1.5 game lead after the toughest part of schedule. Mission accomplished
AA has to be looking around hard right now at possible targets for the bullpen and possibly 3b bc I don't see this team just falling on its face anytime soon.
Need acuna back. I'm concerned about the offense.
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AerchAngel (06-03-2018)
Kemp got hurt last year and that's why his production fell. Guy can still hit. He jut wasn't used properly last year.
He will probably get hurt again this year but it would sure be nice to have his bat in the lineup. Acuna could have played all three of positions to get time and someone like soroka or fried would have done a fine job for McCarthy.
If Kemp continues on this pace you bet your ass some team would have paid half his salary at least in the AL for 2020
Big win today, but Braves got great pitching all series and deserved a sweep. I didn't expect Sanchez to pitch so well today but he did. We really could've won all four in this series, esp. with the Nats losing their starter early today making this a bullpen game after yesterday's extra inning affair. Imagine if we'd kept Biddle in and it went even longer, that would've made it even harder on the Nats today.
That said, I am one of the few who have defended AA keeping Culberson. I mostly do for his defense at short, which we rarely see the way he's used. But he has been clutch at the plate off the bench too. He now has his OPS over .700 I think.
Last edited by Braves1976; 06-03-2018 at 05:07 PM.
The Phillies are down 5-1 in the 8th!
To be clear, I like both players, and I def think Albies has the higher offensive ceiling by a fair amount. But for all the slings & arrows Swanson gets, he’s only 0.051 points below Albies in OPS after today, alongside a much larger positive contribution with the glove.
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msstate7 (06-03-2018)
DirkPiggler (06-03-2018), Garmel (06-03-2018), jpx7 (06-03-2018)
Swanson came back without any rehab games, so despite that early big walk off hit, that probably explains all the K's a bit. He didn't look sharp but of late he looks to be swinging it better. Plus he seems best hitting out of the 8th hole. Albies is just slumping badly at the moment but I am hopeful he'll adjust soon and get hot again. I am sure Inciarte will get hot at some point, as he does every year and pretty much every year he will have some months like this.
Pitching starting to emerge as a strength on this team. Both starting and bullpen are going to end up being above league average. We got 4 very strong starts against the gnats.
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In a quirk of the schedule, we've already played 39 games against the NL East, over half of our total games against the division, already. We play only two between now and July 20th.
It's been a good time to play them, as we've been playing well, but I wish they spread those games through the schedule more, instead of all of them in April, May and September.