Braves at Pirates, Game 1
Atlanta Braves at Pittsburgh Pirates, May 12, 2008 12:35 PM EDT
Guess who's back! That's right, I'm finally stateside after 20 hours of airplanes and airports. There was a good time had in Singapore by me, although there was a lot of work-related activities that took place as well. I'm tickled pink-bats (which the Braves didn't get to use) with the job that Matt did filling in for me while I was gone. I believe we've found another permanent addition to Talking Chop. My extreme thanks to Matt for keeping things going while I was away.
Enough about the blog, how about them Braves. An interesting scenario is brewing because of the rain-out yesterday and the impending possible double-header today. I say possible double-header because there is rain expected all day -- a 50 to 60 percent chance until 4pm, then around a 30 to 40 percent chance the rest of the evening. Odds are we'll only get one game in if we're lucky -- and there goes another future off-day.
But if we do get both games in today then we have a bit of a starting pitching problem, with either Jurrjens or Hudson only having three days of rest the next time their turn in the rotation comes up. The scuttlebutt is that the team may recall Charlie Morton to make his major league debut on Friday. He's doing amazingly well in Richmond this year, and I for one, would like to see him get his shot at the major league rotation. With Tommy Hanson moving up from Myrtle Beach to Mississippi, our prospects for replacing Smoltz and Glavine in the rotation are getting closer to the majors. Not that I want to see anyone rushed, but if they appear ready, then maybe they are. Morton looks ready.
Anyway, enough looking ahead, on to the first game against the Bucs today -- we need to win this thing. They have played us incredibly hard this year. It seems that every year some random team plays us extra hard. Last year it was Cincinnati, two years ago it was San Diego, and I guess this year it's Pittsburgh.
For the purposes of NAHWAL, assume that these two games are one game, attendance will be for the combined games, as will picks to click and AAB picks -- only one set of picks.
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Comments
Picks
1. 41,782
2. Frenchy
3. Braves don’t suck ass. They score more runs than they hit into double plays.
LET’S GET SOME RUNS!!!!!!!
picks.
1. 40,235
2. Chipper
3. We turn at least two double plays in each game.
Catcher's Blog - Braves blog by a huge Braves fan.
Didn’t take long for half of your #3 to happen.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Picks
1. 38,442
2. Yunel Escobar
3. Braves SPs combine for 13 innings pitched.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Picks
1. 37,500
2. Chip
3. Braves get a pinch hit
Wait...
...you’re saying that we just now have a bit of a starting pitching problem? I’m shocked. Christ, thinking about it…just how many pitchers is Bobby going to use today if we play both games? 10?
1. 45,005
2. Tex
3. Jurrjens and Hudson combine for 14+ Ks.
Picks
1. 39,129
2. Chipper
3. Jurrjens and Hudson both give quality starts (at least 6 IP and no more than 3 ER)
-RETIRE, BOBBY COX!-
picks
1. 35,012
2. Brian McCann
3. A pitcher gets a RBI
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picks
1. 38,500
2. Chipper
3. Jair and Hudson combine to give up 4 runs or fewer
doublay picks
1. 37,998
2. Frenchy gits ‘r done
3. Braves win the first game with a rally taking place AFTER 7th inning
Picks
1. 37,000
2. Tex
3. Ring K’s LaRoche at least once
picks
1. 19,576
2. Yunel
3. Corky hits a homerun
I saw Morton in Richmond last week. Lights out for 7.1 innings in relief interestingly enough. Call him up! I think his ERA is under 2.00 now.
picks
1. 41,309
2. Chipper
3. Braves lead both games wire to wire.
Time to stop working...
...Ahh, ESPN gamecast. Good ‘ol Chipper.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Well, the was a quick half inning…I need a drink
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 12:41 PM EDT reply actions
1st inning
Ifante swung at ball four and the Chipper doubles, one wasted run!
by Fortune favors the brave(s) on May 12, 2008 12:41 PM EDT reply actions
like a leadoff hitter should, perfect example.
by Fortune favors the brave(s) on May 12, 2008 12:44 PM EDT reply actions
He has a .281 OBP this season...
...that’s fucking horrible.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions
OMG
A Vidro that wasn’t us!
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I was just about to get salty about that leadoff walk.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Don't be surprised if I ask you a bunch of questions then
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
ok, if you are nice about it.
by Fortune favors the brave(s) on May 12, 2008 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Don't worry
Despite the drunken vulgarities I exhibit during the games, I think I’m pretty amicable when not pissed ‘cuz the Braves are sucking.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
If Diaz...
Vidros, I’m punching in my monitor.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
what the hell happened? Diaz hit a shot and Frenchy was caught off the base?
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions
Deja vu
The bullpen used to be a popular plague of the team in the last few years. Can the new trend be the LOBs?
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
What do you think…an erratic bullpen or stranding runners, especially in scoring position…which is more frustrating?
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Stranding runners, hands down.
Although not wise, economical, or looking towards the future, there is always the option of mowing through every bullpen arm until Bobby finds one that works to get each and every out.
All the LOBs are a result of players who are more than capable of generating RBIs deciding that only one situation exists in a baseball game – the one where the only option is to swing for the fences.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
True...
...but the LOB seems to just suck the life out of you as the game and season goes on, leaving me broken. Bullpen malfunction is more inclined for me to break something.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 1:07 PM EDT up reply actions
can we catch one break before we leave this shit hole of a town!
by Fortune favors the brave(s) on May 12, 2008 1:09 PM EDT reply actions
Yuengling lager
Probably the best thing to come out of that city.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
2 runs this inning, I feel it!
by Fortune favors the brave(s) on May 12, 2008 1:15 PM EDT reply actions
Not really intimidated by the bottom half of our lineup this game.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions
Something is wrong with this picture
Chipper Jones, TB: 3. LOB: 2
Corky Miller, TB: 5. LOB: 2
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
???
Nate McClouth “grounded out to right?”
Is that possible? Did McClouth just not run, and get gunned down by Frenchy?
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Although
It is funny to watch the little graphic of the ball rolling to the RF and seeing it immediately X’ed out. Let us have our imagination of Frenchy being the laser-rocket armed phenom from 05-06 gunning down a runner at 1st.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
haha...
...exactly what I was thinking. Had a little chuckle to myself.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions
That's like watching some little league shit
When you see a kid bloop one to short-safety, and get gunned down going to second base…
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It can't be that serious...
If he was in the field for the 3rd, didn’t bat in the top of the 4th and replaced in the field for the bottom… doesn’t make much sense, but common sense tells me he’s just stiff or something. At least I hope. I’m not a Braves fan (I call SouthSideSox home, but anywhere in the SB Nation is fine by me, so long as it isn’t Bleed Cubbie Blue), but I have Tex in two of my fantasy leagues. Came here to see what happened.
bonds
I always thought Bonds would get thrown out at first after crushing a line drive that bounced to the RF.
Man.
Somehow we need Chipper up with men on, or with no outs. Too many wasted 2 out hits.
Chipper's obviously
Gone into “fuck this shit” mode, and is putting the entire team on his Pujols damn back. WIN PUJOLS DAMN IT, WIN
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Here comes some more LOBs
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Man, was that predictable.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Oh Frenchy.
Frenchy can’t do what needs to be done. I swears.
frenchy to the minors
we cant really bump him back in the lineup much, but he’s sucking it up this year.
My update said that Chip was 3-3. JIMINY!!!!! My new AAB picks are going to read “Chipper elevates his avg to .430” or “Chipper elevated his super-long-molasses-thick career avg to .312”
Not sure why...
...but I had a good feeling Francouer was going to drive both of those guys in. How wrong I was…
I'm waiting
For Greg Norton to crush as massive homer.
Who’s seen the Natural?
Greg Norton can be old Roy Hobbs who came out of nowhere to ignite a team, and as we all know from 2005, Jeff Francoeur is young Roy Hobbs who was the young baseball phenom.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
He’s gotten on base in 4 of his 6 PAs for us so far.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions
Ah man.
Last thing we need is a bloop like that.
LaRoche singled to left?
I don’t care how good JJ is, that happening means he really fucked up.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
If a team ever needed a Vidro
It would be right now.
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I can't watch against Sanchez
by Fortune favors the brave(s) on May 12, 2008 1:50 PM EDT reply actions
Dirty's going the other way.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
CALLED THAT SHIT
Too. Pujols. Damn. Predictable.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
It's okay.
We’ll leave at least 3 more guys on base. So we’ll be fine.
Might as well start this inning with 2 outs.
I really like Matty, but we all know that he isn’t doing that well at the plate and then there’s Corky and .077 average.
Here's an idea...
When we do the TC Meetup, we should try to fill up section 412 or 413, all wearing our J. Kotsay #11 shirts, and have a big banner saying:
ALL THE BRAVES LEFT ON BASE
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Okay then
We’ll need sections 416 and 418.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
That's what I thought.
On the bright side, at least Chipper won’t be the third batter next inning.
It's resorted to this
Jason Bay kind of reminds me of the popular belief of what an Alien looks like.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Well
It’s not like there’s really a good game or anything on to observe…
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Blech.
Can we just play all the rest of our games in Atlanta?
F this S
I’m going to do some work.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
I l ike to imagine
What the casual member thinks when they do a quick scroll through a long thread, and see pictures of aliens, ugly baseball players and Jamie Kotsay’s ass on a regular basis.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
We'll let it slide.
the ATL J. Kotsay is reserved for wins only.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
heh, i havent been posting in the game day threads very long, my bad
Check out my Smoltz Tribute site
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You're forgiven.
Just don’t let it happen again.
Just kidding – we generally like to reserve it for wins because with all do respect to the girls we have on the board, they tire of it for obvious reasons, and we don’t want to come off as too gigantic of chauvinistic pigs.
So, we slip it in during the jubilation of a victory, to where even the girls can’t help but let it slide, because they too are as happy as we are that we actually won a Pujols damn game.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
ok, i understand that a “vidro” = a double play
what is a pujols?
and what are the origins of these alternate words?
Check out my Smoltz Tribute site
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Pujols = God.
Can it really be argued?
Vidro is based on Jose Vidro who was a GIDP machine in montreal, washington, and now plagues the Mariners as their GIDP generating DH.
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i figured it was something like that.
If Pujols is god, then how does Matt Laporta = Chuck Norris.
Check out my Smoltz Tribute site
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A lot of us...
Have been making the Chuck Norris-style jokes, but replacing “Chuck Norris” with “Chipper Jones.”
My favorite is Chipper Jones never used HGH, HGH was made from Chipper’s blood.
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I need to start making some calls
And try to reserve the entire upper deck of the Chop House and have the TC Left on Base night during a low-crowd game, so we can drink away our collective frustrations.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Is it too much to ask for us to score 4 runs...
...by the time I got back from lunch? Yes? Alright, I’m going to the bar.
I'm seeing the words "Fielder's Choice" so many times...
That it’s beginning to sound like a type of coffee or something. Seriously, the fielders have never had to make so many decisions in their entire lives.
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c'mon MY PICKS
well, if the rally starts now i’ll be happy on many accounts.
Why is it that the Bucs are even threatening us? We swept two series and are on the verge of losing 3+ to the PIRATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Because we're going to turn into an era...
of ROOGYs, right-handed specialists.
All kids born left-handed will be abused and pressured by their fathers to become right-handed batters to get the advantage, and we’ll have a story about a left-handed Billy Wagner who breaks his left hand, and has to become a right-handed relief pitcher and rack up 58 saves to break the single-season record.
And infields will apply overload shifts to left field for guys like right-handed pull hitters like Andruw Jones, and right-handed arms will become the biggest commodity in modern baseball.
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I think I heard somewhere that they are currently in the midst of their longest winning streak of this decade. Maybe longer…
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions
Ugh
Scoring no runs when Zach “Crapbag” Duke has more walks than strikeouts? Leaving 15 (!) men on base? Only one XBH? Ugh.
Worst of all, letting Acosta come in a non-save situation (when you possibly have a SECOND game that same day), just so he can allow two runs and sink the fantasy team even further? Come on, Cox. Bad form.
I never thought I'd say this
But I can’t wait to face the Phillies. Cole Hamels, Brett Myers? Bring ‘em on. Just no more of these second-tier pitchers who simply look like Nolan Ryan, Cy Young, and Christy Mathewson against us all the time.
We seem to be good at beating the teams we shouldn’t be beating, but then getting embarrassed by every other team we shouldn’t be losing to.
one more time ... for sting!! a sports blog written by two opinionated males
Work is slow...
...lame Braves’ game not helping anything.
I need entertainment for this second one or I’m going to have to do work.
Tex
Anyone with audio/video/commentary know any more than was posted earlier—is he just achy? Brian’s gonna have to get used to batting cleanup anyways once the NYC teams start the bidding war for Tex, anyways.
Back spasms apparently.
They started in the beginning of the game after a play at first and didn’t get any better so they pulled him. They are still bothering him. This is per Pete on the radio.
Thank heavens
We have Rake in there. Bwah-bwah.
If he keeps getting on base...
...he’s fine with me.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 4:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Pujols
I didn’t realize game 2 started already. Oh, and we’re down a run already. Splendid!
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sigh
The players who need to ground down a bunt, put it up in the air.
The players who need to put it up in the air, ground down to the infield.
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Yay!
A run. Finally! Maybe Chipper helps now too?
Don't make me punch you.
New threads are for people with time to read other people’s posts.
After being at work and checking my phone no less than 40 times for updates, I have one thing to say about this game.
WHY IN THE FUCK DO YOU PULL JAIR AFTER 69 PITCHES?
?
?
Yeah…I was not sure about his pitch count, but that makes it even more of a dumb move. Gotay got the walk (still loving him), but Infante couldn’t do anything afterwards. Bobby was playing for a big 2-out hit, I guess.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 6:24 PM EDT up reply actions
he still could have gone another inning or two. now you waste bennett which should pretty much kill any chance of him starting friday, which means you MUST make a roster move for the friday game.
please let it be RESOP GONE, MORTON UP.
I’m with you…not JJ’s best outing by any means, but no reason to take him out for a pinch hitter unless Bobby really felt like that was going to be our only chance to score.
by Smoltz's Beard on May 12, 2008 6:39 PM EDT up reply actions

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