confident the team is in his ability. If they feel he is up to it we could see him batting 2nd with Prado leading off

Give Heyward a kiss for me.

Went this morning to get my tickets….can’t wait to go back tonight for the game!!!

what to do

i will heading to spring training march 19 26 first time at braves camp-any suggestions?
thanks

Cheer for the braves.

http://www.talkingchop.com/2009/12/21/1211806/spring-training-tips-and-tricks#27735313
In all seriousness though scroll down to CB’s post. We should seriously figure out somewhere to have this on the front page.

Aw, no TV for this one?

it’s on mlb.tv apparently, but it’s the nats’ feed

The Nats are probably happy thinking they may possibly win

their first game in ST tonight against us. Last season we would play down to their level. I feel that’s all about to change this season. Go Braves!

Does anyone have an audio feed for the game?

I seriously hope McLouth breaks out. This it’s starting to worry me a little…

is it just my feed

or is the game not on yet

nvm

just came on at 1-2 to nate

2-2

count on nate

Nate

Grounds out to 2B

prado

homers to left!

That a boy Prado.

Thats why

Prado should lead loff lol

See, no why the “freak” isn’t this on CSS?

looks like fucking high school basketball, or some such bullshite.

Heyward

Infield broken bat single

McCann

flyout to deep center

How deep was it?

close to the warning track

Not deep enough :)
TWSS
so obvious, i'm disappointed in you guys.

BMac deep flyout to center

Escobar hits one up the middle for a single

Escobar

Single up the middle. Desmond got to it but didnt make the throw

Melky ropes one past the 2nd base man.

Cabrera

Single to RF. Heyward Scores. Cabrera out at 2nd

Is it just me or

Melky is gonna have a good year?

hope so, we may need him if McLouth continues hitting below .050

I, like most of the western world, hated the trade at first…but I’m warming to it. Melky’s got some value, though I don’t see him staying with us past this year.

If McLouth keeps stinkin it up

he will

I wasn’t a fan of the McLouth deal. I met it with a resounding “meh” at the time, and my confidence in it has gone steadily downhill since that day.

Yeah, I was hoping the eyesight problem was really the problem,

and we would see a much improved Nate this season, still early, but…..

Heyward scores but they get Escobar at 2nd after the throw home

Escobar Cabrera

Escobar

Drops ball but still throws intime to get Desmond

6-3 2 down. Esco bobbles it but gets it to first in time.

We get an early lead on the Nats

Now lets see how Lowe coughs it up

D Lowe is hitting 89mph

Is that good?

I dunno, he did hit 91 once I think though. Not sure how hard he throws normally.

it's good

considering he was only throwing 84 in his last start when his blister opened up

in The Show he throws…

Lowe

K’s Zimmerman

D Lowe with a K to end the inning

Nice, quick inning!

Mister Blister makes it through the inning,

now that’s an accomplishment :)

3

I’d like to hear at least 3 innings from him

This

Should be 4 by now, right?

yeah

but just 1 last outing with the blister

Oh, hello Derek Lowe!
He's back..........

We hope….

WOW

DLowe with an easy 1-2-3

Hinske pops to short stop

are you watching on TV

or listening to the radio? I’m listening to radio but you’re about 30 seconds ahead of me…

Watchin the tv
MLBN, I have CLE-MIL game.

How are you getting it on TV?

funny stat

Lowe has a higher BA than McLouth =^O

Doesn't take much, unfortunately.

At this rate Hanson is going to outhit our centerfielder. He needs to find another gear yesterday.

D Lowe ground out to SS

If you didn’t know any better and listened to these broadcasters, you would think the Nationals are amazing lol.

well

i guess they’re doing their job, right?

Yeah, but “there’s a ton of guys on this team who can produce runs” is pushing it a little.

Dunn spanks a long fly ball… foul

Prado knocks it down at second and easily throws out Dunn

Dukes K’s looking

I'm still working on my NCAA bracket

and i’m lost.

Kansas wins.

well yes

I’ve known that since January. I loved when Syracuse whooped on an overrated Villanova team at home and then Kansas lost a tough road game at Ok. State and everyone started jockin on ’Cuse’s nuts.

I honestly don’t see any big upsets… maybe a 10 over a 7 but thats about it..

I don’t see that many in Rd. 1 besides Cornell over Temple, but I have BYU beating KState in rd. 2. That team is legit and Jimmer Fredderete is this years Steph Curry

Kennedy K’s looking

lowe

is looking good! 2 IP, 3K

D-Lowe’s sinker looks good. He’s got some nice movement on his pitches tonight.

Whew, good to hear.

he sounded really pissed after his last start. when you say it “was a waste” and you were “disgusted” with yourself, it’s easy to be motivated

He had a crappy winter, then a stupid mistake blister, probably was pretty embarrassing

He’s so hard on himself when he screws up…but it doesn’t seem to help in any appreciable way. Reminiscent of Thorman’s temper tantrums when running out weak grounders.

Nate Dog takes a 3-2 pitch to the warning track in center. Caught for out #1

at least he’s taking pitches.

praise the Lord

he made contact

Prado is getting some big breaking balls. K’s

Pitching around Jason… 3-0.

Does the Rook know what a take sign is?

Pops out to third in foul territory.

Fire his ass
Sorry ppl

kinda just stopped giving updates

Prado

drops the ball still throws out the runner.

thats 2 dropped by Prado and one by Escobar

Maybe an infield lighting issue at Viera?

Hinske

with an error

Ah jeez. Hinske drops the throw from Prado….

Mock moves the runner over

Lowe K’s to end the inning

Derek Lowe

Looking like the 15 mil we paid him for

It is the Nats,

but I do feel better about him.

Lowe sharp

3 IP, 0’s all across, 4K

Top of the 4th

Good guys 2 Bad guys 0

McCann flies out to center

Escobar grounds out to third

Announcers

I don’t get to watch Braves broadcasts…do the Braves announcers sound as ridiculously biased as these Nationals announcer do?

Surely not, but then again the Nats crew almost has to do that to keep an audience.

this

hell, listening to them, even i get excited about the nationals. NATIONALS WORLD SERIES CHAMPS 2010

Melky flies out to deep right field. 3 up 3 down.

Hello everyone,
long time (or at least for me it was) no see.
How’s it goin?

my head hurts...

from my college bball bracket.

my head hurts from not having power.
My bracket is crazy btw.

Oh, and i’m doing this $5 bracket with my friend in which we each choose the picks based off a random number generator. Should be fun. That reminds me, do you know of a full listing of the overall seeds, ie. Kansas is the overall 1 Kentucky 2….

My crazy pick is BYU in the Elite 8. The rest isn’t too crazy besides a 5-12, 4-13 upset or so.

wow. thats, just wow. over K-State and Syracuse?!? Not necessarily crazy but I don’t have Duke going anywhere, except for past Louisville

Over K-State but not Syracuse. I have Syracuse beating them in the Elite-8.

Jimmer Frederrete is this year’s Steph Curry. I sat and watched him drop 49 points against Arizona. The man can stright up shoot the basketball

so who’s your champion?

Kansas. I have them (probably) playing West Virginia in the title game.

WaVa? No way. ’Nova>West Virginia

oh i’m not very confident in Nova at all. I have Baylor beating them in the sweet 16.

haha. I have Baylor loosing to Notre Dame, who then looses to ’Nova. Scottie Reynolds is a beast

he is. i had Nova going far last year. I just think they’re overseeded and a little bit of a 1-man show to go far

wait, how far does ’Nova go for you? Because you seem to be high on BYU, and they are as much as a 1 man team as ’Nova

sweet 16. I only have BYU in the elite-8 because I dont like Pitt or Xavier to beat them

fair enough, I see that

ND is going to lose to ODU.

I’m still contemplating it, but my early gut feeling says ND wins. I still don’t know why

ODU has been impressive this year. I also just hate ND.

haha. ND pisses me off too, but I think they’re better than their record shows

Stupidity alert

the bracket works on an S-Curve, so K-State is the best #2 seed and Georgetown is the best 3 seed, right?

Theoretically…

or at least in their fucked up mind. This bracket makes me sick with the bad rankings (cough, Duke, cough)

’Cuse being a 2 seed instead of Duke is a crime – not to mention the path that ’Cuse has to take to get to the FF versus the path Duke has.

I still have Duke getting beat by A&M though.

When will Coack K learn that these teams that he builds out of 3-point shooters and no inside offense don’t make it in the tourney?

What? ‘Cuse is a 1 seed, just lower than Duke. And you’re right. The fact that ’Cuse is getting punished because Onauaku will miss the opening round game is disgusting.

Same about Duke

dammit…totally messed that one up. I don’t have the bracket in front of me right now, so I can’t remember what 2 seed I am talking about. lol

2 seeds are K-State, Ohio St. WaVa, and ‘Nova. My guess is you’re talking about K-State (but they didn’t win the conference tourney- STFU)

Nope. Not K State. Must have been thinking about WVU.

wow. hmm. point about not winning conference tourney still stands

WVU won the BE…

damnit. Me fail. That ’Cuse loss to Georgetown really screwed me up

0-2 ground out to Escobar

Lowe groundouts are a good thing

I think Lowe should go for the shutout
no...

DLowe will have a shutout thru 8 but then Bobby will pull him.

then Soriano Wagner will blow the game

Na, Wags will be fine

Lowe is looking good. another K

Lowe

K’s Zimmerman

Sit down Adam Dunn

Lowe

K’s Dunn

No hits

through 4 innings

Lowe is making up for his last time out, sounds great

Hinske works a full count.

Then laces one past the 2nd baseman

so glad we picked up Hinske…..i think hes gonna get overlooked all year, but what a good pickup….

With Norton still fresh in our minds…I think we’ll appreciate him just fine.

This Storen fellow

looks pretty good

Omar with a nice shot up the middle.

D-Lowe up. He’s going for the perfect game I think.

hahahah

and he’s swinging away with two on, no out!

He wants his baseball card to look good

why do i think the next comment i see will say 643 double play..

how are you guys watching?

Is it on MASN or something?

Lowe K’s fouled a bunt

thanks for the play by play, had to watch the box score yesterday, very boring

Nate with a dribbler down the first base line. Runners advance

1 for 25 for an .040

:(

If this continues

what do you think will happen to McLouth?

Bobby will probably continue to play him every game as he did

Frenchy,we’ll see.

Then we will trade back to the Pirates

for Ryan Church!

Nightmare scenario

I’d honestly go with Melky, but idk.

Nothing will happen to McLouth, but hopefully fans will realize that this is Spring Training and McLouth has a track record of success in the regular season.

Not with the Braves, just sayin'
Swings away then bunts

nice strategy

Prado with a hit up the middle , both runners score 4-0 Bravos

gotta love nitram…

2 down nobody on for Jason

Oh uh whats this?

They’re bringing in Strasburg to face Heyward?

Oh uhUh oh whats this?

FTFY

It's been a while since we've had a Heyward Homer

Can you fell it Elvis?

Sorry Prado on first

Pass ball. Prado to second
They're talkin a little shit about our boy...

They’re just jealous he got the top prospect nod over Strasburg.

What can you possibly say negative about him? Care to fill me in?

Let’s see how he does against a Santana or a (insert good pitchers name here). I bet he didn’t face anything like that in the minors. blahblahblah

Oh the typical. He’s gonna have to face Santana and Halladay in the NL East now. OH NO. I’m scared

We should word that: Santana and Halladay will have to face Heyward now in the NLE.

Santana doesn’t scare me. We seem to hold our own against him just fine, and besides, we have Matty D to throw out against him. It’s Doc that will keep me up at night.

Didn't Matty

hit a double and score in that game Vs. Halladay

We’ve got the solution. Check my sig.

I’d like to hope so, but ya know, SSS and all.

3-2 to Jason. He walks...

That kid Heywards got a pretty good eye huh?

He’s ok…for a rookie

Hey guys. What’s going on? I see we got a leadoff HR for Prado, but how did we score the other three? Anyone stood out or sucked this game so far?

Derek Lowe has been filthy.

Heyward got called out on strikes as well….but no one has seen the umpire since then.

hes got a 2 rbi single too

Prado just knocked in two more, so he’s responsible for three of our four. D-Lowe looking hyper-sharp apparently, and I say its about time.

Lowe is the man….today

McCann safe at first because Dunn can't catch.
Bases juiced for Yunel
...

adam dunn just made one of the worst errors i’ve ever seen.

You must have missed Hinske’s earlier then.

32-45 pitches for strikes so far from Lowe.

JoJo up to pitch

Anyone have the radio feed

I just got home…. Obviously Lowe is looking pretty good right?

Anyone else having issues with the stream from MLB.com freezing up?

Mine was earlier but it hasn’t for the last inning or so.

Escobar guns out Dukes for out number 1
JoJo gives up a double to left
There goes the perfect game...

Hinske already ruined that.

Pudge rbi single
Eh

JoJo gives up a run

If he makes the team. I’m gonna throw something at Bobby

I think we have given him enough time to prove he can be consistant,

time to send him packing,imo.

Exactly

It’s not like he hasn’t been given any chances.

sonovagun. MLB will stream fine for like 5 seconds, then it freezes, and the picture disappears. HELP?

All I did was lower the video quality. It seemed to help.

That’s what I just did. Thanks!

Martin with a nice grab. Almost doubled up the runner at first.
Hicks Not Odarp
Hicks has stood out to me.

I think he is going to make it to the bigs in time, if not with the Braves, someone else.

Slow bouncer to short, force out at second. Out of the inning.
Melky walks after 2 in the dirt.
3-6 double play.
Do you like College Hoops???

Well if you do, join the Talking Chop March Madness Bracket! And what’s that? How do you sign up? It’s quick and easy!

link: http://tchop.mayhem.cbssports.com/brackets

password: gobraves

See ya there.

Spammer!

i'm sorry

I just had to.

I’m just razzing you. At least it’s TC-relevant spam.

Kind of.

Well it is the Talking Chop version…

Jo-Jo looked good there.

Except for that... oh that thing, what is it...

Oh yeah- the run.

He didn’t give up a run in his second inning. That is the inning I was referring to.

Ah

No play by play for that one, I was oblivious it had transpired. Apologies.

Who else is suppose to pitch tonight?

I hate bunting, but I love the drag bunt!

who bunted?

Blanco. Drag bunt up the 1B line.

Dunn

in to pitch

1st pitch

Fastball in the dirt

So, Jordan Schafer is on facebook chat right now…

anything interesting?

I didn’t ask him anything.

haha. you should, ask him how the wrist is

Last time I asked him that, he said it hurt like hell.

damn it, Jordan.

well, to be fair, that was like 2 months ago. lol

still, its a wrist. How long can it take?

well, he had surgery on it…

I heard the time in the cast cost him muscle, one hand smaller than the other. Gonna take some time to build it back up

hahahaa. Like the BK commercial?

Ever had a cast? Things shrink. Legs, arms…called atrophy I think

woah

you guys are facebook friends? jealous.

5-4-3 double play

Great turn by Conrad and great catch by Freeman for the typical 5-4-3 DP.

I'm starting to think

Conrad will make the team

I was listening to the game on the way home from work.. Leo sounds like excited to be doing play by play with Tony shivonne… Im so waiting for mean gene okerland to break out his Wcw hotline between innings

Mitch Jones up…I really like this guy.

and he promptly walks.

First open thread post of the season.
What is the score?

4-1 good guys

Wahoo!
and Thanks!

Bravos leave Mitch stranded at 2B. on to the bottom of the inning.

doing play-by-play commentary, my man?

well, I now have access to a mlb.tv stream, so I figured that I can return the favor if anyone needs it.

very cool. thanks for Braves’ fans worldwide.

I second that

Lyman on to pitch.

He gives up a leadoff single.

Did they really just try to compare Bernadina to Heyward?

hahaha…I have the volume way down (24 is on)

Now, runners on 2nd and 3rd after 2 bloop hits.

Lyman hitting 93…what is his norm?

K for Lyman. 1 out, runners still on 2 and 3.

Alright, so I finished my random number bracket, and I’m proud to say that
Temple
wlll be your national champion.

Final Four were Kanas, Temple, A&M and Gonzaga
Elite Eight were Kansas, Ohio, Gonzaga, K-State, Temple, New Mexico, A&M, and Sam Houston State

(the play in game reached the Sweet 16 btw)

Lyman with K #2. He is looking really good – bloop singles aside.

and now, Brave Killer, Willie Harris, is up.

The thinking man's Brave killer

wild pitch, runs scores. 4-2 Braves. That pitch wasn’t even close.

Bring Lowe back out

Damnit. That is not a Winn Winn situation

and naturally, on the next pitch the inning is over. WH pops up to 3rd.

That is a Winn Winn situation… now I’m just trying too hard

Considering he’s not even on the other team, yeah. Just a bit.

Anyone else think the Nats rotation will actually be pretty good this season?

I have a friend that does. I’m not sold on it though.

I think Zimmerman will be their best (if he can stay healthy), Strasburg will be good, and I think Wang may be a bounceback of the year candidate.

I think they will be decent, not good. Probably enough to get them out of the cellar

Zimmerman is hurt

and will miss most if not all of the year.

Everybody else is a question mark at best. We’ll see about Strasburg but other than that they’re in bad shape.

Zimm had TJS. He’ll be back mid-year at best, but I see him pulling a Huddy this year.

How did I miss Zimmerman? What happened? Carry over from last season?

It’ll be an improvement assuming Strasburg doesn’t just crash and burn or come up injured, but how drastic an improvement remains to be seen. I think next year when they can finally relegate Lannan to number-3 status and trot out Strasburg and Zimmermann as a 1-2 punch then we can talk. But Zimmermann’s gonna miss half the season and it’s too early to take Strasburg to the bank. Next year this will be a valid topic of conversation.

IMO

signing of chien-ming wang for 2M is a great move. i think they’ll be decent.

Chin Ming Wang can’t run bases. That is all

Which is why the AL sucks.

Wang on the yankees was bad. Wang on the Nats can be pretty good.

joe thurston

homers to right. he really wants this bench spot.

tough call between him and Conrad, both having decent ST

Thurston really hit that one well. That was one of those no-doubters.

The HR was off of Capps. The next batter (missed who it was) hit a rocket to RF too, but it was caught.

It was Conrad…fitting.

FSS showing 2010 Braves preview right now

I’m still laughing at ESPN’s ridiculous Howard/Pujols swap report. They keep analyzing it. It will NEVER happen. EVER

How dumb is THAT? I bet $100 that Buster Olney made that up.

And probably while he was on the toilet.

hahaha. I bet Buster just sits there and thinks up ridiculous fantasies of his and then reports them as “rumors” from his “sources”

He isn’t nearly the shit-spinner that K-Ros is. Give credit where it’s due.

hahha. Wasn’t it KRos who first reported that we had signed Griffey?

I believe so. But now I think of it, Jon Heyman is actually Lord of the Shit-Spinners. I forgot it was him that completely fabricated a Halladay-to-Mets swap last summer. And stuck to his story even after both clubs vehemently denied it.

I believe one of his sources

is Mary Jane

Yeah.

Seriously, why would STL do that? Pujols is twice the player Howard is.

Howard is a good hitting 1B. Pujols is the best hitter in the game who is also good with the glove. How does that deal make ANY sense for STL?

AND LESS EXPENSIVE! How the fuck they think anybody is buying this nonsense is beyond me. I understand slow news days, but damn- this is a whole new level.

Exactly. I’m so glad I can watch MLB Network now and not listen to the morons on BBTN.

I used to think I kinda liked Kruk, but at this point the whole damn crew is a lost cause. I haven’t watched a second of it since MLBN started up, and I think I’ll keep it that way.

I do like Kruk and Tim Kurkjan is really passionate about the game. Other than those two, I couldn’t care less about BBTN.

Kurkjian’s alright I guess, but I prefer Verducci over on MLBN over pretty much anybody else. He’s the man.

Blanco caught in a rundown for a 4-6-3-4 double play. Inning over.

Mariano Gomez in the game for ATL

Pete Orr with a bloop single to lead off the inning. Dukes is up.

Dukes Ks on a check swing. 1 out

Adam Kennedy now up. Wash down to their last 2 outs.

Let’s put this thing to bed, gentlemen.

1-6-3 DP to end the game. braves win. Nats are 0-11.

OK guys, time to devote my attention to 24. Later.

If Jason Heyward were on that show

They’d have to call it 2, and the other 22 episodes would be spent explaining how the bad guys never had a chance.

That is by far the best one I have heard yet!

one liner of tonight’s thread right there

How many shots tonight by the J-Hay?

Tomorrows game on TV, FSS and MLB!

Maybe this one will not get rained out!

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