8/27 News, Links, Discussion: Braves-Padres, Chipper Update, Weekend Roundup
August 27, 2012 at 1:34 pm by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Game 1 vs. Padres
The Braves began their West Coast swing with a four-game split with the Giants, highlighted by a 7-1 win to earn the split Sunday night.
Atlanta heads down the road to San Diego for three games to finish the road trip. Paul Maholm gets the start for the Braves in the series opener tonight. While Maholm wasn’t quite as sharp against the Nationals last time out, allowing four runs, he still went seven innings and struck out six. His start before that was against the Padres, where he allowed one run over seven innings.
The Padres have promoted one of their better prospects, Casey Kelly, to make his major league debut against the Braves tonight. Kelly was one of the keys to the Adrian Gonzalez trade with Boston. As Ben Badler wrote for Baseball America in April, scouts who saw Kelly reported a fastball 90-95 with sink with above average breaking stuff and changeup. Baseball America ranked Kelly as having the best curveball in either Boston’s or San Diego’s system since 2008.
He has missed much of this year with a strained right elbow, but Kelly has a combined 3.35 ERA with only three walks and 39 strikeouts in 37.2 innings this season. It will be interesting to see how he handles his debut tonight.
Game time is 10:05. Atlanta: SportSouth. San Diego: Fox Sports San Diego.
MLB.com preview
STATS preview
More Links
Braves.com recap for Sunday’s win.
AJC quotes following Sunday’s win. Tim Hudson on his stuff: “It was pretty good. I was mixing in some change-ups. I was just mixing everything in. Like I said, as hard as it was to see, it just made [the sinker] a little more effective, probably, than it normally would. It wasn’t a walk in the park out there [for hitters seeing the ball with the shadows], no question. I’m not trying to short-change what I did.”
The Braves are hoping it will only be a day or two before Chipper Jones returns from his sore oblique. He pinch hit from the right side last night, giving the impression it affects him more from the left side. However, he aggravated the injury while hitting right-handed, so that’s not entirely clear.
Also in the same link, the Braves will pick their spots in starting Dan Uggla from here on, meaning he’s not the everyday second baseman as he was before. He sat last night but is expected back in the lineup tonight.
As Ben linked to yesterday, Bill Petti of FanGraphs wrote a great piece on Jason Heyward’s new plate approach this season for ESPN Insider. Ben wrote on Heyward’s MVP chances.
Kevin Goldstein included J.R Graham in his latest Ten Pack (sub. required). Goldstein had nothing but good things to say about Graham, who threw six shutout innings with eight strikeouts on Sunday for Double-A Mississippi.
Weekend Roundup
The Braves placed Ben Sheets on the 15-day disabled list and called up Miguel Batista to pitch out of the bullpen.
Mark Bowman wrote on Brian McCann’s ailments and struggles, while David O’Brien wrote on Dan Uggla’s struggles.
Game threads: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Check us out on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @Ben_Duronio, @fjrabon, @David11Lee, @EthanPurser.
Loading ...
I haven’t been this excited to see an individual offensive performance since Chipper’s batting title. Heyward has been incredible to watch for the past few months, in every aspect of his game. And though I’m not a huge fan of the long ball, watching him launch one is just majestic. He is now sixth in ALL OF BASEBALL in WAR, just behind Bourn. In my opinion, only Wright and McCutcheon stand in his way in te MVP race. Wow, this is just one year removed from the season where all the moronic fair weather fans (note: correct usage of the term) said that he was overrated, lazy, and should be traded.
I like the correct fair weather usage. Good stuff. But he really has been awesome to watch. I get the feeling that if he goes up for a PA concentrating only on taking a good approach, he gets a good result. When he goes up there to just swing, it shows. But luckily, his maturation has really turned his plate approach into something beautiful to watch. Very rarely does a pitcher make him look bad up there.
That home run last night was on a breaking pitch inside. Last year he would have fallen over trying to hit it. It’s so awesome!!
You can tell how much he has improved in knowing his hitting situation in comparison with what the pitcher wants to do. It looked like he was just waiting for that pitch all the way. It wasn’t even a terrible pitch. Started a bit high but probably would have been caught off the catcher’s shoe tops. We’ll also take it with a grain of salt since he gave up a jimmyjack to Freeman a pitch later, so maybe he was just tossing up meatballs.
I’m confused–what’s an example of incorrect usage of the term fair-weather fans?
Check out last night’s post-game thread, where it’s used to mean something like “pessimistic fan.”
Wonder if the Braves can stick Uggla on the Dodgers in the offseason.
God I wish. But, even with the money apparently just flying out the window from L.A., surely even they realize it’s a horrible contract.
It’s no where near as and as Carl’s contract. My best friends dad is the beat writer for the rays and my friend told me how the rays office felt bad for whoever signed Carl because of the wear and tear the turf had done to his body.
Chris,
I bet we could as long as we throw in a good young pitcher. If their willing to eat 150 mil for one Valuable player what’s 40 mil to them.
Good point. Also, their farm is completely dry now. They need young pitching. Is there anyone we’d take in a potential deal though? Maybe Javy Guerra since Jansen has slid into their closer role. They also have Brandon League now too.
Man, I love Javy Guerra. He got hit in the face with a line drive against us, got up and shook it off like it was nothing. Though he subsequently got rocked in that inning, it was still one of the toughest things I’ve ever seen. I think a fight between him and Uggla would look much like Rocky IV.
Do you guys remember the Nolan Ryan/Robin Ventura fight? Funniest and maybe best sports fight ive ever seen. If you havent seen it, youtube it.
Getting out of that contract would be enough. The prospect wouldn’t have to be major. The Braves cannot afford dead weight contracts, and that’s what Uggla is quickly turning into.