paige 12 of still first place in the east.

[Edited on June 17, 2010 at 1:20 AM. Reason : op[]

6/17/2010 1:20:01 AM

Good insider article about Venters:

Quote :

"Jonny Venters doesn't yet have a song that is played when Braves manager Bobby Cox summons him into a game. "I don't know if rookies can pick their own music," Venters said the other day. But if Venters keeps pitching the way he has at the outset of this season, fans at Turner Field will be hearing this song: "Fishin' in the Dark" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. "I like country," Venters said. And undoubtedly, the Braves like what they've gotten out of the left-hander, who had stalled in their farm system in recent years. Venters had always been a starter, and in the midst of a season in which he was 4-7 with a 5.62 ERA, he mentioned to Derek Botelho, the pitching coach at Triple-A Gwinnett, that maybe he would be better working out of the bullpen. He made one start for Gwinnett this season before being called up to pitch out of the Braves' bullpen -- and he has thrived. It took him a few games to get the hang of warming up for an appearance -- before his first appearance, he threw about 30 pitches, prompting other Atlanta relievers to tell him he needed to take it easy -- but Venters likes the rhythm of a bullpen role. He likes coming to the park daily knowing that there's a chance he'll get into the game. He likes the adrenaline rush when he steps out of the 'pen onto the field. And he's throwing very well. "To me, he looks like someone who could close games for them in the future," one rival evaluator said. "I don't know if Billy Wagner is serious about retiring after this year, but Venters could be a guy who could move into that role. You don't see a lot of left-handers with that kind of sink on their fastball." Says Venters: "I think when I was a starter, I would get tired and I would lose the strike zone. I would be OK the first time through the strike zone, and then I'd start to have trouble." Now he faces only a handful of hitters, one time. Venters has walked 17 in 29 innings but has allowed only 19 hits and has struck out 32. He hasn't surrendered a home run yet this season, and left-handers are just 5-for-37 against him, which is a big deal in a division that has Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Ike Davis. "

6/17/2010 10:45:30 AM

^ They threw Ike Davis in there over a guy like Adam Dunn. No doubt in time Ike will be a threat, but to lump him with Howard and Utley is premature.

Also Venters just has some filthy stuff and his wind up and release is so slow, I think it makes his fastball that much more effective.

6/17/2010 10:58:17 AM

It probably has more to do with the fact that the Nationals are looking more like... well, the Nationals.

And the Mets are a legitimate threat to win the division and they will be facing Ike in bigger spots than Dunn. Of course he isn't on the level of those proven stars but so far in 2010 he actually has a 116 OPS+, which is higher than Howard and only slightly lower than Utley.

6/17/2010 11:03:40 AM

^ this is that time of year that the Mets are contenders isnt it? Before the epic end of season metldown ensues.

6/17/2010 11:58:24 AM

^ The Braves had a pretty crappy meltdown last year when they decided to not win during the last week of the season even though they were only two games out when the last week began.

But yes the Mets are good chokers and I am waiting for them to hit another bump in the road this year. They are playing well right now, but some of that is due to the their easy recent schedule.

6/17/2010 1:04:10 PM

39-28 and in first, but damn the METS keep winning!!! ahhhh

6/17/2010 10:31:30 PM

Sucks that the Braves take 2 of 3 from two of the best teams in baseball (Twins and Rays) and still lose two games to the Mets over that time period because they get to play two of the worst teams in baseball (Os and Indians). Oh well, eventually some of this will catch up to the Mets.

Also saw this stat on the AJC (I updated it with last night's win):

Quote :

"During that 31-14 stretch, the Braves are 16-3 at Turner Field. They’ve hit .305 with 21 homers while averaging six runs per game over those 19 games. They’ve scored five or more runs in 12 of those 19 games, and yes, the Braves remain unbeaten this season – home or road – when they score five or more."

A couple of things stand out. The first is the zero losses in any game that they score 5 runs. Pretty amazing. Shows how strong the pen is and how the pitchers in general are avoiding the huge inning for the opponent. The second is that the Braves have gone on this hot streak winning 31 out of 45 while playing 26 of those games on the road. Remarkable and still without a huge contribution from McCann, basically nothing from Chipper, no JJ, and Saito has been hurt the past two weeks.



[Edited on June 18, 2010 at 10:01 AM. Reason : k]

6/18/2010 10:00:55 AM

should have a great chance to keep this hot streak alive with the Kansas City Royals with cheese coming into town this weekend.

6/18/2010 10:26:21 AM

Please start losing.

6/18/2010 11:14:41 PM

^ditto

6/18/2010 11:23:20 PM

anybody got an MLB.tv PW i can gank?

6/19/2010 9:34:38 PM

GLAUS!

and the mets and phillies lose.....great day, great day

6/19/2010 9:59:11 PM

Just got back from the game, GREAT game, little of everything... Was that play by Escobar on the steal attempt at 2nd as great as it looked live?

6/19/2010 10:11:10 PM

Glaus is raking, easily the best free agent signing of the past 10 years, even though it's still June

Also, I found this post from 2006

I'm a genius

Quote :

"Ernie All American 33747 Posts user info edit post i agree with rflong we've traded away all our great pitching prospects (miner, capellan, etc) and haven't got much in return (kolb, hudson, ) the jury's still out on devine, james, boyer, and mcbride we don't have much in the pipeline right now. saltalamacchia will probably be traded and tony pena is just rafael belliard in disguise we have some good young shortstops, but luis hernandez is still a few years away brandon jones will probably be in the outfield in 2008, martin prado will be the next pete orr, and brayan pena will likely be mccann's backup next year but other than that, we're dry schuerholz has a lot to do in the offseason if we want to have a shot at anything next year 8/11/2006 1:25:26 PM"

6/20/2010 7:25:36 AM

Just turned on the game

2-0 Braves, bottom of the first, runner on second, Glaus ahead in the count

Kyle Davies looking like Kyle Davies

[Edited on June 20, 2010 at 1:53 PM. Reason : walked Glaus, also walked Prado and Heyward to start the game lol @ this guy]

6/20/2010 1:54:12 PM

doin' work

6/20/2010 4:42:01 PM

Braves W4

Mets L2

gg

6/20/2010 4:51:39 PM

W5

Best record in the NL

6/20/2010 5:07:16 PM

oh, guess cbs sports didnt update in time ... maybe it's a W5 and L3 for the mets then !


nope just L2

[Edited on June 20, 2010 at 5:10 PM. Reason : ]

6/20/2010 5:09:14 PM

Brooks motherfucking Conrad


God this team is playing good.

6/22/2010 8:32:10 PM

Well ummm you see, what I mean is, well, ummm

6/22/2010 8:55:42 PM

Hanson really should've been gone already.

6/22/2010 9:28:38 PM

God dammit Bobby, take him fucking out, he obviously doesn't have it tonight.

6/22/2010 9:29:01 PM

He really didn't even have much command in the first.

6/22/2010 9:32:16 PM

Oh no, Chavez... This game is over.

6/22/2010 9:33:24 PM

Hanson was really awful last night. He seems to have a game like that every couple of months where he just get blasted. Oh well hopefully Hudson will pick up the team tonight. Hate the White Sox stadium - another little league park.

6/23/2010 9:56:01 AM

or as the commentators politely put it, it's "intimate"

6/23/2010 10:20:14 AM

^^ how's it little league?

6/23/2010 10:28:28 AM

^ Little league meaning it is small and it is too damn easy to hit HRs there. Just like Yankee Stadium and Citizen Bank Park.

6/23/2010 3:32:41 PM

i just hate the fucking ChiSox announcers. Stop calling everybody by their first name, it's a sport, nobody does that unless you're interviewing them.

6/23/2010 11:44:37 PM

^^ Braves has twice as many HRs as the Sox on the night of the "little league" comment

6/24/2010 7:12:24 AM

^ That is because the White Sox have a relatively weak lineup with maybe two power hitters (Konerko and Quentin). If you do not believe that park is little league, go back and watch Quentin's 2-run HR last night. When he hit it, I thought it was going to be a fly out to left. Even Heyward could not believe it went over the fence. Historically new Comisky has been a very friendly hitter's park.

Regardless the White Sox are playing well and I am actually shocked they might sweep the Braves tonight given how well the Braves had been going coming into this game (won 7 out of 9 before this series in interleague play including winning series from the Twins and Rays).

That is why only an idiot would bet on baseball games.

6/24/2010 7:30:54 AM

This will be only the 2nd series the Braves have lost in the last 14 (The D-backs being the other). Let's hope they can avoid the sweep tonight (Lowe 9-5 v Floyd 2-7) and then get back on track against the Tigers before the stretch of 4 series against the rest of the NL East begins.

[Edited on June 24, 2010 at 8:00 AM. Reason : Tigers]

6/24/2010 7:59:53 AM

Since May 20th the Braves are 22-10. Since May 20th the Mets are 22-8.

You'd think going 12 or 14 games over .500 in one month would put some distance between you and the team you are chasing, but nope. Mets have made up ONE game over that time. Just ONE. That is pretty nuts.

And the Phillies are back whole again for the most part with Rollins (though, lets face it, he hasn't exactly been great since 2007).

Gonna be a fun summer...

6/24/2010 8:29:39 AM

Phillies pitching is going to break down. I've been saying it for three years, but it's going to happen.

6/24/2010 8:35:58 AM

I still think the difference in the NL East race is going to come down to starting pitching. The Braves easily have the best 1-5 IF Jurrjens comes back strong and Medlen takes Kawakrappy's place in the rotation.

The Mets rotation has surprised me because I pretty wrote off the entire 5 except Johan. Pelfrey has become an excellent #2, Neise is showing promise, that Japenese dude has shown flashes of brillance mixed in with bad outings, and now fucking RA Dickey is pitching well. I expect atleast two out of those last three to start showing their true colors and start pitching poorly.

The Phillies staff is just hard to comprehend outside of Halladay. Super inconsistent and hopefully this will keep them from making a big run this year.

6/24/2010 1:14:46 PM

the thing is both the Phillies and Mets could be teams that make a splash before the trade deadline. Unfortunately the Braves probably wont.

6/24/2010 3:10:09 PM

Embarrassing series for the Braves against the White Sox. Blew leads in the 1st two games of the series and then manage two fucking hits on Thursday. At least the Mets finally lost today as well.

White Sox are playing well right now and the Braves obviously got them at the wrong time, but damn getting swept by that team is pretty sad.

6/24/2010 11:30:04 PM

nice to get back on the winning path last night. Hopefully we'll get another today

6/26/2010 3:28:48 PM

talk about stealing one... that last pitch was not even close.

6/26/2010 7:35:15 PM

The ghost of Eric Gregg is upon you.

Though, really, anything that Livan Hernandez threw in that NLCS was probably a foot further off than Moylan's pitch.

6/26/2010 11:53:07 PM

to be fair to the ump, that last pitch by moylan had some NASTY break on it. yeah it was a bad call, but there have been many more much worse calls than that.

6/27/2010 12:15:34 AM

poor hanson

6/27/2010 2:54:47 PM

TOMMY HANSON = KYLE DAVIES EXPOSED????

Any predictions on Strasburg's line tomorrow?

I'm going with 7 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 8 K, 2 ER, L

6/27/2010 9:55:41 PM

^ all I care about is him getting the L. Hudson is going for the Braves so tonight should be a pitcher's duel. Hopefully Hudson comes out firing and can hold Nats to a run or less.

I think Strasburg will have a line like: 6+ IP, 4 hits, 3 BB, 8 Ks, 1 ER.

The Braves will make him throw strikes and hopefully run up his pitch count thereby shortening his outing. Heyward will be out again so that'll cost Strasburg a couple of Ks.

6/28/2010 8:11:19 AM

Quote :

"talk about stealing one... that last pitch was not even close."

LOL at the ump apologizing again for a missed call against the Tigers.


^ Yeah probably the best thing for us is that they are still watching his pitch count. So it is unlikely he will go more than 7.

[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 8:23 AM. Reason : go]

6/28/2010 8:22:29 AM

Quote :

"Heyward will be out again so that'll cost Strasburg a couple of Ks."

lol. it must be nice to know when you have such a dangerous hitter up that you can bounce one across the plate after 2 strikes and possibly get a swing.

6/28/2010 11:47:43 AM

^ Heyward baffles me. One at bat he'll be very patient laying of tough pitches and the next, he looks like Mark Reynolds with no knowledge of the strike zone. He's been in a pretty bad slump too so if he did play, I'm sure Strasburg would have got him atleast twice.

6/28/2010 1:18:49 PM

the espn fantasy baseball tab on Jurrjens says hes supposed to return Wednesday if his bullpen session went well on Wednesday.

[Edited on June 28, 2010 at 2:09 PM. Reason : .]

6/28/2010 2:08:48 PM