5/5 News, Links, Discussion: Braves-Rockies, Schedule Changes, The Closer’s Role
May 5, 2012 at 10:36 am by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Back in the Win Column
The Braves and Rockies went 11 innings on Friday, but the Braves managed a 9-8 win thanks to an Eric Hinske bomb. The two teams will be back at it tonight at 8:10 on Peachtree TV, Fox Sports South and MLB Network. Mike Minor faces Jamie Moyer.
Braves lineup: Michael Bourn (CF), Chipper Jones (3B), Freddie Freeman (1B), Brian McCann (C), Dan Uggla (2B), Matt Diaz (LF), Jason Heyward (RF), Tyler Pastornicky (SS), Mike Minor (P).
Rockies lineup: Marco Scutaro (R, 2B), Dexter Fowler (S, CF), Carlos Gonzalez (L, LF), Troy Tulowitzki (R, SS), Todd Helton (L, 1B), Michael Cuddyer (R, RF), Wilin Rosario (R, C), Chris Nelson (R, 3B), Jamie Moyer (L, P).
More Links
Chipper Jones knows how Mariano Rivera is feeling right now after Rivera tore his right ACL during batting practice on Thursday.
Fredi Gonzalez has become a mean father, banning Frisbee play prior to games for risk of injury.
David O’Brien’s latest blog post prior to Friday’s game.
AJC quotes following Friday’s win. Eric Hinske: “We’re swinging the bats well as a team. Even when we’re losing we’re getting that pitcher’s pitch count up, trying to get in the bullpen, and guys are having good team at-bats. That’s what [Greg] Walker preaches and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Kiley McDaniel of ESPN scouts University of Georgia’s best pitcher, Alex Wood.
Jayson Stark gives us some scheduling changes in the works for 2013, including interleague changes. MLB is attempting to match up an interleague “rival” for each team that will play every year, and Stark uses the Braves-Blue Jays/Red Sox as an example.
Craig Calcaterra of HardballTalk recaps the Phillies-Nationals game from Friday.
The Philadelphia Inquirer examines the use of Jonathan Papelbon only in save situations and basically says it’s stupid, which we can all agree is true and have seen for ourselves more times than we can count.
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Check back throughout the day for the latest news and discussion updated on this post.
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I’m trying to think of the analogy I heard about not using your closer in a tied game on the road…
Something about there is cure of a disease but not taking the cure unless you had the disease…. Anyone? Its been bugging me… Thanks!
The game tonight is the MLB.tv free game of the day/night
Don’t know the analogy, but to me it would be like having a cure for a disease, but not taking it because you assume you won’t die this time, so you want to save the cure for later. To make matters worse, you’re assumption on your own safety isn’t based in reality, but rather the theoretical.
More simply, it’s ignoring what’s in front of you to plan for a future that has maybe a 50% chance of occuring. More often than not you get burned, and if you don’t get burned initially overtime you will.
Bullpen roles really serve as ways to limit how you can use a player. Kimbrel will never pitch in the 8th. Now, if you had the heart of the opposing teams order, with 3 right handed hitters coming up in the 8th those outs would be harder to get than the next inning’s 6789 hitters in the 9th. So using the “closer” or your best bullpen arm in that situation would make more sense than using him in the 9th against lesser hitters. Just as if you had a bunch of heart of the order lefties coming up in the 9th, you might just want Venters instead. Or maybe it’s the 7th and you need to induce a double play to get out of a 2 on, one out situation. Venters had a 72% GB percentage last year…maybe you want him in that situation. However, per roles it won’t happen, and that’s silly, and limiting for in-game managing.
The Braves are fortunate that Kimbrel and Venters are roughly equally good and do not exhibit significant L/R splits (everyone strikes out, just everyone), so there is no real wrong way to split duties.
Regarding the closer role, I’m always perplexed about the tie game on the road idea. You are way more likely to lose in a tie game on the road in the 9th than with a one run lead on the road or a tie game at home. One would think that just as you play for one run on offense in a tie game late you play not to give up even a single run in a tie game on the road late. There is no chance to tie the game back up in case of mistake. Put your best pitchers in the game in this situation or reap the consequences.
I’d love to know how many other teams have given up the first four or more runs in four consecutive games. I can’t imagine many of them ended up winning 3 out of 4.
God I hate listening to Joe and Chip drool over Freddie Freeman and his “productive outs”. You’d almost think they’d prefer it if he didn’t get hits or walks as long as he hit sac flys and moved runners over.
I groan out loud every time I see him batting in the 3-hole. This season he has the lowest OBP of any position player not name Jack Wilson or Jaun Francisco. I like Freddie, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t believe he belongs that high in the order.
Totally agree. If Heyward won’t be batting 3rd (doubt it because as I keep saying Fredi Gonzalez hates Jason Heyward), at least put Chipper back there and move Freeman down in the order.
Lineup order doesn’t matter. It would be better for everyone’s sanity to get over it and move on to a new topic.
I’m familiar with the research on batting order. In one sense it does matter though. Over the course of the season, the higher a player is in the batting order, the more plate appearances he gets. I would like to see Heyward batting third and Freeman batting seventh because, now that he’s healthy, Heyward is the superior offensive player.