Primary Sidebar
Talking Chop 2010 Annual
The Talking Chop 2010 Baseball Annual is now available, and smartly priced at just $12.95. Go here to purchase this first-of-its kind Braves annual from the authors who bring you this website.
The View From Your Seat
Throughout the 2010 season, send me a picture of your seat at a Braves game (Major League or Minor League, any ballpark, as long as the Braves are playing). Don't try to get too fancy, just take a picture once the game starts and email me. It can be a view of the field, the scoreboard, the stands, or whatever strikes your fancy while sitting in your seat at a ballgame. Make sure you include the when and where the picture was taken and what half of the inning it was taken in. Your photo will then be posted on Talking Chop. By sending your photos, you grant Talking Chop full rights to publish and edit them as we see fit. The email address to send these photos to is martingandy at gmail dot com. Every photo will be considered, but not all will be used.
Choposphere
Other places to read my blather:
Follow Talking Chop on Facebook
Follow Talking Chop on Twitter
Braves Tweeters
Jason Heyward
Freddie Freeman
L.V. Ware
Mycal Jones
Matthew Weaver
Tommy Palica
----------------------
David O'Brien
Mark Bowman
Braves Players' Blogs:
Derek's Blog (Derek Lowe)
The Young and the Braves (Matt Young)
L.V. Ware's Blog
Braves Blogs:
Braves Journal
Rowland's Office
When Sid Slid
Mark Bowman
David O'Brien
Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz
Braves Heart
Braves Examiner
Snap Shots
Brave Cave (Videos)
Braves Love
Braves Girl Blog
Jake's Blog (640 WGST)
Braves Blast
Chop-n-Change
The Bravesologist
Section 435
Braves Report
Braves Buzz
Atlanta Baseball Talk
Capitol Avenue Club
Tomahawk Take
Screaming Indian
Braving Baseball
Ace of Braves
Braves Locker
Braves Boards:
Chop Nation
Braves-Nation
Braves Report
Tomahawk Talk
Atl / Ga Sports Blogs:
Dawg Sports
The Falcoholic
From the Rumble Seat
Braves and Birds
Red White Black and Blue
Peachtree Hoops
Bird Watchers Anonymous
Organization Links:
Atlanta Braves
Gwinnett Braves (AAA)
Mississippi Braves (AA)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans (A+)
Rome Braves (A-)
Danville Braves (R)
Gulf Coast Braves (R)
Four-A... Get the Book
Talking Chop co-blogger C.B. Wilkins has written his first book, Four-A, available here.
"In a story as much about life as baseball, Four-A follows relief pitcher Bry "Hummer" James over the course of a season, as he bounces between the highest levels of professional baseball, stuck in between, at an unofficial level called Four-A."
Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: 9/2
by cbwilk on Sep 3, 2010 1:11 AM EDT
in Braves Minor League Recaps
5 comments
Playoff Hunt
Myrtle Beach -The Pelicans won their game, but so did Kinston, meaning Myrtle Beach is eliminated from the playoffs.
Gwinnett 7, Durham 6
Dan Nelson had a great AAA debut, knocking out a three run homer. That's 2 great nights in a row for him, as he walked reached base all 6 times he came up for Mississippi last night, walking 5 times. Matt Young seemed like a prime candidate to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft last offseason, and after the year he's put up in AAA I'd find it hard to believe that a team couldn't use him on their bench next year. If the Braves don't protect him on the 40 man roster in the offseason, and it seems likely that they won't, there's a very good chance he's in the Majors with another team in 2011. The wild version of Todd Redmond showed up tonight, and while he's seemed more inconsistent this season than last year, he's actually had a considerably better year and he's another guy who seems like he could find a place in the Majors with a different team next year. As infrequently as he's been used this year, he's thrown 72.1 innings between AAA and the Majors this year compared to 130.1 between AA and the Majors last year, he's had a great season, with a combined 3.11 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. He's been masterful at keeping the walks down, with a 1.4 BB/9 rate in AAA and an outstanding 0.4 BB/9 rate in the Majors.
Mississippi 2, West Tennessee 4
Myke Jones homered for the second night. The athletic shortstop has had a fine season, playing for Rome, Myrtle Beach, and now Mississippi, he's combined to hit .264 with a .748 OPS, rapping out 31 doubles, 15 homers, driving in 61 runs, and stealing 21 bases. The only real knock on his season is that he's made 43 errors in 121 games, a huge number, but a lot of the errors come from being athletic enough to get to balls that other shortstops simply can't reach. Really, he profiles best as a second baseman, a move that would immediately help his defense, and he could turn out to be an Orlando Hudson type Major Leaguer. Cole Miles made his AA debut, hitting a triple. Jake Thompson continues to impress here at the end of the season. He hasn't allowed a walk in his last 2 starts, covering 13 innings.
Myrtle Beach 5, Wilmington 4
Braeden Schlehuber hit a 2 run homer in the 7th, breaking his 0-21 slump, and Cody Johnson followed with his own 2 run homer in the 8th to lead the Pelicans to victory. Chris Curley made his Pelicans debut and rapped out 2 hits, including a double, and walked. the 23 year old non drafted free agent has played for Danville, Rome, and Myrtle Beach this year, combining to hit .221 with a .604 OPS in 217 at bats while playing all around the infield. Zeke Spruill rebounded from a rough stretch to put up a quality start tonight.
Rome 0, West Virginia 3
The R-Braves collected just 3 hits tonight, one of them being Joey Terdoslavich's triple. Dan Jurik only allowed 1 earned run over 5 innings and he's put up a 3.15 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP in 68.2 innings between the GCL, Danville, and Rome. After posting a 4.31 ERA and a 1.79 WHIP in 39.2 innings for Myrtle Beach, David Francis was demoted to Rome and instead of puting he went to work, putting up good numbers in relief, a 2.60 eRA and a 1.08 WHIP in 27.2 innings for Rome.
Braves Fall In Series Finale 4-2
by BenDuronio on Sep 2, 2010 11:15 PM EDT
in Braves Game Recaps
16 comments
Tim Hudson had a rough first inning and the Braves offense couldn't rebound, despite the Mets ace Johan Santana leaving after the fifth inning with a pectoral strain. The Mets opened up the scoring with a Carlos Beltran triple and a throwing error by Omar Infante, which landed in the Braves dugout causing Beltran to come around to score. The newly acquired Joaquin Arias reached on an infield single later in the inning which brought in Chris Carter.
Brian McCann hit his 20th homer in the bottom of the second but the rest of the Braves offense stayed dormant until the bottom of the eighth. Melky Cabrera singled, Jason Heyward walked, Bobby Parnell threw a wild pitch to advance both runners, and Martin Prado reached on a chopper to third, scoring Cabrera. McCann opened up the bottom of the ninth with a single but the following three Braves were retired, giving Hisanori Takashi his third save of the season.
David Wright hit a homer off of Hudson in the sixth, his 22nd of the season. Hudson ended with a line of 7 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K. He was solid but unspectacular, mostly due to his rough start to the game. Earlier in the day, Hudson earned the NL Pitcher of the Month award for August.
This was a good series overall, but the team unfortunately could not close out the sweep. You cannot win them all, and losing to a pitcher like Santana is never anything to be ashamed of.
Open Thread 9/2: Braves vs. Mets
by BenDuronio on Sep 2, 2010 6:30 PM EDT
in Open Threads
1071 comments
The Braves can complete a four game sweep of the Mets tonight with another good performance from the offense and Tim Hudson. Hudson was recently named NL Pitcher of the Month of August and has pitched himself into Cy Young contention. Jason Heyward and Omar Infante have been firing on all cylinders as of late at the top of the Braves lineup, especially with their performances last night. Braves Lineup: 1. Omar Infante, 2B
2. Jason Heyward, RF
3. Martin Prado, 3B
4. Derrek Lee, 1B
5. Brian McCann, C
6. Matt Diaz, LF
7. Alex Gonzalez, SS
8. Melky Cabrera, CF
9. Tim Hudson, P
Braves' Tim Hudson Wins NL Pitcher Of The Month
by gondeee on Sep 2, 2010 6:19 PM EDT
13 comments
Per the AJC:
Tim Hudson was named National League pitcher of the month Thursday for putting up the kind of August that moved him into the National League lead for ERA and forefront of the NL Cy Young conversation.
Hudson went 4-1 with a 1.71 ERA over six starts in August. He allowed one or no runs in five of those starts. He finished out the month with a career-high 13 strikeouts in a 12-3 win over the Marlins on Saturday.
This speaks volumes for Hudson, and how valuable he's been for the Braves this year. His great season is also getting noticed by the fans, almost a third of whom in our poll earlier today named Hudson the team's MVP so far. Hopefully he can keep this up and continue to be that ace we really need right now.
I'm Curious: Who Do You Think Is The Braves' MVP So Far?
by pacgnosis on Sep 2, 2010 12:28 PM EDT
234 comments
Most of the contenders this year have a consensus "best player" / MVP candidate: Pujols on the Cardinals, Votto on the Reds, Halladay on the Philllies, Adrian Gonzalez on the Padres, Carlos Gonzalez on the Rockies, and so on. The only two who seem to lack that traditional MVP candidate are the Giants and the Braves. For the Braves, I don't even know who I'd pick for our MVP.
After the jump, I analyze each of the 4 main candidates.
Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence In Flux
by gondeee on Sep 2, 2010 11:27 AM EDT
47 comments
The way the Atlanta Braves are playing it's getting kind of weird to write about the fan confidence, since what us fans have been voting on has come to pass after a few days. The team is getting a bit streaky, having one good week then a bad week.
This week the team is winning games and taking names, and one would think the fan confidence would be up, but it is down this week since last week included the wrong kind of sweep in Colorado. The FCP drops from 83% to 78% confidence -- not as bad a drop as it would have been had the Braves not won the series against the Marlins.
For the past two months this EKG-like up and down behavior has been commonplace in the fan confidence rating, thought it's nothing like the roller coaster ride of last season's FCP which waffled between 80% and 50% confidence for most of the season, often going from one extreme to the other from week to week. I'll take this year's first place team and the minor FCP fluctuation between 70% and 85% confidence over last year's any day.
Atlanta Braves Postseason Pace
by gondeee on Sep 2, 2010 8:15 AM EDT
80 comments
For the rest of the season we'll keep a daily tally of the Atlanta Braves chances of making the post season, along with daily commentary. Also consider this a daily open thread for general chatting.
| NL East | W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | Magic Num | Playoff Odds |
| Braves | 78 | 55 | .586 | - | W5 | 27 | 97.4% |
| Phillies | 75 | 58 | .564 | 3 | W2 | 33 | 67.8% |
Going into Wednesday night's game we knew that we had to win as Roy Oswalt and the Phillies had three-hit the Dodgers earlier in the day, but Tommy Hanson and the Braves one-upped the Phils and two-hit the Mets. So if you're keeping track, after a four-game losing streak we now have a five-game winning streak.
Sort-of good news for the Braves from Florida as Ricky Nolasco will have season ending surgery and miss his start this Friday. His replacement, Andrew Miller, his pitched well against the Braves in the past, but we have more right-handed hitters now who should be able to counteract a tough lefty. And perhaps the Fish will be playing a few men short after that brawl last night. I guess this will be the game of fill-in starters as Kenshin Kawakami gets the emergency start in place of Derek Lowe and his ailing right elbow.
Time to focus on tonight and the marquee pitching match up of the series -- Johan Santana vs. Tim Hudson. For his career Johan is 2-and-6 against the Braves, but with a 2.31 ERA. This should play right into the way the Mets have been not scoring runs lately. In game one of the series the Mets scored three runs; in game two, two runs; and in game three, just one run. So if that pattern holds, then Santana will once again get zero run support. With Huddy on the mound that's not too hard to imagine. I can't tell you how sweet a four-game sweep of the Mets would be.
Philly heads to Colorado for a make-up game tonight, and then on to Milwaukee for three. After we sweep the Mets we head to Florida for three (and what a coincidence, I'm taking my Labor Day vacation in Miami).
I still can't believe that Freddie Freeman was essentially robbed of two hits last night. Still, he looked good at the plate and even better in the field. So why did we trade for Derrek Lee again?
Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: 9/1
by cbwilk on Sep 2, 2010 1:03 AM EDT
in Braves Minor League Recaps
38 comments
Playoff Hunt
Myrtle Beach - Another Pelicans loss, and another Kinston win, put Myrtle Beach 5 games back with 4 games to go. The Pelicans have played 2 more games than the Indians, which is why they haven't been eliminated yet, but even if they win all of their remaining games, any Kinston victory will eliminate them.
Gwinnett 2, Norfolk 6
Erik Cordier's AAA debut didn't go well, as he walked 4 and allowed 5 earned runs without even finishing the first inning. Oddly enough Cordier said his arm felt as good as it has in years and his pitches all had fantastic break, he just had no command whatsoever. Fortunately he'll get one more start before the end of the year to try to finish on a high note. Cory Gearrin inherited a bases loaded situation in the first and allowed 2 of Cordier's runs to score on a soft single, but pitched 3.1 scoreless innings after that. Steve Marek pitched a perfect 8th, striking out the side in the process. Barbaro Canizares continues to amaze, actually raising his league best average. Clint Sammons has had a horrible season offensively, but he picked up 3 hits tonight.
Mississippi 10, West Tennessee 1
Dan Nelson nearly doubled his walk total for his time with Mississippi, taking 5 free passes in 6 trips to the plate, driving in a run with a bases loaded walk in the 5th. LV Ware rapped out 3 hits in his second game as an M-Brave and Myke Jones recovered from a poor debut with the team, clubbing out a second inning grand slam. Yasser Gomez has a .402 on base percentage in 105 at bats. JJ Hoover was much more wild tonight than he's been all year, for the season he's averaging 2.7 BB/9 and he gave up 6 in 5 innings tonight, but he was able to pitch around it, picking up his second AA win, his 13 overall of the season, giving him the organizational lead.
Myrtle Beach 2, Wilmington 3
Like Myke Jones, Phil Gosselin rebounded nicely after a poor debut with the Pelicans, rapping out a double and a triple in this one. After starting the season with a good showing, Cole Miles has tailed off and has actually done a bit worse this year than he did last year with the Pelicans. Sammy Sime started off strong as well and while his final season line isn't going to be very impressive, he's hitting .257 with a .651 OPS right now, it's still much better than he's been the last 2 years with Rome. After winning the Appalacian League Pitcher of the Year award last year the Braves were agressive with Matt Crim, skipping him over Rome and sending him to High A Myrtle Beach. The 23 year old's uneven, often inconsistent performance this year probably should have been expected, but is still a bit frustrating. After putting up a 3.18 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and 4.8 K/BB last season, his numbers have jumped to a 4.87 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, and 1.6 K/BB this year. The biggest difference has been the walks, which have nearly tripled, from 1.3 BB/9 to 3.5 BB/9.
Rome 4, West Virginia 12
Striking out 7 in just 4.1 innings is a great stat for Chris Masters, but allowing 7 earned runs in the same number of innings isn't. In his last 3 starts, Masters has a 9.60 ERA and a 1.80 WHIP. Kyle Rose cranked out 3 singles and stole his 26th base of the year. He stole 27 bases in 48 games last year, and still hasn't mached that total in 83 contests this year. Joey Terdoslavich has had a very nice debut season, hitting .307 with a .764 OPS in 65 games between Danville and Rome.
Secondary Sidebar
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
About Talking Chop
Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence Rating
Next Game
Atlanta Braves
@
Florida Marlins
Friday, Sep 3, 2010, 7:10 PM EDT
Sun Life Stadium
Kenshin Kawakami vs Andrew Miller
Partly cloudy,rain. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 90.
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
