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Braves Ongoing Season Comments Thread..
Notice how I caped all the words in the title.. so as to make it look official ?
First comment. Folty looked really good tonight. The velocity and demennor seemed to be better. If he gets back to 2018 form it will be a huge boon to our chances of making the postseason.
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Comments
His velocity was as good as ever. He seemed much calmer. Except for one inning, no excessive # of pitches in an inning and zero walks. He would give us 3/5 of a rotation. Julio and Gausman give us 1/2 a starter each for a total of 4/5 of a rotation. Not bad. The hitters are looking good...really good.
Question. Does this affect your evaluation of the new pitching coach any?
I never criticized the pitching coach. I criticized the decision to fire the old coach after having I think the 7th best team ERA last year. We went into tonight with the 14th best ERA, so it's still an open question how it plays out.
Folty looked more relaxed tonight. Even got a rare hit I believe.
To me, the first few games was Folty's spring training. He's gotten better each time the last 2. I like the way the starting rotation is shaping up. Sean has really improved the bullpen.
I'm guessing at some point Newcomb will be given another shot at starting. No doubt he's useful in the pen now though. Winkler just goes out and delivers game after game.
@WCDawg I'm guessing at some point Newcomb will be given another shot at starting. No doubt he's useful in the pen now though. Winkler just goes out and delivers game after game.
That's certainly my hope for Sean. It would be great to have 2 solid lefties in the rotation. Similar to the days of Glavine and Avery.
Just a little side note - Braves were 18-20 when they finally decided to put Acuna, Jr back leading off. 11-3 since.
volatilis. As long as it's working, keep working it. Statistically Acuna looks better suited for the 2 or 3 spot, but sometimes it just works.
I'm all about it working, too. Bobby Bonds was one of my favorite lead off players, I see a lot of similarities with him and Acuna.
Honestly I don’t know why we waited so long to put him back in leadoff. It changed our season last year
CTDawg. I think the reason is Acuna simply doesn't look like a logical choice for leadoff. There's also the idea that RA is a budding superstar hitter. Not many all around great hitters bat leadoff, Mookie Betts being a big exception.You usually put your best hitters at 3 and 4.
We really don't have an ideal high OBP/great base runner though, so you keep plugging people in and see what happens. There's also the possibility the surge has little or nothing to do with moving Acuna.
Don't get me wrong, RA has a lot to like at leadoff or any other position. If we had more power throughout the lineup I'd be less concerned with not having him in an RBI spot. He's averaging a run scored a game since being moved though, that is exceptional. If Ronald can do for us what Betts does for Boston..I'm good.
This team could make the postseason, but it isn’t winning the NLCS without a closer. Coming up on a week until the MLB draft.
The way I see it, you need to get him as many at bats as possible. He just gives us a spark that Ender and Albies can’t do consistently, and I just think you ride with what works. And Acuna at leadoff works
It's working now, so leave Acuna where he's at till it's not working. I've seen far too many short term trends in baseball to be convinced just yet he's best long term batting 1st.
What do you do with Ender when he comes off the DL? You can’t afford to sit the kid (Reilly) the way he’s hitting the ball. Wonder if we can trade Donaldson for relief help and move the kid to 3rd?