Cliff Lee Dominates As Philadelphia Routs Atlanta 9-0

apparently the thing is with Bourn in front of him he has tried to become more of an opposite field hitter and has apparently abandoned trying to really pull the ball.

You know Derek wasn’t all that bad..

You’re right.

He’s worse.

Prado has been terrible all season.

Last night he got the walk-off hit, iirc. I agree, he has been less than stellar in comparison to last season, but he’s been injured, and moved around quite a bit defensively.

Well said. I have said all season long that Derek Lowe could be considered a good pitcher if he just had a competent defense working behind him. Prado, Uggla, and Freeman are allow significantly below average at their positions according to UZR and with Derek Lowe being somebody that induces hard groundball contact he needs fielders with more range that will allow him to match his ERA with his advance metrics. Furthermore, your notion about Prado being terrible all season is valid from my perspective. Prado has played mediocre defense at 3b this season in his limited action and his defense in LF has slipped dramatically since he came back from the DL. Maybe he is playing injured because he looks slower and less athletic than in years past, but the fact remains that he needs to walk more. Having his offensive production soley tied to BABIP is troubling for him and the Braves offense. They need to value OBP and walk rate more than they do. To conclude my rant, I have confidence in the team and Prado. I am unsure if trading him is the correct or even a considered answer, the fact remains the Braves must teach patience and the value of reaching base through other means than base hits.

Well, last year’s team was really derailed by injuries. That hasn’t been the case this year (injuries to Hanson and JJ aside…but both of these are not supposed to be season ending). Knock on wood.

I like your arguments, but the Braves bullpen largely consists of gigantic contributions from three players. Outside of Venters, Kimbrel and O’Flaherity the Braves bullpen has been sporadic and possibly even bad in the second half.

You’d swear we’re 58-82 and not the other way around!

I’m just mad about Lowe. I don’t want to take the Bourn trade back, I don’t want to DFA Martin and I don’t think we’re sunk. I’m just tired of watching the reincarnation of Len Barker every five fucking days.

You are right. Heyward continues to get worse instead of better. His swing has looked terrible since April and outside of 1 game every 3 weeks where he seemingly puts together a few good atbats he can sustain nothing. He immediately follows a game where he reaches base multiple times and puts together some encouraging swings and plate appearances with a weeks worth of bad approaches, awful swings, and harmless grounders to second base.

The thing is that his swing isn’t static over the course of the season. It isn’t even static in the last month. He can improve it, and given his prodigious skill likely will. At this point we don’t need him to come out of the season with great stats, we need him to be productive in the post-season and, if things get tight, at the end of the season. There is plenty of time to fix his swing by then and the primary indicator of his success in this front is his objectively high athleticism.

"Whatever the Braves “aren’t” paying you (mwa-hahaha)….. we’ll triple it." – Phillies

“….But what am I supposed to do….?” – Parrish

“[faintest hint of a smile forms on the Phillies lips] Just keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.”

~

only joking around, but I expect some closer games now that Lowe’s night is done

This might be the best comment I’ve ever read on TC.

People actually took my comment seriously sheesh.