10/5 News, Links, Discussion: Wild Card Game Edition
October 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Braves lineup: Michael Bourn (CF), Martin Prado (LF), Jason Heyward (RF), Chipper Jones (3B), Freddie Freeman (1B), Dan Uggla (2B), David Ross (C), Andrelton Simmons (SS), Kris Medlen (P).
Cardinals lineup: Jon Jay (L, CF), Carlos Beltran (S, RF), Matt Holliday (R, LF), Allen Craig (R, 1B), Yadier Molina (R, C), David Freese (R, 3B), Daniel Descalso (L, 2B), Pete Kozma (R, SS), Kyle Lohse (R, P).
The Roster: (starters bolded)
Pitchers – Luis Avilan, Chad Durbin, Cory Gearrin, Tim Hudson, Craig Kimbrel, Kris Medlen, Mike Minor, Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters.
Catchers – J.C. Boscan, Brian McCann, David Ross.
Infielders – Jeff Baker, Freddie Freeman, Eric Hinske, Chipper Jones, Lyle Overbay, Tyler Pastornicky, Andrelton Simmons, Dan Uggla.
Outfielders – Michael Bourn, Jose Constanza, Jason Heyward, Reed Johnson, Martin Prado.
Wild Card Game vs. Cardinals
It’s a bit tough to hinge an entire season on 2.5-3.5 hours of baseball, but that’s what the Braves and Cardinals are forced to deal with. Time to make the most of it.
If you’re looking for information on the opposition, Ben wrote on Kyle Lohse, the St. Louis starter, here, and wrote three keys to the game here. I wrote on the Cardinals offense, how Kris Medlen might fare and also touched on Lohse a little here
Game time is 5:07. Nationally: TBS.
MLB.com preview
ESPN video preview
More Links
Mark Bowman writes on Kris Medlen being the right man for the job.
Bowman writes on five keys to the Braves postseason.
Fredi Gonzalez’s decision to start David Ross over Brian McCann in the wild card game.
Dan Uggla was back in the lineup Wednesday and should be good for today. Also, the Braves will wear their normal home whites instead of red because of the Cardinals.
Teddy Mitrosillis of ESPN has an outstanding breakdown of how Medlen should pitch to each batter in the Cardinals lineup (Insider).
The Baseball Today podcast makes its postseason predictions.
Keith Law ranks his top 10 pitchers for the playoffs based on how he thinks they will perform. Medlen is No. 6 (Insider).
Jim Bowden says Michael Bourn could benefit from a good October in the free agent market (Insider).
John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus writes on the strategy of playing one game for the Braves, with quotes from Fredi and several players.
Ray Glier, a freelancer writing for SB Nation, writes perhaps the best feature on Medlen yet.
Rob Neyer writes on Medlen’s season.
Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs writes on the decision to start Ross over McCann.
Daniel McCarthy of Baseball Analytics looks at some heat maps of Medlen, particularly against Matt Holliday.
Alex Remington of Big League Stew gives some numbers for the wild card game.
Ken Rosenthal previews the wild card game and picks the Cardinals to win.
Check us out on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter: @Ben_Duronio, @fjrabon, @David11Lee, @EthanPurser.
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I have a sneaky suspicion that Dan Uggla is about to carry us to a WS title and Braves nation will develop collective amnesia for his past 2 seasons.
Well, you are certainly allowed to dream. :)
that would be a nice dream to come true though…
What happened to Juan Francisco? Is Lyle Overbay really a better option than him?
I think they wanted the righty(overbay) not the lefty(francisco).
I agree, N. Eugene. Overbay has been pretty disapointing. Francisco was so hot at the end of August, and then just stopped getting PT. Wonder what happened.
Yeah, I don’t really understand what happened to Francisco or Cristhian Martinez in September. It’s like Fredi literally forgot they were on the roster until the very end of the month.
JF hit .194/.286/.387 in August and .130/.130/.174 in September, getting nearly as many at bats in those two months (31 and 23) as he did in July (27), which was his only decent month. I would take Lyle Overbay’s .353 career OBP 10 times out of 10 over JF in a crucial pinch hit situation.
Overbay being on the roster over Francisco is not the issue. It’s Hinske. There is absolutely not facet of the game in which Hinske is superior to Francisco at this point, despite the lovely veteran presents he brings everyone in the clubhouse.
SO NERVOUS!
Even with the ability to build for one game, our bench is still weak. McCann and Johnson are the only two worth noting. And for the record, I think the threat of the Juan would be a better bench option than Over(thehill)bay or Hinky, even though it probably doesn’t matter all that much considering they are all tertiary options for a single game.
Is it interesting that we are carrying three starters? I can see wanting some quality long options for extra innings, though. I just really hope it doesn’t go extras…I don’t think I could take it.
For the record, I am not a fan of a game built around series coming down to a single wildcard game. That being said, it sure is exciting….
Alright. Time to go to the bar. LET’S GET EM!
Per DOB, Delgado and Teheran have already left headed back to the Dominican to get ready for the winter ball. Sheets is back in Louisiana. I figured he might stay and watch from the dugout, but I guess not.
Meds jhey rossy. V sweet through two.
Well didn’t take long for Frediot to fuck us. Safety squeeze with 1 out and the pitcher due next?? Plus taking the bat out of the hands of a kid that’s already proved he can handle it and already singled…
Ugh, I really hope Chipper’s error and the squeeze aren’t what potentially cost the Braves this game…
No kidding. This offense is so maddening. You’re being pitched outside! Can anyone hit to the opposite field?
Freeman on cue. But Fredi is an idiot putting Simmons to squeeze
I hate the fucking Cardinals.
Durbin?! Are we supposed to give up already?
The shit end of the stupid crapshoot game. Best defensive team in baseball (by errors and FP) done in by mediocre IF (by UZR).
Somehow this almost seems worse than last year since it’s looking like 94 wins well be for nothing when the Braves rightly deserve to be in the playoffs.
^^ What he said.
Wow
Wow…
Fuck and I posted that before the best IF fucking shit himself.
I wish I didn’t just order food cause nothing is more pathetic than a grown man crying into his food.
The last three years of Braves baseball have ended in some of the worst ways I can possibly imagine, barring something miraculous tonight. I haven’t been this upset over a baseball game since I was eight years old and we lost the WS in ’96
Way to shit the bed on my birthday, Braves. Ugh!
Holy shit, an unbelievable confluence of unlikely events that makes winning a crapshoot game impossible. The 3B, SS,2B, all with extremely impacting defensive fuck ups. Unreal.
Fuck this. Fuck Bud Selig and his fucking play-in. Fuck Fredi. Fuck the Cardinals. Fuck this theft of a legitimate playoff season.
And the Cardinals maximizing every fucking opportunity given. Like they always seem to do …
21 years a braves fan, and this will be the most painful post season loss yet. Worse than the Leyritz home run. I’m going to go listen to some bbc LOTR.
Infield fucking fly!?!?.. Fredi should just pack up and leave if that is the calls the umps are going to make!
Fans should be throwing everything onto the field.
That call was even dumber then having a one game playoff. I honestly can’t believe it happened… We have three defensive gaffs that cost us 4-5 runs and their one error is forgiven and they get an out for it.
Wow what a call.
It’s pathetic that MLB won’t allow another umpire to overrule that. I don’t think “expanded replay” would even fall into the category of a reversable call. But STILL. Overturn that fucking pathetic call.
So I’ve just come out of an appointment and apparently all hell has broke loose. What the fuck happened??
Runners on 1st and 2nd, one out. Simmons pops a can of corn, Kozma goes back for it, it drops and we think everyone’s safe. But the ump calls infield fly. Even though Kozma was WAY back there, and it wasn’t an easy play.
Oh what the fuck… FFS we fucking blew this game.
I hope Bourn just lost millions on that last K. He may be hurt with that thumb injury, but all he did the second half was strike out.
With that said…PLEASE, PLEASE make me eat those words. I would love for this team to rally back. Gain your extra millions this post season. I want to be wrong!!!
Well that all felt very inevitable
can someone come clean up my vomit i cannot do it myself. after you have finished with it will you drive it to atlanta throw it on the field and rub frediots face in it.
I hate everything.
Fate is so cruel. Poor chipper. I’m drunk and that’s all I have to say.
I’m going to get drunker.
With the falcons-giants turd, the braves collapse and now this I think Atlanta is now #1
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2012/02/28/americas-most-miserable-sports-cities/
No doubt it’s depressing to be an Atlanta sports fan, but we’re nowhere near Cleveland. We still have 1995. So yeah, this blows but at least we’re not Cleveland.
I’m not sure Shakespeare himself could have written a better tragedy. Chipper has an amazing retirement seasons. Maybe one of the best ever. He gets cheered and gifts in every ballpark. Then he comes home in what amounts to be the biggest game of the season, shits the bed on a big defensive play, and walks off the field in a loss with debris being thrown on the field… WOW.
I’m going to kick my dog now.
I cannot wait for the day when umpires on the field are a relic of the past and computers and people in a booth with cameras are the future of sports.
Baseball, football, hockey, all of it. Technology is too advanced to have games decided by one man that doesnt understand the rules of the game.
And before anyone gives me any of that “human element” shit. The human element is the PLAYERS. The refs/umpires are only there to enforce the rules of the game. If a computer can do this better, then umpires are no longer needed. Like robots have taken over manufacturing, human umpires are a relic of an inferior past.
On the bright side, it appears those NFL replacement refs found some work.
Unfortunately that horrendous call would not have even blown the game if we could have gotten ONE DAMN BIG HIT. Somehow the Braves managed to dominate this game while simultaneously playing the worst game I can ever remember. What a crazy, crazy game. Terrible for the sport, terrible for Chipper and all the players, terrible for us fans…
@Brian…
Unfortunately that call is not what cost us the game. There is no guarantee that we score even with the bases loaded. We lost the game because of poor defense, timely hitting by the Cardinals, and our shitty hitting with men on. We stranded 12 runners… 12.
I really feel for Chipper on this one. His error was extremely costly, but regardless what a terrible way for him to go out. The game was such an undignified shit cyclone, that the man couldn’t even go out there and tip his cap to the fans. Instead we see a legend living in the company of Mickey Mantle, ducking his head into the clubhouse as one of the first players out of the dugout.
As a fan, I admit the Braves doomed themselves here, but I feel we deserve better from the MLB. This playoff format is non-sense. Even if you’re able to get past the one game playoff, the 1st first seed division winner, best record in the league, does not even get to play the play-in the 85 win WC team (no disrespect to the cards) in their own park for 2 games! If things go well for the Cards with some luck and timely hitting etc, it simply won’t matter for the Nats that the final three games are all at home being down 0-2.
Baseball therefore, has to be the only sport to come up with a system that continually penalizes the higher seeded team in an elimination playoff environment. The better WC team with not rewarded for their better regular season play, and the division winner for basically no reason also gets the shaft.
Also this type of umpiring is simply unacceptable, while the depth of Simmon’s fly didn’t matter, the call was obnoxiously late, and this is simply the newest mlb playoff umpiring debaucle that the league continues to get allow with no change.
Bottom line for me, if you weren’t disillusioned by the Braves in this game, you sure as hell were disllusioned from the MLB. Tough one….
I really feel for Chipper on this one. His error was extremely costly, but regardless what a terrible way for him to go out. The game was such an undignified shit cyclone, that the man couldn’t even go out there and tip his cap to the fans. Instead we see a legend living in the company of Mickey Mantle, ducking his head into the clubhouse as one of the first players out of the dugout.
As a fan, I admit the Braves doomed themselves here, but I feel we deserve better from the MLB. This playoff format is non-sense. Even if you’re able to get past the one game playoff, the 1st first seed division winner, best record in the league, does not even get to play the play-in the 85 win WC team (no disrespect to the cards) in their own park for 2 games! If things go well for the Cards with some luck and timely hitting etc, it simply won’t matter for the Nats that the final three games are all at home being down 0-2.
Baseball therefore, has to be the only sport to come up with a system that continually penalizes the higher seeded team in an elimination playoff environment. The better WC team with not rewarded for their better regular season play, and the division winner for basically no reason also gets the shaft.
Also this type of umpiring is simply unacceptable, while the depth of Simmon’s fly didn’t matter, the call was obnoxiously late, and this is simply the newest mlb playoff umpiring debaucle that the league continues to get allow with no change.
Bottom line for me, if you weren’t disillusioned by the Braves in this game, you sure as hell were disllusioned from the MLB. Tough one….
Anyone wanna go find Bud Selig with me and punch him in his fucking face?
The only thing worse than the IF Fly call was the Braves fucking shit for brains defense, worst of all the 7th inning. By the end of the game Uggla was throwing the ball like Chuck fucking Knoblauch. The Braves lost bc they played infield like a fucking machine pitch eight year old team.
depression sets in. I still cant believe it. horrible horrible horrible on all fronts. 3 errors? 12 men left on base? and that call to boot? f*ck my life. so sad.