Division Opponents for 2016: Atlanta Braves

[Frayed Knot]

Zvon wrote: Freeman's still in a funk, isn't he? This series I wanna see Funkin' Frdy Frmn.

He actually seems to be coming out of his early season funk. 10 for his last 30 with 2 HRs

[Frayed Knot]

Eight more Braves transactions today: 4 called up [Reid Brigand, Chase d'Arnaud, Mike Foltynewicz, Matt Tuiasosopo], 3 sent down [pitchers Chris Wisler & John Gant, plus 2B Jace Peterson] and they designated Drew Stubbs for assignment.

That's now 20 roster moves for Atlanta in just the last 12 days - and none of them were DL related. Just trying to find a mix that'll work better than the alignment.

[Edgy MD]

I'm crazy about Matt Tuiasosopo. My favorite AAAA player. Hasn't appeared since 2013.

[Frayed Knot]

He leads the league in syllables.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I see that the Braves are 1 and 15 at home so far this year!

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I see that the Braves are 1 and 15 at home so far this year!

There's no place like Cobb County.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I see that the Braves are 1 and 15 at home so far this year!

they're something like 6th in Wins at Turner Field this season.

[Frayed Knot]

I see that the Braves are 1 and 15 at home so far this year! they're something like 6th in Wins at Turner Field this season.

a 3-way tie for 7th to be precise. In fact the only clubs who don't have as many or more wins this season at Turner than the Braves are:
1) the Marlins - they got swept by the Braves in a 3-game set
2) teams that haven't played there yet

Other Braves oddities about their 7 wins so far this season:
- 4 of them came consecutively so they have both a 9-game and an 8-game losing streak already this season, and are currently in the midst of on a 5-game winless stretch
- 4 of those wins came against teams currently on top in their division: Mets, Cubs, BoSox, Dodgers.

[Frayed Knot]

Looks like we won't have Jhoulys Chacin to kick around anymore.
The Mets have thumped him twice already this year (8-2 and 8-0) but the Braves dealt him to Anaheim today for a minor league hurler.

And the Braves won today!! Beat the Phils for their 2nd home win.

[Frayed Knot]

Bye bye Fredi.

Gonzalez fired. Tough to claim that it's his fault that they're 9-28 but guys with that kind of record usually doesn't hang onto jobs very long.
60 y/o AAA mgr Brian Snitker takes over.


Snitker played parts of 4 seasons in the Atlanta system from 1977-80 and started managing for that org in 1982

Edited May 17, 2016 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Snitker really satisfies.

[Edgy MD]

I had fully expected the Braves to suspend their campaign and throw their weight behind one of the frontrunners any day now.

What a betrayal this all has been.

[G-Fafif]

Fredi Gonzalez was a terrible manager for the Marlins and they got rid of him pronto. He was a terrible manager for the Braves and they clung to him for more than five seasons.

Gotta give this round to the Marlins.

[Edgy MD]

Gonzalez found out by getting an e-mail from the team's travel agency?! And Willie Randolph was mistreated?

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Gonzalez found out by getting an e-mail from the team's travel agency?!

Yeah, apparently the auto-email confirming the rearrangement of his travel plans back to Atlanta while in the middle of a road swing in Pittsburgh reached his phone before the team reached him.

Meanwhile, new guy ain't doing any better. [crossout]8-0[/crossout] 9-3 in the 4th in favor of Pitt

[Frayed Knot]

Nice headline in Baseball Prospectus: Fredi ... Blamed ... Fired.



The Braves, btw, almost came back last night. In a game where they were trailing 7-0 at the end of the 1st and 9-zip after 2 (welcome to the big leagues Brian Snitker!!) they wound up losing 12-9 with the tying run on-deck in the 9th.
But that's how it seems to go for losing teams; in a season where your offense is averaging barely 3 runs/game and has only 4 times scored more than 5, the day you put up a season's best 9 runs turns out to be the same one where you go out and surrender a season high of 12.

[Edgy MD]

Are they doing a manager search or do they intend to ride out the season with the interim?

I imagine they hope to open the new ballpark with one of their nineties heroes installed as the manager — if not Chipper Jones, then Mark Lemke or Javy Lopez or Bret Boone or somebody. Maybe they bring Walt Weiss over from the Rockies or something.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Fredi ... Blamed ... Fired

When I saw that my first instinct was to see if that was a palindrome. (Of course, it's not.)

This, by the way, also is not a palindrome: "Fredi was I ere I was fired."

This is a palindrome, but it suffers from not making any sense: "Derif saw I ere I was fired."

[Edgy MD]

Is FREDI GOT FINGERED too obvious?

[Lefty Specialist]

[Frayed Knot]

Poor Fredi. Everybody misused him, ripped him off an abused him.

[Frayed Knot]

OK, here's one you don't hear everyday: Atlanta SS Erick Aybar was in the original starting lineup Thursday night but was scratched prior to the start of the game when he needed to go to the hospital to have a chicken bone removed from his throat.

[Frayed Knot]

So what's new with the Braves?

Not much, they still suck (20-46). May wasn't as bad as April but that's not saying much and June (5-10) is off to a worse start than May as they come off a hard-fought 4-game split with Cincy in a series that
must have been attended by dozens. At least when the Cubs were in town some Cubs fans probably bought tickets.

C - Tyler Flowers and AJ Pierzynski are splitting the time. That Flowers can't outright steal the job from the 39 y/o, 457 OPS'ing AJ says something though I'm not sure what.
1B - Freddie is hitting better than back when we last saw him but still not vintage Freddie over the season
2B - Jace Peterson was recalled from exile following the trade of Kelly Johnson (remind me where he went again?)
SS - Erick Aybar still under .200 as he has been all year, so Chase d'Arnaud is getting semi-regular work for the first time in his career and is doing OK for himself [.302/.362/.396]
3B - Adonis Garcia was demoted for a time but he's back and as mediocre as ever
LF - Francouer and Mallex Smith are pretty much splitting time out in left, which makes for lots of athleticism just not a lot of baseball skill.
CF - Ender Inciarte, though a good CF, makes his contribution to the sub-.300 OBA theme
RF - Nick Markakis plays near everyday while he looks for HR #2 on the season and wonders where he'll be dealt next month


Friday 7:10 -- John Gant vs Matt Harvey
Gant was part of the price paid for Kelly J and Juan U last year. The former 21st round draft pick of the Mets has been up and down w/Atlanta this year.
This will be Gant's 9th ML game overall and 2nd start [0-1; 5.63; 1.75]

Saturday 8:15 PM (thanx FOX) -- Aaron Blair vs Steven Matz
This will be the second Mets appearance against the Blair Pitch Project. Met bats got to him for 3 runs on 6 hits over 5.1 innings back in Blair's ML debut April 24 in an eventual 3-2 NYM win.
Since then he's 0-3 in 8 starts while rarely lasting past the 4th inning.

Sunday 1:10 -- Julio Teheran vs Jacob deGrom
Teheran is a weak 2-7 but with a sub-3.00 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHiP so it's hardly his fault.
We managed to miss him in both of the earlier series so this will be our first meeting in nearly a full year (Jun 21, 2015) certainly an oddity to go so long without seeing an in-division ace.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Guest

[MFS62]

Baseball fans and teammates (and maybe even family) alike are pretty sure the player's full name is "That asshole AJ Pierzynski".
He has had some interesting on-field and clubhouse battles over the years.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

I kinda like the guy.
Never been a great player (2 AS games, 1 Silver Slugger, was 30th in MVP one year) but has lasted 19 seasons / 2,000+ games / 7,700 PAs strictly as a catcher (plus 32 games as DH) and he's a tough old bird (will turn 40 in December) who's still at it.

Most of his rep seems to stem from the one time he slugged a guy at home plate in a tussle during a ChiSox/Cubs series (like that even qualifies as violence in Chicago these days) which led to all kinds of stuff, maybe none of it as good as the promotion the White Sox put on the following week when Pierzynski was one of the 'final picks' for the AS Game and the team encouraged the fans to "Step Up and Punch AJ" so he could win the vote for the game's final slot. That's probably not the only time he's been an irritant but it's never come against the Mets (except for hitting where he's .338 in 80 ABs) nor has it even been something blatantly out of line that I've personally witnessed.

Besides, he's the second best Polish player ever to come out of the east end of Long Island (even though raised in Florida).

Edited June 17, 2016 by Guest

[TransMonk]

Flowers was the backup to Pierzynski when AJ was with the White Sox, too.

Freeman was 10/18 with a 2 doubles, a triple, 3 homers and 6 RBI in the just finished 4 game series with Cincy. It's the smallest of sample sizes, but he is swinging a hot bat right now.

[Frayed Knot]

KTE revenge series.


Thursday 7:10 -- Matt Harvey vs Matt Wisler [3-7, 4.23]
We lost to Wisler back on May 3rd on a combined 1-hit shutout.

Friday 7:35 -- Steven Matz vs Aaron Blair [0-4, 7.19]
We nicked Blair for 3 runs in 5 innings in the middle game of the sweep disaster last week when Matz, Henderson & Reed blew the 3-run lead when they combined to give up solo runs in four consecutive innings

Saturday 7:15 -- deGrom vs Julio Teheran [3-7, 2.66]
Was last seen twirling the one-hitter on Sunday

Sunday 1:35 -- Bartolo Colon vs Bud Norris [2-7, 4.69]
We bopped Norris around in an early season start, but then basically couldn't touch him during two different 2-inning relief appearances.


Braves lost Wednesday afternoon to Miami which busted up their six game winning streak which included games started by Harvey, Matz, deGrom, and Jose Fernandez

Remember when we hit OF Mallex Smith with a pitch last week? Well his thumb turned out to be broken so he won't be around in this series.

[Frayed Knot]

We haven't seen these guys since losing 5 of 7 to them in mid-late July and while they're not a good team now they're more or less .500 since then going 17-18 since August 1st so it's not a weekend to be taken lightly especially as we're starting three pitchers most Met fans had either never heard of as the season started or hoped would be relegated to the bullpen by now.


What's New?
- mainly that Dansby Swanson has been installed as the everyday SS, replacing Erick Aybar who was dealt to Detroit
This former overall #1 draft pick out of Vanderbilt, traded to the Braves by the DBacks last year, made his ML debut on Aug 17 and is hitting .270 with 2 HRs since.
That he's a Georgia native (growing up right near where their new stadium is going to be) means that the team is going to attempt to build the future and a lot of their marketing around his talent and looks so long as he doesn't fall on his face.

- also Matt Kemp is now the everyday LF as Jeff Francouer has moved on to the Miami phase of his round the NL East tour.
Kemp is a bunch of years removed from the .300-hitting Gold Glove OF he once was but does have 28 HRs to his credit this year and is still just 31 y/o.
His $21+mil/yr contract still has three seasons to go after this year so we're going to get used to seeing him out there, although the payments for the remainder of that 8-year deal signed back in 2012 are going to be split between the Braves, Padres, and Dodgers.

- AJ Pierzynski is just recently off the DL but no longer starting games at catcher. Tyler Flowers backed by Anthony Recker (speaking of dreamboats) is their main backstop right now.



Friday, 7:35 -- Robert Gsellman vs Julio Teheran
Teheran is only 5-9 but with a 3.01 ERA and 1.03 WHIP

Saturday, 7:10 -- Seth Lugo vs John Gant
In a game so obviously going for the shortest starting pitcher's names award, Gant is a RH rookie with the funky motion that we faced, and lost to, during the sweep debacle in July.
To date it's his only big league win: 1-3; 4.70 in 14 ML games/5 starts

Sunday, 1:35 -- Bartolo Colon vs Williams Perez [2-2, 5.47, 1.31 in 10 ML starts]
This will be Perez's 2nd start since going on the DL in early June. He got crunched by the Nats in start #1 on Tuesday.