Talking Chop

The Braves and Padres played a 3 game series from April 12th through April 15th in beautiful San Diego, California. After a horrible Game 1, the Braves battled back and took both Game 2 and Game 3.

Game 1 Recap: Here
Game 2 Recap: Here
Game 3 Recap: Here

The Good:

1. Jason Heyward - The kid is incredible. After going 3-for-3 with RISP during the series, Jay Hey now leads all of baseball with a .750BA w/ RISP and leads the Braves with 12RBI. In the series, Heyward went 3-for-8 with 2 doubles, 3BBs and 3Ks. I really don't think he'll be hitting 7th for too much longer.

2. Tommy Hanson and Timmy Hudson - Neither were great in their start, but both pitched well enough to keep us in the game until our Jekyll and Hyde offense got their crap together and scored some runs. With Jair Jurrjens struggling a bit in his first 2 starts, Tommy and Timmy both need to step up to fill the void. Both of them did that in San Diego.

3. The Bullpen - Let's just act like Monday afternoon never happened, k? If you combine the numbers the bullpen posted on Wednesday's and Thursday's games, you see this:

6.1IP   0R   2H   2BBs   8Ks

That's filthy, folks.

4. Troy Glaus finds the POWAH - Sure, Troy didn't necessarily hit for a high average in San Diego, but he showed why Frank Wren and Co. were so high on his this offseason: His power. Troy belted a HR to the upper-deck seats in left field on Wednesday night and yeah...I still don't think it has landed yet. Way to go Big Fella'.

5. The Braves are running? - The Braves were 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts during the series, which had MattyD, Esco and Grandpa Jones each swiping a bag. The Braves also attempted hit-and-runs multiple times during the series, but were unable to put the ball in play. It's nice to know Bobby is at least thinking about sending the runners.

The Bad:

1. Jair Jurrjens - His numbers may look "ugly", but he didn't pitch horribly. I know there's no excuse for giving up 8 runs in 3.1 innings, but the Padres were incredibly lucky getting a 2RBI bloop single from their pitcher on a check-swing and another run on a bang-bang play at home with McCann and Gwynn. I don't think we need to worry too much about JJ's start, but it's something to keep an eye on. (Yeah, that's what I said on Monday, but it's still true.)

2. Matt Diaz's plate discipline - MattyD shows great patience at the plate...during the 1st inning. After that is kind of a disaster. I know Matt is a special hitter who plays by his own rules, but he can reeeeally look bad at times, as he did during this series. A lot of the TC faithful were excited to see Diaz in the leadoff spot on Wednesday and Thursday, but he went 0-for-9 with 2Ks and 0BBs. He'll come around, but The Lefty Muncher was pretty bad in San Diego.

3. The fans in San Diego - All series long they had bad, uncoordinated and annoying chants going, usually when the game was out of hand. Come on folks. Support your team, but don't be obnoxious. PLEASE.

The Ugly:

1. Monday's Game - We will never, ever, ever, ever, ever bring that game up again. JJ was bad. JoJo was awful. The offense was laughable. And it was probably the worst game the Braves have had since a certain 3rd game of the 2009 season. Never again.

2. Our Leadoff Hitters - For the entire season, they're hitting .051. During the Padres series, they went 0-for-13 with 0BBs and 2Ks. Ugh.

3. The Umpiring - Another series, another set of moron umpires with ridiculous strike zones. Look, if you have an early plane to catch, I'm fine with a big strikezone as long as it's consistent and fair to both teams. Both the strikezones in all 3 games weren't even close to being consistent.

TC member MatM showed how 2 ABs were called during Thursday's game. Here the are. Holy cow. At least 3 or 4 of those pitches are strikes...and it's not even close. This season is going to be maddening with these umpires.

and The Awesome:

1. Player of the Series: Brian McCann

4-for-9   3 2Bs   3RBI   2BBs   0Ks

Pretty nice series for THE 2010 ALL STAR GAME STARTING NL CATCHER.

2. Picture of the Series:

(add your own caption)

3. TC Game Thread Participation:

Monday: 1,810 comments

Wednesday: 2,182 comments

Thursday: 2,173 comments

4. We go .500 on our West Coast trip - For as bad as we usually play on the West Coast (especially in San Francisco) I think any Braves fan will be happy that we broke even in the 2 series. If we can win 2 out of 3 at home and split on the road, we're gonna be in for a hell of a season.

Upcoming Series:

Colorado Rockies: 4/16 - 4/18

Philadelphia Phillies: 4/20 - 4/22

GO BRAVES!