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Post by Fumbduckery on Sept 2, 2021 0:13:30 GMT -5
This one stings. We played them tough the whole series and have nothing to show for it.
But we only scored one run in the series that wasn't a direct result of a home run.
That's always going to be an issue when you play a well rounded team with good pitchers.
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Post by Blooper's Mascot on Sept 2, 2021 0:13:34 GMT -5
On the bright side, we're about to see the world record for how far a baseball can travel when Will Smith pitches at Coors Field.
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Post by TomlinFoolery on Sept 2, 2021 0:25:56 GMT -5
I suddenly don't feel any confidence they win the division. There were disturbing signs the offense was about to head for a slump with the way they played in baltimore, and low and behold.
They did get 2 against san fran, but they are also struggling mightily right now, so something had to give there. Phillies and Mets have an easy schedule for the next couple weeks, while the Braves still have to go to Colorado, San Fran, and AZ, where they historically do not do well.
This bullpen sucks against anyone worth a damn. Meanwhile LA and NYY actually have people who can lock anyone down.
Either way, East winner is getting knocked out in the first round, regardless of who it is.
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Post by keystone61 on Sept 2, 2021 9:21:11 GMT -5
With the late start times and the fact that what I feared would happen happened, I've had my hand in the sand the past few days. Matzek has been great this year, but he came back to Earth at exactly the wrong time. Martin was his mediocre self, Smyly continues to suck balls, and our lead has shrunk to 2 games. The bottom line is you've gotta put this series behind you and crank up the offense in Denver. Hopefully the gnats AAA squad and the Marlins pitching can help us out a bit over the next 4 days.
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Post by johnlogan on Sept 2, 2021 9:23:46 GMT -5
You can see it coming. The Braves blow it. Worthless bullpen. And Snot need to go.
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Post by keystone61 on Sept 2, 2021 9:30:35 GMT -5
You can see it coming. The Braves blow it. Worthless bullpen. And Snot need to go. The pen has been better in the 2nd half, but when the pressure is on and they're needed, they still crumble. It happened against the best team in baseball, but it happened nonetheless. I'd love to have a manager who can actually manage, but that ain't gonna happen. Braves are good ol' boy central and that doesn't look very likely to change.
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hokiedan
AA prospect
Hokie - Anthropomorphic turkey-like bird
Posts: 1,382
Likes: 244
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Post by hokiedan on Sept 2, 2021 10:01:46 GMT -5
The Braves are a slightly above average team. Beat up on the bottom feeders, but against the better teams they struggle. One too many holes in the starting rotation. The offense goes into a shell against good pitching (not surprising), and the pen, which barely survives against the bad teams absolutely sucks when it goes up against a quality lineup. As was said earlier, the Braves may when the division...but that's where it ends. I can't see them winning a playoff series against Milwaukee. Just another season of treading water...what will it take to put them over the top. Attachments:
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Post by Fumbduckery on Sept 2, 2021 15:34:46 GMT -5
The Braves are a slightly above average team. Beat up on the bottom feeders, but against the better teams they struggle. One too many holes in the starting rotation. The offense goes into a shell against good pitching (not surprising), and the pen, which barely survives against the bad teams absolutely sucks when it goes up against a quality lineup. As was said earlier, the Braves may when the division...but that's where it ends. I can't see them winning a playoff series against Milwaukee. Just another season of treading water...what will it take to put them over the top. I’ve been pretty much saying those things after the trade deadline. Several people here said they would be happy and consider it a win if we won the division and got hammered in the first round. I agree I’d rather win the division than lose it, but not at the expense of giving up prospects. While it’s true at least we didn’t give up any top prospects, we gave up three of them who have potential to be at least average MLB players. And I still don’t like that when you’re an average salary team that’s going to have to rely heavily on your farm system. Was it worth it to just win the division? Hell we may not even do that. But if we do then get wiped out in the first round it’s pretty questionable. Only time will tell when we see what happens with the prospects we traded. But to me the bottom line was us just taking advantage of a weak division to hang another divisional title banner then get slaughtered.
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Post by keystone61 on Sept 2, 2021 16:04:57 GMT -5
The Braves are a slightly above average team. Beat up on the bottom feeders, but against the better teams they struggle. One too many holes in the starting rotation. The offense goes into a shell against good pitching (not surprising), and the pen, which barely survives against the bad teams absolutely sucks when it goes up against a quality lineup. As was said earlier, the Braves may when the division...but that's where it ends. I can't see them winning a playoff series against Milwaukee. Just another season of treading water...what will it take to put them over the top. I’ve been pretty much saying those things after the trade deadline. Several people here said they would be happy and consider it a win if we won the division and got hammered in the first round. I agree I’d rather win the division than lose it, but not at the expense of giving up prospects. While it’s true at least we didn’t give up any top prospects, we gave up three of them who have potential to be at least average MLB players. And I still don’t like that when you’re an average salary team that’s going to have to rely heavily on your farm system. Was it worth it to just win the division? Hell we may not even do that. But if we do then get wiped out in the first round it’s pretty questionable. Only time will tell when we see what happens with the prospects we traded. But to me the bottom line was us just taking advantage of a weak division to hang another divisional title banner then get slaughtered. I think we'll probably regret trading Wilson. We got a useful pitcher in Rodriguez, but I think Wilson could turn out to be another Adam Wainwright situation. He's still only 23 years old. Alex Jackson is still a very bad hitter. He's struck out 37 times in 77 plate appearances for Miami. That's almost 50%, which is godawful. The only thing about that one was that we could have signed Duvall in the offseason and didn't. As far as Jackson panning out, that seems very doubtful to me.
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Post by Fumbduckery on Sept 2, 2021 17:16:58 GMT -5
I’ve been pretty much saying those things after the trade deadline. Several people here said they would be happy and consider it a win if we won the division and got hammered in the first round. I agree I’d rather win the division than lose it, but not at the expense of giving up prospects. While it’s true at least we didn’t give up any top prospects, we gave up three of them who have potential to be at least average MLB players. And I still don’t like that when you’re an average salary team that’s going to have to rely heavily on your farm system. Was it worth it to just win the division? Hell we may not even do that. But if we do then get wiped out in the first round it’s pretty questionable. Only time will tell when we see what happens with the prospects we traded. But to me the bottom line was us just taking advantage of a weak division to hang another divisional title banner then get slaughtered. I think we'll probably regret trading Wilson. We got a useful pitcher in Rodriguez, but I think Wilson could turn out to be another Adam Wainwright situation. He's still only 23 years old. Alex Jackson is still a very bad hitter. He's struck out 37 times in 77 plate appearances for Miami. That's almost 50%, which is godawful. The only thing about that one was that we could have signed Duvall in the offseason and didn't. As far as Jackson panning out, that seems very doubtful to me. The breaking ball is Jackson's El Guapo, he's being eaten alive by it. If he gets that figured out he's going to be at least average, which is hard to find in a catcher these days. Some guys figure out the breaking stuff, some don't. He's just had 110 AB's in the big leagues, he has a ways to go before any judgments can be passed. The Marlins are really high on him, I would imagine they plan to really work with him in the offseason, I'm expecting him to be a lot better next year.
And I really think Ball is the guy we could end up regretting. Fangraphs rates his power at 70. He's going to be one of those guys who hits .220, with a .280 OBP, strikes out 30%+ of the time and hits 35, 40 or more home runs. Which seems to be a very acceptable commodity in today's game. I wonder where the breaking point comes. The average batting average in MLB this year is something like .230 or .235. How far are we away from a point where guys can hit .170 or .180 and that is totally ok because they're hitting 25+ home runs every year? There's a lot of guys in baseball that are playing every day now with that kind of batting average, it's just mind boggling.
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