9/10 News, Links, Discussion: Braves-Brewers, “The King Has Returned,” Weekend Roundup
September 10, 2012 at 1:05 pm by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
“The King Has Returned” = The Lion King joke, for those wondering.
Game 1 vs. Brewers
The Braves completed a sweep of the Mets in their last visit to New York this season with a 3-2 win in 10 innings Sunday. Tommy Hanson pitched 5.2 good innings and Brian McCann drove in two of the three runs, including a home run in his second consecutive game.
The Braves will wrap up their road trip with three games in Milwaukee against a Brewers team that has won 15 of 20. However, despite the recent surge, the Brewers remain two games under .500 and six games out of the second wild card spot.
Wily Peralta will make his second career big league start for Milwaukee in the series opener. Peralta made his first career start against the Marlins last time out, allowing three runs on five hits in six innings, walking four and striking out three. He owns a 4.66 ERA and 3.83 FIP in 146.2 innings at Triple-A Nashville this year, recording a 21.9% strikeout rate and 12% walk rate.
Peralta has always had trouble with control and high walk rates, and he has to maintain a good strikeout rate to neutralize the baserunners. He throws mid-90s with movement, adding a hard slider and occasional changeup and curveball.
Mike Minor pitched seven shutout innings on just one hit last time out, avoiding the trouble of four walks by striking out seven. With the great outing, Minor lowered his ERA to 4.58, the lowest it’s been since April 24.
Andrelton Simmons is expected to return to the team today, so he should be in the lineup. Simmons went 2-5 with two doubles for Class A Advanced Lynchburg on Sunday.
Both Ryan Braun and Corey Hart left Sunday’s game with injuries. Braun is considered day to day with wrist soreness, while Hart suffered an ankle sprain.
Game time is 8:10. Atlanta: SportSouth. Milwaukee: Fox Sports Wisconsin.
MLB.com preview
STATS preview
More Links
Braves.com recap for Sunday’s win.
AJC quotes following Sunday’s win. Fredi Gonzalez on Craig Kimbrel in the ninth: “It was one of those situations in the ninth, Roger and I talked it over, they’ve got Davis and Duda coming up, and really you feel comfortable – it’s first time I’ve done it, bringing closer in a tie game on the road – but you feel with the way our pitching matched up later in the game, that that was the game right there. Now does it make my toes tingle doing that? I don’t know, doing that with your closer on the road. He’s pitched four out of five days, you don’t want to run him out there for two innings. But you know what? It worked out. You’ve got enough experience in the bullpen with Moylan and Durbin and that group of guys, that if we do get a lead they can do it.
“But I felt, talking to Roger, that facing the middle of the order in that inning, was important.”
Mark Bowman’s notes include Chipper’s last game in New York, when he took out the lineup card and recorded a pinch-hit walk in his final at-bat.
Derek Carty of Baseball Prospectus looks at whether to use ISO as a tool to legitimize high or low BABIPs (sub. required).
Adam Rubin of ESPN New York writes on the praises Mets players gave Chipper Jones.
Weekend Roundup
Ben Sheets completed a side session Friday and appears to feel fine and ready to contribute. He may not have a spot in the rotation when he returns, however, and could find himself in the bullpen.
MLB.com posted the Braves’ top 20 prospects for the end of the season. Julio Teheran remains No. 1, while Andrelton Simmons and Christian Bethancourt are at 2 and 3. It’s a good top 10.
As for the top 100, Teheran is No. 26, while Simmons is 33rd and Bethancourt is 61st.
Davey Johnson decided to end Stephen Strasburg’s season after allowing five runs in three innings to the Marlins on Friday. Strasburg’s season ends with a 3.16 ERA, 2.83 xFIP, 30.2 K% and 7.4 BB% in 159.1 innings.
Game threads: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
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I understand that “the king has returned” is from the lion king, but I don’t see the relevance….
Sheets in the bullpen will be a smart move to give us the option of a long reliever if one of our current starters falters early, considering Hanson and Minor have both stepped up their game recently giving us what should be winnable situations.
Why exactly does Simmons get called Simba anyway? Is that a nickname he’s always had, or is that something that started this year?
I am fairly sure this was started this year. I believe talkingchop started it. Personally I dont like it at all.
Not sure if it started this year or earlier, but it’s a nickname his teammates gave him that was picked up by the guys over at TC. They were not the originators.
If he’s healthy, I still think Sheets is an upgrade over Hanson at this point. Of course, that is the mother of all “ifs.”
I know this is a huge long-shot, especially since I’ve been one of the nay-sayers, but I have to say I have a little bit of optimism left about getting the division. We’ve played some pretty good ball over the last few games (offense seems to be coming back around) and I could see the gNats falling asleep on the division.
Huge “if” here, but if we could sweep them…………..
They keep doing this to us. We pull within a reasonable distance, then go on a losing streak. It was 3 games then down to 7 then 4 games, then 8.5, etc. If we can keep it up, and Strasburg really did have a big impact on that team, we could do it. Gotta win that series against them in ATL though. Damn them for getting my hopes up and then crushing them. Let’s hope they aren’t crushed again for the 5th time in the past month.
The key is Uggla, McCann, Simmons. We’ve been playing with instant outs at 2B, SS, and C for large parts of the last 6 weeks. It’s hard to win consistently that way. Pitching alone has kept us in shouting distance of the Nats thus far, but if we have suddenly have a resurgent Uggla and McCann (last 4 games say we might) and Simmons gives us average offense at SS, we could run off a serious streak here the last 21 games. If those last 4 games were a fluke, we’re going to continue to sputter offensively.
My thoughts exactly. Milwaukee will be a good test to start IMO.
I just think any scenario that requires the Nats to play .500 or worse down the stretch is not going to come together.
It’s easier to think of it as 2 separate things: our head-to-head series and everything else. If we sweep the Nats, we have to make up 2.5 other games in the 18 other remaining (including this next series before we get to WAS). We could go 13-5 and they could go 11-8 and we’d be tied. That is very doable. If we only win 2 of three against them, we have to make up 4.5 other games, and we’d need something like 14-4 on our end and 10-9 on their end. Still doable, but much more of a long-shot. If we win only 1 of 3, we’re just about screwed, bc we’d need like a 15-3 vs. 9-10.
To be frank (and this is where I get into out-and-out pessimism, not just realism), I think taking 1 of 3 from them is optimistic. I’m betting we get swept. Our head-to-head record this year just indicates that we’ve got nothing on them. And even out of the paltry 5 games we’ve won, one was a ridiculous, once-every-two-decades fluke.
I think our best chance of advancing this year is for the Reds to overtake them, and then have the Giants knock them out in the first round. I have less than no confidence in the Braves’ ability to win a short or long series against Washington.
Jeez… Do you hate Christmas too?? ;)
Obviously, I’d be delighted to be wrong.
Anything can happen in baseball. The year the Phillies won the World Series, they lost the regular season series against every one of the three playoff opponents they faced that year (including the Yankees, losing 2 out of 3 regular season games). As much as it *feels* like someone has owned you, it’s still baseball, and anything can happen.
The Nats are better than the Braves if you look at the first 140 games, but Nats without Strasburg may not be much better than Braves with Medlen, and if McCann and Uggla keep hitting, the Braves are probably the better team.
Looks like as of now we’re lined up Medlen/Hanson/Minor against the Nats. They’re projected to look something like Detwiler/Jackson/Gonzalez. So we obviously don’t get Strasburg, but get 2 lefties. I’d say we probably take 1 of 3 from the Nats, likely Medlen’s game. If Hanson doesn’t pitch too terribly, Jackson is beatable. I just wouldn’t count on a solid outing from Hanson.
On the other hand, the Braves showed us last year that ‘unlikely’ is possible, and the Nats could conceivably go 8-18 to finish the season. The Braves weren’t close to being the best team in baseball before they shat the bed. But it is possible for a 13-5/11-8 type thing to happen.
So instead of facing a team without its ace in the playoffs, you’d rather for the Braves to face a team which already beat them 5 times out of 6?
Strasburg may be the most talked-about National, but this year, Gio Gonzalez is their ace. I think the Nats are still the best team in the league even sans Strasburg, and I don’t want the Braves to have to beat them to advance.
So did McDowell talk Fredi into bringing on Kimbrel? I know Fredi says they discussed it together, but I’m still stunned he finally did it.
I think he just throws darts in the dugout and one just so happened to land on Kimbrel this time.