9/11 News, Links, Discussion: Braves-Brewers, MiLB Home Run Leaders, Potential FA
September 11, 2012 at 12:46 pm by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Game 2 vs. Brewers
The Braves fell 4-1 to the Brewers in the series opener Monday as the bullpen and defense collapsed and couldn’t hold the one-run lead the offense provided.
They’ll look to put it behind them in the second game as Tim Hudson goes for the Braves against Marco Estrada of the Brewers. Estrada has a 3.99 ERA and 3.59 FIP in 112.2 innings for Milwaukee, including a very solid 25.7% strikeout rate combined with a 5.2% walk rate. While his swinging strike rate is 10.1%, his one flaw seems to be keeping fly balls in the park, owning a 12.1% HR/FB mark this season and 12.2% for his career.
Estrada throws fastballs in the low 90s with occasional cut action, along with a curveball and changeup split between righties and lefties. He will induce a lot of fly balls and will probably work with a BABIP a tad below average on most occasions.
Tim Hudson’s last outing was a nice rebounder, allowing six hits over seven shutout innings against the Rockies. His command was spotty at times and he left several sinkers up, but he kept the ball in the park and changed eye levels well.
Game time is 8:10. Atlanta: SportSouth. Milwaukee: Fox Sports Wisconsin.
MLB.com preview
STATS preview
Final Braves Minor League Home Run Leaders
Ernesto Mejia (AAA) – 24
Stefan Gartrell (AAA) – 20
Evan Gattis (AA, A+, GCL) – 18
Edward Salcedo (A+) – 17
Adam Milligan (AA, A+) – 16
More Links
Braves.com recap for Monday’s loss.
AJC quotes following Monday’s loss. Jonny Venters: “I felt good physically. I was prepared. I was ready. I just didn’t execute. I made an error. This loss is on my back. I didn’t do my job. I let my team down that battled through a good game today, and I gave it up.”
Ben Sheets threw a simulated game Monday, throwing between 20-30 pitches. Fredi Gonzalez: “We’ll see where he’s at tomorrow and the next day. If he feels good, we’ll probably plug him into the bullpen somewhere.”
Kris Medlen won some MLB.com award.
Jim Bowden gives his thoughts on where each potential free agent could wind up (Insider). Those involving the Braves are Zack Greinke and Nick Swisher, both appearing on the outside. Bowden goes with the consensus in thinking Michael Bourn could go to the Phillies or Nationals.
Bryan Grosnick of Beyond the Box Score looks at the numbers of the Big Three using fielding dependent numbers.
Around the NL East
John Lannan will be taking Stephen Strasburg’s place in the rotation this week.
The Nationals rotation for the upcoming Braves series will be Ross Detwiler, Edwin Jackson and Gio Gonzalez.
Kyle Kendrick had a really good night, allowing one run over seven innings with eight strikeouts. The Phillies have won five straight and are five out of the second wild card spot.
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And the barrage of left handed SP’s just keeps on coming.
How about some love from CAC on Fredi’s use of Kimbrell in a situation other than last 3 outs? You guys have been pretty hard on him for his slot system.
I agree with this.
We gave him love in one of the other threads. Last night’s random pulling of Minor and then extended use of relievers fucked that all up.
http://capitolavenueclub.com/?p=7757
“John Lannan will be taking Stephen Strasburg’s place in the rotation this week.”
To the Braves, he may as well be Stephen Strasburg.
Turd tossin’ lefty.
^^ This right here is why CAC needs a “like” button.
If the Phillies make the playoffs I’m going to drink a fifth of whiskey in one chug and see what happens.
Well now that you mention it, that sounds like a good idea.
I like Swisher, just don’t see the Braves signing him as a FA under this ownership. I think the Braves will likely make a trade or two to land our LF and CF next season. Denard Span will be available, so will Justin Upton. If ownership is really cheap (which they are), they could get a CF and then a platoon type player in LF and you ultimately move Prado back and forth from LF to 3B and play Francisco at 3B vs righties. I really hope this doesn’t happen, but this is Liberty Media…
Liberty Media isn’t going to have anything to do with whether or not the Braves try to sign a marquee free agent. Ownership sets the team’s budget – that’s that and we already know what the budget is. Wren will have the payroll flexibility to sign a marquee free agent IF he wants to. The question is not whether he will get some massive new spending authorization from ownership – he won’t – but whether he will decide that limited resources could be more prudently used to negotiate extensions, facilitate trades, and do some bargain shopping. There’s really no point in hoping that the budget is going to increase and then complaining when it doesn’t.
Well, the new contract MLB signed with ESPN should result in several million more per team, per year. Obviously, this will result in player salaries inflating some, but it does increase the roster flexibility of mid-market teams such as the Braves.
Braves will never get someone like Justin Upton. It’s not gonna happen. Maybe, maybe, Span. But I doubt it. We may have some expendable pitching, however, which might put us in th emarket for a Cain, etc. Whatever.