Sunday Post – NFL Fever!
September 13, 2009 at 6:54 pm by Capitol Avenue Club under Atlanta Braves, Daily Post, Kelly Johnson Fan Club, Pitching
Thought of the day.
8 back in the loss column, 19 left to play. Not looking good. Throw away the wild card hopes, those are done. But suppose the Phillies lose tonight on Sunday Night Baseball* and the Braves sweep the home series with Philly next weekend. You’re looking at 4 back in the loss column with 16 to play, all other things equal. So, you’re then 4 back in the loss column with 16 to play. Still not looking good, but do-able. The Braves, as I mentioned, have 19 games left. They’re all against NL East opponents. 3 against Philly at home, 6 against New York (3 home, 3 away), 3 against Florida at home, and 7 against Washington (4 home, 3 away). If there was ever a time to rattle off a miraculous streak, it’d be now. Think about it, though. They’re playing 6 games against teams they’re chasing and 13 against teams who are completely out of contention (and bad). Maybe I won’t give up hope, just yet.
*I know it’s nearly unbearable to watch Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips broadcast a game, and I know it’s painful to cheer for the Mets, but please do tonight. The Braves need it.
Kelly Johnson Fan Club
Kelly went 2-for-5 with a double today starting at 2B (with Prado at 3rd and Chipper out). The Braves are now 9-1 in games Kelly Johnson has started since coming off the DL and he has compiled a .912 OPS during that period. I’m officially lobbing for more playing time for Kelly. Kelly hasn’t ever faced Tuesday’s starter, Pat Misch. He’s 0-for-1 against Wednesday’s starter, Bobby Parnell. And he’s 0-for-2 with a walk against Thursday’s starter, Nelson Figueroa.
Javier Vazquez’s Gem, Tim Hudson’s Homer
Javier Vazquez pitched a gem today, going 9 innings allowing 2 runs on 7 hits and no walks while striking out 8. He was cruising through 8, having allowed no runs on 3 hits, but allowed 4 singles to start the 9th before getting a double play and groundout to end the game and secure the Braves’ first CG Win of the year. He was nothing short of masterful through those 8. Man, if the Braves hadn’t squandered so many of his brilliant outings, he’d be squarely in the conversation for the Cy Young. Vazquez now has a ridiculous 216-to-40 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season. He’s bested in K’s only by Tim Lincecum and in K/BB only by Dan Haren–who has struck out 19 fewer and walked 9 fewer.
Meanwhile, Tim Hudson hit a homer. What? First career homer for Huddy, who was a batting champion and team HR leader while he played CF on the days he wasn’t a starting pitcher (he also led the team in K’s, ERA, and W’s) at Auburn. That was cool to see. Hudson’s the man. Twitter nugget from Mark Bowman:
Hudson’s first career HR. Based on what we saw last year, I didn’t think Auburn products displayed offense on Saturdays.
Pretty funny. He was speaking of Football, of course, and speaking of Football:
The NFL has arrived.
The Falcons opened their season with a W over the Dolphins. I won’t cover too much NFL in this space, depending on interest. I’ll do weekly picks, though, starting next week.
Stat of the Day
Braves player xFIP:
Javier Vazquez – 2.87
Rafael Soriano – 2.93
Peter Moylan – 3.37
Tim Hudson – 3.45
Mike Gonzalez – 3.49
Kris Medlen – 3.64
Boone Logan – 3.81
Eric O’Flaherty – 4.09
Derek Lowe – 4.21
Jo-Jo Reyes – 4.30
Tommy Hanson – 4.35
Jair Jurrjens – 4.45
Jeff Bennett – 4.61
James Parr – 4.66
Kenshin Kawakami – 4.73
Manny Acosta – 4.76
Buddy Carlyle – 5.37
Jorge Campillo – 5.82
Luis Valdez – 7.55
Blaine Boyer – 10.22
No analysis. Just a list.
And that’s all I got for now. I’ll try to get that bullpen post up sometime.
Go Braves! PHUCK THA FILLIES!
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oh it was easy to root for the mutts with pedro pitching for the phils… to no avail. of course it did seem like charlie manuel was going all grady little. maybe pedro will implode in his next outing. we’ll see -
What is xFip?
xFIP is expected fielding independent pitching. The Hardball Times has the explanation here:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/statpages/glossary/#xfip
It’s about time for Pedro to implode, Mike. I can’t believe he hasn’t. He can’t be this good, still.
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