Braves KTE - June 30-July 2 ... and July 7 - 10

[Frayed Knot]

Braves � 44-38 and in 1st place by 1/2 game although have a dead-even RS/RA total and all of their winning record is due to a 17-8 April. They�ve been below .500 team since May 1, even while riding a 4-game sweep of the Phillies.

Series is 3-3 so far this season

Monday 7:10 Wheeler vs Alex Wood [19 games/8 starts - 6-6; 3.07; 1.22]
Tuesday 7:10 � Matsuzaka vs Mike Minor [11 starts; 2-5; 4.50; 1.49]
Wednesday 7:10 � deGrom vs Julio Teheran [17 starts; 7-5; 2.34; 0.95] -- (deGrom-v-Teheran breaks the all-alliterative theme we had going here)

We�re missing Aaron Harang & Ervin Santana in the rotation this time around.
Wood was relieving while off-season signee Gavin Floyd was pitching, but Floyd has just re-re-injured himself (we didn�t see him in either of the first two series either) and will miss the rest of the season.


So what else is new with the Braves since we last saw them?

- Most notably, Tommy LaStella (LA STELLLLLLLLAAAAAAH) at 2B. As far as I can tell, LaStella is Italian for 'The Stella'
Called up on 5/28, the 25 y/o, 2011 8th round draft pick out of Coastal Carolina U has played 2B virtually every game since, shoving Dan Uggla (.164/.239/.234) to a PH role (Uggla started just twice and had only 15 PAs in June).
LaStella is a completely different animal than Uggla, almost none of the power so far (29 hits / 23 singles) but also not nearly the K-rate either (<10% of PAs vs nearly 30% for Uggla). Defense is supposedly not much, but he�s described as �an advanced hitter� with a .276/.342/.343 over his first 100+ ABs. Probably the kind of player where the phrase 'High Floor / Low Ceiling' applies.

Other than that, all the rest of their position players have played virtually every day all season: 1B-Freeman, SS-Simmons, 3B-Johnson, OF-Upton^2 + Heyward, all having 73+ starts each out of 82 games and none have missed more than 2 games in a row.
Main catcher Evan Gattis has missed the last three games with back issues. Gerald Laird and newly called up Panamanian Christian Bethancout are filling in.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Guest

[Frayed Knot]

Updated so as to include this series too.
The three game sweep last week were games 5 thru 7 of a Nine game winning streak for the Braves, broken only yesterday by a 3-1 loss to the DBacks.

As with the games against us, most of the Braves wins during that streak were close ones, as are the majority of their wins this season. They've been the anti-Mets this year as they're currently sitting ten games above .500 despite being a mesely +12 in their RS/RA totals. They actually score less than the Mets but are better at preventing runs.
IOW, by no means is this some kind of dominating team.

Monday 7:10 -- Mike Minor vs Matsuzaka
Minor gave up 4 runs on 9 hits in 4.1 IPs in the 2nd game of the series in Atlanta, but Dice-K was worse and the Mets lost 5-4 despite out-hitting the Braves 10-7

Tuesday 7:10 -- Julio Teheran vs deGrom
Teheran held the Mets to 1 runs over 7 innings (4 Hits 5 K, 3 BB) while deGrom gave up a 1st inning 3R HR (w/2 outs of course) to Chris Johnson. Final score = 3-1

Wednesday 7:10 -- Ervin Santana vs the return of Gee
Santana faced the Mets twice in April and won both times: allowed 0 runs on 3 hits over 8 innings on April 9, then 1 run on 6 hits over 7 10 days later.

Thursday 7:10 -- Aaron Harang vs Colon
Harang also pitched twice vs the Mets in April and the Mets didn't particularly hit him either time. 1 run on 2 hits over 6 in an eventual 4-0 NYM win; he then was in the midst of a fugly no-hitter thru 6 innings ten days later but was pulled due to 6 BBs and 121 pitches. Final score = Braves 6 - Mets 0 (1 hit)


Evan Gattis is their only significant player currently on the DL. Young Christian Bethancourt getting most of the starts rather than vet backup Gerald Laird.