Maybe theres a bright side to today's loss

by mvhsbball on Jul 4, 2009 7:15 PM EDT Comment 13 comments

First off, happy 4th of July to everyone. Have a safe holiday. And on another note, RIP Steve McNair. You were a pest as a football player when you led the Titans to the superbowl in 1999 since I was a huge Rams fan when i was younger. But off the field, I had the utmost respect for you as a person and I still have the autographed rookie card. RIP.

Anyways, tough loss today, but I feel like there were some real big postives for us going forward.

1. Tommy Hanson is the real f'ing deal. 26 scoreless innings as a rookie? My goodness. Not to mention he should be 5-0 in your first six starts. He's really showing better control the last 2 outings as well. I didn't check the exact numbers, but im pretty sure his ratio of balls and strikes today was a little above 2/1. Thats a big improvement over some of the previous games with 4 or 5 walks. Things are never for sure, but it just might look like we've found our ace of the future.

2. Bobby Cox might learn you CANNOT throw a reliever out there 3 days in a row. Gonzo didn't have anything on his ball today and i bet his 41 prior appearances had something to do with it. The guy had major elbow reconstruction surgery not too long ago and shouldn't put all that stress on his arm. Maybe Bobby will learn, just like he learned that this team MUST play small ball in order to win, that you can't throw the same guys out there day after day after day. Moylan and a combination of Logan/O'Flaherty can get it done in the 8th.

3. As mention before, the Braves are learning to play small ball. It seems like ever since we inserted Marteeeeen in the lineup, this whole team plays with a fire and agression that we haven't seen in quite a while. I LOVE small ball and think its one of the only ways to play when a team lacks power and speed. Obviously, i'd rather have Chipper and Mac swinging away, but every other guy in the starting lineup is capable of putting down a bunt (well, except for Francine who doesn't do anything well). All the White Sox did a few years back was play small ball, and they won the World Series. Our pitching staff doesn't need too many runs, and we score much more when we do the little things correctly like getting a bunt down and going 1st to 3rd on a single.

4. It looks like the only true weakness in our lineup is Francoeur in RF. Prado keeps raking at 2B and GA/Diaz are finally hitting like we thought they would. I know we still lack power from 1B and the OF, but our offense has definately improved over the past week or so. And lets not forget Omar Infante should return in less than a month. He's a great asset off the bench and as a platoon guy.

~~Lets hope~~ Lets win the damn series tomorrow against the Nats and move onto Chicago to gain some more ground on the Sillies. Don't forget, after the Cubs and Rockies, we play the Mets for 4 games. We can REALLY put some ground between us and the Muts if we keep doing our job on the road until then.

GO BRAVES and have a great Independence Day.

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There’s definite takeaways. Hanson was brilliant. The offense is working. I just hope they continue the Diaz in right experiment until we have a non-Francoeur option. That’s a pretty obvious move to make us better.

by 17843 on Jul 4, 2009 7:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the positive post........

I feel we are going in the right direction, and once we get some off the DL we will be in better shape.
I am going out on a limb and say: We can win our division, if the pieces continue to fall in place!

I love unexpected surprises like we’ve been given lately!

Go Braves!!

by HEYJUDE on Jul 5, 2009 12:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Somebody call the wammmbulance!

I like how my post turned into a big complaint/ argument thread on deleted posts and replying properly.

If you’re gonna complain, make your own post for it. I like talking about the Braves with you guys, not about a proper reply or what makes a fanpost “good”.

LET’S TALK BRAVES BASEBALL ON HERE. Thanks guys.

2009 Atlanta Braves Motto: We ♥ leaving RISP.

by mvhsbball on Jul 5, 2009 2:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

HIJCACK!

lol.

I like what you posted, but I thought that Gonzo got the day off just a day or two ago…has he really pitched in 3 straight games?

"Actually, Justin was right."
by bigjoe on May 15, 2009 9:04 AM PDT

by justincredubil02 on Jul 5, 2009 2:44 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Exactly

That’s my point man I to like talking Braves baseball not correct English.Punctuation marks,spacing have nothing to do with talking about the Braves.

by BravesMania on Jul 5, 2009 4:28 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

mvhsbball, I hate your positive and thoughtful thread has been disrespected and turned into a discussion about a whole lot of bunk besides your post. All four (yes folks, there were 4 of them) points were good ones and food for thought as we try and put yesterday’s disappointing loss into perspective and look onto to day to win this series and make some hay in our division in the upcoming games.

I was anxious to read when I saw you had several replies, only to find a bunch of whining.

Come on now – say it with me….No Whining In Baseball. :-)

"Well behaved women rarely make history" ~ Laurel Ulrich

by NCChopper on Jul 5, 2009 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

eta: “today” instead of “to day”. See, when you’re a broad with nails – you make typos. Imagine that. ;P

"Well behaved women rarely make history" ~ Laurel Ulrich

by NCChopper on Jul 5, 2009 11:13 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

and that sucks cause this is actually a pretty good Fan Post.

1. I dont know why, but Im still skeptical of Hanson… I have no factual evidence for this belief. I am doing my best to temper the expectations of the “Baseball Jesus”. I will say this, he seems to have improved with every outing. He is becoming more effective with his pitches. He may it into the 7th pretty easily yesterday, and thats really important if he is gonna be the true ace of the Braves

2. No, Bobby probably wont learn. He will continue to throw the best reliever out there regardless of the amount of games they have played in in a row. We have to take the good with the bad with Bobby. His failings are in handling the bullpen, they always have been. I think the good outweigh the bad so lets just move on.

3. I dont necessarily buy into needing to play small ball. We need good ABs. I dont like it when people about small ball or its opposite or anything else. If you consistenly have good ABs you will score runs. With our pitching we don’t need that many runs. I would classify a good AB as taking pitches you dont want to hit (whether its a ball or it isnt the pitch you are looking for) and then hitting the pitches you want to hit hard. Its pretty simple. I agree we need to try to take the extra base, go from 1st to 3rd, and not make dumb baserunning mistakes. But i dont think those ideas are specific to small ball. I think they are specific to playing good baseball. If our teams talents are in hitting singles and moving runners over that way… and that is classified as small ball, then fine. But i think that classification is useless. And I certainly dont want to be bunting runners over, because that has been proven statistically to be unproductive.

I certainly dont wnat to come off like im “coming down” on you or anything. Its just my feelings on the subject of small ball. That aside. I agree the Braves seem to be putting good ABs together and scoring some runs… which is always favorable.

4. I hope that the return of Infante can help the eventual downslide of Prado (realistically, based on his numbers in the past he is due for a slight decline).

There I returned to the original point… lets concentrate here and you all can tell me Im wrong about my ramblings. (justin if u call me out on grammar Ill drive to Texas and punch u in the skull)

Heyward,Hanson,and Shaffer r ready now!! Why do you think they havent signed the "right handed bat"?

by fatazfoot on Jan 7, 2009 8:59 PM EST

by Swo12bv on Jul 5, 2009 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Alright

Warnings/bans will be issued to those who attempt to hijack others’ FanPosts with trite nonsense such as “why was my fanpost deleted??//?”

If you have a fanpost that was deleted and you want to know why, EMAIL the three addresses at the bottom for explanation. One of the three of us will have done it, and one of us will have an explanation to why it was done. Going forth and publicly questioning it waters down the overall quality of a decent post, as well as well, making you look petty and whiny.

Also, if this isn’t an obvious FYI, well executed grammar and punctuation and presentation will always be favored. Not just here, but anywhere where your writing ability is put into the public eye.

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Jul 5, 2009 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'll bring the double wamburger and large McCries

A man walks into a meat shoppe and goes to the counter. The cashier asks, "Thinking about buying some meat?". The man replied, "No, I'm going to buy meat, I was thinking about punanny."

by bwellnjonesco on Jul 5, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs