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Have a Nice Offseason, You Bald Dickhead

September 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Fredi Gonzalez managed his way out of Miami, and now he’s managed his way out of an 8.5 game Wildcard lead. His ass-hattery botching of the Jason Heyward situation was beyond ridiculous, down to not even starting Heyward against a right-hander tonight. We credit Fredi with single handedly screwing up a superstar 21 year old.

All year long, Fredi Gonzalez thought he could outsmart everyone. Just like he did last year in Florida.While he was busy re-inventing the wheel, Tony LaRussa was managing like his hair was on fire. And as much as we don’t like the Cardinals, they deserve credit.

We don’t feel bad for Fredi. We feel bad for Chipper Jones. Uggla. Venters. Kimbrel. But not Fredi.

If Atlanta is smart they’ll keep searching for the Bobby Cox imcumbent because this guy proved he isn’t cut out for managing in the big leagues.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, choking, Philadelphia Phillies, Wild Card Tagged With: ,

Wild Card Scramble Wednesday

September 28, 2011 by Leave a Comment

We’ve got quite a turn of events that will go down tonight. There is a good chance that in the final hour–with 161 games down and just one to go–that two teams season’s come to an abrupt end.

The Cardinals dream stayed alive last night. The Braves lost to the Phillies 7-1 in Atlanta. St. Louis battled back from a 5-o deficit early on in Houston to win 13-6 and move into a tie for the NL Wild Card with Atlanta.

Over in the American League, the Rays got a big home run from Matt Joyce to beat the Yankees 5-3. The Red Sox hung on to a narrow 8-7 win and escaped with nothing but their dignity in Baltimore.

Three of tonight’s games will be on ESPN or ESPN2. We’ll learn whether or not there will be one, two, or zero ‘winner takes all’ games tomorrow.

This should be a wonderful display of what the sport is all about tonight and into tomorrow. We’ll post about as much of it as we possibly can. Everyone enjoy themselves. Go Rays, go Braves.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, pennant chase, Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Devil Rays

31 straight for Uggla

August 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Dan Uggla v. 2011 is probably the unlikeliest of all hitting-streak heroes out there. Before this streak started he was comfortably riding the interstate. After a single in the early going of last night’s contest against his former team down in Miami, he owns the longest hitting streak in Atlanta Braves franchise history. [AJC]

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, Hitting Streaks Tagged With:

Jason Heyward’s homerless streak has ended (Braves win again)

July 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[AJC]

The player we sponsor on Baseball Reference is not without homers as part of his game any longer. He didn’t hit any bombs in May. He didn’t hit any homers in June. But on July 1st, Jason Heyward lit up the skies like a firework and it was a legitimate bomb that put the Braves ahead 2-0 in the 6th inning. He’d add a single and score another run late in the game for good measure.

If Jason Heyward has the second half that we fully believe he is capable of having, he’s still got time to be a true MVP candidate if the Braves can run down the Phillies in the NL East. And it doesn’t really matter, because Atlanta is finally getting healthy and they’re playing great baseball.

Atlanta got a 1-hit shut out from Jair Jurrjens, the only hit against the Orioles being an Adam Jones single. Jurrjens will be in Arizona next week for the All Star Game. He’s 11-3 now with a 1.89 ERA. He might be the finest pitcher in all of baseball right now.

The Braves have a really, really nice nucleus right now. And Martin Prado is on the mend.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Interleague Play Tagged With: ,

The Atlanta Braves are going to be alright

June 24, 2011 by 5 Comments

The Atlanta Braves sit at 43-33, 10 games over the .500 mark and four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the coveted first place spot in the NL East.

The Braves enter their three game weekend series in San Diego on the mend. And when these guys get fully healthy they’ve got the opportunity to be a downright scary squad.

They’ve weathered some tough storms in the early part of this season, and have still managed to play 10 games above .500 baseball. They’ve gotten barely anything out of Jason Heyward–who someday should evolve into the biggest prize in all of the game. It might not be this year, but it’s fair to expect that Heyward will perform better for the remainder of the year than he has so far. Another player who falls in that category is Dan Uggla, who has been way worse than his career norms.

If they can just remain reasonably healthy and continue to tread water at the current pace for a few more weeks, they’re going to get back Martin Prado and Tommy Hanson back by the middle of July. That’s when this team will open it’s sales and be running wide awake, we presume. By then, they could be the best all around team in baseball.

This squad is likable for many reasons.

One of those reasons? They’re our MLB: The Show ’11 team of choice (with the addition of Michael Bourn). Johnny Venters, Chipper Jones, Craig Kimbrel, Uggla, Heyward, Prado, Jordan Schaefer, Nate Mclouth, Brian McCann, the list goes on and on. It’s a nice nucleus they’ve compiled to run down those Phillies.

The Braves are going to be right the thick of things until the end of things. Count on it.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Atlanta gets a huge lift from Brooks Conrad, Heyward looking good

June 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[AJC Braves]
I listened to about 8 innings of this game on the MLB At-Bat Radio app while playing MLB the Show.

They’re calling him “Clutch Conrad” in Atlanta, but if Brooks Conrad keeps hitting bombs like this one I don’t know how you could possibly call him anything else.

K-Rod imploded and the Braves eventually won it in the bottom of the 10th inning to salvage one game in the series. Jason Heyward walked, singled twice, drove in a run and scored a run.

Chipper Jones also matched his career high with 5 RBI in this game including 3 hits and a home run, but left the game with a strained abductor muscle.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bonus baseball, New York Mets Tagged With: , , ,

Jason Heyward is presumably returning to lineup tonight

June 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Jason Heyward sounds like his return from a fractured ego sore right shoulder will happen tonight at Turner Field, and to really make everything smoothed over; it’s his bobblehead night!

Heyward told a person close to him this morning that he’s feeling good and ready to return to the lineup. After two minor league rehab games with Triple-A Gwinnett up in Indianapolis, Heyward traveled back to Atlanta today. Heyward will likely take batting practice before the Braves make a final decision on activating him but he told this person his shoulder is feeling as good as it’s felt in a long time and he’s “ready to get back to the office.”

Yea, whatever. Let’s just hope he hits .260 or better with some pop so that he doesn’t need to go back on the DL for some type of imaginary injury that multiple MRI’s cannot detect. We knew we never should have sponsored his B-R page.

UPDATE (3:40 PM): David O’ Brien reports that Heyward is in the lineup, hitting 7th.

 

  • Heyward poised to return from DL on his bobblehead night [AJC]
Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bobbleheads Tagged With: ,

Jason Heyward could return tomorrow

June 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There is a lot of excitement building with the possibility that Jason Heyward could return to the Atlanta Braves tomorrow. Heyward went 1 for 3 with a double, walk, and run scored for AAA Gwinnett last evening; and earlier in the week Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez speculated that it would be possible that Heyward would return as quickly as Wednesday or Thursday.

Coincidentally, tomorrow night is Jason Heyward bobblehead night at Turner Field.

Obviously if Heyward is back with the Braves tomorrow night (and I have one of my important fantasy lineups finally at near full-strength for the first time since the season began) we all owe a serious assist to Chipper Jones.

Whether Heyward was genuinely hurt badly–or just being extra cautious–we fall in the category of the casual fan that just enjoys baseball more when he’s playing right field for the Braves. Hopefully he’s just back on the field and being a full-fledged 21 year old OPS machine by the weekend at the latest.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, injuries Tagged With:

Brian McCann saves the Braves

May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Brian McCann had the big moment yesterday, as Wandy Rodriguez had shut the Braves down for 8 innings. In the 9th inning with two outs, Mcann pinch hit and homered off Astros closer Mark Melancon. This tied the game at 1-1 and sent the game into extra innings.

In the 11th inning, McCann homered again off Jeff Fulchino to give the Braves a 3-1 walkoff victory at Turner Field. This also happened to be a game in which Jason Heyward (1 for 3, two walks) and Chipper Jones (1 for 5) returned from injury. The Braves now head out to Arizona to play a Diamondbacks team that plenty of teams are making hay against. This is a time in which the Braves can really make a move in the NL East.

Early in the season I heard a fair share of Atlanta Braves fans say that they didn’t think that they could catch the Phillies so they were actually rooting for the Phillies if the Phillies’ opponent was anyone that could be considered a threat in the Wild Card race. With the way Philadelphia is having trouble scoring runs, and the fact the surging Braves are just 1 and 1/2 games behind the leaders of the division with Florida sandwiched in between.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bonus baseball, Houston Astros, walk off wins Tagged With: , , , , ,

Jason Heyward to get MRI on shoulder

May 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

And who didn’t see this one coming? I certainly did.

I love Jason Heyward. I think his talent is other-worldly. But every time this guy goes into a slump, the organization and he come out and deflect it towards an injury. This was predictable.

Heyward’s been terrible in May, going just 2-for-28 while his batting average plummeted from .263 to .220 in the span of just nine games. Heyward told O’Brien the shoulder has really affected him, saying, “It hasn’t felt good, really, for any consistent period of time. I tried to play through it.”

I just don’t know about this. Somehow I think if he had a few multi-hit games mixed in there, it wouldn’t have been mentioned. But I knew if Heyward didn’t start stringing some hits together soon, someone would leak that it’s an injury that’s actually behind the hollow numbers. I didn’t know if it would be his back, or his legs, or what it would be. But I knew it would be something.

As much as I love watching Heyward play, this is the one knock I have on him. He is so very fragile. And there’s nothing worse than a guy who is always hurt. And if you’re keeping score at home, you can add Heyward to the list of guys who are burying one of my most important fantasy teams. This year been unreal in terms of bad luck in fantasy baseball.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, injuries Tagged With:

Double-Header Day Down at Turner Field

May 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Whether it’s in terms of when you were playing baseball, or if it’s just as a fan or observer; there isn’t much better than a double-header. In fact, we would love to see baseball schedule double headers a few times a year just to appease fans like us. And we’re not sure what exactly is so awesome about it–other than at the end you should feel stuffed, like you’ve watched enough baseball to satisfy you until at least the next day.

In the wake of yesterday’s rained out game, the Braves play a pair with the Brewers today. Zach Greinke makes his Brewers debut tonight.

So if you’re not being forced into date night like we are, and you’ve got a television with access to watching these two games, you really need to park yourself starting at 4 PM for about 6 hours and let the Braves and Brewers take over. That’s what we would do. These are two really good teams that are going to factor by years end, they just haven’t hit their stride yet.

We’ll say it’s going to be a split today. But if either of these guys could take two, that’s the kind of thing that can serve as the catalyst for a week, month, or entire season.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, Doubleheaders, Milwaukee Brewers Tagged With:

Jason Heyward: The New ‘Swingman’ of Nike

April 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, Ken Griffey Jr. was Nike’s ‘Swingman’.

They were the shoes to have. The kids in little league that had the Griffey baseball kicks were the ones I always envied. And if Nike devotes their time to creating a baseball shoe, you know a guy is the real deal.

Jason Heyward is gonna be that guy for your kids and my kids. Every once in a blue moon, we’re blessed with one of these great, generational talents that is a likable figure and has that sweet stroke. Right now, Heyward is that guy.

Nike capitalized on the opportunity by making Heyward the new ‘Swingman’. After the jump, the pics that J-Hey posted on twitter of his shiny new shoes. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves Tagged With:

Drivin’ with Derek!

April 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Derek Lowe’s absolutely gross season continues.

I don’t know what’s more dangerous, racing another driver in your souped up vehicle while you’re half in the bag, or starting Lowe at any point in a fantasy baseball league where money on the line.

I’m only guilty of one of those (this month), and the night I decided I was going to out-smart everyone else in the league who didn’t want Lowe and his sinking shit that doesn’t sink anymore, he gave up about a month’s worth of earned runs in an inning out in Los Angeles. So maybe that’s why he’s out boozing and then racing people, I don’t know and who am I to judge anyways.

That said, it would be nice if Lowe could stay out of the bottle and get it together so that the Braves can make a run at things in the NL East.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, Booze and baseball Tagged With:

Jason Heyward is a Weekend Giant in the Bay Area

April 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[AJC Braves]

Jason Heyward had a big, big weekend. After a day on Saturday in which he went 2 for 3 with two walks with Tim Lincecum on the bump, he had a big hand in getting the Braves the sweep on the road in San Francisco. Heyward hit a bomb that was well over 450 feet to give the Braves a 5-2 lead. He hit this off Jeremy Affeldt, a tough lefthander.

The Giants didn’t go down without a fight, scoring three runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to take a 6-5 lead. Like clockwork, Dan Uggla hit his 5th home run of the year to tie the game at 6-6 in the top of the 8th. The Braves waited out the Giants for a few more innings and in the top of the 10th inning they picked up three runs–two of the runs plated coming on a Nate Mclouth single.

The more I think about it, I see Jason Heyward as the next 50 home run guy in baseball. I know some might think I’m getting ahead of myself in saying that, but I think it’s coming. I think he’ll find his way to about 35 this season, and next year or the year after he’ll hit over 50 home runs.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bonus baseball, San Francisco Giants Tagged With: , , ,
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