This is sad.
August 15, 2010 at 2:34 pm by Capitol Avenue Club under Atlanta Braves
The line up this afternoon against a RHP:
1. Omar Infante
2. Rick Ankiel
3. Alex Gonzalez
4. Brian McCann
5. Troy Glaus
6. Eric Hinske
7. Brooks Conrad
8. Melky Cabrera
That line up is not going to score a lot of runs. The first three hitters never walk. Wasn’t Bobby saying he fixed the offense by putting high-OBP guys at the top of the order like 3 months ago?
The organization has to do something about Troy Glaus, he’s not fit to play at the moment. Disable him if you think he has something left this season, release him if not. Call up Freddie Freeman if you want, or call up Barbaro Canizares and platoon him with Eric Hinske (the option I prefer). Either way, you’re going to be getting a lot more from 1B than you would by continuing to play Glaus. At any rate, it’s not a good time to be a black hole in the line up, without Chipper and with a few guys that reach base 30 percent of the time in good years hitting at the top of the order. They can not afford to keep playing him.
Somewhat related, pay attention to this: “The Diamondbacks put second baseman Kelly Johnson and first baseman Adam LaRoche on trade waivers Friday”. My money is on neither player clearing waivers, but if they do, the Braves could probably use the services of both ex-Braves for the remainder of the year (and perhaps beyond). Just something to keep an eye on. (Glove slap: MLBTR)
Loading ...
Then they score 4 runs in one inning, aided by both AGon and Ankiel- and the idiots run to the defense of Bobby’s lineup.
It’s not Bobby’s fault, there aren’t any better options. The roster is just really thin right now on account of injuries.
They now have 8. There just aren’t a lot of options until Prado gets back. I’d like to see Freeman get a shot, but I doubt it happens before 9/1.
They say this….now the braves up 9..glaus hits a three run homer…and the top of the lineupe has been on base almost every at bat
Well they sure proved you wrong today. Looks like they are a resilent bunch aren’t they?
Before this gets out of hand, when I said “this line up isn’t going to score a lot” I meant in general, it wasn’t a prediction referring to this game. Hell, they had already scored 4 by the time I posted this.
A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile.
Call them blind squirrels all you want, everyone that started (including Jurrjens) had a hit today, and Glaus had 4 RBIs. There’s definitely such thing as luck, but scoring 13 runs isn’t all luck. I still think Glaus is going to come around, he has been hitting well his past 10 games and I’m not ready to give up on him. As far as LaRoche and Kelly go, I would be really surprised if the Braves gave either serious considerations. They may give LaRoche a look, but certainly not Kelly Johnson
I also would like to see Freeman, but if a move can be made for LaRoche I would welcome that. As excited as I am to see Freeman, the Braves are in a chase, a veteran is preferred.
Ideally they can get Glaus more rest and get the legs/knees feeling better.
One of the keys this year has been the bench, a rested Glaus off the bench makes it even better.
it worked!
You obviously dont know much about baseball because if u payed any attention to Glaus you can tell that his knee is still bothering him a lot, but his pride gets in the way of his well-being. He is going through a slump which every player does in a season. The Braves need his post-season experience for the NL East race as well as the playoffs
You were saying? Are you also willing to admit that you were grotesquely wrong when in comparing Medlen to Jurrjens that JJ’s fastball was only 1 MPH faster? I don’t care what the average is, when JJ needs to he goes 95-96 to get out of innings. While I love Kris, he can’t do that.
Braves win!
I think they read your blog…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Atlanta Braves Buzz, 30205. 30205 said: This is sad. http://bit.ly/cTjXnh via http://outside.in/30205 [...]
Yes, they scored 13 runs today. Does anyone out there actually think that today’s performance is sustainable?
Dan,
The other guys’ pitching/defense was awful today, which also had something to do with it. Also was a day game. Not to discount their performance today, which was spectacular, but if they field this starting 8 every day going forward (they won’t, Prado will be back shortly (thank the lord)) expect lots more of last night and very little of this afternoon.
Adam,
You obviously don’t read too well.
Michael,
It takes five fucking seconds to look up their average fastball velocities on fangraphs, Kris Medlen’s is 90.2, Jurrjens’ is 91.5. God damn, look up a fucking fact or two before you shoot your mouth off like that. I’m not tolerating this kind of behavior anymore.
Troy is starting to heat up but I still think he needs to go on the 15 day DL. He needs the rest and will help him down the stretch. I think Canizares should come up and Hinske should start everyday, unless there is a tough lefty. Freeman has been hitting extremely well, but I don’t think it would be worth bringing him up for two weeks and then sending him back down when Troy is off the DL.
It is sad that injuries have left the bench so thin, but it doesn’t help the situation when Bobby picks a line up by throwing darts at a board while blindfolded and Wren thinks acquiring Rick Ankiel (and Alex Gonzalez [and Melky Cabrera]) will help boost the offense.
Granted, while Ankiel was likely an upgrade over McLouth, I don’t think it was anything more than a marginal one. Prado needs to come back soon without any more set backs and Heyward needs to rediscover his earlier success. His August .BABIP of .179 just looks sad. Most of it comes from SSS and a GB% of almost 60%, so I don’t think Jason needs to do much other than get regular rest and wait for the hits to fall in.
I wonder how the roster got to this point and I think it all goes back to Schafer. If he doesn’t (a) get injured and (b) foolishly play through it in secret for two months, our current outfield could look entirely different. We wouldn’t have needed McLouth, or Melky, or Ankiel, or whoever might be roaming around out there next season. I think the best case scenario at this point would be if the team can dump some payroll this offseason via trading at least one of Lowe/Kawakami/McLouth and by not signing another $7 million reliever or resigning Glaus, and then buying Werth and sticking him in LF. Either that or trade for Willingham.
it is called average fastball.. so what that he overthrew it a couple times. It would be great if they picked up Rochey… as well as Kelly, though I really doubt they even consider either one.
..you gotta every single one of the haters out today…
Dan, why would the Braves give Adam a look but not KJ?
KJ is OPSing 30 pts higher this season in the same park and plays a tougher defensive position and is more versatile than Adam. KJ is a much better base runner also, well beyond the 11 to 0 edge in stolen bases. KJ is also owed less money I believe. If the goal is to improve the offensive production KJ would be the better choice and offers more flexibility at a cheaper cost. This would have the obvious benefit of allowing Prado to play 3rd regularly where he is supposedly excellent and keep Infante, and Conrad, as well, as super subs where they have excelled this season and have been a strength of the team. I disagree as to which of the two the Braves would be best to obtain, not that I think either would make it through waivers.
Bottom line is today’s scoring isn’t going to be repeated again with the starting lineup we threw out there today. Glaus had 4 RBIs, but that homer was because Padilla was stupid enough to throw a low FB, which is the ONLY pitch Glaus can handle now. He needs to go on the DL; let him rest his knees and hope he can help us down the stretch in Sept.
I wonder how KJ/LaRoche would feel about coming back if the rest of the teams in the NL pass on them? KJ can’t be happy about being non-tendered, and LaRoche seemed shocked that the team showed no interest in resigning him (which was in part to wanting a RH bat at 1B).
I do enjoy the fact that the day that you write this, you were proven wrong (for the day). However, you are quite correct in the long term. I wonder if the Dodgers can get one of our opponents interested in taking Padilla so the Braves can face him again this year.
One of the biggest problems I see in this line-up is not the #1 or the #2 spots. What the hell is Sea Bass doing hitting #3??? That makes absolutely no sense to me. If he’d hit #2, maybe I could make sense of that. But outside of the unusual year that he’s having this year, I don’t think that he’s capable of ever hitting for the power and production that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in the 3rd spot (across the MLB, not just the Braves).
I’ve always thought, and I believe that you’ve stated it before, that Glaus has already exceeded the cash value that we’ve initially given him. However, we’re just fooling ourselves if we continue to give him those bonuses for additional at-bats thinking that he’ll actually be worth the 3-4mil that he’d receive after all the bonuses kick in.
To everyone who reads this: don’t shit on the guy who hosts the blog out of his own pocket. It’s one thing to respectfully disagree with something that he posts. It’s another thing to act like a f-ing toddler.
I enjoyed it as well, both the actual game and the amusing reverse-jynx storyline that has emerged. And I do appreciate the people that have played along. Some people have used it as an opportunity to be a huge jackass.
I probably should’ve been more clear that I wasn’t talking about a single game, but rather the state of the offense going forward, though I don’t suppose it would do much to deter nasty comments, and the people that were going to contribute positively probably already knew the intent of the article.
As always, the regulars have been mostly very productive for this discussion, the 1-timers are horrible.
While I think he would definitely help, Kelly Johnson’s home/away splits are pretty drastic
I too enjoyed that they scored so much today, contrary to your prediction, but I do agree with your analysis. Adam or KJ would be a nice addition. It did seem, though, that Glaus read your blog and then went out to bat.
KJ’s splits this season are a bit eye opening, but his road performance this year has basically been the same as Infante’s total performance this year (.334 wOBA vs. .340 wOBA, respectively). Once you factor in regression to the mean for KJ’s splits, his numbers look even better. Plus KJ’s 2007/2008 splits suggest he was always good, if not great, at Turner Field. 2009 doesn’t really tell you much of anything, but even there his home/road numbers were pretty comparable to each other.
KJ is so streaky that with the limited number of games remaining, there’s no way to know whether we would get the 1000 OPS Kelly of the .500 version.
I don’t buy the notion that streakyness is an actual attribute and not just fluctuations of chance.
Do you buy the notion of slumps?
What does that mean?
That same lineup won’t score 13 runs in the next six games.
During the Braves vaunted playoff streak; did we ever have an offense this feeble? I don’t know that we did, and the current starting pitching is certainly not comparable. Bullpen is better, defense might be worse. Not promising.
Don’t worry about the haters, CAC. My first reaction when I saw the lineup was the same as yours. My second reaction was that Bobby must desperately want to shake things up. I doubt it’s a permanent change, though.
I read every entry in this blog, and while I don’t contribute much, Peter, I read more sarcasm into today’s’ comments than anything else.
For example, “Well they sure proved you wrong today. Looks like they are a resilent bunch aren’t they?” is not someone trying to be a jackass, in my opinion. I honestly think that’s just a fan excited that the team put up runs today. Maybe he was just poking fun at the title of the entry today, who knows. In any event, the reverse jinx worked. Thank God. We needed a win today.
As for Michael’s comments, I do remember an article you wrote comparing the two pitchers. It was a fair enough article, no doubt, but JJ does have that weird ability to hit 95-96 MPH when he has a 2-2 count and needs a strike to end the inning and get out of a jam. It’s pretty sweet, and I love him for that, especially what he did last year down the stretch in September. I think that’s all that dude Michael was trying to say.
Anyway, why do you care what people comment about? To a degree, obviously, I can understand a certain amount of frustration. But, in the end, your blog is on ESPN, and that’s pretty fucking cool. Don’t let stuff like this get to you.
Looking forward to the next entry. Don’t stop the chop.
ASN,
I was mainly talking about the comments that didn’t get published or got deleted because they were nasty. The guy who called me a ‘pencil neck geek’ was particularly frustrating. I sent him an email inviting him to come say that to my face.
I agree, though, the sarcastic reverse-jinx banter is fun, appropriate, and in good spirit.
Ah, I didn’t realize you had the power to censor (I just saw the “commenting policy” tab).
Well, then, fuck those guys.
37. Amen
‘pencil neck geek’? Was some jock from the 1950s harassing you?
Bravemarine,
I wasn’t trying to imply that Kelly is inferior to LaRoche, just that the Braves are more likely to consider getting a first baseman than another infielder. The offensive difference between Infante and Kelly is almost negligible. Kelly has more power, but Infante has a better average, its 6 one way half a dozen the other. The difference between LaRoche and Glaus, however, is pretty significant. Still, I don’t think Wren is giving either Kelly or LaRoche any serious considerations.
CAC,
I don’t think it’s fair to say the Dodgers defense was “awful.” They didn’t have any errors, and I only recall 2 defensive mistakes: the hit by Jurrjens that popped out of the outfielder’s glove and the hit by Glaus that the outfielder lost in the sun.
I agree completely that the relief pitching was terrible. Padilla, on the other hand, I don’t think was necessarily awful. The Braves seemed to do a really good job going the other way with him, and I think the Braves just out hit an otherwise decent pitcher. Admittedly, its not something I would expect everyday from this line-up.
I think we all just have to remember that the Braves (bats) are always going to do what we least expect them to do. When I saw Ankiel in the #2 spot I almost cried, and after the second inning I figured it was probably going to be another 1-run game. But hey, thats what the Braves do: score runs when they shouldn’t and go quiet when they’re supposed to score runs.
It was a nice, easy win that sets up a chance for the Braves to win a four game series, but it doesn’t change the bigger picture with regard to the bats.
I hope that LaRoche or a similar facsimile can be obtained on a waiver deal since the Braves are not willing to call up Freeman or Canizares. To me, that’s a better type of insurance policy going down the stretch than getting a backup for the left side of the infield. The reinforcements there are coming September 1st.
Maybe Glaus will pick up the pace heading to the playoffs, if we are able to get there. But I’d feel better with a backup plan in case he doesn’t.
Does anyone actually think Wren would go and give something valuable for KJ after letting him go for free less than a year ago?
What I mean to say, is that if you don’t buy that a player can be streaky due to his own attributes, do you buy that a player can get in a slump due to something other than chance, such as mechanical issues?
Because streakyness and slumps are kinda the same – a streaky player just goes through a lot of slumps, but when not slumping he’s really good.
Thanks ASN. I didn’t know that disagreement was grounds for getting cursed at. And, CAC, if you’ll read what I said, I acknowledged that their averages were close but the ability to throw 96 is a strength Jurrjens possesses that Medlen does not. And back in that article you were arguing that Medlen was better than JJ – I was simply refuting that. No need to get nasty.
So are you no longer going to tolerate dissidents?
“‘pencil neck geek’? Was some jock from the 1950s harassing you?”
Either that, or Rob Dibble decided to take a break from his side-job as the official spokesman for Title IX to comment on this blog.
I’m not sure if a Hinske-Barbaro platoon would be much better than Glaus (and I like Barbaro):
Glaus in July + Aug: 198/304/293 (135 PA)
Hinske in July + Aug: 169/286/364 (91 PA)
Note that slumping Glaus’s OBP is still about what you would expect from the #2 and #3 hitters yesterday.
I’d be willing to buy the fact that there is something special about KJ (whether it’s ADD, oversensitivity to minor injuries, or something else that causes his “true talent” to change more quickly and dramatically than other players) that makes him more streaky than other players, even if the research shows that streakiness isn’t an ability or sustainable, generally.
Also, stick to the spreadsheets, kid.
terrible lineup or not, this team has needed a true blow-out win in the worst way for awhile now. a game where the starter goes deep and the bullpen (Venters and Wagner specifically) never even have to put their gloves on.
imo, if we go get a player we still need to look at an outfielder. chances are there will be more good-hitting OFers available than good-hitting IFers, plus, it seems fairly reasonable that Prado, Gonzalez, and Infante are going to be better than anybody we can get on the IF. The area we can most upgrade remains the OF.
Michael, you and I both know the only reason you posted that comment was to pick a fight. Don’t pretend otherwise.
Enough.
CAC, Think what you what but you’re wrong. While sarcastic, I said nothing which should have elicited a vulgar response.
43,
Oh, yeah, absolutely.