7/18: Finally, More Baseball
Well, we’re back to playing the national pastime again. Thanks to the game-blowing efforts of Billy Wagner and Brad Lidge, whoever represents the National League in the World Series is going to be playing Games 1 and 2 on the road, as usual, but other than that the only thing that happened for the Braves in the last few days is that McCann missed a tag on a weak Corey Hart throw and Chipper went 1-3 in a game whose stats don’t count.
So thank heaven we’re back to the games that matter, where we can hope against hope. The Phillies weren’t idle — they traded 3 of their best prospects for Joe Blanton, an innings-eater type who has sucked this season in a pitcher’s park and will move to a hitter’s park. But he’s cheap, and relatively young, and they’ll get to keep him for another two years, and he can’t be worse than Adam Eaton. (I mean, can he?) This hurts them for the future, but it helps them now, especially with Brett Myers on the blink again, and indicates that they’re in win now mode, especially impressive considering their GM’s nickname is “Stand Pat” Gillick.
Hopefully, Billy Wagner and Brad Lidge will be feeling so contrite from giving up crucial runs that they’ll start blowing a few more saves in the second half. The Braves have been incredibly frustrating this year because our competition ain’t that great and our talent clearly ain’t that bad, but we simply can’t push the runs across when it counts. Which is damning in itself, and at this point is pretty much a defining characteristic of the team, rather than just a phase we’re going through, but it makes for a lot of tantalization and heartbreak, rather than the numbing stupor that Nationals fans get to have. I’m not sure which is worse.
Speaking of the Nationals, they’re coming to town tonight for a three-game set. I won’t say anything about my expectations, because they’ve been so far off the mark this year as to be both laughable and embarrassing. Instead, I’ll just cut to the chase. Tonight is Tim Redding against Tim Hudson. This year is already the second-most innings that Redding has ever pitched, second only to his 2003 breakout. He’s a good pitcher, and shouldn’t be underestimated, though he’s only been middling in his career against us, 2-1 in 4 starts with 9 walks, 9 strikeouts, and 10 ER in 20 innings, for a 4.50 ERA.
Hudson’s having another great year, with the second-best Component ERA in the division, behind only Cole Hamels. In his last 5 starts against the Nats, he’s been well-nigh untouchable, 4-0 in 37 2/3 IP with 26 K, 5 BB, and a sparkling 0.96 ERA. So that bodes well.
However, the Nationals have actually been a thorn in our side all year, as we’re 3-5 against them despite having outscored them 31-28. Despite their patchwork and frankly mediocre pitching staff (4.40 staff ERA, 11th in the NL), we haven’t really hit them well, with a batting line of only .250/.321/.384. We’ve pitched them extremely well, however, a 2.89 ERA in 71 2/3 innings, 52 strikouts against 26 walks, only 59 hits allowed, and only 3 homers. That’s too many walks, but they’re clearly not making much contact — they’re batting .228/.306/.328, which is actually worse than Jeff Francoeur. So as long as we can push a few runs across, we’ll be in good shape. (Our losses to them this year: 3-2, 5-4, 6-0, 6-3, 3-2. Our wins: 3-0, 10-2, 7-3. Well, that’s why our run differential is screwy.)
Injury update: Yunel is still having trouble with his shoulder and may not be able to go tonight. Considering he’s been dealing this for a couple weeks now, it’s not quite clear when he will be able. Tom Glavine and Matt Diaz are feeling better, but Glav’s still a couple weeks away and Diaz is awaiting the say-so of his doctors. Mike Hampton, meanwhile, is Mike Hampton. So we’re still far from healthy, despite the days off. Hopefully Chipper and McCann can stay on the field, because we’ve learned pretty conclusively that, even though we’re mediocre with them, without them we simply aren’t a major league-caliber team.
Let’s see if we can crawl an inch closer to .500.
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15 Responses to “7/18: Finally, More Baseball”
July 18th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Hey Alex what u think we could get for Francouer
July 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Go Get em BRAVOS !!!
July 18th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
maybe Xavier Nady ?
July 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
ha.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Chris, if we’re gonna trade Frenchy, now isn’t the time. We should trade him when he looks like a star on the rise, not a headcase who recently got busted to the minors.
As you know, I’m pretty pessimistic about him ever reaching his potential, but obviously there’s a chance he could become a very, very good player — though in my opinion that chance is slim. If we had traded him after his rookie year in 2005, we could have gotten a whole hell of a lot.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
The trouble is, who in all of baseball would have traded a young player that started as well as Frenchy away from their home team? No one that works in the game. I am inclining towards Alex as long as Frenchy remains with the Braves. A change of scenery has a definite medicinal shock value. However if so, what about AndrUw, I wished him the best but was glad to see him go, and now it seems he has gone further down hill. AndrUw will eventually turn it around but it is taking him some time for the mental and physical recovery, I think the same thing will be the fate of Francoeur.
July 18th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Andruw was a special player for a long, long time. Francouer was a half-season rookie mirage. I know the other Jones Boy left on a seriously down note, but that shouldn’t reduce him to the level of being compared to Frenchy.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
If we trade Tex we should only trade him for pitching only hey give us pitching if you want hitting.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
andruw was a good player for longer, and for a lot of his career so far, I wouldn’t classify him as special unless you’re talking about his defense. There were a few good power years in there, and while he has been a good player for longer than frenchy, he’s also been an atrocious player for longer than frenchy.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I read this from mlbtraderumors: “Kovacevic says many teams are in on Nady, and the Braves and Mets even conducted recent conference calls with the Pirates about him. The Pirates are focused on receiving two quality players for Nady, with an emphasis on pitching.”
Does anybody else have the feeling that they would want Hanson, Roughbourgh, or Teheran? I mean none of those guys are on my untouchable list but for Nady? Excuse me while I puke all over the place. I just know that Wren is not THAT stupid to make trade one of them for Nady when Nady WONT help us at all this year. I guess the thinking would be that Nady play out the rest of the year in LF and next year when Tex leaves he would play First but thats still not good enough to trade one of those 3 pitchers for Nady. I realize to get something you have to give up something but this year is just a lost cause and not ONE player is gonna put us in a position for the Championship. I dont want to just get to postseason I want a realistic shot at winning it, of course I realize that just maken the playoffs you have a chance to win it all, but in 14 straight years we only won the championship once so that logic just dont go too far with me.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
No, you guys misunderstood me. Although I am usually down on AndrUw, I say that WE (mgt. and fans) were responsible for ruining his perspective on what it takes to become a member of the Hall. We all did it with our blind praise.
WELL in this case, I said that Andruw would turn around his production, he isn’t really this bad. BUT I really believe leaving Atlanta was the best thing he’S done in (several years, since 2001). Yeah his defense, but everyone expected more than that, deserved more than that.
Frenchy will get better just like AndrUw if he is traded. I don’t think he can do it in a Braves uniform.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I think andruw’s only shot at returning to form was staying with the braves. I think Boras convincing him that he was great was his downfall. He thought that he had transcended having to work hard or stay in shape because Boras kept throwing around huge numbers when talking about andruw hitting free agency. I think Andruw’s done for good. He’s already an old 31 and by the time he’s gotten over himself and also gotten over trying to prove he’s great, he’ll be too old to compete at a high level.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Just got back from seeing the new batman movie and WOW! What an incredibly movie. Heath Ledger certainly went out on top with this one and deserves to win some awards for this one.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Let us toast the Braves for surviving a tough Nats team. They don’t play us like a last place team. I wonder how many games we will take in this series.
July 19th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Yeah, Heath really was unbelievable. There’s basically no way he doesn’t win the Oscar. (Question: will it be Best Actor, or Best Supporting? They don’t usually give Best Actor to a villain — except in Training Day — but in this case, I don’t think they’ll have much of a choice.)
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