Show #183: The Braves Sweep the Cards and Take First Place
The sweep of the Cards, Mike Minor’s troubles and looking at the line up.
260 Responses to “Show #183: The Braves Sweep the Cards and Take First Place”
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May 14th, 2012 at 9:59 pm
Booooooooo…
May 14th, 2012 at 10:00 pm
#71 got a phone call.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Here comes the rally! Poor on the pain! Make them bleed!
May 14th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
Will Fredi bat Ross or force Hinske to face a lefty? Well, why did I even ask?
May 14th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Prado’s about to homer.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Well piddelty poop.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Boooo.
Oh well. Nats just won theirs and took back the top spot. But I can’t say this was a hard loss for me. Get ‘em tomorrow. Oh, wait… is it Cueto tomorrow? Get ‘em Wednesday.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
We haven’t won on a Monday this season, according to AbswAgain at mlb.com. Outscored 66-13 on Mondays. Can that be real?
May 14th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
“Just having talent does not ensure playing well. Someone has to organize and inspire.”
ham @21, sorry I’m late to the party in continuing the Fredi discussion from earlier.
I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not Fredi organizes and inspires (and makes good tactical moves). It’s a matter of how much better Fredi does these things compared to other managers. I think most managers who reach the majors and have any kind of career there are good at organizing and inspiring and are decent tactically, up to a certain level.
I believe Fredi was worse than most managers last season. This season, while I don’t think he’s really any better than the vast majority of big league managers, I don’t think he’s any worse either.
Now, instead of being a manager that probably cost his team relative to the typical manager, I think he’s basically just another manager. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s nice when you’re manager isn’t a story and he just kind of fades into the background as another piece of the team.
Now tactically, I honestly don’t think there are very many managers who set themselves apart. Most managers manage based on backassward conventions (managing to the save rule, wasting the number two spot in the order on a weak contact hitter and things of that sort). Some are worse than others (Jim Tracy comes to mind) while some are better (Joe Maddon is the most obvious progressive-minded manager). But most are going to stick to the convictions and traditions that aren’t going to set them apart. I think Fredi is in this class this year, while he was more in the Jim Tracy class last year.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
We never win on a Monday after a 7-2 road trip against a guy who has been getting rocked all year. Ask Ham, he’ll tell you.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
#84, I might begrudgingly go along with all of that.
May 14th, 2012 at 10:53 pm
I really, REALLY thought Venters would be done by now. Do we think this is a harbinger of bad arm health, or just a bump in the road?
May 14th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
*by “done,” I mean hurt.
May 15th, 2012 at 7:38 am
If he’s hurt, so is EOF.
Say one thing about the Braves, when they lose now they sure do look bad doing it.
May 15th, 2012 at 10:56 am
Curt, I didn’t think they looked bad. They went deep into counts for the most part. Uggla had a similar ten-pitch at bat to Heyward’s game-winner, just didn’t end the same. Delgado looked pretty good. The Uggla/Pastornicky mix-up was goofy, but I thought they played a good game for the most part and just lost it. Venters’ bad night was most of the story.
May 15th, 2012 at 11:45 am
After being declared the best team in the NL we can’t let the Reds sweep us.
May 15th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Maybe ‘bad’ was hyperbolic. I just meant that they score 100 runs a game, except when they lose and they score 1. Or 0. Not many 6-5 losses recently.
To All: Please now post all the Braves losses on the year and their exact score to prove me wrong.
Thanks,
Mgmt.
May 15th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
@92: Just to save time: “Curt, you’re wrong and you hate puppies and kittens.”
May 15th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
“The idea of Fredi Gonzalez organizing and inspiring is hilarious.”
I really do hate to be a Fredi proponent, but does no credit go to him for the can do attitude and heads held high we see in the club this year after the historic collapse? I get that this comparison is kind of cheating, but look at what Boston’s doing after their epic collapse. Very different results so far between the two teams.
May 15th, 2012 at 2:05 pm
@ Steve
Fredi does share Bobby Cox’s temperament which is a far cry from Bobby Valentine. However, coming into the season I knew the Redsox were not as talented as the Rays and Yankees. The Blue Jays are also better. They had no LF or SS coming into the season and their rotation was iffy. I guess my point is that the Red Sox aren’t as good as the Braves.
I will give Fredi credit for letting his team play a little more this year and not injecting his stupidity as much. I’m sorry I just don’t like the guy. Shoot me.
May 15th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
I credit Fredi for improving. He hasn’t inserted crap at the top of the order, no bases-loaded squeeze attempts, etc.
I’m not sure how much better he is at organizing and inspiring than other managers. I would guess most guys even considered for major league jobs are pretty good at organizing and can be fairly inspirational.
May 15th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
One caveat to my last post. I suspect Bobby Cox stood out as a manager who did better than most when it came to inspiring. Has there ever been a manager in baseball who gave off more of an air to the players of “we’re in this together”? The man wore metal spikes even when he got up there in age, was constantly cheering his players on and of course wasn’t afraid to get tossed if his players felt they had been wronged.
I don’t know if Fredi will ever be that kind of guy. But I think tactically he looks to be moving closer to Bobby than he was last season, which is not a bad thing.
May 15th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Bobby was one of the greatest. He is a example of a manager making the difference in his team especially when we made the playoffs in 2010. We won the Wild Card by 1 game.When he made that decision to bat Prado and Heyward at the top, we took off. Managing a team that won 14 straight division titles with so many moving parts is a amazing accomplishment. Like I always said, If Lonnie Smith was actually paying attention to the game he would have had 2 WS championships.
May 15th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
Sigh.
http://tinyurl.com/bmvaxnl
May 15th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Thanks to a co-worker, I’ll be at tomorrow’s Braves v Marlins game. Where else: out in left field.