4/9 News, Links, Discussion: Braves-Astros, Tim Hudson and Chipper Jones Updates
April 9, 2012 at 11:17 am by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Braves Seek First Win at Minute Maid
Source: FanGraphs
* Coming off the losing end of a three-game sweep to open the season against the Mets, the Braves travel to Houston for three against the Astros. First pitch on Monday is 8:05 p.m. on Fox Sports South. Brandon Beachy and J.A. Happ will be making their season debuts.
* Capitol Avenue Club’s The Process Versus the Astros.
* Capitol Avenue Club’s heat maps for the Astros.
* MLB.com preview.
* STATS preview.
Braves lineup: Michael Bourn (CF), Martin Prado (LF), Brian McCann (C), Dan Uggla (2B), Freddie Freeman (1B), Matt Diaz (RF), Juan Francisco (3B), Tyler Pastornicky (SS), Brandon Beachy (P).
Astros lineup: Jordan Schafer (CF), Jose Altuve (2B), Travis Buck (LF), Carlos Lee (1B), Brian Bogusevic (RF), Chris Johnson (3B), Jason Castro (C), Marwin Gonzalez (SS), J.A. Happ (P).
It’s assumed Jason Heyward is simply getting the day off because of a left-hander on the mound for Houston, although he played against two of them in New York and didn’t look bad.
New (5:30p): * Per DOB, Fredi Gonzalez just wanted to see how Francisco would fare against a left-hander before Chipper Jones returned, and that’s the reason for Heyward being out. Francisco has five singles in 27 plate appearances against left-handers.
Hudson On Track
* In Mark Bowman’s notes, he reports Tim Hudson threw three pain-free innings for Class-A Rome on Saturday. He pitches again Thursday, the target being four innings, which will be supervised by both Fredi Gonzalez and Roger McDowell in Rome. Hudson’s target date remains the end of the month.
More Links
* In Bowman’s same notes, Chipper Jones will be pushed during a workout today in Houston. If all goes well and continues to, he could still be activated by Friday’s home opener, although the Braves may want him to get some swings at Rome first.
Update (5:30p): DOB reports Chipper’s workout went well, and O’Brien thinks he will be activated Tuesday, although it hasn’t been announced yet.
* In Bowman’s previous notes, he reports Tommy Hanson will start on normal rest Tuesday and Randall Delgado will go on Wednesday.
New (4:45p): * David O’Brien’s latest blog post on getting swept in the opening series by the Mets.
New (7:00p): * Paul Swydan of FanGraphs finds positives for all five winless teams. For the Braves? Jason Heyward, who sits tonight.
New (8:00p): * Kevin received video of the horrible collision between Mycal Jones and Keenan Wiley in a Double-A Mississippi game on Sunday. Talking Chop reports Wiley was placed on the disabled list with a concussion, while Jones tweeted he was feeling OK.
Weekend Roundup
* David O’Brien’s blog post on the Braves facing left-handed pitching. Ben posted his take on the issue.
* Sean Gilmartin had a great Double-A debut.
* Jose Constanza did this.
* Recaps: Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.
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Check back throughout the day for the latest news and discussion updated on this post.
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Thanks for posting the Constanza swing (or flail) as I had yet to see it. That really was quite pathetic….
I saw him throw his bat in shame…but I didn’t realize that he threw it that far. If only he could hit like he throws his bat!
Really excited to watch BEACHYCHISE work tonight. Wish he would have gone on Saturday over Jair, because well, he’s one of our best two pitchers. But anyway, here’s to a W tonight, it’s been a while.
I don’t mean to be negative, but I wouldn’t count our eggs too quickly. Yes I’m extremely excited and hopeful with Beachy on the mound. But, we are going against Happ who already owns a 2-0 record against us with a sub-2.00 ERA and of course, is left-handed.
Beachy could pitch one hell of a game tonight, but if the offense keeps floundering and we get Constanza’d at some point, we might very well drop this one to the Triple-A-Stros
I wasn’t so sure about the Heyward benching until I saw Diaz has hit 8-15 against Happ. But what makes them trust Francisco over Heyward?
Per DOB it’s that he has 3 RBI in 12 career at bats at Minute Maid. I’m not joking, that is the reasoning DOB was implying on Twitter just now. Again, not joking.
That is just about the worst reason I can think of at the moment. He’s also never faced Happ either but aren’t we expecting this kid to be an every day player? His approach so far is encouraging, I just don’t get it.
What I mean is, Francisco is batting .192 against lefties but only in 26 at bats and Heyward is batting .227 on 277 at bats. I know it hard to judge Juan on so few at bats, but I wouldn’t think twice about putting J-Hey in the line-up over Juan.
3 errors in 3 innings…
Matt Diaz and (left handed) Juan Francisco in the lineup in favor of Heyward?? The only silver lining is that maybe Fredi is managing his way out of a job so that the Braves can be set up in 2013 with someone that makes sense.
Has anyone else noticed that Fredi is an anagram for fired? Coincidence? I think not… *note to FW…
http://i.imgur.com/m4Waa.gif
Hahahahah!! That’s freaking great! The site should totally use that in some way!
Love how Fredi is treating the first four games like extended spring training…
It’s only one game, so I’ll save my sanity and give Fredi the benefit of the doubt.
The problem is that if this “platoon Heyward” thing is for real, it means FW has basically ratified it. I just don’t believe the FO would leave lineup decisions to Frediot when it’s affecting the development of a potential franchise player. If Wren has ratified this policy, that would be extremely bad news, because it would mean the organization as a whole has given up on making Heyward into a superstar. That would make me extremely angry and sad.
I gotta admit, it’s pretty impressive that fredi can mismanage one of the games best bullpens.
Great to see our only off-season moves are paying off for us. Think both Livan and Durbin have given up several runs a piece with Durbin allowing a homerun in both of his appearances. Francisco is 1 for ????? and more errors than hits? 4 errors in all for the team… Swept by the supposedly worst team our division and now getting blasted by the worst team in the NL…
Yeah, but it’s too early in the season to worry right? I swear I’ll slap the next person that says that.
Night all. :(
Why isn’t Justin Maxwell a Brave?
Oh, apparently Chipper comes off the DL tomorrow. My prediction: Francisco goes down, Constanza stays.
Time to update the fredi flow chart with durbin and Livan taking the spots of sherril and linebrink