Show #179: The Braves Turn It All Around
The 5 game win streak. Chipper’s impact. Heyward’s emergence and the 4th outfielder spot.
200 Responses to “Show #179: The Braves Turn It All Around”
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April 16th, 2012 at 1:20 am
Great podcast. I would agree with leaving Heyward where he is but he needs to hit in front of Freeman. But in Freeman’s defense he may not have gotten a hit Saturday but he had a couple of great at bats. And I’d rather have Diaz over Constanza.
Good sign: The offense if finally hitting. Outside looking in, if Im an opposing team and I see names like Bourn, Prado, Chipper, McCann, Uggla, Heyward and Freeman, I’m worried. Imagine adding Andrus or Escobar to the lineup.
Bad sign: Pastornicky has not been hitting well lately and I question his range on a couple of groundballs that got past him this week that he should have gotten to. JJ also needs to get it together. Although, I was happy to see his velocity up. His command still lacks.
Seriously if you look at Durbin’s career numbers and the fact he keeps getting Major League jobs, you come to the conclusion that he is the luckiest pitcher in history. He the Lane Kiffin of the majors.
April 16th, 2012 at 10:34 am
havent listened yet. but glad to have a reason to.
hello from seoul korea.
just landed. report no incoming missile fire.
hwvr…im so ronerery, so ronerery…
April 16th, 2012 at 10:38 am
anyone been to Seoul/Incheon?
its 10:40 at night, dark outside.
are there petrochemical plants near the airport?
its either that or my limo driver has farted.
April 16th, 2012 at 11:18 am
Will – what have you told about posting here when you’re drunk?
April 16th, 2012 at 11:46 am
LOL, @ Steve….at least he is not “drunk calling” you at 2AM!
April 16th, 2012 at 11:55 am
Will is cracking me up. Great show guys! I’m most encouraged by the starters pitching deeper in games. Question: would it be stupid to use Medlen for more than an inning when he pitches? It seems a waste for him to warm up, pitch an inning and then sit.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:47 pm
….we passed through another “petrochemical park” about 20 minutes later…
needless to say it was a long drive to the hotel.
so sad but true that I come across as drunk even when sober… permanent damage, apparently. apologies, Steve, I know you like to maintain a family-friendly site….
(Have you met my family?…i blame them)
just finished listening… good show..
Fair on Heyward. you promote success, push a good thing. move Heyward up, let him step up. Freeman needs the work. Constanza has hit over .300 lifetime (according to some poster on DOB). “Why the Constanza Hate?” or some post like that…just saying.
I like what Walker said about the offense…..if they just live up to 80-90% of their potential and nobody has major slumps…awesome offensive lineup all the way thru.
are there any good signs that Gonzalez is better? or is the team carrying him?
go braves
g’nite
April 16th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Haven’t listened to the podcast all the way yet…
DOB just posted a staggering stat: Chad Durbin has allowed a HR in 7 consecutive appearances, dating back to his final 4 games with Cleveland last year (he gave up SIX home runs in those four games). Actually, I guess that’s not too staggering.
He reminds me a bit of Jo-Jo Reyes, a guy that NEVER had a scoreless appearance for the Braves. That’s right — in 41 games (37 starts, 194 IP), he gave up at least one run every single time. It wasn’t until May 20 last season — his 9th start with Toronto — that he didn’t allow a run.
April 16th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
If they were to replace Diaz on the bench, why assume it would be Constanza?
If they drop a right handed batter from the bench, wouldn’t they want to replace him with right hander from the minors?
Durango isn’t batting as high as Parraz (.292/.358/.375 vs. .317/.391/.415), but Durango is a switch hitter… I think I would take one of them to replace Diaz, if they decided to, vs. adding another bench lefty to replace a bench righty…
Durango has a line of .282/.349/.333 against RHP and .333/.400/.556 against LHP albiet only 9 ABs (39 ABs against RHP).
Parraz has a line of .281/.361/.375 against RHP and .444/.500/.556 against LHP for the same number of 9 ABs.
Parraz 1-2B, 0-3B, 1-HR, 5-BB, 6-SO, 2-SB
Durango 2-2B, 1-3B, 0-HR, 5-BB, 8-SO, 6-SB
I assume that Parraz is going to have more power potential and Durango is going to have speed. I think I would lean toward speed, but Parraz’s OBP is better in every case…
Thoughts?
April 16th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Constanza is a AAAA player. Plain and simple.
April 16th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Great show, guys…in everything, but I am a fan of Tampa Bay. Horrible stadium, Great manager.
April 16th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Wow. Just looked up that Heyward had a higher FanGraphs WAR and Baseball Reference WAR than Freeman last year. Baseball Prospectus had Freeman at 0.3 WARP over Heyward.
I wonder when we are going to get the calls for Freeman to be benched for a fringe-level journeyman or sent to Triple-A or the conjecturing that he isn’t willing to make adjustments.
April 16th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Don’t quite understand giving up the platoon advantage on Wright there.
April 16th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
David Wright is a good player. He is not elite and he is not great.
April 16th, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Poop.
April 16th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
I hear ya Ski…loud and clear.
April 16th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Not scoring there really was a shame. No momentum now and Livan coming in (creating even less momentum).
April 16th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
You heard it here first – I agree with Curt & Steve. Poor Matty. This gets me no time served toward my restraining order, however. Curt – I’m worse than you, with no plans to get to The Ted before July 4th!! WTF?
Oh, tonight’s score update I’m looking at just hurts. Durned Mets.
April 16th, 2012 at 9:39 pm
Anne – did you dump your tickets? Shame.
I was thinking about you when we were talking Diaz. Me thinks he has overstayed his welcome.
Will, the petrochemicals can’t be any worse than the nuclear cloud floating around Japan. Shake it off.
April 16th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Fredi didn’t help. Intentional walking Wright and failing to pinch hit for Wilson. And choosing to pinch hit Francisco instead of Freeman.Another day another bad managerial job.
April 16th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Omg Fredi thinks catcher’s interference is a hit. Smh
April 17th, 2012 at 8:05 am
#21 — yeah, I saw that in the postgame comments. And this guy is the manager of a major league baseball team.
My thoughts on Heyward’s spot in the lineup: I’m torn about it, even though I’ve posted several times on here that Fredi needs to hit him higher. Curt, you made the point that it’s not a good idea to mess with a guy while he’s doing well, and maybe hitting lower in the lineup is where Heyward is most comfortable. That’s a good point, and I’d hate to see Heyward move up to the 2 or 3 spot and hit .200 while there.
As I was thinking about it, I also think it’s a good idea to have a hot hitter behind guys in the middle of the order so that that hot hitter can drive them in. Then I looked at Heyward’s stats this season. Out of his 37 plate appearances, only 13 have come with any runners on base. That’s only about a third of the time. McCann and Uggla aren’t really doing enough to get on base much, and Freeman’s definitely struggling to do much of anything.
Furthermore, batting Heyward 7th means that Pastornicky/Wilson is behind him. When he’s 6th, the 7-hole hitters have been Francisco, Ross, and Hinske. So there’s not much protection for Heyward, and there’s no reason why, if he does keep hitting well, opposing pitchers won’t pitch around him to get to our weak 8 and 9 hitters.
So, my concern with leaving Heyward in the lower third of the lineup is that we’ve got a dangerous hitter who doesn’t have the chance to do any damage. And, the way this lineup’s poor team OBP (Chipper and Heyward are the only regular guys with OBPs above .330), I think it makes more sense to have Heyward (.444 OBP) getting on base to give Mac, Ugg, Freeman, and Chipper RBI opportunities as opposed to Heyward driving them in…especially when those guys aren’t getting on.
April 17th, 2012 at 8:34 am
Curt – no season tickets this year. They broke my heart last season. Only plans are, as mentioned, July 4th – and the husband and his Delta crew have gotten a suite for a Dodgers game on August 18th. I’m sure I’ll head out some time before those, though. I need to see if “my” usher Alan is still there!
April 17th, 2012 at 9:39 am
@14 – Disagree on Wright. With the exception of last year when he was injured, I’d certainly call Wright elite. He may not be an all-time great like Chipper, but Longoria is probably the only third baseman in the league I’d rather have than Wright.
April 17th, 2012 at 10:30 am
I don’t think Diaz is getting dropped anyways, at least not for a long time. So, its sort of a moot point would would replace him. So he only has two hits, but he has only had 17 PA’s. I will be awhile before we can really decide if Diaz has anything left to give.