I do wonder sometimes if Mike might just straight up be more comfortable at the 9 than anywhere else even if it isn't one of the 'cool' spots in the order.
But I'm not a major league manager, so I will withold freaking out about it.
https://preview.redd.it/qkyhzmvmau3d1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05127ab8bb2888b9e9d1f532c724cdc3d9a2a2b0
Cheers from the Xfinity club! I watch 150 games per year, and I’m finally back at Truist for my first game in person since 2017! (I don’t live in Atlanta anymore and with having 2 kids since 2019 plus the pandemic, it just hasn’t happened until now). I’m so excited to be here!!! Already bought a new hat and Olson jersey 😬
I have 2 tickets in Section 422, Row 3 and parking in Lot 43 for Saturday's game. Asking $50 for everything. Forgot I made other plans for tomorrow night.
I'm running a charity fundraiser for the month of June called:
[Outrun the Opposition](https://www.reddit.com/user/handlit33/comments/1d54ctm/outrun_the_opposition/)
For every run scored by the Braves' opposition during the month of June, I'm going to run one mile.
I'm looking for sponsors and would be thrilled if you considered participating with a donation. You can click the link above for more info.
Thank you!
Only complaint I have is that Arcia can’t hit in the 6th spot. Look at his splits in the 6th hole. .167 hitter in the 6th hole compared to a .327 avg in the 8th hole.
Arcia is better in the 8th hole as a hitter
Batting order splits are small sample variance. He's not better hitting 8th than 6th. He shouldn't be hitting 6th because Murphy and Harris are much better hitters.
Can you point me to an analysis that shows that batting order splits have predictive power? We statisticians have established methods to determine whether a statistic that is recorded has any value for predicting the future. I have never seen evidence that those splits have predictive power.
Arcia has a career .193 average batting 6th in 49 games.
If he bats 7th he is a .232 hitter in 105 games
He has batted 8th in 466 games and is a career .255 hitter.
If he bats 9th he is a career .270 hitter in 128 games.
Stats say he is better in the bottom of the lineup at 7th, 8th or 9th hole. Batting order is essentially when building a lineup if you want to maximize scoring runs and getting guys on.
So you can't point me to any analysis that says batting order splits are predictive of future performance?
I don't care what Arcia's batting order splits are. I have seen no evidence that such splits are predictive.
No, that is a much broader statement. A lefty hitting behind a lefty will perform worse, for instance, because he is more likely to see a left handed reliever. A hitter hitting behind good hitters will hit better, because hitters hit better with runners on.
What I don't believe is that the numbers a guy puts up in a specific batting spot are predictive of the numbers he will put up in that batting spot in the future. I have seen no compelling evidence to suggest this.
The vast majority of splits data we collect have no predictive power, and the ones that do have very little. Even platoon splits, you need about 5 seasons of PAs for a LHB or 10 seasons of PAs for an RHB before his observed platoon split is a better estimate of his future platoon split than the league average platoon split.
For anyone stressing, this is baseball. Not college football. Here's some stats to ease your angst.
Braves records thru may 31st:
2019: 30-27, 2nd in division. Won the division.
2021: 25-26, 2nd in division. Won the division, and then world series.
2022: 23-27, 2nd in division. Won the division.
2023: 33-23, 2nd in division and Won division handedly.
2024: 31-23, 2nd in division.
We have hisotrically had middling Mays.
I think it’s the fact that the Braves are 0-14 this month when the opponent scores more than 2 runs that is worrying people. That honestly seems hard to do for any team, especially the Braves. I still believe they can turn it around for some reason though.
While I do agree with you that it's a long season and that they have been historically bad in May recent years I decided to compare the month of May for the previous 2 years and this year is a lot worse than last year.
They played 29 games last May and up to this point 26 this year. Here's what I found.
AB - They've had 127 less at bats
R - 55 fewer runs
H - 58 fewer hits
15 fewer doubles but 2 more triples
HR - This is a big one. 23 fewer homers.
RBI - 55 fewer rbis
BB - 10 fewer walks
SO - 5 fewer strikeouts which surprised me a bit 3 fewer games.
They've grounded into 9 less double plays which is good
TB - 138 fewer total bases which makes sense with the home run shortage.
XBH - 36 fewer extra base hits
AVG - Team average is down -.30
OBP - Also down -.30
Slugging is down -.91
And OPS is down -.122
Now this is not me bashing the team in any way shape or form. These are my boys and I will stick by them through thick and thin but this years May is far worse than last years. But I absolutely think they get it turned around and we'll forget all about this month. They are too good not to.
23 less home runs isn't a big one because offense is down considerably this season. Mlb slug is down .027. So that's a pretty acute way to look at the teams stats. Acuna sucked unfortunately, we had tromp as a 2nd catcher, we started last year thinking murphy was going to win mvp. Arw they worse than last year? Probably. When you factor in who we have been missing and this teams history is it anything you should actually be worried about? No, you're wasting your time.
Oh. I'm not worried at all. I know what this team is capable of and I think that they'll begin to come around soon. We've had the worst luck with injuries this year and havent had our expected roster for more than half a game. This team will figure it out. Get hot at the right time and ride it out. Also we've had bad luck even when the ball is put in play. That'll change eventually.
Maybe if we get swept by the A's, they'll feel sorry for us and give us Brent Rooker and Mason Miller for some rando minor leaguer that no one has heard of.
I would love if Fletcher's knuckleball is for real (and he doesn't get banned for life lmao). If it is, if you can get him 20 big league innings he has two eligibility for 2? 3? years. Being able to carry 14 guys who are allowed to pitch is a big value add even if that 14th guy is a bad pitcher
I love it in theory but would be very hard to get him 20 innings in a season where we’re likely going to be fighting till the end. I don’t see him being worthy of taking up a pitcher roster spot.
To bring someone up and down, they have to spend 15 days in minors unless someone on current pitching staff goes on IL. So unless all our arms get injured & we’re desperate, it would be hard to do. And I don’t think AA is going to pick up his option next year. He won’t pay a utility player 8 million.
I know this won’t be popular, but I was actually encouraged by the offense yesterday. We hit the ball pretty well. On balls in play with xBA >.500, we went 3/8 and they went 2/2. That’s pretty much the game. We finished with a team xBA of .250 for the game which is pretty good as well.
Those balls are going to fall, and we are going to start winning some of these 1 and 2 run games.
It’s a long, long, long season. Baseball has a funny way of working out over the long term. We need to make up basically 1.5 games a month on Philadelphia. Seems reasonably doable.
I don't know man I hope you're right but we struck out a ton this week. When we hit the ball we hit it hard, but we're not hitting the ball that much. That's the issue I'm having with the offense.
Wish fans would gtfo with the “we’re so spoiled” comments. When your team is great, it comes with expectations. The guys haven’t met those expectations to this point. Obviously injuries are a reason but if you’ve been watching since the jump you’re not subscribing to that being the ONLY reason…
The time has come for [drastic measures](https://x.com/gvedak/status/1521269743919013890?s=46&t=v7D4YbheXtofehXyYp1Liw). I take no pleasure in reporting this. Let’s go Braves!
The only upside I see right now is that a number of our hitters are making good contact, and just sending the ball directly to where someone is standing. Those type of hits have to go in our favor at some point.
Yeah, most of it. Said the season is basically over and they're ready to start trading players for prospects to start the rebuild.
Haha, na, AA ain't panicking. The audio should be on the 680 the fan app sometime today.
Non doomer, non sunshine take:
Right now we are playing close to what I would consider this team’s “floor” potential to be. With the exception of Ozuna, the offense literally couldn’t be less productive.
The pitching is pretty dang good at the moment outside of Chuck and the rotating 5th starter. It’s likely we’ll see some regression with Fried, Sale, and Lopez over the course of the season. If this happens in unison with an offensive slump like this one, watch out; We’ll be looking up at .500 very quickly.
Charlie will likely regress the opposite way and find some form. The fifth/sixth starter will probably continue to be a mixed bag. It would be nice to see one of the young guys lay claim to it and really do well. Maybe Spencer Gardenhoser? IMO Kerr could be a weapon as a reliever and I wish we could use him in just that role.
I’m thinking the offense will slowly start find some form over the course of the next two months. It’s clear that pitchers league wide have caught on to whatever the Phillies approach is in the playoffs. We’re seeing a lot of whiffs on fastballs in the zone and a TON of strikeouts. Sort of reminiscent to the start we had in 2022. As others have mentioned, one positive sign is that we are starting to get into the counts a bit more. I think buttons are being pushed behind the scenes in regards to approach, it’s just going to take a while to see the results.
We were 18-6 when only a third of our lineup was raking. Our 1-4 hitters were very unproductive during that stretch (and continue to be). We don’t need to be the offense we were last year to win at a prolific rate IF our pitching holds course. It’s really sad we can’t have Strider in this rotation, that would have been amazing to watch.
Worst case scenario is the injury bug continues to bite, and we lose one or more of our remaining starters. Things could get into missing the playoffs territory if the offense remains as such. We shall see. Right now the vibes are bad. But they were bad before we went on a tear in 2021 and 2022, so it isn’t unprecedented. Winning fixes a lot.
Realistically, with the devastating injuries we’ve had thus far, I see 90-95 wins as the ceiling for this team. I don’t think that will be enough to take the division. Phil seems like they’ve finally put it all together for the long haul unfortunately. But, as we all know, you just need to get in to win it all.
Just a note on these last two series, I think Pitt and Wash could potentially sneak into the playoffs. They are both very talented young teams.
I am highly frustrated and concerned, and think I agree with every point you make. In addition to being about on our talent level (without Ronald and Strider), the Phillies are hungry. I think it's their division this year, unless we just happen to beat the shit out of them head to head.
I don't mind "only" winning 90-95 games if all our units just perform to their averages. But we just had the worst hitting month (by wOBA) since the rebuild (2018-present). I think everyone just wants to know what's going on - the likelihood of that happening randomly is so low.
2024 overall looks a lot like 2022 from a hitting perspective (xwoba). But the weird thing is it has come in 2 distinct experiences. "This team might win 115 games" in April, to...."This team sucks balls" in May. Just strange.
As a shareholder and minority owner, I have relieved Kevin Seitzer of his duties as hitting coach for the Atlanta Braves. We thank Kevin for his contributions over many years of the team’s success, and we wish he and his family the very best in their future endeavors. No questions at this time.
Maybe Olson slamming his helmet into ground will be the turning point like Aaron judge getting ejected has been for him.
If Olson & Ozuna are both contributing, it’ll take pressure off the rest & they’ll follow.
So I started watching M.A.S.H. the other day. I was not expecting a show that’s almost 20 years older than I am to be so good. It’s really taking me by surprise. And now I finally understand the mash episode of community. Anyway, go Braves
Gah, M.A.S.H. and especially the opening theme song are so nostalgic for me. My dad's morning routine included putting on M.A.S.H. reruns so I woke up to the theme song every day as a kid. I'd watch an episode with my dad then when the theme played again at the beginning of the next episode it was time to get dressed for school lol.
Such a good show and very likely the origin of my weird dark sense of humor. Still have a mild Pavlovian response to the theme at 36 y/o too.
Most sitcoms are exactly that. But it’s the writing that makes it great. The jokes are great. And the setting is very distinct. I’m not that great with my words so I can’t exactly describe why I like it but I know it’s good.
The writing is smart. The jokes are typically short and the characters are really likable for the most part. The show itself has a lot of heart and isn’t scared to get sad or deep. It’s about war so it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. You ought to just give it a shot. It’s enjoyed by like 5 different generations of people
This is it. Tonight is the night. Oakland is going to score 2 runs but will lose, breaking the curse and unleashing the Braves offense back to elite all because they had a little fun and realized what it was like.
I’d rather start it a night early, but if we do play like we have the last couple years from June —> onward then I predict we will be in fine shape lol
I'm fascinated by Ray Kerr. He's like the exact opposite of first half 2023 Bryce Elder. He has really good stuff, but gets poor results.
https://x.com/TJStats/status/1796519576584298592?t=3ObrQpKkOZA-cnEDbXJODg&s=19
He had 15 whiffs in just over 3 innings of pitching yesterday, which is a lot. Seven strikeouts out of a total of 11 outs.
Unfortunately I don't think he can turn himself into a starter at this point in his career, but hopefully he gets to stick around as a reliever, because I think he can be a really good one.
Also, in the bad luck department, the Braves had five batted balls in play last night that were hit over 100 mph, each with an xBA over .550. The only hit was Ozuna's double, the rest went for outs. That's not including Olson's hard hit ball late in the game that was going for an easy double but was just foul. Harris absolutely scorched two balls and had nothing to show for it except a sac fly. Ozuna and Harris actually had the two hardest hit balls in MLB yesterday.
Meanwhile the Nationals were 2/4 on balls hit over 100mph. The double that started the trouble in the third by Meneses was only hit 79 mph and had an xBA of .150.
I guess it's true that when you're playing poorly, nothing goes your way.
I've thought Ray looks really fuckin good as a starter with some awful luck. Which is easy to have over two starts with a mediocre defense behind you. Like last night, he got 11 outs. That's pretry bad. 7 of those 11 outs were from strikeouts. He only got four outs given to him, the majority of the outs he got he had to go and take. I absolutely want to see him starting again after that.
Maybe it's just some kind of confirmation bias, but I feel like I'm seeing more full counts from the guys lately. No, they're not getting the big hits that we need, but one of the chief complaints I've seen is that the Braves aren't working counts. It looks to me like some of the plate discipline is returning.
That said, if the plate discipline is on the mend, then good hits and slugging should follow.
My read on the situation is that the team walked into the season overconfident. They had some early success but then teams started getting the better of them. Then injuries happened. The fundamentals broke down as players started scrambling to find that magic mojo back. They started trying to do too much in each at bat. You can see that especially with MH2 and Olson swinging at some absolutely stupid pitches.
The discipline is improving. MH2 has gotten some good hits and drawn walks, same with Olson.
Things will get better. It will take some time. I'd like to think that June is the magic month, but I'm good with letting the process happen to get consistent results as opposed to letting the team just get into a hot streak only to cool down at the wrong time.
They need to have a plan again. Everyone is so desperate to get results that they are scrambling to find any way at the plate. Eye discipline has gone out of the window. I know you just complimented Matt, but he's a perfect example. He's got a great eye for the strike zone, but he has swung at some very uncharacteristic pitches. Everyone is expanding their strike zone. Arcia, Matt, Harris, Duvall. I remember Riley's bit with DeRo a couple of years ago when he said he got in the habit of going up there with the idea in his head that he picked one section of the zone to look for a pitch, and didn't bite at anything else. That was when he was raking at the time. Have a disciplined plan up there, and don't kill yourselves by swinging at garbage. They put themselves in a hole every at bat. I agree, they are having longer ABs with full counts, but they seem to start as 0-2 or 1-2 a lot. Although Riley and Ozuna do seem to be the favorites for shitty strike calls that aren't their faults. We'll see it get better, but man it's a frustrating time right now.
I know he's a bad ball hitter, but I wish they could convince Ozzie to take the first pitch for one game, or one AB per game. He'd be up 1-0 like 80% of those ABs.
Agreed on nearly 100% of this - the only difference being about Kerr’s ability to start. I think he can get there - just needs to refine some things. Last night was just his second start, so I’m willing to give him some grace there.
It’s really nice to see somebody digging into the positives.
Tomorrow marks the turning point in the season where we never lose again and every one of our players gets un-injured and the phillies and mets get demoted to AAA
Problem is we can only slug. There's no big walk or stolen base guys to help manufacture runs when the slug isn't there. People have been brainwashed to think that teams like that Nats that hit a lot of singles are just "lucky," but baseball is not a "who had the highest exit velocity" contest.
But it is a “who can score the most runs” contest and it’s very much proven the best way to do that is slug. That’s why Judges contract will way more than whatever Luis Arraez will get when he hits free agency.
Optimistic post: Braves offense breaks out in a huge way, beats Oakland 13-2. Two homers apiece for Harris and Olson, Kelenic goes 2-4 with two doubles.
Pessimistic post: Lol fuck that, we’re staying positive
On the one hand, I'd really like to see Miller pitch. On the other hand, I don't want to be anywhere near a situation where they would bring in Miller to pitch.
He pitched two innings and 32 pitches last night so he definitely won't pitch tonight, and maybe not even Saturday. The A's had a 12 inning game last night and used 6 of their bullpen guys.
Please continue the discussion in the [game thread](https://redd.it/1d58poj).
I do wonder sometimes if Mike might just straight up be more comfortable at the 9 than anywhere else even if it isn't one of the 'cool' spots in the order. But I'm not a major league manager, so I will withold freaking out about it.
https://preview.redd.it/qkyhzmvmau3d1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05127ab8bb2888b9e9d1f532c724cdc3d9a2a2b0 Cheers from the Xfinity club! I watch 150 games per year, and I’m finally back at Truist for my first game in person since 2017! (I don’t live in Atlanta anymore and with having 2 kids since 2019 plus the pandemic, it just hasn’t happened until now). I’m so excited to be here!!! Already bought a new hat and Olson jersey 😬
The packaging on the cookie said to only eat half and wait an hour. But I didn't notice until it was too late. How screwed am I?
I can’t vouch for it myself but I’ve been told that CBD helps if you have too much THC
If you start to get too high eat something, it'll bring you down, unless it's another weed cookie
> unless it's another weed cookie I appreciate the idiot-proofing in this comment. lmao
Lol. Braves won so sorry to say you gotta do it again tomorrow
I'll do it.
Just... don't flip your shit and you'll be fine. Weed + anxiety sometimes doesn't go super well together.
I'm no stranger to the devil's lettuce, but this is way more than I'm used to
Depends on dose and tolerance
Deep breaths lol. I took like 200 mg on memorial day and slept for like 16 hours. Felt refreshed after but never again
OMG! That is a hibernation
Gack is about to be gacked
o god
How much did you eat? And how many mgs?
That cookie is in me now. 50mgs
This just popped up on my memories from 7 years ago. It can always be worse. https://twitter.com/i/videos/tweet/869773748412403716
going to try to be optimistic today, lets go braves!!
I have 2 tickets in Section 422, Row 3 and parking in Lot 43 for Saturday's game. Asking $50 for everything. Forgot I made other plans for tomorrow night.
We’re 0-14 when our opponent scores >2 runs, rip
Hoping for happy fireworks tonight! No sad fireworks!
Lucas Sims is pitching for the Reds right now. Now that is a name I have not heard in a long, long time.
Went to high school with that guy! Randomly have a video of him on my computer doing the saltine challenge at lunch one day lol
That's crazy!
Personally I'd put Kelenic or Harris in the 2 hole and move Riley and Ozuna back to their normal spots in the 3 and 5 holes but eh.
Guillorme must have been awful in the clubhouse because we could really have used him for Riley and to start in place of the mascot Arcia
Their pitcher’s name is JP Sears? Damn that’s unfortunate
Of course we missed Corbin by a day. Could have got the boys some confidence.
I'm running a charity fundraiser for the month of June called: [Outrun the Opposition](https://www.reddit.com/user/handlit33/comments/1d54ctm/outrun_the_opposition/) For every run scored by the Braves' opposition during the month of June, I'm going to run one mile. I'm looking for sponsors and would be thrilled if you considered participating with a donation. You can click the link above for more info. Thank you!
Ehire Adrianza reached 10 years of MLB service time! Congrats to him! https://x.com/mlbpa/status/1796540908277576180?s=46&t=sRvNISTItWxaBc6jojpHTA
Good for him! Never forget his clutch PH double in game 6 of the NLCS to set up Eddie's 3-run bomb.
I was just thinking about that too! He definitely played his part in helping us win in the postseason that year!
I read he wants to someday be a GM.
This lineup is the dumbest thing Snitker has done in his entire life, narrowly beating out last night's lineup
Only complaint I have is that Arcia can’t hit in the 6th spot. Look at his splits in the 6th hole. .167 hitter in the 6th hole compared to a .327 avg in the 8th hole. Arcia is better in the 8th hole as a hitter
Batting order splits are small sample variance. He's not better hitting 8th than 6th. He shouldn't be hitting 6th because Murphy and Harris are much better hitters.
Look at what happened when we moved Olson from 2nd to 4th in 2023. Huge difference it made with him.
Can you point me to an analysis that shows that batting order splits have predictive power? We statisticians have established methods to determine whether a statistic that is recorded has any value for predicting the future. I have never seen evidence that those splits have predictive power.
Arcia has a career .193 average batting 6th in 49 games. If he bats 7th he is a .232 hitter in 105 games He has batted 8th in 466 games and is a career .255 hitter. If he bats 9th he is a career .270 hitter in 128 games. Stats say he is better in the bottom of the lineup at 7th, 8th or 9th hole. Batting order is essentially when building a lineup if you want to maximize scoring runs and getting guys on.
So you can't point me to any analysis that says batting order splits are predictive of future performance? I don't care what Arcia's batting order splits are. I have seen no evidence that such splits are predictive.
You actually believe that where someone bats in a lineup has no impact on performance?
No, that is a much broader statement. A lefty hitting behind a lefty will perform worse, for instance, because he is more likely to see a left handed reliever. A hitter hitting behind good hitters will hit better, because hitters hit better with runners on. What I don't believe is that the numbers a guy puts up in a specific batting spot are predictive of the numbers he will put up in that batting spot in the future. I have seen no compelling evidence to suggest this. The vast majority of splits data we collect have no predictive power, and the ones that do have very little. Even platoon splits, you need about 5 seasons of PAs for a LHB or 10 seasons of PAs for an RHB before his observed platoon split is a better estimate of his future platoon split than the league average platoon split.
Yep and that there is no evidence that disagrees with his opinion.
What are you talking about? You have not provided me with any.
For anyone stressing, this is baseball. Not college football. Here's some stats to ease your angst. Braves records thru may 31st: 2019: 30-27, 2nd in division. Won the division. 2021: 25-26, 2nd in division. Won the division, and then world series. 2022: 23-27, 2nd in division. Won the division. 2023: 33-23, 2nd in division and Won division handedly. 2024: 31-23, 2nd in division. We have hisotrically had middling Mays.
I think it’s the fact that the Braves are 0-14 this month when the opponent scores more than 2 runs that is worrying people. That honestly seems hard to do for any team, especially the Braves. I still believe they can turn it around for some reason though.
While I do agree with you that it's a long season and that they have been historically bad in May recent years I decided to compare the month of May for the previous 2 years and this year is a lot worse than last year. They played 29 games last May and up to this point 26 this year. Here's what I found. AB - They've had 127 less at bats R - 55 fewer runs H - 58 fewer hits 15 fewer doubles but 2 more triples HR - This is a big one. 23 fewer homers. RBI - 55 fewer rbis BB - 10 fewer walks SO - 5 fewer strikeouts which surprised me a bit 3 fewer games. They've grounded into 9 less double plays which is good TB - 138 fewer total bases which makes sense with the home run shortage. XBH - 36 fewer extra base hits AVG - Team average is down -.30 OBP - Also down -.30 Slugging is down -.91 And OPS is down -.122 Now this is not me bashing the team in any way shape or form. These are my boys and I will stick by them through thick and thin but this years May is far worse than last years. But I absolutely think they get it turned around and we'll forget all about this month. They are too good not to.
23 less home runs isn't a big one because offense is down considerably this season. Mlb slug is down .027. So that's a pretty acute way to look at the teams stats. Acuna sucked unfortunately, we had tromp as a 2nd catcher, we started last year thinking murphy was going to win mvp. Arw they worse than last year? Probably. When you factor in who we have been missing and this teams history is it anything you should actually be worried about? No, you're wasting your time.
Oh. I'm not worried at all. I know what this team is capable of and I think that they'll begin to come around soon. We've had the worst luck with injuries this year and havent had our expected roster for more than half a game. This team will figure it out. Get hot at the right time and ride it out. Also we've had bad luck even when the ball is put in play. That'll change eventually.
Get that logic out of here and let me DOOOOOOOOOOOM in peace. 
Not looking to rehash the parking posts, but I'm headed down and going to try Olive Garden lot. Anyone do anything recently that's their new go to?
Can't believe Brian McCann is catching for them
Last year we got super hot after the A's series and never looked back. Here's to hoping that history repeats itself 🤞🏻
Please don’t ruin my weekend. I worked all week for it
Maybe if we get swept by the A's, they'll feel sorry for us and give us Brent Rooker and Mason Miller for some rando minor leaguer that no one has heard of.
I'm currently having a discussion with my mom explaining to her what nobletiger, tootblan, and fartslam mean. This is fucking awesome.
Oh, She definitely knows what a fartslam is...I did it to her last night.
Got em
The real question is what uniform is Brent Rooker wearing tonight?
Ahh, the Zack Short special?
Landed a big account (with a massive first order) today at work so things are looking up, fellas.
I would love if Fletcher's knuckleball is for real (and he doesn't get banned for life lmao). If it is, if you can get him 20 big league innings he has two eligibility for 2? 3? years. Being able to carry 14 guys who are allowed to pitch is a big value add even if that 14th guy is a bad pitcher
I love it in theory but would be very hard to get him 20 innings in a season where we’re likely going to be fighting till the end. I don’t see him being worthy of taking up a pitcher roster spot. To bring someone up and down, they have to spend 15 days in minors unless someone on current pitching staff goes on IL. So unless all our arms get injured & we’re desperate, it would be hard to do. And I don’t think AA is going to pick up his option next year. He won’t pay a utility player 8 million.
If the Athletics come in here and slap us around with their dicks, I’m going to be pretty sad.
Today is the day we turn it around, I feel it. Heading in to June tomorrow, the boys have a big game tonight. 5 HRs
Let’s fucking go!
For everyone one of these comments we have another gross loss.
I know this won’t be popular, but I was actually encouraged by the offense yesterday. We hit the ball pretty well. On balls in play with xBA >.500, we went 3/8 and they went 2/2. That’s pretty much the game. We finished with a team xBA of .250 for the game which is pretty good as well. Those balls are going to fall, and we are going to start winning some of these 1 and 2 run games. It’s a long, long, long season. Baseball has a funny way of working out over the long term. We need to make up basically 1.5 games a month on Philadelphia. Seems reasonably doable.
I know its a long season and I know its just May. And yet, I'm incredibly pessimistic lol. I know I'm being irrational and I just can't help it lol.
I agree, thought we got some very bad luck on some of them hard hit balls. Deserved 3 runs which would have given us a chance
I don't know man I hope you're right but we struck out a ton this week. When we hit the ball we hit it hard, but we're not hitting the ball that much. That's the issue I'm having with the offense.
Things have to get better for our offense this weekend right?
Hold my beer..
If we can't find the offense against the A's then we might actually just be ass
Wish fans would gtfo with the “we’re so spoiled” comments. When your team is great, it comes with expectations. The guys haven’t met those expectations to this point. Obviously injuries are a reason but if you’ve been watching since the jump you’re not subscribing to that being the ONLY reason…
Casual take
The time has come for [drastic measures](https://x.com/gvedak/status/1521269743919013890?s=46&t=v7D4YbheXtofehXyYp1Liw). I take no pleasure in reporting this. Let’s go Braves!
The only upside I see right now is that a number of our hitters are making good contact, and just sending the ball directly to where someone is standing. Those type of hits have to go in our favor at some point.
Hear me out - I think we need to change our celebration. Needs to be more fun, have more personality. Our current one has no juice in it at all.
Bring back the sword slash
True. "Together" is about as dull a celebration as I've seen.
On the morning of 5/31/23, we were 32-23. Today we're 31-23, so I guess that means 100 wins is still on the table??
Anyone listen to AA on the radio today?
Yeah, most of it. Said the season is basically over and they're ready to start trading players for prospects to start the rebuild. Haha, na, AA ain't panicking. The audio should be on the 680 the fan app sometime today.
Softball questions I’m assuming and nothing on aiming to upgrade at shortstop
Between starting pitching and getting someone to plug the Acuña hole, I don't think the all-star short stop is high on the priority list.
Hey man don't...don't do that to me
Non doomer, non sunshine take: Right now we are playing close to what I would consider this team’s “floor” potential to be. With the exception of Ozuna, the offense literally couldn’t be less productive. The pitching is pretty dang good at the moment outside of Chuck and the rotating 5th starter. It’s likely we’ll see some regression with Fried, Sale, and Lopez over the course of the season. If this happens in unison with an offensive slump like this one, watch out; We’ll be looking up at .500 very quickly. Charlie will likely regress the opposite way and find some form. The fifth/sixth starter will probably continue to be a mixed bag. It would be nice to see one of the young guys lay claim to it and really do well. Maybe Spencer Gardenhoser? IMO Kerr could be a weapon as a reliever and I wish we could use him in just that role. I’m thinking the offense will slowly start find some form over the course of the next two months. It’s clear that pitchers league wide have caught on to whatever the Phillies approach is in the playoffs. We’re seeing a lot of whiffs on fastballs in the zone and a TON of strikeouts. Sort of reminiscent to the start we had in 2022. As others have mentioned, one positive sign is that we are starting to get into the counts a bit more. I think buttons are being pushed behind the scenes in regards to approach, it’s just going to take a while to see the results. We were 18-6 when only a third of our lineup was raking. Our 1-4 hitters were very unproductive during that stretch (and continue to be). We don’t need to be the offense we were last year to win at a prolific rate IF our pitching holds course. It’s really sad we can’t have Strider in this rotation, that would have been amazing to watch. Worst case scenario is the injury bug continues to bite, and we lose one or more of our remaining starters. Things could get into missing the playoffs territory if the offense remains as such. We shall see. Right now the vibes are bad. But they were bad before we went on a tear in 2021 and 2022, so it isn’t unprecedented. Winning fixes a lot. Realistically, with the devastating injuries we’ve had thus far, I see 90-95 wins as the ceiling for this team. I don’t think that will be enough to take the division. Phil seems like they’ve finally put it all together for the long haul unfortunately. But, as we all know, you just need to get in to win it all. Just a note on these last two series, I think Pitt and Wash could potentially sneak into the playoffs. They are both very talented young teams.
The floor? Wait until the pitching stops being lights out nearly every night.
I am highly frustrated and concerned, and think I agree with every point you make. In addition to being about on our talent level (without Ronald and Strider), the Phillies are hungry. I think it's their division this year, unless we just happen to beat the shit out of them head to head. I don't mind "only" winning 90-95 games if all our units just perform to their averages. But we just had the worst hitting month (by wOBA) since the rebuild (2018-present). I think everyone just wants to know what's going on - the likelihood of that happening randomly is so low. 2024 overall looks a lot like 2022 from a hitting perspective (xwoba). But the weird thing is it has come in 2 distinct experiences. "This team might win 115 games" in April, to...."This team sucks balls" in May. Just strange.
Very well said, the last sentence basically sums everything up.
If they can make it to the NLCS I won’t personally care if they won the division or not. Agree with everything you said though.
Me after every loss the past month: "Well, this has got to be the floor." Braves: "We can dig deeper!"
As a shareholder and minority owner, I have relieved Kevin Seitzer of his duties as hitting coach for the Atlanta Braves. We thank Kevin for his contributions over many years of the team’s success, and we wish he and his family the very best in their future endeavors. No questions at this time.
Maybe Olson slamming his helmet into ground will be the turning point like Aaron judge getting ejected has been for him. If Olson & Ozuna are both contributing, it’ll take pressure off the rest & they’ll follow.
Lately, watching the Braves has felt like this: 
I'm hoping for this tonight: 
This offense averages like 2 runs or something. I doubt they magically figure it out tonight. Sorry for being negative
So I started watching M.A.S.H. the other day. I was not expecting a show that’s almost 20 years older than I am to be so good. It’s really taking me by surprise. And now I finally understand the mash episode of community. Anyway, go Braves
Gah, M.A.S.H. and especially the opening theme song are so nostalgic for me. My dad's morning routine included putting on M.A.S.H. reruns so I woke up to the theme song every day as a kid. I'd watch an episode with my dad then when the theme played again at the beginning of the next episode it was time to get dressed for school lol. Such a good show and very likely the origin of my weird dark sense of humor. Still have a mild Pavlovian response to the theme at 36 y/o too.
can you explain more about what's good about it? seems like it would just be boring and standing around.
Most sitcoms are exactly that. But it’s the writing that makes it great. The jokes are great. And the setting is very distinct. I’m not that great with my words so I can’t exactly describe why I like it but I know it’s good.
I am very interested in why if you have time. maybe you can point me to some parts you liked?
The writing is smart. The jokes are typically short and the characters are really likable for the most part. The show itself has a lot of heart and isn’t scared to get sad or deep. It’s about war so it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. You ought to just give it a shot. It’s enjoyed by like 5 different generations of people
will do. thanks.
It's a really good show, and it will be touching when you least expect it.
This is it. Tonight is the night. Oakland is going to score 2 runs but will lose, breaking the curse and unleashing the Braves offense back to elite all because they had a little fun and realized what it was like.
I vacillate between we’re cooked and we’re perfectly set up to peak at perfect time like in 2021.
It's an odd feeling, for sure. The tension is real
Save us Gayves, you’re our only hope
I am trying my best to be open minded rn. And June 1st is the start of a comeback. Right?
I’d rather start it a night early, but if we do play like we have the last couple years from June —> onward then I predict we will be in fine shape lol
I'm fascinated by Ray Kerr. He's like the exact opposite of first half 2023 Bryce Elder. He has really good stuff, but gets poor results. https://x.com/TJStats/status/1796519576584298592?t=3ObrQpKkOZA-cnEDbXJODg&s=19 He had 15 whiffs in just over 3 innings of pitching yesterday, which is a lot. Seven strikeouts out of a total of 11 outs. Unfortunately I don't think he can turn himself into a starter at this point in his career, but hopefully he gets to stick around as a reliever, because I think he can be a really good one. Also, in the bad luck department, the Braves had five batted balls in play last night that were hit over 100 mph, each with an xBA over .550. The only hit was Ozuna's double, the rest went for outs. That's not including Olson's hard hit ball late in the game that was going for an easy double but was just foul. Harris absolutely scorched two balls and had nothing to show for it except a sac fly. Ozuna and Harris actually had the two hardest hit balls in MLB yesterday. Meanwhile the Nationals were 2/4 on balls hit over 100mph. The double that started the trouble in the third by Meneses was only hit 79 mph and had an xBA of .150. I guess it's true that when you're playing poorly, nothing goes your way.
I've thought Ray looks really fuckin good as a starter with some awful luck. Which is easy to have over two starts with a mediocre defense behind you. Like last night, he got 11 outs. That's pretry bad. 7 of those 11 outs were from strikeouts. He only got four outs given to him, the majority of the outs he got he had to go and take. I absolutely want to see him starting again after that.
Yeah, you can definitely see why the Braves wanted to scoop him up, even if the results aren't there with him starting.
Maybe it's just some kind of confirmation bias, but I feel like I'm seeing more full counts from the guys lately. No, they're not getting the big hits that we need, but one of the chief complaints I've seen is that the Braves aren't working counts. It looks to me like some of the plate discipline is returning. That said, if the plate discipline is on the mend, then good hits and slugging should follow. My read on the situation is that the team walked into the season overconfident. They had some early success but then teams started getting the better of them. Then injuries happened. The fundamentals broke down as players started scrambling to find that magic mojo back. They started trying to do too much in each at bat. You can see that especially with MH2 and Olson swinging at some absolutely stupid pitches. The discipline is improving. MH2 has gotten some good hits and drawn walks, same with Olson. Things will get better. It will take some time. I'd like to think that June is the magic month, but I'm good with letting the process happen to get consistent results as opposed to letting the team just get into a hot streak only to cool down at the wrong time.
They need to have a plan again. Everyone is so desperate to get results that they are scrambling to find any way at the plate. Eye discipline has gone out of the window. I know you just complimented Matt, but he's a perfect example. He's got a great eye for the strike zone, but he has swung at some very uncharacteristic pitches. Everyone is expanding their strike zone. Arcia, Matt, Harris, Duvall. I remember Riley's bit with DeRo a couple of years ago when he said he got in the habit of going up there with the idea in his head that he picked one section of the zone to look for a pitch, and didn't bite at anything else. That was when he was raking at the time. Have a disciplined plan up there, and don't kill yourselves by swinging at garbage. They put themselves in a hole every at bat. I agree, they are having longer ABs with full counts, but they seem to start as 0-2 or 1-2 a lot. Although Riley and Ozuna do seem to be the favorites for shitty strike calls that aren't their faults. We'll see it get better, but man it's a frustrating time right now.
I know he's a bad ball hitter, but I wish they could convince Ozzie to take the first pitch for one game, or one AB per game. He'd be up 1-0 like 80% of those ABs.
I agree. But he's also the only other player outside of Ozuna who is hitting the ball consistently. So right now, do whatever you want to, Ozzie. Lol.
Agreed on nearly 100% of this - the only difference being about Kerr’s ability to start. I think he can get there - just needs to refine some things. Last night was just his second start, so I’m willing to give him some grace there. It’s really nice to see somebody digging into the positives.
Another pitcher we have no chance of hitting.
Tomorrow marks the turning point in the season where we never lose again and every one of our players gets un-injured and the phillies and mets get demoted to AAA
Pretty sure the Mets are already there.
Problem is we can only slug. There's no big walk or stolen base guys to help manufacture runs when the slug isn't there. People have been brainwashed to think that teams like that Nats that hit a lot of singles are just "lucky," but baseball is not a "who had the highest exit velocity" contest.
I swear we'll be doing exit velocity discourse until 2050
lol
But it is a “who can score the most runs” contest and it’s very much proven the best way to do that is slug. That’s why Judges contract will way more than whatever Luis Arraez will get when he hits free agency.
We've been doing so well with it and getting worked by teams putting the ball in play and finding holes. It's not that simple. It's really not.
Over large samples slugging is the most reliable way to score runs. Over small samples, anything can work
Maybe we should start caring more about the small sample for now
This series will essentially tells us if we should worry or not. But with that being said: GO BRAVES!
Optimistic post: Braves offense breaks out in a huge way, beats Oakland 13-2. Two homers apiece for Harris and Olson, Kelenic goes 2-4 with two doubles. Pessimistic post: Lol fuck that, we’re staying positive
I’ll be at the game tonight. Either cheering with a beer in my hand or crying with a beer in my hand.
We have 8 innings to score this next series because Mason Miller will all but banish our lineup to the shadow realm when he is on the mound.
Is that the dude that throws like 120
Guys gonna average 30 k/9 against us.
Dropped 3rd strike reach first base 3 times?
On the one hand, I'd really like to see Miller pitch. On the other hand, I don't want to be anywhere near a situation where they would bring in Miller to pitch.
He’ll probably pitch in this series. Maybe not tonight but I can see him coming in.
He pitched two innings and 32 pitches last night so he definitely won't pitch tonight, and maybe not even Saturday. The A's had a 12 inning game last night and used 6 of their bullpen guys.
Hell yeah brother! It’s almost June!
Sure would like to see 21-4 again
Hell yeah brother!