Game 130: Braves 2, Padres 0
August 29, 2012 at 12:45 am by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Source: FanGraphs
Game MVP: Kris Medlen, 81 game score
Least Valuable Brave: Jason Heyward, -.104
Most Valuable Padre: Andrew Werner, 63 game score
Least Valuable Padre: Carlos Quentin, -.108
Big plays:
1st – (ATL) Chipper Jones RBI double for a 1-0 Braves lead, .117
5th – (ATL) Dan Uggla solo homer for a 2-0 Braves lead, .124
The Padres pretty much never had a shot against Kris Medlen, who pitched eight shutout innings on five hits with no walks and nine strikeouts. Medlen induced nine ground balls, seven fly balls and two line drives while throwing 71 strikes and only 28 balls. He threw 24 changeups, 19 were strikes and he received eight whiffs on the pitch. He had a total of 11 swinging strikes in the start.
With the eight shutout innings, Medlen’s scoreless streak increased to 28.1 innings.
Dan Uggla hit a home run as one of the two Braves runs and also struck out three times. Chipper Jones had the other extra base hit for Atlanta, which also drove in the other run. Martin Prado and Reed Johnson each had two singles.
And Craig Kimbrel is still really good.
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Goddayum you’re good, Kris Medlen. I wonder how long he can keep this up. Obv I know he’s not going to have an era of zero for the rest of the season, but I wonder if his approach and preparation combined with his combine are good enough to establish him as a front of the rotation guy.
Oh, and Kimbrel’s FIP is 0.88. And that was before striking out the side tonight.
It is now down to 0.80 and his xFIP is down to 1.00, That dude is NUTS!
Nats are struggling. This could be the moment everyone thought would come for them at some point. Lets hope it continues! 4 games back.
Hey all, my first time commenting. I’ve just about had it with our announcers. In the top of the ninth when Janish pops up the bunt but the first baseman lets it fall, I instantly think “that’s a textbook infield fly, right there.” But Chip and Joe kept insisting that what the Padres tried to pull was a routine, normal play they had seen a thousand times, even after someone went and looked up the exact rule. Idiots.
Also, Medlen is awesome.
If you can’t stand the announcers, you’ll fit right in around here. For you next assignment, you must come up with a rant about how big of a moron Frediot is.
And you have to love Constanza.
That’s the DOB boards. ;)
No, it was NOT “a textbook infield fly” (which you’d know if you listened to the rule quote). There was only a runner on first; the infield fly rule only applies with runners on first and second, or on first, second, and third. This was more akin to intentional grounding (and I can’t think of a previous time I’ve seen that rule applied); it was an umpire’s judgement that the fielded intentionally dropped the ball (which was a marginal call since he tried to bare-hand it and dropped it – he may well have been trying to catch it and just failed).
Eh, not so sure about that. The infield fly rule (6.05e) has to have at least first and second occupied to be in effect. It wasn’t an infield fly. It was rule 6.05L which deals with “intentionally dropped” balls. From everything I’ve heard and read about it since the call last night, it seems like it’s literally “intentionally dropped” which is different from “intentionally letting a ball drop.” Had he not made a play on it until it hit the ground, it would have been legal and they could have turned the double play. There are plenty of good reasons to dislike our announcing crew. I cut them some slack on the call last night, as it was by no means a “textbook infield fly.” It wasn’t an infield fly at all.
To be fair, it was not an infield fly. The infield fly rule is only in effect with runners on 1st and 2nd, or 2nd and 3rd. The reason for it not being an infield fly with only a runner on 1st, is because if you let it fall, the double play is not automatic because the batter will reach 1st base in time (usually). However, with 2 or more baserunner, since they have to stay at the bag, if you drop it it’s an easy double play and that’s not fair.
Sorry I mean it’s only in effect with runners on 1st and 2nd, or 1st 2nd and 3rd (bases load), not 2nd and 3rd
Even though the braves won, I am still upset that Heyward didn’t run out his broken bat line drive in the first. I feel that in the playoff race you should leg out everything until you are called out. At least that is how I was taught to play baseball. With that said, I am ecstatic the Braves won and the Gnats lost.
I didn’t see the play in question but I’ve seen Jason leg out every single play since day 1.
Yeah, I’m not sure Jason of all people is one to really call out for not playing hard. He’s had several infield singles that’s he’s legged out that shouldn’t have happened this year(including one recently on what should have been an excessively simple out in the infield). That one play doesn’t trump the 30, 40, 50 or so in the other end of the spectrum.
you guys don’t know about #lazyheyward??? pssshhhhh…..
He couldn’t find the ball off the bat and thought the ball went foul and therefore didn’t run until he realized it was fair. He still made it relatively close!
Yes. After the play, you could see Heyward mouth in the dugout, “I didn’t know where the ball was.” My first instinct was to bash him for not hustling (which he never does). Should have gave him the benefit of the doubt, he didn’t know where he hit it!
I think he thought it was a foul ball. That’s the only thing that seems consistent with the way he played that.
If that selfish, lazy thug Heyward won’t run everything out, Constanza is waiting in the wings, ready to #vroooom.
Oh dear…. Let the floodgates of rage open…
I am really hoping this guy is joking…
Surely a joke, right? RIGHT?!?!
It’s clearly satire based on Danish’s post above.
C’mon guys. Obvious sarcasm for this blog.
I’m really hoping so. I’ve never seen that name before though. May have just clicked a link from ESPN and wandered over into the wrong neighborhood.
Dude, he used Peter’s satirical #vrooooom hashtag. And Peter’s satirical “selfish, lazy thug” meme. This was not exactly subtle sarcasm.
Troll
You left out a few O’s. It’s #vrooooooom
So, we all know Uggla is struggling, but why has no one mentioned his OBP? For a .207 average, a .340 OBP is pretty phenomenal. I understand that wasn’t what he was brought here to do, but at this point you kind of have to take what you can get…especially when we do have power potential in other parts of the lineup to make up for Uggla’s lack of production in that department. As long as he keeps getting on base, he isn’t a complete waste in the lineup, correct? Batting him in the heart of the order would be a mistake, but sticking him in the 8 hole where he was tonight strikes me as a good idea. I suppose the real problem is that he is a defensive liability, so getting on base 34% of the time with miniscule power numbers isn’t a very good trade off. I guess all I’m really saying is that his OBP is kind of a silver lining I’m trying to look at around his shit cloud of a season.
OBP and defense are the silver linings, 2 things he’s never been known for(his defense has been far more than serviceable this year, and at times last year). Would be really nice for him to at least put more balls in play on a line, though.
I will say one good thing about Uggla’s defense: he’s better at 2B than Hinske is at LF.
Its funny, last night I was watching MLB network and they cut away to Uggla’s at bat in the ninth and the MLB network guys, Reynolds, Mike Lowell and the host (can’t remember his name, not Matt V) were talking about Uggla batting 8th and were trying to rationalize it. Then Lowell, in all his genius, says the only reason he could think of for them batting Uggla in the 8 spot was to try and get him on base. I laughed so hard at that because all he does right now is strike out, pop out or walk. I really wonder sometimes how people get selected to perform these jobs.
Actually, in their defense, Uggla is leading the team and league in walks. He is 5th highest on the team in OBP among qualified batters, and he has the largest difference in batting average and OBP at .133 pts.The next closest is .80 pts.
Lowell said it in the context of maybe getting on base with a walk might get him out of the slump not realizing that Uggla leads the league in walks. Maybe that wasn’t clear in the earlier post. I laughed at the notion of him getting on base would help him start hitting better when getting on base has been his best strength this year.
“Bmac is now sing soprano”
Dont ever change Chipper. Dont ever change.
anyone know what the rate of whiffs AND looking strikes Kimbrel gets? (I’m interested in the total number of untouched pitches he throws)
Baseball-reference has stats like this. They say that for 2012, Craig Kimbrel throws a strike 70% of the time. 30% of those strikes are looking strikes, 27% are swinging strikes, 28% are fouled strikes, and the remaining 15% are put in play.
So to answer your question: 57% of his strikes are untouched, which accounts for about 40% of his total pitches.
Kimbrel leads the league in K/9 with 16.13. Among pitchers with over 40 IP, he is first in FIP, first in xFIP, and second in ERA. Yikes.
Has anyone noticed that, right now, the Braves pitching is probably at least as good as last year and, perhaps better, with the higher number of innings from the starters and the better -rested bullpen. Obviously, they would be even better with Beachy, but I love seeing starters go deep into games, which they could not do last year (and Hanson still can’t). Of course, it helps that, in general, the team has scored more runs, but it’s nice to see pitchers challenging the strike zone and not being afraid to throw strikes like they seemed to be last year. Does McDowell deserve some credit?
I would definitely agree with that, especially with the relative collapse of the rotation in August and September.
It would be real awesome if CAC would post starting pitchers’ game scores regardless of whether they were MVP/LVP for the game. Failing that, anybody know where these can be found? Can’t seem to find them on fangraphs.
It’s real tough to find. You have to open the ESPN box score …
I assume that’s sarcasm but thanks anyway…I’m an si.com/mlb.com guy…
Here is a list of every game played thus far with the pitchers used and their according gamescore.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/tgl.cgi?team=ATL&t=p&year=2012
I love this team.
Very happy that Kris “don’t give a shit who’s batting” Medlen is winning games. I was a little worried earlier in the year when he was coming out of the pen and seemed* to get knocked around a bit. But he’s amped up and is pitching very well right now.
Like Bart Scott, I can’t wait ’til the #barves head back east so I can catch a full game.
* Seemed because I’m too lazy to dive through BRef & Fgraphs to find the games in April/June where he got knocked around…I’ve got to catch up on the latest internet memes, you guys.
So with the Red Sox clearing up so much cap room, surely they’ll be going after some upgrades in the winter. Depending on what they do in the outfield, do you think they would take a trade for Kalish that involved Hanson and maybe Spruill/Graham, or maybe Pastornicky? They need pitching badly. And they don’t/won’t need Kalish badly. Depending on which route the Braves are forced to take in the outfield this offseason, would Kalish be worthy of a starting spot, assuming Prado moves to 3B. I know the CAC guys have been big on Kalish, just haven’t seen enough of him to gauge what he’s worth.
With the way that Francisco plays when he starts, I’m not sure the team is certain they’re going to move Prado to 3B. Not doing so would alleviate the need of picking up that LF bat and focus the available money elsewhere
I don’t know why everyone immediately thinks Prado will be at 3B. Juan the Roadrunner has visibly shown a different approach in his game and seems to want to work hard for that starting spot. An ideal solution would be keeping Prado in left, Juan at 3rd, and resign Reed Johnson and use him in LF against tough lefties. That’s the most cost efficient solution and we have a possible 30 HR threat at third at league minimum.
I would really like to see a specific clause in Reed Johnson’s contract. If he is going to have facial hair, it needs to be all beard or nothing. That shit strip that he’s rockin on his chin really upsets me haha.
While I recognize that Francisco is better than he initially showed, he’s really only being used to his advantage, and I’m not sure how he would do facing lefties a whole lot more than he does right now. I think the Braves should re-sign Johnson no matter what (with the facial hair clause), basically as a huge Matt Diaz upgrade for around the same cost, I would assume. Francisco will probably start the season at 3B, but there needs to be something to fall back on should it turn sour. If we can shed Uggla and play Prado at 2B, then Kalish starts to look even better, but I highly doubt that will happen.
I wouldn’t be opposed to that. Also a guy like Jeff Keppinger could platoon with Francisco at 3B. He’ll be a FA after the season. It’s cheap, and unfortunately, that’s the Liberty Media way.
i don’t think we need a platoon at 3B–at least to start off with. I would like to see Francisco get more looks at lefties, and if he doesn’t he’ll never get better at it. That’s why you keep a good bench. If Juan sucks ass up until the break, then we find someone else for LF and move Martin to 3B. Good thing it’s not very difficult to find decent help in LF.
If we have any platoon to start the year (should we re-sign Reed Johnson) it will be a Francisco/Johnson platoon with Prado playing either left or 3B, accordingly.
I’m hoping the Braves pick up someone like Swisher, but the media in New York is making it seem like his market is going to be Hamilton-esque. I think Swisher is probably a 8-9mm guy. They’re projecting closer to 14-15mm, but if he jumps earlier in FA than the big name OFs I think he can be affordable. Switch hitter, can play both corners and 1B, and lets Prado stick to a more exclusive group of positions. Not that he needs to…
@Spence
Totally agree with you here. I posted in a thread awhile back that Swisher looks to be the most attractive (meaning skill level to affordability) OF’er on the market. But, if we keep Roadrunner at 3B, I don’t see us signing anyone unless we lose Bourn.. And that’s not a given if we don’t have to go out and get another OF bat.
Here are Roadrunner’s splits. Some pretty interesting stats in there. But, he definitely needs work against lefties.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?t=b&id=francju02&year=2012&team=&per162=0
But, notice the difference in batting numbers 1st half to 2nd half.
I agree with Kevin earlier in this thread, Uggla hasn’t been what we want/paid for (shocker), but he hasn’t been completely useless either. At 2.5 WAR, he’s already matched his 2011.
Dan also has a pretty good chance of doing the Adam Dunn special by leading the league in BB’s and K’s, which he is currently 1st and 2nd in, respectively.
I’m not even sure how one does that…
He is an aggressive hitter, so they hope to get ahead in the count quick, but if they get behind, they walk him… his hits nowadays are are coming from meatballs when the count is in his favor. I’d rather walk him than serve a meatball if I was pitching to him. Pitchers still fear his power.
Now if only he were leading the league in HRs . . . then we’d have the Three True Outcomes Triple Crown in play.
In up here in DC listening to their sports radio about the Nats (the 5 minutes an hour they’re not talking about RG3) they all seem to be relaxed and not worried but are reaching a tipping point if this team loses 1 to 2 more. Anything thing is funny that their praising FW for how he has handled Medlan and starting to question rizzo with strausburgh.
I don’t have a problem with the innings limit, but as Tango (and others, surely) have pointed out, if you’re going to put Strasburg on a limit, manage which innings that he pitches more intelligently. He doesn’t have to go every 5th day, and potential October innings are way more valuable than August innings, especially now when the Nats have the division essentially sewn up.
I don’t know that the innings limit was ever truly intended to include October. I mean, it certainly could have, but they’d be foolish to not use the guy in the playoffs. My take on it was ~150 regular season innings. If they were out of the hunt then he’d be essentially shut down for the season. But, if they were in the hunt, he’d be back in the playoffs.
I can’t seem to find the interview, but I remember Rizzo specifically saying that it wasn’t just about the game day innings but the full workload of practicing day to day that they wanted to save his arm for. Its not as simple as shutting him down for a couple weeks and then restarting his routine in October. Once he sits, he’s done until March.
They could do the exact reverse though. They could sit him out the rest of the season but have him throwing bullpen sessions until the playoffs. That would save his arm, but keep him fresh for October.
I didn’t mean to imply completely shutting him down.
I think the argument goes that they just don’t want him to pitch in October or even late September. They want those months of more or less complete rest for his arm before February ’13, as part of his plan for recovery from the surgery.
I’m with you Michael, I wasn’t under the impression they’d keep him out of the playoffs as well. They are ahead of schedule this season and couldn’t have expected to be this good. And now Rizzo is just sticking to it because he can. I’m glad FW doesn’t insert his personality in the organization like that, at least that we see.
I’ve gotten the exact opposite impression–that there’s virtually no chance Strasburg will be allowed to pitch in the playoffs at this point, barring a change of mind by Rizzo. I guess he hasn’t been 100% clear about it.
Above comments got it right, they’ve never really considered skipping starts or putting him on extra days, or shutting down for a week or two b/c they want him on regular schedule, then when he’s shut down the purpose is to provide complete rest. The question is why they didn’t hold him out at the beginning of the season to have the 160 innings or so get them through October – I guess b/c that would have been weird and nobody really expected them to be so successful this year.
Ideal offseason just might inculde:
Trade Uggla. Prado to 2B. Swisher for LF. JFran at 3B. Resign Bourn. Sign RH bench bat for 3B. Resign Johnson and Ross. Get the best prospects possible for Maholm and/or Hanson.
Who takes Uggla and his ginormous contract?
The Dodgers?
(snert)
OCCUPY TOMMY HANSON
99% sweat soaked
I laughed at that comment.