Results tagged ‘ Atlanta Braves ’
GIFPost: Kid does The Chop incorrectly
During the second game of the Mets-Braves doubleheader, the Braves fans were at it again, doing The Chop. It is controversial, and Braves fans hate talking about it with people that think it’s racist. Moving on from that discussion, there is a kid who does it in a fantastic manner.
Look for the kid in the white shirt next to the pitch coach Warthen.
Straight arm, just going up an down, like he’s fanning the baseball players. But then… things get really heated:
A STANDING STRAIGHT ARMED CHOP! And it even looks like he’s hitting the baseball player on the head, but it’s still great.
He may be doing The Chop wrong, but this kid did everything right. He would fix his arm motion later on (not GIF’d), spoiled by the influence of society.
Southpaw duel on tap as Paul Maholm faces off against Madison Bumgarner
The series between two teams with twenty-one wins continues today at 1PM PST as Paul Maholm and Madison Bumgarner hope to break the series tie with their team taking the win this afternoon. Outside of Maholm’s start against Detroit, he has been pretty good this year, while Bumgarner would like to forget his last start against Philadelphia. Consider this game logs from the year:
Maholm
| Date | Opp | Rslt | DR | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 3 | PHI | W,9-2 | 99 | 5.2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0.00 | 24 | 97 | |
| Apr 8 | @ | MIA | W,2-0 | 4 | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0.00 | 26 | 98 |
| Apr 14 | @ | WSN | W,9-0 | 5 | 7.2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0.00 | 29 | 113 |
| Apr 20 | @ | PIT | L,1-3 | 5 | 6.0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1.03 | 24 | 89 |
| Apr 26 | @ | DET | L,0-10 | 5 | 3.2 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3.30 | 23 | 89 |
| May | Opp | Rslt | DR | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | ||
| May 1 | WSN | L,0-2 | 4 | 8.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 3.08 | 29 | 99 | |
| May 6 | @ | CIN | W,7-4 | 4 | 5.2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 3.09 | 24 | 105 |
| 43.2 | 32 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 38 | 2 | 3.09 | 179 |
Bumgarner
| Date | Opp | Rslt | DR | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2 | @ | LAD | W,3-0 | 99 | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0.00 | 26 | 101 |
| Apr 8 | COL | W,4-2 | 5 | 5.2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1.32 | 25 | 104 | |
| Apr 13 | @ | CHC | W,3-2 | 4 | 6.2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1.77 | 27 | 110 |
| Apr 19 | SDP | W,3-2 | 5 | 6.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 2.05 | 22 | 99 | |
| Apr 24 | ARI | L,2-3 | 4 | 7.1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1.87 | 28 | 101 | |
| Apr 30 | @ | ARI | W,2-1 | 5 | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.55 | 24 | 102 |
| May | Opp | Rslt | DR | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | BF | Pit | ||
| May 6 | PHI | L,2-6 | 5 | 6.0 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 2.31 | 28 | 100 | |
| 46.2 | 33 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 43 | 4 | 2.31 | 180 |
Not bad, right? Both of these guys making very decent All Star Game campaigns for themselves thus far.
The lineups for today’s game for the two squads look like this:
Today’s lineup at SF (4:05, FSS/MLBN/680AM/BRN): Simmons 6 Uggla 4 JUpton 9 Freeman 3 Gattis 7 CJohnson 5 BUpton 8 Laird 2 Maholm 1
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 11, 2013
Gerald Laird gets the start over Brian McCann today, and thank goodness (I think) because McCann has provided two homers in two games for the Braves in this series thus far.
and for the Champs:
Today’s (5/11) #SFGiants lineup – Pagan CF, Scutaro 2B, Sandoval 3B, Posey 1B, Pence RF, Peguero LF, Quiroz C, Crawford SS and Bumgarner LHP
— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) May 11, 2013
Beat writer Andrew Baggarly saying that Maholm’s been pretty tough on the LHH this year so that’s why you see Brandon Belt getting a day off today.
And you thought Yu Darvish threw a lot of pitches. Maholm does have the kitchen sink to throw at you, and will do it, while relying on his two-seamer, four-seamer, slider, curve, and changeup the most. You can imagine, if he has most of those pitches working, it’s going to be pretty tough to prepare for an at bat against him.
We’re used to seeing this out of Bumgarner, the fastball-slider combo, with a touch of the curve, and the changeup also being brought out to RHH. It’s brought him much success before, and look for him to continue doing that today.
Enjoy your Saturday, everybody.
GIFPost: The Swings of Justin Upton’s Twelve Homers
Justin Upton‘s swing is a thing of beauty, and the good people of MLB have noticed and compiled a video of his twelve homers from the month of April. The video is here for your viewing pleasure:
The dates of all those games you may not know, although you’ve probably heard his RBI count is pretty low:
| Rk | Gtm | Date | Opp | Rslt | HR | RBI | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Apr 1 | PHI | W,7-5 | 1 | 1 | .250 | .250 | 1.000 | |
| 2 | 2 | Apr 3 | PHI | W,9-2 | 1 | 2 | .286 | .444 | 1.143 | |
| 4 | 4 | Apr 5 | CHC | W,4-1 | 1 | 2 | .308 | .375 | 1.000 | |
| 5 | 5 | Apr 6 | CHC | W,6-5 | 2 | 2 | .389 | .429 | 1.278 | |
| 7 | 7 | Apr 8 | @ | MIA | W,2-0 | 1 | 1 | .423 | .448 | 1.192 |
| 12 | 12 | Apr 14 | @ | WSN | W,9-0 | 1 | 1 | .348 | .415 | .891 |
| 13 | 13 | Apr 16 | KCR | W,6-3 | 1 | 1 | .340 | .404 | .900 | |
| 15 | 15 | Apr 18 | @ | PIT | W,6-4 | 1 | 1 | .328 | .394 | .862 |
| 19 | 19 | Apr 23 (1) | @ | COL | W,4-3 | 1 | 1 | .296 | .378 | .775 |
| 20 | 20 | Apr 23 (2) | @ | COL | W,10-2 | 1 | 2 | .307 | .391 | .813 |
| 23 | 23 | Apr 27 | @ | DET | L,4-7 | 1 | 2 | .302 | .384 | .779 |
| 12 | 19 | .299 | .400 | .722 |
All those homers within the first twenty-three games of the season. Better than a one homer every other game average! For that stretch, that’s amazingness. I present to you the swings of each of his twelve homers, in order:
It’s like the fourth and fifth homer go to the same place just based on what you see in the GIFs. Love that bat drop.
Thanks for playing, pitchers. This was a fun post to do.
Postseason and Award Predictions: Don’t Worry, They’ll Be Wrong
The regular season begins this Sunday tomorrow at 5:05PM PST when the Texas Rangers play the Houston Astros in that famous AL West rivalry, which means this week is all about previews, bold predictions, and message board put downs. I will say I am not good at predicting things, so let’s get that straight. Like everybody else though, I have an opinion on the matter of how events will play out. Let us preview the postseason, where the best team doesn’t always win due to the randomness of how the short series will go. It’s a first team to eleven wins once the DS begins, and normally the team that catches fire tends to do the celebrating. Also in my analysis, the team that scores more runs tend to win games. I’ll start with who I have going into the playoffs, then the predictions of the resulting postseason series. After that, I’ll go into regular season awards.
NL Playoff Seeding
1. Washington Nationals
2. Cincinnati Reds
3. Los Angeles Dodgers
4. Atlanta Braves
5. San Francisco Giants
Wild-Card Play-in Game
Atlanta beats San Francisco
NLDS
Atlanta beats Washington
Cincinnati beats Los Angeles
NLCS
Cincinnati beats Atlanta
AL Playoff Seeding
1. Detroit Tigers
2. Toronto Blue Jays
3. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
4. Tampa Bay Rays
5. Texas Rangers
Wild-Card Play-in Game
Tampa Bay beats Texas
ALDS
Detroit beats Tampa Bay
Toronto beats LA of A
ALCS
Detroit beats Toronto
World Series (game will be in AL Park when AL wins ASG)
Detroit beats Cincinnati
Don’t worry Tiger fans, I’m sure my predictions won’t be correct!
—————————
Regular Season Awards
I will go into who the MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year for both leagues will be. These will also probably be wrong.
AL MVP — Mike Trout
Asking me if I’m mad, bro? Nah, not mad, but let’s say Mike Trout does even 80% of what he did in 2012 in 2013, and his team gets to the playoffs, the voters are going to give him his “redemption,” and feel good that “see, we don’t hate advanced stats,” as we roll our collective eyes together. Sophomore slump? Maybe a little, but the only thing that will stop this fish is if he gets hurt playing the game.
NL MVP — Justin Upton
They say a change of scenery can do wonders for a player, and how about playing with an organization that wants you? I’d say that’s a good start. I think Upton will have a career year, players like Braun and Posey will regress a little, and Upton will find his team in the playoffs. Justin Upton may not have the best year of everybody, but I think he gets the award.
AL Cy Young — Justin Verlander
Kind of like Trout, he’s only going to get stopped by an injury. He should continue to rack up the pitcher wins, satisfying the old school, and his team will make the playoffs all with lots of money, and lots of strikeouts. Probably not many multi-homer against games though. Verlander is just excellent.
NL Cy Young — Clayton Kershaw
Dickey was a great story in 2012, but I still side with the overall metrics a bit on Kershaw, believing he got snubbed by just a little bit, nothing too controversial. Kershaw, like Verlander, will be getting plenty of pitcher wins behind a boosted offense, and he’s still really, really good. Oh, and his team will be going to the playoffs so that equals instant votes.
AL Rookie of the Year — Jackie Bradley Jr.
Shot up the prospect lists in 2012 into 2013, and is projected to start with the team. For the kid, the defense will be getting peoples attention, while the stick may not be able to do anything super special, it’ll be enough. Lots of names for both RoY awards, JBJ just happens to be my guess right now.
NL Rookie of the Year — Zack Wheeler
Wheeler will not come up until June and he’ll still get the award. Dominating the minors, and yes, I understand the pain he’s going to cause Giants fans, but the kid is good, and will be going after his opposition from the get-go with heat and curveballs and breaking balls and strikeouts.
Let’s hear what your predictions are! Pretty much anything goes before the season gets going.
The NL East Season Preview: Where Dynasties Live
The regular season begins this Sunday at 5:05PM PST when the Texas Rangers play the Houston Astros in that famous AL West rivalry, which means this week is all about previews, bold predictions, and message board put downs. I will say I am not good at predicting things, so let’s get that straight. Like everybody else though, I have an opinion on the matter of how events will play out. As I preview these divisions, I’ll tell you a little of what sport betting sites see, what computer simulations see, and what I see. The teams will be previewed in the reverse order I expect them to finish. Let us preview the NL East, where in my lifetime, I’ve really only seen the Braves (’94-’05) and Phillies (’07-’11) rule the NL East in its “new” format. Now, a new horse has arrived, it’s young, and it’s also got better competition this year.
5. Miami Marlins
Bovada’s odds to win the division, pennant, and World Series: 40/1, 75/1, 200/1
PECOTA’s projected three highest Wins Above Replacement Player for 2013: Giancarlo Stanton (4.9), Justin Ruggiano (2.2), Ricky Nolasco (2.1)
Stuart sees: a snake occupying the owner’s box, leaving a city the bill to a stadium with an eyesore out in left-center, along with a trade of major leaguers Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, and Emilio Bonifacio who were all sent north of the border because it just didn’t work out. Maybe you can find a little sympathy in your heart for that kind of business, I’m having trouble with it. The fish are left with Nolasco as their ace with not much behind him, and Stanton as the guy they’re supposedly building around. The bullpen might be the most well-rounded part of the team, but I wonder how this team scores its runs when Stanton’s not there. What lead will there be for the bullpen to hold? In case the only time you’ve seen Giancarlo is in the WBC, I’ve provided some memories from 2012 of the things he did. Worth your time.
4. New York Mets
Bovada’s odds to win the division, pennant, and World Series: 15/1, 40/1, 100/1
PECOTA’s projected three four highest Wins Above Replacement Player for 2013: David Wright (3.9), Shaun Marcum (2.6), Daniel Murphy and Matt Harvey (2.5)
Stuart sees: a team that is getting ready to put its bullets into its Major League gun, and they are going to hit the mound and shut down the opposition. That may be seen even as early as June when Zack Wheeler will likely get the promotion to join former prospect Harvey on the hill. Marcum, like Johan Santana, is already injured, so it’s hard to see the Mets starting corps providing much for their team outside of Harvey. The offense will need to pick it up until their starters have their health back, and 2B Daniel Murphy is on the comeback trail to getting healthy again, and Ike Davis can supply some power for this squad. The outfield is kind of a nightmare, and with John Buck behind the plate, Mets fans are also counting down the days to when they see prospect Travis d’Arnaud come up in June so they can see part of the fruits of that trade for R.A. Dickey. If this team starts hot, they could be a very real threat for a wild card spot, but I’m talking 45-days hot, not 1-week hot.
3. Philadelphia Phillies
Bovada’s odds to win the division, pennant, and World Series: 3/1, 7/1, 16/1
PECOTA’s projected three highest Wins Above Replacement Player for 2013: Cliff Lee (4.2), Roy Halladay (3.9), Cole Hamels (3.6)
Stuart sees: a walking AARP commercial unfolding in front of everybody’s eyes. Halladay is starting to show his age with decreasing velocity (although that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s done), and possibly being on the road to getting lit up more often. The acquisition of Michael Young seemed to be one built off of intangibles, and Delmon Young just plays like he’s old when he’s in the outfield. On the offensive side of things, this team should be fine, hitting some homers here and there, Philadelphia fans do have their reasons to believe in this team (not much of it on defense, though). I wonder how long the John Lannan experiment as the 5 will go, but the bullpen does have a decent 8th-9th inning set of arms in Mike Adams and Jonathan Papelbon (only to be used in save situations, of course!). It’s easy to not like this team because of the way their general manager, Ruben Amaro, Jr. built it, but they can provide some healthy, spirited, and most importantly competent competition for their NL East brethren.
2. Atlanta Braves
Bovada’s odds to win the division, pennant, and World Series: 9/4, 7/1, 16/1
PECOTA’s projected three highest Wins Above Replacement Player for 2013: Jason Heyward (3.6), Justin Upton (3.4), B.J. Upton (3.1)
Stuart sees: a team that could rule the division if not for another great team standing in their way. Those top three guys all reside in the outfield, and we haven’t even mentioned SS Andrelton Simmons and Brian McCann, whom is starting to feel better. Braves fans may not be confident of the platoon they have going at the hot corner with Juan Francisco and Chris Johnson, and it’s easy to be disappointed when you had a Hall of Famer in Chipper Jones manning the position there for as long as he did. My question mark on this team is how well does the starting pitching do this year, as I’m not worried about their bullpen holding leads or keeping things close. Does Tim Hudson stay healthy, can Mike Minor keep batters in the park and continue to lower his walk rate? What about Julio Teheran, how ready is he to reaching that ceiling of a #2-3 starter that’s been put on him? Watch this team at the plate for a series and you’ll understand the threat these guys pose, they are not just a force, they are a force. (oooOOOooohhhhh)
1. Washington Nationals
Bovada’s odds to win the division, pennant, and World Series: 10/11, 7/2, 7/1
PECOTA’s projected three four highest Wins Above Replacement Player for 2013: Stephen Strasburg (4.8), Ryan Zimmerman (4.0), Jayson Werth and Dan Haren (3.1)
Stuart sees: a team that you will be describing using any and every positive/fear-inducing adjective and profane word in the book. Now that this team has brought their town an NL East title in 2012, their extraordinarily powerful lineup, along with newly acquired speedster Denard Span, are going to put up some pretty good numbers (hint hint, fantasy baseball players) and work on creating that dynasty within the NL East. Bryce Harper just got done being nineteen (that’s 19, as in, my college freshman+sophomore years you know what, I don’t wanna talk about it), Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmermann are also pretty stinkin’ good, and that bullpen added Rafael Soriano because I guess they wanted to make Drew Storen feel really bad. My question marks for this team are Dan Haren, who has been not been pitching as well as the years have gone by (getting old will do that… along with lower velocity), and the part of the bullpen that doesn’t involve Storen, Tyler Clippard, and Soriano. Outside of that, you can see why they’ve got the best odds to win everything. This team… I mean… Man. (how ’bout that analysis right there)
If there’s something not going for them though, it’s definitely this (couldn’t find a more out of control picture, I know it’s out there though):
Tell me how you think the NL East standings fall out in the comments below, and remember to play nice!
The Long Nightmare is Finally Over: Justin Upton Traded to Atlanta
Wednesday afternoon reports surfaced that GM Frank Wren of the Braves had sent an offer to the Arizona Diamondbacks for 25-year old OF Justin Upton. Thursday morning, reports have come out that GM Kevin Towers has accepted that offer. Finally, after months of speculation that Justin Upton be traded, he does. There was some speculation that the DBacks would try to trade Jason Kubel to the Baltimore Orioles but now that Justin has been traded, that possibility seems pretty much done.
The Braves get:
OF Justin Upton (Already 108 HR, but a change of scenery could do wonders)
3B Chris Johnson (traded from Houston to AZ last season, 15 HR, defense not his calling card)
The Diamondbacks get:
UT Martin Prado (plays all over the place, in my opinion a little underrated, fans should like him but doesn’t have Upton power)
SP Randall Delgado (92.2 IP in MLB in ’12, will enter age 23 season)
SP Zeke Spruill (Double-A in ’12)
SS Nick Ahmed (High-A in ’12)
CI Brandon Drury (Single-A in ’12)
There was speculation yesterday that Braves top prospect Julio Teheran would be in the deal, but apparently he was swapped out and Prado and Delgado were brought in. Looking at the deal, I can’t say I hate it too much for either side, and I assumed the Braves would “win” this deal on paper. There are some people like me that didn’t feel trading Upton was appropriate, but getting Prado and Delgado back isn’t bad of a return at all. Atlanta now has a platoon partner for Juan Francisco, a pair of Uptons in the outfield to join another young star in Jason Heyward, it’s hard not to love this trade for the Braves. The Diamondbacks get a great player in Prado, another guy that they could ease into the rotation in Delgado who can be around until the latter part of the decade, and they get three guys that were all Baseball America Top 30 prospects (Spruill being the only Top 10 at #9; Ahmed #11, Drury #27, per JJ Cooper), this isn’t the worst thing in the world done by Kevin Towers. Really! I mean, the Trevor Bauer trade was easily much worse than this trade if you’re looking for an axe to grind.
If you clicked on the links to MLBDepthCharts on the team names, you’ll notice at how the rosters might take shape. Funny how the Diamondbacks used to have guys like Chris Young (now with the A’s), Justin Upton (traded today), Trevor Bauer (now with the Indians), and could’ve stayed content with Jarrod Parker (also now with the A’s). Their replacements are Cody Ross, Jason Kubel, Adam Eaton (all this combined is a downgrade because Upton is a pretty good player), and Trevor Cahill, Randall Delgado (could we call this a “push” for the pitching in the short-term?).
Both teams after this trade are left in pretty good shape, sending a message to their fans that they want to compete in 2013, but after the offseason the Diamondbacks have had, I’m not sure if I can say they are in better shape than what they ended 2012 with.
Shocker: Some Braves Fans Like Possible New BP Cap
Before the new year came around and after we had decided that maybe the Mayans were wrong about this whole “world ending” thing, Paul Lukas of Uni-watch.com released what could be the new BP caps for MLB teams in 2013. For a sample, here’s the Giants version and his commentary:
And now, here’s the Braves:
A lot of the commentary on this has been shared by well known journalists on social media and in articles already, and I’m in the group that opposes this (and for the record, yes, I oppose “The Chop,” non-Native American approved team names and logos of the Redskins, Indians, etc.). The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Dave O’ Brien had a piece on the cap in his first article of the year, where he says he likes it, but if there is a wide outcry for change, he could get on board with that, too. I like that he asks for the opinion of the people, and since he one of the better known Braves writers, he gets a pretty good number on the readership count as well. He posed the question of what people think of the BP caps. The results will probably not surprise you (**small sample size of Atlanta fanbase warning**):
I don’t mean that I’m surprised in any sort of political way, but even DOB says he realizes the people that read him will probably agree with his stance, as well. It probably doesn’t surprise Braves fans that a Giants fan is writing about this, but whatever. Although maybe it surprises some that I’m not a NY liberal:
Here is an update from Uni-watch.com on the matter:
Here’s hoping.
Happy Non-Tender Day so Let’s Trade People
Today could be a day of many trades, and Atlanta and the Angels of Anaheim have kicked off the day with some names you’ve heard of: Atlanta sending Tommy Hanson out for Jordan Walden. Here’s why Atlanta may be saying that they were ready to part ways while he had value:
This is his average velocity through the years on his fastball. Notice how in 2009 it’s in the 90′s , and in 2010 it’s also there, and 2011 OK it’s still there but the velocity range is down and then in 2012 you’re like dude, not even touching 95 anymore? What did you get older? No, but really, it’s not like Hanson has been consistently good: like his decline in fastball velocity, he’s seen a rise in BB/9 and FIP, which is not a good thing at all. Here’s what they got in Jordan Walden (who still doesn’t hit arbitration until 2014):
That’s in three seasons (’10-’12), the first one in 2010 not even being a full season in the bigs. His velocity looks like this:
It’s not the triple digit heat you might remember him for anymore, but mid-90′s is nothing to scoff at. The Braves add another power arm to their already powerful bullpen. If Hanson (going into his first of three arbitration years) regains his form, this will be a great trade for the Angels, but as it is on paper, I deem the Braves the winner of this early morning trade.
Series Preview with @FredEOwens: #Braves (71-53) vs. #SFGiants (69-55)
High school foes square off once again as Jason Heyward leads his Braves into AT&T for a four-gamer with Buster Posey’s Giants
After a huge sweep of the formerly-first place Los Angeles Dodgers in their own park happened, the Giants rode a happy flight home to being a series today and square off against a team that finally savaged a win against their biggest division rival in the Washington Nationals. A big series for both teams, Fred Owens from Tomahawk Take at Fansided reached out to me and asked about doing a collaboration preview. An awesome request and a great chance to work with other writers, we set out to do work. You can check out my contribution to his article here, and I’ll put his thoughts in quotes on this site because who’s going to know the Braves better: me, or a guy that blogs about them? Yea, I’d say the latter as well.
“Braves coming into the series:
After Tuesday’s meeting with the Nationals the Braves have lost four in a row and six of their last ten. Our lineup has essentially been the first five hitters, three pitching level hitters and Paul Janish who has hit really well filling in for Andrelton Simmons since his arrival. Our starting pitching has been sold and dependable with the exception of the enigmatic Tommy Hanson and our bullpen solid as a rock. The return of Jonny Venters to near last year’s form mean that a lead after six is probably a win as Eric O’Flaherty and Chad Durbin have filled the eighth inning role well and Craig Kimbrel is – with apologies to the young man in Cincinnati – the best closer in the game right now. Kimbrel has unfortunately not had many chances to save games of late but even when getting his work in he’s been virtually unhittable.”
Thursday, August 23rd: RHP Tommy Hanson vs. LHP Barry Zito
One sentence summary: Ben Sheets hasn’t allowed less than 3 ER to a team not named “Miami” since mid-June, while Zito has to hope his offense offsets the amount of runs he’ll give up if his recent 4 streak continues.
Friday, August 24th: RHP Ben Sheets vs. RHP Ryan Vogelsong
One sentence summary: The fairy tale of a great comeback may be ending for Sheets with 10 ER & 5 HR allowed in his last two starts, and interesting to note RHH are hitting far better against him at the moment; Vogelsong looks to go beyond the 4th inning for the first time in 3 starts.
Saturday, August 25th: LHP Mike Minor vs. LHP Madison Bumgarner
One sentence summary: Minor’s home/away splits aren’t as drastic as Lincecum’s, but they’re noticeable as he does far better at home, which may spell danger for the Braves against a Cy Young-candidate in the fabulous Bumgarner.
Sunday, August 26th: RHP Tim Hudson vs. RHP Tim Lincecum
One sentence summary: In 41.1 IP at AT&T Park, Tim Hudson has allowed 1 HR in his career, but it’s not like the Giants hit those anyway; Timmy looks to use that anti-Dodger adrenaline in another start — especially to keep the four-ball counts away.
Offenses Bound for the Playoffs?
“Who’s hot: Jason Heyward is having the year everyone expected him to have last year when injury interrupted his rising star and the Braves post season chances along with it. In the last seven days Heyward’s line of .375/.483/.833 with 2 homers, 3 doubles a triple and 7 RBI has been the hottest spot in the lineup. Paul Janish with a .304/.385/.348 line including a double and 3 RBI hitting out of the eighth spot in the lineup [and his] RBI have been key factors in our rallies and his defense is up there with the best I’ve seen lately. Chipper Jones [who will be honored in a pre-game ceremony today by the Giants to celebrate his career] may be 40 years old but Battle Axe is having a himself a superb farewell tour. His line for the last week of .294/.400/. 882 with 3 homers, a double and 4 RBI. Few make the play coming in on a bunt as well as the 40 year old future Hall of Famer.
Who’s not: This list is far too long and begins with our most expensive liability, Dan Uggla.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Uggla stinks. His .143/.308/.381 line for the last week is the one of the worst on the team. All season long I’ve waited for him to find a groove and start making opposing pitchers fear his bat again. Right now the only reason to fear the bat is if it slips out of his hand and flies towards your seat in the stands. Brian McCann is hurt. His right shoulder has a cyst and a “frayed labrum.” His line of .154/.353/.154 consists of 2 hits. Because he can’t follow through; he tries to start the bat early and is often fooled by pitches with late movement. Two weeks ago Freddie Freeman was scalding hot, since then he’s cooled considerably mostly due I think to facing a seemingly unending string of lefties followed by Jordan Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg. He has not fared well against Barry Zito (0-6) so his cold snap is likely to continue until at least Friday. The series of lefties and the high velocity offerings of Strasburg have cooled Michael Bourn off as well. Though his line of .240/.367/.727 isn’t awful it’s not great for a leadoff man and down considerably from the .375/.474/.594 of the prior seven game stretch. He too has had no luck against Zito. He may well run out and hug Volgesong just for being right handed and not throwing 99 on the outside corner at the knees.”
No more mystery who the hottest Giant is right now after his massacre-ing of the Dodgers last night: Joaquin Arias has hit 2 of his season’s 3 HR in the past week and is hitting an unconscious .646 wOBA in the L7 (.302 wOBA overall), so you can bet you’ll see Bochy try to fit him in the lineup somewhere. Welcome back, Angel Pagan, and your… .502 wOBA in the last week? Yea, that’s right. That’s also pretty unconscious. As good as they’ve been for Arias and Pagan, they have been bad for Justin Christian (.063 wOBA L7 in 11 PA) despite his great catch last night and Hector Sanchez (.000 wOBA in 10 PA) recently. Brandon Belt also seems to be off his hot streak (.202 wOBA L7, .331 wOBA overall — same as Pagan) so with a trio of RHP this weekend, we’ll see how the baby giraffe holds up and how he looks as well.
This is such a weird picture taken from the @SFGiantsFans account
Series Prediction
I won’t spoil Fred’s series prediction here, as he put his in his article on Fansided, but here’s mine with a little more detail than what I contributed to Tomahawk Take:
Thursday: Braves win (I’m not betting on Zito putting it together against the Braves)
Friday: Giants win (Ryan Vogelsong may not be back, but Ben Sheets isn’t the Sheets of old)
Saturday: Giants win (The legend of Bumgarner continues even as Posey takes a breather)
Sunday: Braves win (Velocity back to normal, Lincecum unable to blow by Braves bats)
Big thanks to Fred again for reaching out and allowing me to help out, as well as for him helping me out in giving the readers a better look at the Braves!
Look Into Melky’s Eyes
Look into those eyes. What are they saying to you? Do they say, “I’ve played with 4 different teams in the last 4 seasons?” Are they trying to tell you he’s on pace for 225 hits? Do they also question you when you endlessly cite BABIP to predict his inevitable fall? Maybe.
Sometimes we don’t appreciate what The Melky does. Other times, we dress up as deliverymen from a different decade and go on instagram to see pictures of his newborn baby. I don’t do either, because 1) I don’t have a costume like that and 2) I don’t have an Instagram account or even know how to take an Instagram (is that what the Instagrammers say?). This article is to show you in numbers that I appreciate what he does. I should make this perfectly clear to my readers though that you should never just rely on numbers for every argument you make about a player’s performance. I feel like a lot of guys that argue with the beat writers live and die by the number… don’t do that.
Anyway, you may be wondering how Melky Melkethed last year in KC while the trade idea for him for Dirty was not even a glimmer in Brian Sabean’s eye.
BEHOLD!!!:
My conclusions: Skinny Melky is putting up some fat numbers. If you rolled your eyes at that joke, you’re welcome. Take it and use it.
Interesting numbers and differences to look at though, like May of 2011 vs. May of 2012 as Melky went from mediocre in 5/2011 to out of his mind in May ’12, and is probably one of the biggest reasons why his 2012 numbers may be so much more ballooned relative to ’11 and thus may lead to so many more green rectangles for the Melk Man come contract time. I mean, unless August and September/October see Melky tank like Emmanuel Burriss, then Melky’s looking like all his numbers across the board should be what I’ll estimate to be around 20 points better if his numbers stay somewhat close to what he did in 2011. It’s looking like an over-.300 BABIP is not difficult for him to replicate now since he only couldn’t do it within the last 2 seasons in May of 2011. (Disclaimer: This is not saying Melky can do it for the easy majority of the next five-six years, I’m not willing to blindly guess that far into the future.)
So look into those eyes again:
Do they tell you he’s 11th in OBP in the bigs? 17th in wOBA? 5th in BABIP? Whether you think I made those numbers up or not, what those eyes should tell you is Melky’s here to produce, and here to hit, and should continue to do so over the final 64 games of the season for the Giants of San Francisco.
I hope those images don’t give you nightmares.
