Series In Review: Swept by the Mets
April 8, 2012 at 9:00 pm by Franklin Rabon under Atlanta Braves
It’s three games. Yes, they count just the same as any other three games, but they also only count the same as any other random three games. Yes, it does suck to get swept by the Mets. No, it’s not that big of a deal. The Mets are a much better team than people think, I said that before this series, and obviously I still believe it.
Managerial mishaps did abound. Jose Constanza was used like he is by far our best bench bat. Nothing personal against Jose, but I really cannot wait for Chipper to be activated, if for no other reason than Constanza can no longer be called upon in crucial pinch hitting situations.
The bullpen usage was quizzical at best. Durbin was used in high leverage situations, while Venters, Kimbrel, O’Flaherty and Martinez were not. I think Fredi may actually go too far in the other direction this year and underuse our best relievers.
Again the team struggled against left handed pitching.
The team repeatedly had questionable plate approaches.
Not a whole lot of positives, but Hanson and Medlen did look good.
I really do think we could use whatever AI MLB The Show uses for their managers and be better off. Keep Fredi around to “manage the clubhouse” which is apparently the most difficult thing in the history of the world to do, since it’s the justification for half the corncobs in this league still having their jobs.
Am I worried about this team? Sure. Did this series cause that worry? No, not at all. In the grand scheme of things, this is still the team that has a lot of holes, but is just as competitive as really any team in a National League without any standout squads.
Hopefully a good performance against AAA Houston will calm the natives.
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Would never wish it on anybody but would not mind the least bit if costanza strained a hammy.
He will *most likely* be sent down when Chipper returns from the DL this week.
I’m not going to breath easy till I see it. Jordan Parraz and Drew Sutton both earned spots on the team and yet they are in Triple-A. The Yankees sent down Francisco Cervelli even though he was one of the most popular guys on the team because Chris Stewart earned the spot at backup catcher over Cervelli. The Yankees didn’t care about hurting anybodies feelings. They put the guys on the team that deserved it. The Braves on the other hand didn’t.
Small. Sample. Size. We’re 1/54th of the way through the season. Good to see the bats wake up, Heyward seems to be squaring up the ball better along with his usual plate discipline. I still have full faith in the Braves, the Phils are only a game up on us and I definitely do not think the Mets will be leading the division for much longer.
We may have scored 5 runs today but don’t confuse that with “the bats are waking up”. We only had 3 hits today.
No but the team was putting the ball into play finally with some regularity even if it was for just a couple of innings. Strike outs hurt, but if you can put a ball into play you have chance to find a gap or an error, and everyone loves a walk. If only our defense could find a balance with our offens we could do well.
So the mets are a much better team than everyone thinks,yeah okay who the hell is this author franklin rabon authorizing how the mets are serious World Series contenders after just 3 games,especially when the BRAVES and the phillies will be first and second place combos in the NL EAST after 162 games.GO BRAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
when did he say they were world series contenders? Please don’t go around putting words in people’s mouth and trashing people who put a lot of time and effort into this very insightful braves blog.
ha, thanks for the defense, but it’s BRAVESNATION4EVER, he can say what he wants.
You know Frank you are right we should just get a copy of MLB The show or MLB 2K12 uses and make Fredi a Clubhouse manager. That or Randomly select a fan from the crowd and give them the job for a day.
I strongly recommend that Frank and Co. replace “My other car is a sacrifice bunt” with “Watch me manage”.
Thoughts?
What in the world does “Lickin’ the bat” refer to?
Constanza licks his bat after he fouls pitches off from time to time.
I’m not sure where I should post this, but I just noticed the poll on the homepage. I’m seriously depressed about the results. There are 60 people on this site who voted that the Braves are most likely to win Manager of the Year…
I imagine a few of these people might be going for some type of sarcasm, but 60 is a lot of people.
:,(
Haha yeah, I’m one of those and just thought it’d be incredibly ironic if everything starts to go right for us this year and we end up winning the division despite Fredi, but then he gets all the credit for it somehow
I voted manager of the year. And I really considered it, too! Here’s my reasoning:
1.) We really don’t have any Cy or MVP candidates. We’ve got some guys who could be top 25 players, but nobody who would be top 10.
2.) Pastornicky is our only rookie. Teheran or Delgado could take a rotation spot and run with it, I suppose, but it doesn’t look likely.
3.) And this is the big reason… Manager of the Year is like the Gold Glove awards. It doesn’t matter who deserves it. A narrative is created and settled upon by the major media, and facts can’t stop it’s momentum.
So if the Braves somehow manage to win the NL East, after last year’s debacle, I can easily envision the narrative “Fredi held this squad together and together they turned it all around!” becoming a major theme.
3 games, no big deal. Chipper back possibly as soon as Tuesday, Constanza *will* be demoted.
Facing 2 more lefties in the Astros series, so that should continue to be a story. Also, an early look at the Milwaukee series shows we will likely face 2 additional lefties (Wolf, Narveson). 6 of the first 9 southpaws? Seems like a lot..
Random stat to take away from today’s game: Uggla used 29 pitches in 4 PA’s, that is awesome.
My take away from this series was that we werent mentally prepared to play ball. Having played & coached youth league baseball/soccer/basketball, if your kids aren’t mentally there, you aren’t going to win.
W/ that said tho, we faced moderately good pitching the whole weekend coupled w/moderately good offense. Since we didnt mentally show up, we got swept. Had we mentally shown up, we woulda won at least 1 game and probably 2…the mets are a “moderately good” team, after all.
I was impressed how we snapped back into it in the 7th(?) w/ Ugglas 3000 pitch at bat & some luck (#dudadefense) sparking a very good rally. Im hopeful that we now can link it all together and take 2 outta 3 from the Stros.
We can talk ad nausem ab Frediot using Costanza & killing a rally but after dealing w/ my inlaws today, im just gonna pass out.
The scene from the Moneyball movie, where the General Manager trades away players to force the Manager to use the best players, comes to mind…
Could that be a road forward?
Sorry, that was low…
No really, that was exactly what I was thinking of…I hope like hell we trade Constanza so that Frediot and by some extension, DOB, can’t use him for their ill-gotten gains.
It’s not fair to mention Cristian Martinez along with O’ventbrel. He is a bad pitcher who tends to be homer prone and extra base hit prone at the worst possible time.
I don’t care what FIP, xFIP or SIERA says about him.
If you don’t care about the stats, why are you here? I can point you in the direction of the AJC Blog if you’d like.
amen
I’d be in favor of some commenter bans shortly. The same old beaten arguments used, which offer little substance to the general conversation.
I don’t necessarily think we need to ban anybody at this point. I just think everybody is a little on edge due to the start.
While 3-0 is tough to swallow, the Yankees are 3-0 so are Boston and San Fran. Look at some of the teams with 1 win. The Angels, the Phillies, the Marlins. Then look at some of the 3-0 teams. Baltimore, and the Mets. I doubt many of those teams fans who are “struggling” are panicking.
Still would like to know, why was Wilson starting yesterday?
Pastornicky, the wiley veteran, needed to rest his legs. And Jack Wilson pwns left-handed pitching.
Don’t worry guys you will quickly be 3-3 after the series with my Stros. Although I was pleasantly surprised at our abilty to score runs…for us 3 runs is a ton much less 7!
I understand the optimism, I too am optimistic, but I do not agree with the “small sample size” argument. I believe we have a significant sample size to look at to predict this team’s performance, as it is basically the same team from the mid point of last year. An analysis of mid point last year through one month this year vs the first month this year might be interesting when we cross that threshold. They have done little in the first three games to lead an observer to believe we will have a significant variance from the team that had difficulty scoring runs last year, over worked their bullpen, and had numerous 1 run and extra inning decisions.