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Braves Ongoing Season Comments Thread..
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Coastal. A sign and trade might be worth inquiring about. If both are healthy and pitching well at the end of the month they might be worth renting and offering contracts after the season. If it gives us a good shot at beating The Dodgers in a 7 game serious, overpay a bit as short term rentals if necessary. With Smith being from Newnan and Bumgarner from NC, they might be interested in playing near home for a young contender.
What a throw to the plate by Charlie Culberson to finish a double play and keep The Fish from tying the game in the 9th. Yet another series win to get us to The All Star break. That makes it 3 straight 1 run games in the series.
Man Keuchel looks like a different pitcher than he did in his 1st couple of starts. He was throwing lollipops, now he has zing and break on even the off speed stuff.
Great, great 1st half plus of the season. I'll take a 6 game lead heading into the break every season.
Seems like DK is going to be worth the price. Now, if Folty can make it back, I’ll be a lot more relaxed.
donm. I agree on both counts. Keuchel has proved he can be a top of the order level starter, now he is healthy and he's beginning to look the part again. I hope we land Bumgarner for the playoffs, He's been truly great in big postseason games.
Charlie needs/deserves more playing time! Need to trade to get a reliable closer. Jackson scares me. Has good stuff and high 90’s fastball but is very erratic. Miss the Kimbrel days.
he seems to be prospering in this role. Where would you play him?
We need Culberson the rest of this season, as we saw again today. With 2 elite outfield prospects getting close to being ready and Culberson's ability it might be we should consider trading him in the offseason though. Just as with Camargo I'd like to see him get an opportunity to start somewhere. On the other hand Charlie is 30 years old and from Rome Ga. he might be where he needs to be. Guys like CC have a habit of being really valuable come the playoffs.
No way I would trade Culberson, he’s a great pinch-hitter and one of the most versatile players you’ll ever see. He’s a capable fill-in at all the infield and outfield spots, is our emergency catcher, and can come in and pitch a few innings to save the bullpen in blowouts. Great player to have on the roster in this age where teams are carrying an extra reliever. Hope he retires as a Brave.
He's a couple of hours from his hometown to boot. If he was 25 he'd be more likely to be itching to start, but I agree at 30 years old he is in a very good place.
Check out Mike Trout's bare handed catch at the center field wall at ESPN online. It might have been a bit lucky that the ball came down right at his hand when he was falling backward, but it is still impressive and unusual
You should see Charlie on a zero turn mower, dude is the real deal.
I think the way the game is played now MLB should consider bench player a "position" and have a slot for an all-star utility guy. Or an all-star pinch hitter. Seems like that's becoming an integral part of the game nowadays.
Really great subs/utility players/pinch hitters have always been a big need. I recall Charlie Spikes back in the 1980s was a bit of a cult hero for Braves fans. I think the increased innings the pen works does make a versatile utility player more valuable though. You can't carry as many bench players when you need 2 or 3 more relief pitchers on the roster than teams carried when most healthy starters routinely clocked 200 plus innings in a season. I think just 1 of the top 10 starters in MLB worked as many as 200 innings last season.
I think it's past time to increase rosters to 27 then add 2 more Sep. 1st when the minor league season wraps up.
Problem with this is it's strictly a NL thing. Not much need for pinch hitters in AL. Bench players there are a back-up catcher, pair of aging lefty/righty DH's who can't run anymore, and a couple of platoon lefty/righties who'll sit today and start tomorrow. Kinda sad - NL baseball is much more exciting and it's real baseball
I hate the DH, it skews offensive statistics with one league using it and the one true baseball league not using it.
Interesting, didn't realize that. Does seem that the NL is on par with the AL that hasn't been the case over the last few years.
Pinch hitters are a rarity in the AL. For example, while the Braves have pinch it 128 times thus far this season, two AL teams (Minnesota and Texas) have used zero pinch hitters. They're literally playing a different game. In effect, most AL managers could fill out the line-up card and head for the showers. Just have the pitching coach make the already preordained pitching changes during the game.