Braves

[msstate7]

The pen is a train wreck. All these walks today made me think I was listening to state.

Not liking what I'm seeing out of FF so far. He's trying to hit everything out of the park. Hopefully he stops lifting the ball so much and starts hitting line drives

[smootness]

Freeman is fine. He's not been great and is still OPSing at .826.

Pen is utter garbage, especially with Jim Johnson falling off after a good start.

The inevitable fall has come, so if guys like Folty and Wisler pitch well, call them up. If Peraza keeps hitting, call him up. If Mallex Smith keeps hitting at AAA, call him up. Time to get the young guys work.

[msstate7]

Not sure this series means we're about to bomb. We just won a series at a good Toronto team. Mets are pretty dang good (11 straight). I think we'll settle the ship some against philly. I think we'll be a .500 club this year.

[smootness]

I definitely don't think we're a .500 team. I've said 75 wins at most, and I still believe that. There just isn't enough talent.

Teheran, Wood, and Miller would have to all be All-Stars for us to get to 81 wins, especially given the state of our pen.

3 good starters, good IF defense, bad offense, and a terrible bullpen is not a recipe to win 81 games, IMO.

I'm not basing this on the Mets series. It's just what I've thought from the beginning, and after the hot start, we're seeing the flaws in a big way.

[msstate7]

I think the pen will be better than they've shown the last few games.

Johnson isn't as good as he started, but I don't think he's this bad either.

Avilan had his only bad outing of the year today.

I think we could possibly see stults or Cahill in the pen at some point and give Martin or one of minor leaguers a shot

[smootness]

Well, but Jim Johnson was this bad last year. All year.

Grilli/Johnson will probably at best be worse than average at the back end, and after that you only really have Avilan and Martin as even serviceable options. Cunniff has been good but has walked a lot and is still an unknown, then you have Ian Thomas and Sugar Ray Marimon. That is the makings of a really bad pen. I am willing to bet there isn't another major league team that doesn't have at least one guy who you know is going to come in and shut people down almost every time.

I do think we could have some good options to plug in eventually, but there aren't any on the immediate horizon.

[shoeless joe]

.500 is the top end but because of how we play I think the low end isn't terrible. Getting swept in NY isn't a gone setter by any means. Remember Bobby's last year the team had a 10+ game losing streak...not to say this is a playoff team but one good/bad stretch won't define the season this early.

The fast start got hopes up and made the resent fall harder to take for some. Those of us with realistic expectations knew it would all even out in the end...hmmm, sounds like another baseball team I know.

[msstate7]

With Nathan going down for the Tigers, should we deal grilli to them now? Wonder how much interest the Tigers would have and what we could get from a desperate team

[BoomBoom]

Well, but Jim Johnson was this bad last year. All year.

Grilli/Johnson will probably at best be worse than average at the back end, and after that you only really have Avilan and Martin as even serviceable options. Cunniff has been good but has walked a lot and is still an unknown, then you have Ian Thomas and Sugar Ray Marimon. That is the makings of a really bad pen. I am willing to bet there isn't another major league team that doesn't have at least one guy who you know is going to come in and shut people down almost every time.

I do think we could have some good options to plug in eventually, but there aren't any on the immediate horizon.

for once we agree. but no one is getting called up until June.

[msstate7]

David O'Brien ?@DOBrienAJC 12m12 minutes ago
#Braves have called up relievers John Cornely and Michael Kohn

[msstate7]

David Lee ?@David11Lee 2m2 minutes ago
Andrelton Simmons is swinging at 9% fewer pitches outside the zone, 9% more inside compared to 2014. 93% contact in zone.

[msstate7]

Cornerly AAA stats...

1.04 era 8.2 ip 5 h 1 bb 12 k .167 avg

Kohn AAA stats...

4.32 era 8.1 ip 7 h 2 bb 10 k

Gotta figure sugar ray and Thomas are out

Hopefully this works out

[smootness]

David Lee ?@David11Lee 2m2 minutes ago
Andrelton Simmons is swinging at 9% fewer pitches outside the zone, 9% more inside compared to 2014. 93% contact in zone.

That's awesome. He clearly has a better approach this year. If he is just league average offensively, he's the best SS in baseball, easily. I would give my entire savings for season tickets if you could clone Simmons and put him at every position.

As for the RP moves, I'm not extremely optimistic, but I'd rather make moves and try something else rather than standing pat.

[msstate7]

That's awesome. He clearly has a better approach this year. If he is just league average offensively, he's the best SS in baseball, easily. I would give my entire savings for season tickets if you could clone Simmons and put him at every position.

As for the RP moves, I'm not extremely optimistic, but I'd rather make moves and try something else rather than standing pat.

Definetely worth trying on the RPs.

Does Simmons have the best hand-eye coordination known to man? His defense and the fact he's making contact with 93% of balls in the zone.

I heard on the radio broadcast that there are people claiming someone else (missed the name) is a better defensive ss. I find that very hard to believe as did the radio guys

[smootness]

I have not seen anyone with any shred of credibility claim anyone is better than Simmons. It's not even close. He has almost broken the advanced metrics. I've seen fans try to claim guys like Iglesias (very good but not even approaching Simmons) and Hechavarria (LOL, he's actually bad) are as good, but that's a joke.

He has phenomenal instincts, great range, elite hands, and the best infield arm probably ever. He also wastes no motion. He takes the shortest routes to balls and gets the ball out (at ridiculous velocity) faster than anyone I've ever seen. He is Andruw Jones, if Andruw had an elite arm.

So basically, he is even better than Andruw. And for me to say that is a lot, because Andruw is one of my favorite players ever and, before Simmons, easily the best defensive player I'd ever seen.

[msstate7]

3:54 PM
@DOBrienAJC
Cunniff and Marimon optioned to Triple-A to make room for the two #Braves relief callups

Cunniff?! Wow... He was one of our best relievers. Surely this is just giving him a short break since he's pitched so much lately

[msstate7]

FF with 2 errors and 2 k's. He's continuing to struggle. Hopefully he gets it going soon.

Not sure what we're trying to do this year right now. Why are we playing AJ, EY, and callaspo so much? I want to see if bethancourt, Peterson, and Maybin can help us.

[War Machine Dawg]

FF with 2 errors and 2 k's. He's continuing to struggle. Hopefully he gets it going soon.

Not sure what we're trying to do this year right now. Why are we playing AJ, EY, and callaspo so much? I want to see if bethancourt, Peterson, and Maybin can help us.

Bethancourt: No. He can't hit. Not surprising, considering he's never hit at any level of baseball. Another reason trading Gattis was fooking stupid.

Peterson: Ditto. He's nothing more than a placeholder until Peraza is ready.

Maybin: Has looked decent so far. Been starting almost every day lately. Got a routine night off tonight. Calm down.

[msstate7]

I love the gattis trade. Ruiz will be our 3b and folty will be a very good pitcher for us. Gattis can't stay healthy catching and can't play lf.

Now trading victor caratini (switch hitting catcher) to Cubs last year for Russell and bonifacio was incredibly stupid

[msstate7]

11:42 AM
@DOBrienAJC
In 2014, #Braves scored 62 runs in 1st 16 games. Have 60 in 16 games this season. But have 3.66 ERA now, compared to 2.28 after 16 in '14.

Juan Jaime cleared waivers & was sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett.