Just checking in on some ex-Braves and ex-Braves prospects…
Chuck James has had a couple of bullpen stints with the Twins this year, his first major league action since 2008. His first one he didn’t give up a run; his second was fairly disastrous and his ERA stands at 6.10. They seem to have been using him as a long reliever, not a lefty specialist. His minor league ERA is 1.86.
Gorkys Hernandez has hit .285/.340/.394 in AAA this year, and increasingly his major league future looks like it would be as a fourth or fifth outfielder rather than a regular, even if he didn’t have Andrew McCutchen to deal with.
After being released by the Braves, Barbaro Canizares has hit .396/.499/.653 in the Mexican League, and he might do that until he’s 45. Jorge Campillo, unfortunately, is not doing so well in the ML, going 3-7 with a 5.58 ERA.
At least Gorkys should get a shot at some playing time this September. No sense continuing to run Ludwick out there every day.
Meanwhile, Bourn is hitting .300/.363/.371 for us. Other than getting thrown out on the bases a couple more times than you’d hope, he’s been exactly as advertised.
About to head down to the ATL in a few minutes with a group of guys to watch the Braves tonight and tomorrow. Hoping for Beachy and Hudson to stay hot, and that the Braves don’t get shut out by this kid making his ML debut.
Will Fredi rest players on rotating basis as he rested Prado last night. Freeman, Uggla and Agon are due a day off.
Gonzalez had a day off when we lost to Matt Cain in the San Fran series, didn’t he? But yes, Freeman and Uggla are due for a rest.
ESPN report on Chipper’s 2012 plans:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6879359/chipper-jones-says-definitely-playing-atlanta-braves-2012
From DOB:
“Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said during this stretch of 17 straight games, he wanted to mix in off days for some regulars. He planned to give Brian McCann Saturday off against Arizona and Chipper Jones Sunday.
It’s also a chance to get bench players some playing time. He wanted to get Eric Hinske a start before the weekend is up.”
Doesn’t specifically say that getting Hinske in means getting Freddie a day off, but it ought to, with Prado, Constanza and Heyward already crowding the OF corners.
Fredi does do a good job of getting guys in there. I can see Bobby’s perspective, with the Sunday lineups; basically, if you’re going to weaken yourself, get it out of the way all at once, and play full-strength every other day. But I prefer Fredi’s one-guy-at-a-time approach.
You can win if McCann takes an 0’fer, for example. So you can live if you run Ross out there and take a chance. You probably can’t win if Freddie, McCann and Chipper all take 0’fers. So I wouldn’t run Hinske, Ross, and Conrad all out there at once, and take 3 chances.
Plus, it’s nice to have one of Chipper, McCann, Heyward, or Prado available to PH on any given night.
@6
I agree. Plus the guys on the bench will probably have some big ABs coming up. It wold be good to have them ready sharp.
Glad Chipper’s returning. I’ll be a lot older when he retires.
Moylan must really enjoy the seventh-inning stretch.
Apparently, in Australia, the term “root” means the same thing that “shag” does in England.
“Root, root, root for the home team!”
Well, if I must.
Good luck to Wade Miley
Cyruson his major league debut this evening.For the record, I will be at the Sunday game. If anyone else is there, and wants me to lecture them in person, give me a shout.
As absurd as I sometimes think you can be Sam, I really do appreciate and respect a bit of good, honest, self-mockery. It’s very British.
Has this been posted? Wow!
http://tinyurl.com/4xb6ohv
At least we have a hitting coach now.
It all goes back to what Mac has said about using multiple hitting coaches. Few men know more about hitting than Chipper Jones, who has remained a productive hitter into his dotage despite losing much of his power and dealing with one injury after another. Thank God Heyward has him to listen to, instead of just Parrish.
EDIT: Or, what Mac said. Nice.
“At least we have a hitting coach now.”
Weren’t the Braves first in walks and OBP in the NL in 2010? Now where do they rank?
Wonder if it’s Fredi’s fault, Parrish’s fault or just the hitters themselves fault.
13: Thanks for linking. Never read anything (that I know of) by this Ray Glier, but both articles on Chipper and Lou Brock were very satisfying.
16: I do miss leading the league in walks and OBP.
I used MLB.tv today to watch the 9th inning of the Nats/Phils game from last night, and watching it put me in mind of something I’ve always vaguely wondered but never asked anyone:
Jason Werth began the inning by falling behind 0-2. He then fouled off 4 pitches, before a ball was thrown for 1-2. This proceeded until he singled on the 10th or 11th pitch or so.
Madson would give up 4 singles, with a bunt mixed in, yielding 2 runs, to tie the game, before striking out Ankiel, to bring Ryan Zimmerman to the plate with the bases loaded. Zimmerman ran the count full, and then homered on the THIRTY-EIGHTH (3-8!) pitch of the inning.
So what I’m wondering is, what is the point-of-no-return for a pitcher, as far as pitches thrown in one inning? I mean, it would certainly be biased by the obvious fact that, if it’s taking you a lot of pitches to convert outs, your stuff is probably not very effective.
But does anyone know if that’s been looked in to? Is there some magic number? “If he’s thrown X number of pitches, he’s got a 25% chance of escaping with 1 or 0 runs allowed, but by pitch X+1, his chances go down to 5%,” kind of thing.
@19 – Three….is the magic number.
I read that article a little earlier, and the thing that jumps out at me is how clear Chipper is that Heyward’s swing has holes in it and that they’ve been working on that recently. I wonder if this new information will modify the “the Braves hate Fredi” thinking that some were falling into recently.
Sam, I believe you mean the “Fredi hates Heyward” or “The Braves hate Heyward” thinking that some were falling into recently.
Just wanted to make sure you got your characterizations of groupthink right, chum!
22- On that note, our lineup is:
Bourn cf
Prado lf
Jones 3b
Uggla 2b
Freeman 1b
Ross c
Constanza rf
Gonzalez ss
Beachy p
Wait, so Heyward takes the 4th OF role without complaint, by all accounts puts in a ton of work on his swing in the batting cage, Chipper then fillets his swing in a national newspaper, and this is viewed as a cool thing coming from Chipper? Maybe I just missed it, but has Chipper pointed out the numerous flaws in another teammate’s game to the media in the past? It’s really cool that Chipper is helping Heyward out with his swing, but that’s also something we already knew was happening from the stories about their work together during the last Mets series. How does this article represent anything other than public criticism?
24, exactly my thoughts. Help with Heyward’s swing is appreciated, but Chipper should better keep his mouth shut from time to time. A true leader doesn’t talk to the media about a teammate’s flaws.
24,25 maybe that approach wasn’t working.
I don’t have a problem with it. Everybody and their mother knows something’s wrong with Heyward. Chipper’s not telling us anything shocking here. I appreciate that anybody said anything, let alone revealed that it’s not an injury issue.
Anthopoulos must already be penciling Heyward into the Blue Jays’ 2013 opening day lineup.
That’s no evidence that Heyward’s not hurt. Chipper doesn’t believe in injuries. You’re either healthy and playing or missing two limbs. He’s like the Black Knight from Holy Grail.
29- Oddly, injuries believe in Chipper, given the number of games he’s missed over the last few years.
@29
There is also no evidence that he is hurt.
@29, Or that players have to play at 80% sometimes for the sake of the team, which is both what he actually said and the exact opposite of what you’re saying he said.
Oh, common. That was clearly a joke.
DAN!!
DAN UGGLA!!!
Hey there, Dan, don’t you know you’re supposed to strike out or ground out weakly against rookies? It’s a team rule, ya’know.
Chip should ask Joe to teach him how to tell what a home run looks like.
Just turning to the Braves now, having watched Atrosta pull off the incredibly rare Triple Grybo that also sacrifices the lead.
That was a LOLMets game if I ever saw one.
@38, Fun to watch K-Rod implode against his former team, only for Izzy/Acosta to give it right back.
Okay, whose brain fart was that? Ross’ or Fredi’s?
BRANDON! Helping his own cause!
Beachy!!
Run Prado Run!
In some other years, Beachy’d be a good pick for Rookie of the Year. This year, he’s third on his own team.
Nooooooo, Chipper.
Yeah!
Nice hitting, Chipper!
Sorry, Miley, but our bats can’t be tamed.
(dodges rotten fruit)
@49
It’s a party in the A-T-L!!
Sac fly!!!
The belief that Chipper is a bad guy around here is stupefying to me. Chipper is basically mentoring Heyward. There’s nothing to this other than that. He’s said more cutting things about Andruw and Francoeur.
Man, Bourn is like a superhero.
Wow, hell of a catch by Bourn!
What a play!
Woohoo!!! Great to see Prado turning it on.
Prado’s got this hitting stuff down, and glad to see that crashing into the fence didn’t slow Bourn down.
What a great pick up Bourn has been
Aw, damn.
Blown call. He was safe
Looked close enough to an out that I won’t complain about it.
Really dumb decision by Snitker. Parra has probably the best left-field arm in the league, and he was playing up.
I agree Stu. Especially up 6-1
Wow Sean Burroughs. Remember when he was the next big thing?
/sorry, just tuned in.
Has anyone ever seen Sherrill and Wickman at the same time?
@62
I guess. There were two outs. The chances of Prado scoring on a bad throw were probably better than the chances of a hit coming behind him.
So what would Caray have said if he was announcing this game?
“It’s not the best of both worlds for Miley”?
Dan, I doubt Don’s ever heard of Miley Cyrus. (Of course, *we* have those jokes covered…)
Dan is on fire.
Dan Uggla did it again!
That Dan is so hot right now
FREEMAN!!!!
Well this is fun to watch
I love when a Braves winning streak coincides with me being in Nevada.
Have we yet gotten to the point where Uggla has been a net positive this year? If not, we’re rapidly approaching it.
They got him. Didn’t think I’d see Constanza hit into a DP.
Uggla’s OBP has cracked the ‘Francoeur line’ and sits right now at exactly .300.
Fangraphs has him at 1.7 WAR, B-R .7.
cute kiss between uggla and freddie
There can’t still be people pushing Danny Espinosa for NL ROY anymore, can there? Freeman’s now tied with him in HR, leads by 7 in RBI and is hitting about 70 points higher (and his OBP is 40 points higher).
Plus there’s Kimbrel. Right now I’d go 1. Freeman (because he plays every day), 1a. Kimbrel…and that’s pretty much the list.
They’re trying to make it about defense, now.
75—Interesting question. Prior to tonight, 77.8% of the team’s games had been played, but Uggla had only been worth $6.1 million (or 61% of his season salary), according to FanGraphs. So, probably not. But I’m certainly not complaining…
Giants just lost, 7-5. We’re about to be 8 up for the wild card, barring disaster.
An idiot just ran onto the field and the security guard made a really nice shoestring tackle.
80- I’d extend your ballot with 3. Beachy. But that’s just me. And frighteningly, Constanza isn’t that far behind (1.2 WAR according to B-R, compared to Beachy’s 1.8 and Freeman’s 1.8 oWAR.)
@85
Absolutely right. Brain fart by me.
“Giants just lost, 7-5. We’re about to be 8 up for the wild card, barring disaster.”
On that note: Linebrink is in.
So is Linebrink the new Proctor?
“Disaster” is Linebrink’s middle name.
ADDED: I called him the Neo-Proctor after his last appearance, Chip.
So, are the Braves gonna make a waiver deal for a reliever or, even better, a shortstop better than Lugo (read: any other shortstop)?
Four games up in the WC coming into Monday. Eight games up going into Sunday. Way to take care of the teams we need to beat. Might as well sweep ’em now.
Aside from the obvious upside, hopefully this lead will afford the opportunity see some of those bullpen arms get some extra rest the last 5+ weeks.
Sure looks like the Braves will be visiting Milwaukee for the NLDS.
Even Linebrink can usually hold a seven-run lead for one inning. (Proctor… I don’t know.)
Stu, agreed; finding a halfway-decent SS needs to be at the top of the team’s list of priorities before August 31.
Recapped.