So they showed the first Mac walk off and interview right before we restarted. Fun finish.. Also, afternoon game today gentlemen, prepare accordingly.
17 over .500 and our top 2 starters going into the season aren’t even on the team anymore Certainly couldn’t have predicted that.
Really good long read on JD from The Athletic. Josh Donaldson: Different, ‘dangerous’ and a big part of a prolific Braves lineup Spoiler By David O'Brien Jul 5, 2019 64 As a son of the South — and the Deep South, at that — Josh Donaldson nevertheless felt like an outsider in his first months with the Braves. Not fully embraced despite his credentials — former American League MVP — or his SEC pedigree as a former Auburn star. “For sure it’s been different,” said Donaldson, who was born in Pensacola, Fla., and raised in Florida and Mobile, Ala., but spent the first eight seasons of his major-league career in Oakland and Toronto before being traded to Cleveland for the final month of the 2018 season. He signed with the Braves in November. “There’s a lot of things that have been different. Probably the biggest is kind of being back home close to a lot of people,” Donaldson said. “That’s been good so far.” Playing at or near home can work both ways for players. Some enjoy it; others find out it’s a pain in the ass, always trying to fill ticket requests or entertain visitors in to see a series, etc. “I kind of got ahead of it before I even got here, making sure I had people that were going to take care of all that stuff,” said Donaldson, before getting to the heart of the matter, the real change from what he was used to: “Probably the difference from when I played in Toronto — I mean, those fans loved me. And they loved me from Day 1. And here, it’s been different.” Donaldson paused for a moment, then said, “It’s a different type of fan that’s here in the South.” A couple of things should be noted before we dive deeper: Donaldson rubbed some Braves fans the wrong way as soon as he signed — literally at his Nov. 28 introductory news conference — when he answered a reporter’s question about possible challenges in switching leagues thusly: “Nah, check my numbers against the National League (in interleague play). I think I’ll do just fine with that.” Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, the former Toronto Blue Jays GM who made the trade bringing Donaldson from Oakland to Canada, was seated next to him at that November news conference. He smiled after Donaldson’s response and said, “You haven’t changed a bit.” And Donaldson shrugged and said, “It is what it is.” All of this actually was quite innocuous, just a supremely confident and candid veteran athlete being himself. As was the case March 25, just before Opening Day, when a TV reporter asked Donaldson what he would bring to the Braves. “I don’t know, have you ever looked at the back of my baseball card?” Donaldson said. “That’s probably what I can bring.” Again, it was said with a smile, one interpreted by some observers as arrogant, perhaps. But, again, it was “JD” being JD. This was unlike just about anything that Braves fans have seen, particularly from an established veteran who just signed a one-year, $23 million contract. The culture of the Braves for a long time did not seem to have much room for such colorful swagger or cockiness, with few exceptions — and those only for limited engagements. Deion Sanders played only 292 games for the Braves and didn’t change the culture. David Justice had the balls to speak his mind and call out fans for a lack of enthusiasm during the World Series, then backed it up by hitting a hugely important home run the next night. But he was gone less than a year later. Again, he didn’t do anything to really change the culture. Now, things are obviously different. The game itself has changed at the MLB level. It has gotten younger, and enthusiasm and self-expression are promoted by the baseball establishment, not frowned upon. “Let the kids play” and all that. The Braves, wisely, have changed with the times. It could be said Atlanta is about as tolerant of on-field enthusiasm as any team, not trying suppress the unbridled joy — and occasional bat flip after watching the flight of a home run — of All-Star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and his equally expressive pal, 2018 All-Star Ozzie Albies. These guys brought a tireless style and exuberance that older Braves and manager Brian Snitker credited for energizing the team on the way to its first National League East title and postseason appearance in five years, and again this year to first place as the All-Star break approaches. So where does Donaldson fit into the changing fabric and new dynamic of the Braves? Well, it’s complicated. When a reporter mentioned to Donaldson on Friday that many Braves fans are conservative, Donaldson said, “Well, I’m conservative.” But he and the reporter were not talking about the same kind of conservative. Donaldson’s brash comments at his introductory news conference and again before Opening Day surely were embraced by many fans, particularly younger ones who liked to see their team add a player who has walked the walk and also loved to talk the talk. But others aren’t used to seeing players arrive and come across as what they deem to be arrogant or showy. “Yeah. I’ve always had a flair to my game,” Donaldson said. “That’s why I think maybe in Toronto I was loved so much. Because they loved it. I mean, I grew up here, so I knew. It’s just been a while since I’ve played in front of this type of fan base. I mean, I’ve been on the West Coast and the North. It’s been a while, so it’s taken me some time to get kind of acclimated to that. Acclimated to the clubhouse and kind of how everything works around here. It’s different for me. Everything is. So it’s taken some time for me to get adjusted to that.” Frankly, a shit-talking white guy wearing a sort of punk-rock version of a mullet, who took his nickname “Bringer of Rain” from the Starz TV series “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” — which he once appeared on, by the way — better come in and back up the big talk with performance if he wants to be embraced by Braves Country. And Donaldson, coming off a season in which he missed more than 100 games because of injuries, did not immediately perform anywhere near those statistics he referred to on the back of his baseball card, including the 33 homers and 98 RBIs he averaged for five seasons through 2017 while hitting .282 with a .901 OPS in that span. But here’s the thing: After being brought along cautiously at spring training — again, to the dismay of some Braves fans who wondered why the team spent $23 million on a 33-year-old plagued by calf injuries the past two seasons — and then hitting just .239 with two homers and a .765 OPS in his first 80 plate appearances (19 games), Donaldson since then has been pretty much exactly what the Braves hoped. And his personality is refreshing for those who like a little spice instead of cliches. He has played exceptional defense all season, and beginning with the second game of an April 20 doubleheader at Cleveland, he had a .358 OBP and .513 slugging percentage (.871 OPS) with 15 doubles, 15 home runs and 40 RBIs in 65 games before Friday. And he only has gotten better as the season has worn on, now playing just about every day rather than being rested by Snitker for day games after night games or during other long stretches of consecutive games. In his past 22 games before Friday, Donaldson had hit .286 with nine homers, 18 RBIs and a 1.031 OPS. And after striking out 75 times in 265 plate appearances in his first 64 games, he’s had 14 strikeouts in 86 plate appearances in his past 20 games. All this while fitting in well with the clubhouse, whether or not he felt entirely comfortable initially. He has given Freddie Freeman the best protection the Braves star and No. 3 hitter has had since Donaldson moved from his preferred No. 2 spot to the cleanup (No. 4) spot on May 10, when Snitker made several big changes to ignite a stagnant offense. The changes worked splendidly, as the Braves were 34-16 since then before Friday and had run up that record on the strength of one of baseball’s most prolific and power-laden offenses. Their 140 home runs were third-most in the NL before Friday and tied a franchise record for home runs before the All-Star break. “When I started doing my research on the team and knowing the capabilities that I have at the plate and defensively, I knew that would be a great fit as far as how the lineup mixture is,” Donaldson said. “I would say this season, up to this point, it’s starting to look how I wanted it to. But for a while there, I scuffled to be consistent. And moving from the 2-hole to the 4-hole is an adjustment for me, as well. “So I mean, there’s kind of been a lot of things I’ve been trying to get adjusted to, and then along with getting adjusted to those things and not getting off to the start that I wanted to, but kind of trying to stay trusting the process and getting used to personalities that are around here, as well. … I kind of probably in the last few weeks have started to get acclimated to that. I’m sure it’s taken a little bit for people to get acclimated to me, as well, and how I go out and play the game. It’s just been different.” Snitker said that before making the lineup changes, he talked with Donaldson and with Albies, who was dropped from the top of the order to the bottom. Acuña moved back to the leadoff spot, where he thrived during the second half of his 2018 Rookie of the Year season. “I talked to Ozzie, I talked to Josh, I talked to everybody concerned,” Snitker said. “And I explained to Josh why I was doing it. And he was like, ‘You know what? Let’s roll with it. If it was going to help the club, let’s roll with it.’ He was just all in for whatever was going to be the best for the team. “I told him, ‘I don’t feel like we’re maximizing what you have with where you’re at (No. 2). You need to be in a position to do damage and drive runs in, and it’s not happening with where you’re batting.’ And he was all in. That’s when he told me, ‘Let’s roll with it then.’” Donaldson, who hit second during his best seasons with the Blue Jays, had a .262 average and .875 OPS in 31 games in the 2-hole this season, compared with .249 with an .840 OPS in 47 games from the cleanup spot. But 11 of his 17 homers have come from the fourth spot, and the Braves have surged since the lineup changes. “He is dangerous — very dangerous,” Snitker said, commenting on the challenge presented to opposing pitchers with Donaldson batting behind Freeman. “He (hit second) in Toronto and won an MVP, but it’s different here, and it’s different in our lineup. In the National League and in our particular lineup. It may work for some guys on other teams; it just wasn’t working here for us. He’s doing a great job (at cleanup). He’s doing really well.” When it was mentioned to veteran catcher Brian McCann that Donaldson seemed more comfortable with the Braves in recent weeks, McCann said, “I feel like he’s been comfortable (from the outset).” Reporter to McCann: “He’s a bit of a different cat, huh?” “Yeah, in a good way, you know?” McCann said. “And you throw a guy like that in the middle of the order — I mean, he takes his walks, he’s got power, you’ve got to hit your spots. As many guys as you can have like that in a lineup. With him, Freddie Free, Acuña, (Nick) Markakis, Albies — you can go all the way up and down our lineup. It just lengthens our lineup.” The Braves have five players with 15 or more home runs and Albies with 14 — if he hits another this weekend, Atlanta will be the first team in MLB history with six players with at least 15 homers before an All-Star break. That’s a big reason they’ve been able to come back from deficits so frequently. Case in point: Thursday, when they trailed 4-0 after the top of the first inning against Philadelphia, then hit five homers and won 12-6. “And then you’ve got guys coming off the bench, too, that are (producing big offense),” Donaldson said. He smiled and added, “(Hitting coach Kevin) Seitzer’s got the easiest job in America right now. He just sits back and watches, just listens to the sounds coming off the bat.” It’s a stacked lineup similar to a few teams Donaldson was part of in Toronto. “Yeah, a couple of times in Toronto, when Baltimore had some pretty good teams, we were down 9-nothing in the second inning and came back and won some of those games,” he said. “I don’t want us to get to that point until we have to. But when you can do that, especially four runs, a four-spot — and what we did there (Thursday) that I really liked was, we chipped away. We got two, then we came back and score two or three the next inning, then two or three in the third. … We just kept adding. “Obviously, hitting home runs helps. But being able to manufacture runs, as well, to be able to have quality at-bats and then get guys in without having to leave the yard — that, in my opinion, is what makes a complete lineup. And that’s something that I’d like to be better at, which I feel like I have in the last couple of weeks, is to cut down on my strikeouts. Because the strikeout rate that I had early on in the year is not something that is normal for me and was very frustrating for me, as well. And to be able to help, to be that guy in the middle, you want your guys in the middle to be steady. “I feel like I’m starting to get there, to where every at-bat I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable. And being able to have a game plan and to be able to accomplish it.” When asked if he noticed more cheers when he comes to the plate in recent home games, Donaldson said, “Hmm, I don’t know.” He was told that comments about him on social media had turned mostly positive after a decidedly negative bent earlier. “Well, that’s good,” he said. “I try to stay away from that. But I mean, it’s just kind of one of those deals where at the park and stuff like that, here, like with our fan base, I felt like everybody was like, ‘He don’t know.’ I was like, ‘OK. We’ll see.’” Donaldson was perhaps the most visible and popular athlete in Toronto after helping the Blue Jays end their two-decades-plus playoff drought and winning the AL MVP award. He’s on a one-year contract with the Braves, and if he’s recognized at all in Atlanta, it’s probably going to and from his car. “I literally go from here to the house,” said Donaldson, who has a house in the Buckhead section of town. “Like, I’ve been outside of my house probably twice since I’ve been here. I’m like a hermit.” He lives with his girlfriend, who is from Toronto. “She’s down here,” he said. “She likes it in Atlanta.” Donaldson, who is fond of Air Jordans — he wears them during batting practice — usually shows up at the ballpark wearing sunglasses and a flat-brimmed baseball cap pulled low. He has a large Bluetooth speaker that he sometimes carries with him from his locker to the batting cage, all the while singing along to Creedence Clearwater Revival one moment and rapping with Nas the next. In mannerisms and displays of emotion, he is the antithesis of Markakis, the stoic and revered veteran leader and a man of few words. And Donaldson doesn’t exchange pleasantries with every player who arrives at third base, as friendly Freddie does at first. But in any of the ways he is different from some other veteran Braves, Donaldson has become an integral part of their team and someone whose quirky personality is appreciated. “Yeah, a lot of guys in the clubhouse, even if different personalities, we all get along,” Donaldson said. “And it’s fun. I like to banter with guys, and I take it back from them. That’s just something that’s kind of fun in the clubhouse. But what’s awesome to see is once you step between the lines, everybody’s out there to win. And it doesn’t matter if it’s Brian McCann, who’s a 14-year vet, he wants to win just as much as Ronald Acuña and the young guys coming up. It’s all about winning. “You don’t have guys sulking when things aren’t going their way. It’s all about, ‘Hey, how can I get better?’ So whenever my team needs me, we can hopefully contribute to that team win.” When Donaldson signed with the Braves, it was widely assumed that he would be a one-year bridge to third-base prospect Austin Riley. That’s still pretty much the assumption. But Riley has been up since mid-May, playing left field and playing it better than anyone expected he would despite almost no experience at the position before his call-up from Triple A. Given Riley’s serviceable defense in left and stunning 15 homers and 40 RBIs in his first 46 major-league games, and Donaldson’s own performance and offensive production, some have wondered whether the Braves might try to re-sign Donaldson to short deal or at least make him a qualifying offer. “You don’t sign somewhere unless you have the intention of hopefully maybe getting an opportunity (beyond the initial contract) with that organization,” Donaldson said. “But it’s not something that I’m expecting. Like, I’ve been down this road before with an organization that I’ve done a lot more for than I have for the Atlanta Braves, and things didn’t come to fruition. So … “I’m not someone who likes to count their eggs before they hatch. I like to just stay in the moment and play, and hopefully, I can impact this team enough to where that could be a possibility. But that’s not something that I really even put in the forefront.”
Anyone have any stats handy regarding our bullpen since June? I feel like a lot of those ERAs are coming back down into the 3s (I know Blevins hasn’t given up a run since 6/10).
Inaccurate. He's made 7 appearances since June 10th when he last gave up 2 R. In those 7 appearances he's gone 5 2/3 IP 0 R 3 H 6 K 2 BB (June 14th). Now hit me with that Ferris Buehler gif.
Anyone with espn plus wanna post the article on futures game prospects? You’ll know it because the banner pic is Pache. Really just copy and paste the part about Pache.
My colleague Keith Law said earlier this year that Pache "might be an 80-grade defender right now." The rudimentary defensive data we have for the minors backs Keith up. ZiPS uses a system in which it rates the catch probability for every hit ball in the minors based on the Gameday coordinates that MLB publishes. While not quite as accurate as Baseball Info Solutions or Ultimate Zone Rating in the majors, it gives us information about a crucial aspect of a prospect's résumé. This system had Pache as a plus-13 run defender in CF in 2018. This is the year his bat has caught up to that level of excellence. We're only in the first week of July and Pache already has more than half his professional home runs (11 of 20) in 2019. He's still just 20 years old yet in Double-A, and it's enough that ZiPS sees Pache as a slightly better Devon White.
Also one of those things where "slightly better Devon White" isn't the sexiest of comps, but then you go look up White and he's at 42 career fWAR.
Since June 1 bullpen stats: 2.48 ERA (1st) 3.72 FIP (4th) 4.08 xFIP (3rd) 1.5 fWAR (t-4th) 9.49 K/9 (11th) 2.99 BB/9 (4th) 1.02 HR/9 (5th) 78.1% LOB (1st) 44.3% GB (11th) Wow we just all of a sudden stopped walking people
Sobotka has 0 earned and 1 unearned in his last 10 innings going back to April 20th. Still walking too many (6) but has struck out 12 and only allowed 5 hits in that time. Only walked 3 in his last 8 innings though
I have Braves t-shirts but this week I decided to take my Braves fandom/obsession to the work level by scooping these.