Arena The Atlanta Braves Thread

They were totally going after Fielder in that game. They threw at his head then right in the middle of the back on the next pitch. Why should they do something to Fielder for that game?

 

The first pitch was a breaking ball that got away (and pretty rare that you see a warning issued after a breaking ball). Venters has frequently been wild on his first couple of pitches after entering the game, and normally to that side of home plate (though nobody says anything when the batter is right handed). Actually, Venters' biggest problem all season has been control - 22 walks and 4 hit batsmen in 45 innings, though its usually easy to overlook that when you have a 1.20 ERA. The second pitch just got away, and I don't argue with the ejection, given that it was after a warning. I do think that a 4 game suspension is much harsher than it should have been, though.

What ticks me off, however, are a couple of things. When the Brewers hit two Braves the next day, including one very shortly after a warning, nothing was done. From what I've seen, the Brewers manager went whining to MLB, which was a large part of why the suspension was so harsh - and its pretty darn hypocritical from a guy whose team hit more Braves (3) than the Braves hit Brewers (2).

As for Fielder, he went WAY out of the way trying to take out Gonzalez on the ensuing double play Saturday. Trying to break up a double play at second is fine - that's just normal baseball and part of the game. But when you go that far out of the way - and that late - its gone beyond "trying to break up a double play" and well into "trying to hurt someone" territory. Fielder did get a talking to from the umpire, but that was it.

 

Well the Brewers do lead the league in hit by pitchs this year. Maybe they arn't gonna play whipp'n boy to a team that has a chance for the playoffs. Also as a Brewer fan that Pitch that went at Prince's head looked very intentional. I think he hit a HR the night before but can't recall. The play at second? Thats just baseball right there after all that happened.

 

The series with the Padres was very entertaining. It was National League baseball at its finest, with Derek Lowe being sent to pinch-hit and Kris Medlen pinch-running the next day.

 

up and down since the all star break...

few blogs I made...

MLB World Series current prediction-Braves vs Yankees

Review of the All Star Game

Atlanta Braves: halway through season

 

no strasburg tonight...and we still lost...

 

Tough few days there... but a nice outing by Hudson tonight (what else is new?) and a win to get back on track

 

*head desk*

we need to sweep cinci to stay ahead...and the phillies must lose all their next games....wesa in trouble

 

Got a win tonight in extras courtesy of the J-Hey Kid

Also, MLB did the appropriate thing and erased Venters' suspension. He still got a fine, though less of a fine that it was initially, and no suspension. Apparently Cox made a 2-hour presentation in the appeal

 

.....good thing is its a homestand now against the mets....

 

Yeah, that was a tough road trip

 

well the good news is that we won, and are a full 3 games ahead of the Phillies.

Bad news: Its only 3 games...


BUT WE CAN DO IT!

 

Its getting to the point where I almost like seeing Johan Santana pitch against Atlanta. Not because he doesn't pitch well against them (though Diaz has been shredding him) but because, whenever he pitches against the Braves, the Mets fail to score many runs. If I saw the stat last night correctly, they've now scored 16 runs in 11 such starts.

 

LOL at John Smoltz predicting the Chipper-McCann back-to-back home runs. His face was priceless.

 

So was his jumping up out of his seat

Unfortunately, Kris Medlen left the game with an injury... really hope its not anything significant.

 

Medlen's injury is to his UCL... don't know how severe it is yet but the scary phrase "Tommy John surgery" has been floating around out there as a significant possibility

Looks like the Braves will probably call up Mike Minor to take Medlen's spot in the rotation... if this does happen, I'll be excited to see how he does, but I also have to wonder about Kawakami. Since losing his spot in the rotation when Jurrjens got back from the DL in late June, he's pitched a grand total of 1 inning and done a lot of sitting out there. Heck, even that inning wasn't a good outing. I would have thought he would be the obvious choice to take the 5th starter's spot again, but apparently there are concerns about how long he could go after sitting and languishing in the bullpen without much work for so long.

 

Kawakami to AAA for a few starts to get his endurance back up; Minor to start on Monday

Also, Tom Glavine is about to have his number retired in Atlanta

 

Oh, that makes a lot of sense now. I was wondering what the 47 was for.

Glavine definitely deserves having his # retired.

 

Most definitely.

The only question I have remaining is when 29 (Smoltz) goes on that list as well

 

He'll get there eventually.

 

Well, duh. Its a matter of when, not if

Smoltz did pitch slightly longer than Maddux and Glavine, so its understandable that he'll be the third to officially join the Braves HoF and have the number retired.

 

Well...that was an interesting game.

ND for Hanson again....but we still win it in the 10th.

 

Helped by a Brian McCann grand slam Though that was after the Braves had already taken a 4-2 lead in the top of the 10th.

Next up is the Dodgers back at home on Friday Hopefully the Dodgers can beat the Phillies a couple more times between now and then.

 

Wow, I feel really bad for Chipper Jones. I mean he's definitely experienced lots of success already, it was just nice to see him poised to go out with a bang (instead of a "pop").

 

First Medlen..now chipper....geesh....