Paging Sam Hutcheson, Sam Hutcheson to the white courtesy phone….
ATLANTA — Sunday night, when the Washington Nationals needed runs to break a tied score, a relic from their past lumbered in from left field. Livan Hernandez, the man who threw the first pitch in Nationals history, the soft-tosser who started opening day last year and became obsolete this year, emerged from the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen. The carnage that followed felt like a rally wrapped inside some kind of ritual, the Nationals at once pounding the Braves and further smashing their own history into dust.
The Nationals’ lambasting of Hernandez lifted them to a 7-2 victory at Turner Field and a resounding sweep of the Braves, their first this season after nine chances. Gio Gonzalez silenced the Braves with seven electric innings, striking out 10 while allowing one lonely hit. Gonzalez bettered Brandon Beachy, the major league ERA leader, who received little help from the collapsing team around him. [...]
[Gio] Gonzalez has staked an early claim to the top tier of the National League. He has a 2.04 ERA, a 7-1 record and leads the National League with 79 strikeouts. Gonzalez has allowed five or fewer hits in each of his last nine starts. In 612 / 3 innings, Gonzalez has yielded only 33 hits.
“Hopefully,” Harper said, “he can get a Cy Young this year.
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Class? I'm totes descended from a long line of hobos, reavers and proles.
How long until they start playing him ahead of Heyward?
One more reason to hate the Braves: Chipper. I'm glad he hasn't retired yet-- every year he hangs on increases the chances of his career ending via life-threatening 101 mile an hour fastball to the dome.
Not until Chipper and Freeman return at least. The saddest part is that Jose Constanza probably should be playing for this team as it is currently configured, considering injuries, etc. It basically comes down to Constanza's glove in LF vs Juan Francisco's glove at 3B, and while Francisco is clearly the better hitter, he makes Ed Sprague look damned near spry over at the hot corner.
He makes it easy...
Career line vs. the Mets:
.329.422/.568, 39 HR, 123 RBI, and, for good measure, 19 steals.
That's an interesting question. I'm not sure why I don't like the Braves. I just don't. Their evil isn't obvious like the Yankees. I guess it's like Potter Stewart and pornography.
Had I known that I'd be subjected to "Jack Morris for the Hall of Fame" stories for 25 years after that I would have rooted for the Braves that night of course.
if i weren't a braves fan, i probably wouldn't like them either - between the blase fanbase, the chop, their strengths/methodology alternately differs from my own or from what i feel i could do as an armchair gm (were i an a's fan circa moneyball, it'd be relatively easy to identify and root for the chad bradfords of the world. the braves has success with players i often otherwise would have no likely attachment to), their sometimes corporate-y-ness.
i could've done a lot worse as a fan than end up with this team, but they wouldn't be my pick in the abstract.
atlanta's failures were a lot longer running than minnesota's.
- the twins last had a winning season 3 years prior, atlanta 8.
- twins last made the playoffs and played in a world series 4 years earlier (which they won), atlanta 9 and 33 (which they lost).
- minnesota's last place team had won 74 games and that bad record was kind of a fluke - it would turn out to be the only season in a 6 year stretch where they didn't post a winning record. atlanta's last place team had won 65 - their third consecutive last place finish and more wins than they had averaged the preceding five seasons.
Is he? 30 BB in 742 AAA PAs-- he has been better in the majors, but only walking once every 30+ PAs this year. Constanza doesn't have any power, but can get on base and run. Franscisco seems capable of hitting really long home runs, but at the cost of making a lot of outs in the process. Seems pretty close to a wash at the plate to me, though Francisco may not be done growing as a hitter, so it might be worth throwing some ABs his way, looking beyond 2012.
Of course, when Heyward craters again Costanza will starting in RF, which I'm very much looking forward too...
As Mets fan I harbor ill will towards the Braves because of...
well actually it's due to Sam.
mostly Sam, but some enmity is due to Glavine, specifically September 30, 2007.
It's a bizarre world you live in where Athens is better than Atlanta.
Most likely you don't understand this because you think everyone is as childish as you are. Here's a little tidbit of info: some people around here are capable of behaving like mature adults.
As for all the "hit-and-run" stuff, let me explain something to you: I'm not some unemployed geek living in a basement; I have this thing called a "job". Even if for some strange reason I wanted to spend all day long doing nothing but trading insults back and forth with clowns like you, I simply don't have the time for it.
Hell, I'd take Albany, Americus and ####### Attapulgus over that steaming piece of ####.
Now that's just ####### dumb, Andy. How long has it been since you've been to Atlanta?
I'd ask why but I'm sure the answer won't make any sense.
(I'm just jolly because eight straight wins.)
For the record, the Braves haven't developed a player that I really give much of a crap about since Andruw. When Chipper goes, it will be a simple matter of laundry-based inertia, I fear.
Hell, I'd take Albany, Americus and ####### Attapulgus over that steaming piece of ####.
Now that's just ####### dumb, Andy. How long has it been since you've been to Atlanta?
Spent a week there in the Summer of 2006. That was enough to last me until the last foam tomahawk has gone the way of the Braves' 2011 playoff hopes.
OTOH I've got nothing against Chipper. I only wish he'd been a Yankee.
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I'd ask why but I'm sure the answer won't make any sense.
Let's put it this way: I'd vote for Harry Reid over Mitt Romney.
What on Earth does that have to do with Atlanta?
What about Gattis?
Hey, that Sharktopus thing looks like a real problem. Somebody ought to do something about that.
Thanks for delivering.
You missed the best part: the comedy gold that is the man who posts in BBTF political threads for the sole (purported) purpose of complaining about the existence of BBTF political threads claiming not to have time to post on BBTF. Conveniently, his job seems to always reach its zenith of busyness at moments when he's just been thoroughly housed by other posters.
What on Earth does that have to do with Atlanta?
If you have to ask, you'll never know.
EDIT: coke to jmurph
He has potential. Of course, he's also on the DL after being hit in the hand by a pitch.
who is that?
An answer which doesn't actually answer the question. Again, thanks for delivering.
Albany's a dump. Then again. it's not in Georgia, so I see your point.
I know you were, wasn't criticizing you. But Andy's joke doesn't answer my question, which was to be expected.
Albany's a dump.
Compared to Utica, it's San Francisco. Lark Street's awesome. Or at least it used to be.
Actually, Albany is up the road from Americus, basically the only town of note before you get to Columbus, which is also in Georgia.
Albany is actually pronounced al-BEN-knee, where the first syllable is pronounced somewhere between Al Pacino's first name and the sound you might make when you stub your toe, the second is said like Ben Franklin's shortened first name, and the emphasis is on the BEN. Third syllable is just like any -ny word. Al-BEN-ny.
my wife enjoyed savannah and they had some pretty good restaurants
been all over georgia. nice state
You can get a shot for that nowadays.
Absolutely correct right down to the toe stub, though it's pretty much only whites who accent the second syllable. Local blacks usually pronounce it as if it were the New York State capital.
From which we can surmise that you still have a pulse, I suppose.
I'm in for a meetup this weekend. But not a Buffet concert. I may throat punch you for going to a Buffet show, actually. But I'll wait until you're good and drunk.
I will be in touch.
As if that would make it better. So yeah. Call me, maybe?
As a troll, Joey could not hold his jock.
Ooooh, can we turn this into discussion of RSB trolls?
"Bow down to the king!"
Or Troy. Having Troy High School right across the street from my dorm's parking lot was...interesting.
Braves at 2-1.
You know Rickey's having a bad game when Vince Coleman steals his thunder...
I can't speak for anyone else at BTF, but I have never offered my domicile to Joey B.
As a fan of the running game, my first inclination would be to say that this would be ironic. But considering it would be Rickey stealing the base, it's really the only possible outcome of the situation as it's configured. It's as if Rickey's actions are determined entirely by his circumstances-- Rickey begins to look less like a man, and more like a perpetual motion machine set into action by some long-dead inventor intent on having his predilection for instigating chaos outlive his physical body...
I can't speak for anyone else at BTF, but I have never offered my domicile to Joey B.
I have not offered gef's domicile to Joey B. either. I like him too much (as an internet presence, I have never met gef in real life). I would offer Sam H.'s though. It would be sitcom gold!
Rickey prefers to think of Rickey as a cosmic force instead.
Give a monkey a brain and he'll swear he's the center of the universe...
And I thought you'd never call.
Change of plans: midget wrestling on Saturday.
Lizard says monkey brains taste good. Crow says talk to the sky about all that.
I always wondered what sort of nonsense Rickey was muttering to his bat.
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