Five runs was more than enough for the Rangers, as the Braves managed only 9 baserunners — Uggla being the only starter not to reach — and scored only on a pair of solo homers, one by McCann in the fourth and one by Freeman in the sixth. Randall Delgado, making is major-league debut, showed flashes but couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning. The Braves also committed three errors, and Jason Heyward needs to cease with the Yunel impersonation.
Lowe will match up with ex-Brave Matt Harrison tomorrow night. Harrison is mediocre and left-handed and should therefore be expected to dominate this pitiful lineup.
The positive I will take from this is Delgado. He got in a lot of trouble but he showed a lot of poise. I loved his delivery and his stuff.
Mac,
This is quite a bit late, but my prayers are with you; get well soon. And bring Prado back with you.
My dearest BravesJournalers,
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts. I took the test, and quite frankly, I didn’t think it was very hard. I think you guys, my family, and my friends are directly responsible for whatever knowledge I had yesterday. I really appreciate it. I’ll know on July 19th how I did (pretty soon, but it seems really far away). Thank you again.
The only positive I take is that it will be 24 full hours before this steaming pile of suck registers another loss.
dude… we’re 39-32… chill
If Tex had signed with the Braves..I wonder if it’d had changed last year’s outcome.
Nevertheless…Dan Ugh-la…shit, man. You don’t have to win the Triple Crown to prove anything for the money you are making. But you better fucking hit above the Mendoza line.
Sheesh.
The Marlins are an unbelievable 1-16 in June and have fallen all the way to last place 12 GB of the Phillies.
Nice to see Delgado get a start and pitch decently (for a debut). That said, I really hope that the Braves give a start to Todd Redmond, who is pitching well for Gwinnett and would get more attention in any other organization…..
I agree with Mac: Harrison is the type of pitcher who will give the Braves fits. Of course, with our current lineup, there are many other pitchers who would have as much fun….
It was 6-2 not 5-2.
Matt Harrison is going to no-hit us tomorrow I’m sure.
They’ll get a leadoff triple from Jordan and then strand him and lose by one run.
I actually liked Delgado, it was at least something to be happy about. I cant understand how this team is 7 over! If Uggla can ever come around, we have a shot
8—Thanks.
BTW, guys, I’m still doing the recaps, probably through today’s game. Mac should be back to having internet access sometime tomorrow.
Marlins out of contention trade scenario…
1. Fire Fredi
2. Trade Teheran, Pastornicky, Gearrin, and Alex Gonzalez for Hanley Ramirez, Omar Infante, and Leo Nunez.
Hi, guys.
I’ve managed to borrow my sister’s laptop but she needs it for work stuff, so it’s just for a few minutes. Hopefully, I will be home tomorrow afternoon, but I can’t be sure yet; it won’t be until they can fully match the bug and can give me oral antibiotics, so it might be Monday. Everything seems to be going as well as can possibly be expected.
Percoset is good stuff. I’ll try to check in tomorrow, but if that’s not possible I’ll let Stu know.
Get better quickly, Mac.
@13 It’s great to hear that things are going well, Mac!
Guys, I’m currently having to work the weekend at the worst job ever. I need to Braves to stop sucking or the combined depression might be the end of me.
Hope you’re doing better in no time, Mac.
Mac–I hope that you feel better soon.
Bethany–I am afraid that your job may have to get better….
For those who follow the minors: Adam Milligan has made some progress at Lynchburg this season–demonstrating that he can hit above A ball:
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=DH&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=502530
However, he needs to cut down on his strikeouts–but not as much as this former favorite on the farm:
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=DH&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=451080
Lets hope that the Braves are making reference of this example for Milligan….
I really, really, really wish Dan Uggla would show up.
According to MLBtraderumors.com, the Braves have asked about Willingham and Pence.
DOB:
#Braves l-up: 1. Schafer CF, 2. Uggla 2B, 3. Heyward RF, 4. McCann C, 5. Ramirez LF, 6. Freeman 1B, 7. Gonzalez SS, 8. Hrnandez SS, 9. Lowe
That’s Wilkin Ramirez in the 5th spot. Delgado was sent back down to make room.
Diory is at 3b, not shortstop.
So the guy who was just called up from AAA is batting fifth? Eesh.
@20 – Sounds like runs.
@21 – It only matters that he’s right handed, not if he can hit.
Stu, you’re doing a fine job!
Mac, please get better soon. I fear the days of haiku and Phil Collins videos may be on the horizon.
Wilkin Ramirez is not a bad guy to bring up. He was highly regarded when he was in the Tigers’ organization, but quickly fell out of favor last year. I think that he does have a chance to develop with the Braves. That said, I don’t understand the logic of him hitting 5th….
This is now a club of out-making connoisseurs. They care not that their 5th place hitter will make outs. Ha! Ha! Of course he’ll make outs! He’s HERE to make outs! The question now becomes, from which side of the PLATE will he make his outs, hmmmmmmm?
This line-up would be without that… je ne sais quoi… without a right-handed out-maker for the 5th spot!
Rant coming in all caps…
IS FRANK WREN REALLY WORRIED ABOUT LOSING JOE MATHER ON FRICKIN’ WAIVERS? BRING THE RIGHT GUY UP FOR ONCE! CONSTANZA AND GARTRELL HAVE OUTPERFORMED ALL OF THE OTHER GWINNETT OUTFIELDERS ALL YEAR AND HAVEN’T BEEN GIVEN A SHOT! NO TEAMS ARE GOING TO CLAIM JOE MATHER. GEEZ LOUISE! USE SOME COMMON SENSE.
Dan Uggla sucks.
Carry on.
Even the best catcher in baseball started out hitting 8th. There’s zero reason to bat a guy fifth for his first MLB game of the season.
It’s his first start, but not his first game. FWIW.
I know. Still doesn’t make much sense.
@27, I don’t understand your issue. If they don’t plan on taking Mather off the 40-man, they can just try to pass him through Optional Assigment Waivers, which are revocable.
The only way the waivers would be irrevocable would be if they outrighted him. Then they run the danger of him refusing the assignment, since he was outrighted once already before the season.
FWIW, FML.
Smooth move, Jason.
Heyward’s still rusty, and it hurts.
This is just comical.
Heyward to Toronto for their RF.
FWIW, I tend to like spreading outs throughout the lineup. I don’t like clustering an out machine right before a non-Owings pitcher.
Lots of smart people disagree about this.
For example, http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py gives Ramirez fifth in 2 of the top four lineups (using Ramirez’ weighted means PECOTA projection, for lack of a better baseline).
3.853 Freeman McCann Ramirez Heyward Diory Uggla Schafer AAG Lowe
3.853 Freeman McCann AAG Heyward Ramirez Uggla Schafer Diory Lowe
3.852 Freeman McCann AAG Heyward Diory Uggla Schafer Ramirez Lowe
3.852 Freeman McCann Diory Heyward Ramirez Uggla Schafer AAG Lowe
(Note that these ignore the tactical move of alternating handedness.)
38 – Yep, it’s all a moot point. The bigger problem is that the Braves have Wilkin Ramirez in the lineup at all. They were already a wretched offense, and now, with all of the injuries, they’re worse.
And the pitching is starting to falter.
Man, this team is depressing.
Does anyone on the field give even an eighth of a damn?
Let’s get Bourn!
The worst part is there seems to be little hope….even before the injuries they stunk offensively. I don’t think there is any reason to believe that Wren will trade for anyone of note, especially since I highly doubt that he will deal any of the up and coming pitching prospects. I think we will continue to pin our hopes on the fact that these guys couldn’t be this bad for a full season, could they?
I suddenly like CJ Wilson. This is a good interview.
CJ Wilson talking is our good luck charm.
Anybody watching the game on Fox? They have Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson in the dugout doing play-by-play during the Braves rally. Yeeesh.
Hard to figure anyone saw a rally coming, thus the ill timed interview.
Yes!!! Let it rain, so we can lose this one tomorrow.
What I miss?
Nothing, Stu. As usual.
What did Heyward do?
51- Charged a single in the first inning and failed to get his glove down, allowing the runner on first to score and the batter to get to third (he’d score later).
“Yes!!! Let it rain, so we can lose this one tomorrow.”
This depends. Does the game start over from the beginning or from where it left off? The former would make a rain out worth it.
Suspended game is only for games already official (which we’re one out away from) that are either TIED, or that was tied the last time the HOME team was retired.
So a rainout would be played from the beginning.
It’s kind of funny that, the game needed one more out for a complete game. I remember trying to stall the game in little league just before it became official so we’d get a reply. It looked like the bottom just dropped out quickly this time – there was nothing that could be done. Hopefully it will work to Atl’s advantage.
maybe this has already been mentioned here, but what are the chances of this?
* The Braves are “aggressively positioning themselves to deal for an outfield bat as soon as they can find a team ready to open its sell-off shop for business,” writes Stark, and they’ve already checked in on Josh Willingham and Hunter Pence.
@56 – the chances have to be good. Surely they know they can’t continue on with their current putrid-ness on offense.
When I saw them bring up Delgado I was convinced that they were going to make a move soon.
Screw Fox.
Pimpbot!
Bah, getting COPS reruns instead of the game.
60 — Ditto.
The Rangers must want Harrison’s arm to fall off.
Hunter Pence or Josh Willingham are upgrades, but they aren’t going to make this offense all that much better. The problem is that we have 5 or 6 guys that aren’t hitting, and our backups suck. We’re not just one player away. Once the pitching falls back to earth a bit (and it will) I would expect that we’ll really need our young pitchers and will be glad that we kept them. I think we’re much closer to “rebuilding” than we are “contending”.
We’re tied for first in the WC. That’s not close to contending, it is contending.
Ima whoop Brooks Conrad. Dumb bastard.
Josh Willingham doesn’t help much. If everyone’s healthy, he’s a 4th OF (because there’s no way he plays CF.)
I’m sure Hunter Pence can fake CF as well as Mather can. If he can hold his own, he could platoon with McLouth, or replace him in the everyday lineup.
Make a move for Pence, and moving forward you can realistically rest any of Chipper, Prado, McLouth, Heyward, Uggla or Pence WITHOUT RUNNING A MINOR LEAGUER OUT THERE. (Along with McCann and Freeman who already have legit backups in Ross and Hinske… only weak spot is short where you have Gonzalez backed up by Hernandez.)
I’m on board with a trade for Pence.
Uggla!!!
I love this team. Be a hero, McCann.
They called you up for a reason. Do it, Wilkin.
Wilkin Ramirez is not a major league baseball player.
Chipper pinch-hit walk-off?
@63 – I don’t think we will be in contention two months from now if Uggla and Heyward and Freeman all hit .200 and Chipper barely plays. Hunter Pence won’t cover for that. That’s why I don’t want to trade a Delgado or Teheran for a half-decent player. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t ever trade them, but I want more in return.
This team is awesome. Offense is down all over baseball. The only person seriously underperforming is the Ugh. The only real hole in the lineup besides him is CF. When Prado’s RH bat comes back, this team’s only going to get better.
Freddie, whatever Parrish is telling you, do the opposite.
@69 Well if you’re going to assume the pitching comes down to earth, I see no reason to also assume all our hitters will continue to under-perform. Regression toward the mean works both ways. Odds are Uggla will not be as bad the second half. Odds are Heyward will contribute more. I see a team far more likely to take off than flounder.
Mather. Ugh. Please prove me wrong.
Thanks for living up to my expectations, Mather.
Hopefully O’Flaherty is available to pitch.
Guess not.
@68
Neither is Joe Mather.
EDIT: And I’ll add the Proctologist to that list.
No comments about Vandy winning the first game of the College World Series?
Go ‘Dores!
Scott Proctor has the pictures.
That was predictable.
WHEN WILL WE GET RID OF SCOTT PROCTOR
That was predictable.
The only bad pitcher on the team is once again used in a critical situation. If Gearrin had his spot…
ugh, Proctor
It’d be nice if the 40 best players in the organization were on the 40-man roster.
79 – Jinx!
Okay so.. Proctor… but where do we hide the body?
Improvements that could be made easily.
1) Fire Fredi, hire Valentine.
2) Demote Proctor, promote Gearrin
Anything else, like trading for a CF or sending Uggla on a journey of self-discovery, gets complicated. Those are slam dunks.
Keith Urban concert in Tampa tonight. Wow, wow, wow.
Recapped. Well, not really, but at least there’s a new thread.