At least they still have Melky.

Speaking of the Braves, they are playing the Nationals tonight and Strasburg was scratched just before the game because he "couldn't get loose". That is some major shenanigans by the Nats, in my opinion. I couldn't get them convicted of anything in court, but it's super duper fishy.

Remember when this guy was hotshit?

Speaking of the Braves, they are playing the Nationals tonight and Strasburg was scratched just before the game because he "couldn't get loose". That is some major shenanigans by the Nats, in my opinion. I couldn't get them convicted of anything in court, but it's super duper fishy.

What's the motivation?

Strasburg is still 50 innings short of his IP limit. The story I read said that he was warming up in the pen, felt something in his shoulder, talked to IRod and the pitching coach about it, and they decided to scratch him. Doesn't sound too fishy to me, but neither of us were there.

Big crowd to see Miguel Batista tonight.

76 XBH for McLouth in 2008. Testing or no, I suggest he get back on whatever he was on back then unless he wants to be riding buses the rest of his career.

He signed a contract that guaranteed him $16 million. He'll be fine.

Remember when this guy was hotshit?

The McLouth-to-Atlanta deal was standard operating procedure for BTF when it went down last year. A bunch of people were certain the Braves easily won the deal, some people defended the Pirates' side of it, a few people tried to turn the deal into a conversation about the Mets – but that devolved into a discussion on prospect evaluation – there was a little bit about historical comparisons to franchises which were in comparable disarray to the Pirates, and a handful of personal swipes were taken at other commenters. This was all followed by an unceremoniously abrupt ending to the discussion.

i was very surprised that mclouth disintegrated the second he hit atlanta. i never thought he was a great fielder, but he was a respectable hitter

Doesn't sound too fishy to me, but neither of us were there.

EXTREME caution is warranted. The Nats aren't winning anything this year, he's the most exciting pitching prospect since before Mark Prior, and people already love him and pay to see him. Anything even remotely like this calls for him to get scratched at this point, if it's my team.

What's the motivation?

Seconded.

What's the motivation?

The only thing I can think of is that they knew ahead of time that he wouldn't get the start for any number of reasons, but didn't announce it until just before game time to get the Strasburg bump in attendance.

There's probably one other poster here who would see it this way.

i was very surprised that mclouth disintegrated the second he hit atlanta. i never thought he was a great fielder, but he was a respectable hitter

A significant portion of it is ballpark related. McLouth is a LH hitter with moderate power. In PNC he could translate that into doubles and HRs. Turner Field is a deathbed for those sorts of players. The RCF power alleys are deep. You have to have the power of a Fred McGriff, or Ryan Klesko, or Jason Heyward to park balls out of TF as a LH hitter. If you don't have that sort of towering HR power, you get killed. See also Johnson, Kelly and Kotchman, Casey. McLouth realized early that he was no longer a HR threat while playing most of his games at Turner Field and attempted to compensate by pulling everything down the lines (where moderate power hitters such as he can still do damage.) This in turn completely screwed up his swing mechanics and everything fell to ####.

Another significant factor IMHO is that he's attempting to recover from a concussion. From admittedly limited data, baseball players sometimes have a really hard time coming back from head injuries like the one McLouth suffered in an outfield collision with Jason Heyward. Ryan Church, Marcus Giles, both were done more or less the day they went blank on the field after head trauma. (It will be interesting to map the recovery of Jason Bay.)

Actually, McLouth's numbers in Atlanta this year are about in line with his overall career rates. It's the road numbers which are killing him.

Well I'll be damned. There goes a perfectly good narrative. Sh*t.

Ryan Church, Marcus Giles, both were done more or less the day they went blank on the field after head trauma.

Also Corey Koskie. Well, assuming I'm allowed to name someone never on the Braves. :-)

Actually, McLouth's numbers in Atlanta this year are about in line with his overall career rates. It's the road numbers which are killing him.

I'm sure that what Sam meant to say was that, without the concussion and Turner Field's dimensions, McLouth would be OPS'ing 1200 at home and 600 on the road. :-)

For those too lazy to click through, he's hitting 112/215/150 on the road -- yikes!! I don't mean to brag but I wouldn't hit much worse than that.

How the hell is he going to win another Gold Glove by being in Gwinnett!?

Playing the position in the major leagues is not GG award requirement:

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Gold_Glove_Award

I think if the Pirates offered Charlie Morton and his 9.35 ERA back to Atlanta for McLouth, the Braves would take it. Even without throwing in Gorkys Zygotic Hernandez and his .668 OPS in Altoona.

If Jeff Locke ever has 3 starts in the majors as good as his 3 starts in Altoona so far, the Pirates win this trade.

Gorky's zone #s - a big part of his appeal - have gone into the toliet as well. Everyone lost this deal.

If Jeff Locke ever has 3 starts in the majors as good as his 3 starts in Altoona so far, the Pirates win this trade.

With only being 1-0, it's obvious he hasn't learned to pitch to the score yet.

And Gorkys is out for the season with a broken finger.