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Talking Chop

Spring Training Open Thread: Braves at Tigers

The Braves play their final game of the Grapefruit League today before heading north to Atlanta for two final exhibition games before the season starts. Here is today's lineup:

Melky Cabrera, LF
Martin Prado, 2B
Chipper Jones, 3B
Brian McCann, C
Troy Glaus, 1B
Jason Heyward, RF
Yunel Escobar, SS
Nate McLouth, CF
Eric Hinske, DH

On the mound for Atlanta will be Jair Jurrjens. The only other scheduled pitcher is Eric O'Flaherty, but I'm sure we'll some other folks as well.

As an added discussion topic and voting topic, which Braves site had the best April Fools joke? Talking Chop (Heyward to the Minors), Braves Journal (Melky traded to Mets), or Capitol Avenue Club (Hanson TJ surgery)?

Poll
Which Braves blog had the best April Fools post?
Talking Chop (Heyward to the Minors)
259 votes
Braves Journal (Melky traded to Mets)
104 votes
Capitol Avenue Club (Hanson TJ surgery)
220 votes

583 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  255 comments

Comments

While you got me good, real good, gondeee, I had to go with Braves Journal for this quote:

Upon the announcement that he had been traded, several Mets bloggers burned down Minaya’s house.

Since not a soul was fooled on the other sites, TC’s Heyward story has to win.

My favorite April Fools ever...

was just before Johan Santana’s first season with the Mets on a blog called MLBfleecefactor.com. It is no longer there, but it was a hilarious blog, and the headline for April Fools was along the lines of Santana to undergo Tommy John surgery. It was fantastic….

Best Joke

The Capitol Avenue Club wins, because they didn’t give away the joke in the post. Comedy is about commitment.

I almost had a heart attack while reading it

Capitol Avenue’s had a chance to ruin are season while the others wouldn’t be to bad

Is this game on tv today?

I obviously voted Talking Chop.

anyone

doing play by play?

play by play, please!

I love Jurrjens

sad, sad, sad

last day of spring training and no radio, tv or pbp. Not the way I had hoped it would end

I’ve got radio, but I’m at work and I can’t keep the play by play going

Could you just post the score occasionally?
Sure.

It’s 0-0, bottom 2, Runners on the corners and 1 out.

What radio station?

I’m using the AtBat app

free or paid?

Paid….so worth the $14.99 though.

damn.. I got it the first year and although it may be worth it, I’m not throwing 15 bucks at them yearly, so they’ve lost me

0-0 middle of 2nd, Jurrjens 2 hits, 1 k, Braves 0 h, 1 reached on error, don’t know who

How are you getting it?

MLB box score on Braves.com …. no commentary, just read it

Oh, ok,

just thought if you were getting it, I could also……

I tried about a dozen radio links, no luck

Thx for trying

Double play ball to short…inning over.

Doh.

There were April Fools jokes?

Hinske up to bat

3-2 count

swings and misses at strike 3

the man with the plan

Melky up

2-0 count

lined out to everett.

sounds like they are ready to leave town fast

inning over. 0-0
Anyone reading this?

hell yeah, thanks for providing

you’ve got a following, captive audience, you are the hero of the masses, seriously, thanks

yep, whenever I’m not getting interrupted by whiny pre-adults.

snide comment that I’m too lazy to think of

and thanks for doing it too.

I’m stuck at work…

I have always wanted to contribute.

Finally paid for MLBtv.

just double checking to see that somone was doing pbp… glad to see someone else is :)

now if we could just get a hit.. that’d be helpful…

Jackson up to bat

strikes out

Thanks for the PBP, btw, does anyone know what Heyward did in the second? The Box shows he made an out, but not a strike out.

I hadn't gotten here yet
pop to short

i believe

thanks!

mlb at bat says he flied to right

Announcers talking about Vasquez trade

who are the announcers?

I'm not sure. Pretty sure it's the Detroit people

No Brian Jordan. Yay!

thats the important part

I was not crazy about it, but Cabrera has won me over

Current batter--I missed it

2-2 count
keeps fouling them off
now its 3-2

Grounder to Esco

Infield singer. Throw pulled Glaus off the bag

3-1 to Ordonez
Walk

Runners on 1st and 2nd

Miguel Cabrera up to bat
Flies out to McLouth. 2 outs
Why is Melky already out?
I hadn't heard that he was.

I think it is because it is the last spring game and everyone is just getting 2 ABs. I see that the Cardinals are doing the same thing in their game. It is the race to the airport game.

Don Kelly up to bat
2-2 pitch "crushed" to left but caught by Heyward

Inning over. No score.

must have been right. I think the announcer got it wrong

or, maybe Heyward is just that good, right?

Does anyone other than myself,

like Heyward in the # 2 spot like yesterday?

me!

Good, I'm not alone in my thinking!

I still think, though, that he should begin the season in the bottom half of the order. Maybe at the ASB put him in the 2 slot then shift him down to the 3 after this year

yes, he would score a ton of runs in the 2 spot

That's my thinking

His speed is better in the 2 than 6 or 7 spot following McCann around the bases

On the other hand...

…in the sixth spot like today he should drive in a ton of runs with Chipper, Glaus & McCann on base all the time in front of him.

Yep, that's the other side of the coin.

I was thinking batting a head of those guys, he would get some better pitches to hit, like yesterday, but he’ll do fine where ever he bats.

That's the nice thing about our lineup.

While we don’t have a huge, huge bat anywhere (well except perhaps for Heyward, but he cannot be his own lineup protection) we have good bats 1-8, even when McCann is not playing. It makes it easier to move guys around the lineup, because there is at least some protection everywhere. And I just love the lack of automatic outs.

I've been saying it for a month now.
me too

McCann on 1st, Escobar out, Heyward gapper to the wall, turns a triple into a single is my fear, while Heyward can score from 1st on a Chipper gapper

edit

triple into a double

Eddie Bonine pitching

No Braves hits.
Prado only has reached base—-on an error.

Any radio or video feed out there?

Ground ball to 3rd.

Prado out

Chipper up
swings at first pitch

pops up to left field

announcers

“Both teams playing like they have a plane to catch.”

I would agree

Yay! Can’t wait for tomorrow afternoon.

Are you going to be at the game?
Yes'm

I will be there when the gates open. First BP of 2010, whoo-hoo!

McCann up

single

Batting average = .500

he should be demoted for getting an out half the time

what a fail, we should trade him for this Frenchy stud

Glaus batting
strike 3 swinging.

going to the bottom of the 4th

Brandon Inge up

Ground ball. Chipper pulls Freeman off the bag, but he makes the tag for an out.

Boscan catching, Freeman at 1st, and I missed any other changes.
Conrad at third, Infante at second.

All starters have been removed following their second plate appearance. I imagine the rest go next inning.

Sizemore (Not Grady) batting
Matty in for Melky
Tiger's Diaz batting now
liner caught by Esco

1-2-3 inning for JJ.

Just heard a commercial for a Mexidog, I think.

What’s that?

ugh! i am sick of that commercial… between that and the roof roof commercial Ill be driven insane!

I still don't know what a Mexidog is.
Heyward facing Fu Te Ni
popped up for an out

The knight that say’s Ni, we wore him out a week or so ago

Escobar up

Base hit
almost took off pitcher’s head

McLouth is up

One out
One on

Wild pitch. Thurston to 2nd.
2-0 pitch
3-0

This is only significant because McLouth is batting

Nate walks!
April fools joke, right?!?
Thurston pinch running

Woohoo! I found a link

Good one!
Good

I have to go in about 20 minutes.

You got me,

HaHa

Hinske up

Drives one deep, but foul

swung at a pitch that bounced in front of the plate. fouled it off

Ichiro could hit those

Double play

Lined out to Cabrera and runner caught off the bag.

Adam Everett facing JJ

His avg. is worse than Nates— .077?

That’s forgivable when you play SS like a shop vac.

Fly out to Matt Young
Cory Harrelchuck (sp?) in CF for Braves and Matt Young in LF
Autin Jackson up to bat

1 out
0 on

Matt Young hauls one in at the track.
Johnny Damon up

2 singles so far this game

grounds out to SS. Infante throws him out.

Hope he likes Detroit, saw him try to throw a while back, really sad

Sorry, y'all. I have to go.
Thanks for the pbp, you did well.
Diaz up against Zumaya.
Anybody else able to do play-by-play?
Looks like we are done for today :(
sad, sad, sad

i can do it…

back in business, thanks

Thanks Sean.

And thank you Cooper’s Town if you’re still around. It’s great to get PBP

Also, I think this is as compelling as a game gets.

No problem.

It was my pleasure, everyone!

diaz flies out… brooks conrad up now…

Doesn't appear to be a compelling game anyway....

Finlay Roofing FTW!!! :P

do we even have a score?

Is Jason Heyward a slap hitter? :P

oops.. infante flies out to center… then conrad ks to end the inning

david ross takes over for boscan catching…

glad Ross is back, needs some playing time

ordonez singles… cabera up… sorry bout the spelling…

cabrera fouls out to freeman at first… ordonez was running on the pitch and has to hustle back…

damn… kelly homers to make it 2-0…

JJ still pitching?

No reason to sweat this one much at this point it is almost a minor league game.

Gotta be an April Fool's comment :)
If not,

this is gonna make Justin’s day! :)

inge up… jo jo reyes warming up… ingle grounds out to Thursten at third… sizemore up

sizemore fouls out to freeman at first to end the inning…
jj was still pitching… imagine that will be it for him…

starting off the next inning… ross pops out i think… then freeman grounds out on a broken bat dribbler…

matt young hits a blooper up the middle for a single

What inning is it?

mid 7th i believe

thursten up.. singles

I think Thursten is gonna win

Harrilchak pops up to end the inning stranding 2

Anybody think Matt Young might get a chance in the next year or two?

I do, or at least hope so

Me too

probably just a bench player, but fast gap hitters have a place

Not bad with the glove either.

bottom of the 7th now… Reyes pitching now

Sammons now catching as well… det. catcher singles through the hole to start off..

thats all the braves catchers now i believe

everett singles.. runners on 1st and 2nd…

Reyes needs a decent outing, this doesn’t sound like one. Back of the pen is a quandry

Good chance to see if he can get out of this, without giving up runs.
and he fails

sadly, he can’t

Was that first run he gave up, an unearned one?

I’m thinking the error at first allowed this one, not sure, when just listening.

no clue, sounded unearned

yeah… error was on sammons…

he's bi-polar,

one outing he looks good, the next, not so good. Not really what you want coming out of the BP, imho.

Drives me crazy, we are loaded with arms and can’t round out the pen

bunt attempt… sammon fires to freeman at first but misses and 1 run scores…

sac fly liner to left… 4-0

reyes strikes out the next batter… 2 down…

reyes ks larish to end the inning… could have been worse i guess…

adam milligan (who?) batting now… singles

awesome, he’ll be in Atlanta in a couple of years

What position does he play?

diaz grounds into a fc… milligan out at 2nd.. Diaz beats the throw at first to stop the dp…

omar lines hard to third… third basemen throws it into right trying to start the dp… runners at 1st and 3rd

conrad flies to right… runner tags and scores… dont think it was diaz…

4-1…. Sammons up

Saves us from being shut out, at the least.

sammons walks… 2 on… 2 down… freeman up

3 run jack, would tie it up.

i was thinking the same thing… sadly not the case

go freddie go

freeman ks to end the inning…

announcers said almost all the starters are already up the tunnel to change… EOF now on the mound…

Wonder if they all fly home, or did some drive down

Probably,

a mix.

kelly flies out deep to left for out #1… Miles is out there now

next batter rolls one to 2nd for the next out.. Hicks in at 2b now

slow roller down the line… EOF tries barehand throw to get him at first but is a bit late… runner on 1st… 2 down

ground out to SS for final out… on to the 9th…

they predicted a quick game and got it

Nice for O'Flarherty to have a good outing

after a bad one yesterday

hicks was at ss… they need to work on this mlb at bat app…

tomorrow vs White Sox is on FSS I think, anybody know what time?

Game is at 7 on my Braves schedule.

Thank y'all
I'm thinking around 7:00

matt young leading off the top of the ninth.. rolls on to 2nd but the 2nd baseman bobbles it and young is safe at 1st

steal coming up

joe thursten flies out deep to left for first out…

harrilchak ks for out #2

Not impressed with him,

of course, I’ve only heard of his playing these past two days. Small sample size.

milligan up now… down 0-2… fouls one back…

milligan flies to short center for out #3… final score 4-1…

thanks for the pbp.. see everyone later

Thanks for the PBP

no prob… catch y’all later

Time to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather,

here in Chattanooga :)

Ditto, for Jasper

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