GDT 7/4/19: Fireworks on the 4th

[msstate7]

We can add to players the fillies are missing. Robertson was signed to pitch high leverage innings, but has been either ineffective or injured. Pivetta has missed starts. Vazquez got moved to the pen due to ineffectiveness. I think they have been hit harder by injuries/severe regression/suspensions than the Braves.

We caught a bit of a break to have Riley get off to such a hot start when he replaced Ender. That is mostly luck in my book and accounts for some of our overperformance.

Maybe it is luck, but we had Riley, camargo, and Duvall as insurance for an injury like that.

[CyYoung31]

I can agree that we are clearly a better team then the Phillies and have shown it and should hold on to the division but it sure does seem like some of you are burying them and talking about them as if they are Finnish.
We still got a lot of games to play and injures and slumps tend to happen.
We are the city of Atlanta after all, not like we have a history of bad luck and collapses haha

No one is saying the race is over. But from here on the biggest threat is Washington, just like was predicted at the start of the season. Phillies weren’t built for 162 games, and it’s showing.

[Southcack77]

so the Phillies were projected ahead of the Braves after acquiring Harper. By the projection systems and most observers

They had two former starters in Nick Williams and Altherr in reserve in the OF. Williams has been an above average strong side of a platoon up to this season. He’s a more than adequate fourth of, but it’s tough to do that when you are also hurt.

Kingery is their utility man that was probably overqualified for the job and he’s played just about every position, including the of, and has been good.

They had a flawed team that was plenty good enough to make a run this year.

I thought the Braves were also plenty good enough to contend and were underrated by people who were only looking at offseason additions. Still, the standings would be tighter if Riley had not come out with what may be the best month he ever has a pro.

[Super]

i felt the projections were heavy on the phillies, and potentially light on the Braves due to all of the young players. i think Ronald was projected for 4 WAR and he’s going to easily eclipse that, perhaps by 50%. stuff like that.
we’ll have to agree to disagree on Williams and Altherr. williams has always been a terrible defensive player (not bad, terrible, which is already bad lot planned as a 4th OF IMO). his small success on offense was BABIP driven. relying on him was foolish, and i would’ve said at the time (not even just hindsight) that Joyce would easily be a better option.
Altherr put up a negative WAR last year. enough said. they should have dumped him earlier and looked to upgrade. “two former starters” means nothing here.
Herrera is the only one me i give them a slight pass on. his decline was fast and sharp. however watching him a lot last year, he was clearly bad defensively. maybe they thought it was more a fluke than anything. but it was clear.

kingery was also terrible last year and is probably overperofmring a good bit. he’s likely a solid player, not a star. fine.

they signed Robertson and had Neshek under contract. what have we said all offseason here about signing RPs in general, much less old ones? they sunk a lot of “stupid money” into two old RPs. i don’t give them credit for trying; they made mistakes. with both of them. these are poor decisions.
i’ll reiterate their decision to not only have Franco on the team, but to start him. poor. decision. and i said so at the time. hindsight is not ruling me here.
their starters stayed miraculously healthy last year (as i pointed out throughout last year) and regressed heavily in the 2nd half. so what do they do? not add a single bit of depth to the rotation. not like they had decent guys in the minors just waiting for a chance. it was trash there too. their SP was bound to do them in, even if the offense were good...and it’s not. again: 19th in the entire league in wRC+ and 9th in the NL. it’s an average offense despite the names and offseason trophies.
i can’t see how they’re anything but a poorly built team. i was pretty confident they wouldn’t be the Braves downfall all year, even during their time at the top of the division.
this is the same FO that thought adding Carlos Santana at 3/60 last year was a smart move for that team. never mind that the fit was terrible. they did it. right there i stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt on team building. shockingly, simply spending “stupid money” didn’t make them good decision-makers.

[CyYoung31]

i felt the projections were heavy on the phillies, and potentially light on the Braves due to all of the young players. i think Ronald was projected for 4 WAR and he’s going to easily eclipse that, perhaps by 50%. stuff like that.
we’ll have to agree to disagree on Williams and Altherr. williams has always been a terrible defensive player (not bad, terrible, which is already bad lot planned as a 4th OF IMO). his small success on offense was BABIP driven. relying on him was foolish, and i would’ve said at the time (not even just hindsight) that Joyce would easily be a better option.
Altherr put up a negative WAR last year. enough said. they should have dumped him earlier and looked to upgrade. “two former starters” means nothing here.
Herrera is the only one me i give them a slight pass on. his decline was fast and sharp. however watching him a lot last year, he was clearly bad defensively. maybe they thought it was more a fluke than anything. but it was clear.

kingery was also terrible last year and is probably overperofmring a good bit. he’s likely a solid player, not a star. fine.

they signed Robertson and had Neshek under contract. what have we said all offseason here about signing RPs in general, much less old ones? they sunk a lot of “stupid money” into two old RPs. i don’t give them credit for trying; they made mistakes. with both of them. these are poor decisions.
i’ll reiterate their decision to not only have Franco on the team, but to start him. poor. decision. and i said so at the time. hindsight is not ruling me here.
their starters stayed miraculously healthy last year (as i pointed out throughout last year) and regressed heavily in the 2nd half. so what do they do? not add a single bit of depth to the rotation. not like they had decent guys in the minors just waiting for a chance. it was trash there too. their SP was bound to do them in, even if the offense were good...and it’s not. again: 19th in the entire league in wRC+ and 9th in the NL. it’s an average offense despite the names and offseason trophies.
i can’t see how they’re anything but a poorly built team. i was pretty confident they wouldn’t be the Braves downfall all year, even during their time at the top of the division.
this is the same FO that thought adding Carlos Santana at 3/60 last year was a smart move for that team. never mind that the fit was terrible. they did it. right there i stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt on team building. shockingly, simply spending “stupid money” didn’t make them good decision-makers.

Well said, if not well typed. Me and you have been on the same page all year regarding the Phillies.

[Super]

Well said, if not well typed. Me and you have been on the same page all year regarding the Phillies.

indeed we were. never overly impressed.

[Freshmaker]

Apparently one of the Mets' affiliates screwed up their fireworks celebration and ended up setting the woods on fire

[zbhargrove]

indeed we were. never overly impressed.

Woah I better get in on this hug fest. I was never impressed by the Phillies.

[CyYoung31]

Apparently one of the Mets' affiliates screwed up their fireworks celebration and anded up setting the woods on fire

Lmfao