GDT 4/24 Atlanta (8-7) @ Philadelphia (5-11) 7:05 pm (ET)

chop2chip said:
He's not as upbeat as he's been in the past, but he's leading the majors in hard hit contact rate.

He will be fine. I'm not worried about him.
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This is not meant as a negative or sarcastic question or anything. I'm genuinely curious. Have you watched much this year? You defend Freeman with this or that without ever addressing the body language and play on the field, so it makes me wonder if you've actually seen him much. He's starting to remind me of how Yunel acted after the team traded Brayan Pena.
 
AJ's passed ball set up the play but I don't see much about that. Plus Johnson has stinked every game AJ has caught him and looked good with Bethancourt catching him. I'm not saying Johnson will bounce back this year, but I do believe having AJ catch him is not helping his chances.
 
Braves1976 said:
AJ's passball set up the play but I don't see much about that. Plus Johnson has stinked every game AJ has caught him and looked good with Bethancourt catching him. I'm not saying Johnson will bounce back this year, but I do believe having AJ catch him is not helping his chances.
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Johnson still has good stuff, but he is mentally shot. Pressure innings are going to eventually get to him, and he'll completely lose it for a handful or more games. He'd probably do well as the 7th-inning guy.
 
Biggest concern I have is the bullpen's workload. The starters have to start going deeper into these games. Cannot afford the starters leaving the game before the seventh inning. That continues and the bullpen will be taxed.
 
I know that Stults had a lot of positive things to say about AJ after his start the other night. On the other hand, to my untrained eye, Bethancourt has looked like a better receiver. Deck chairs on the Titanic, I guess.

I said in ST that I wasn't worried worried about the bullpen, but that was before the Kimbrel deal, obviously. Moving everyone up a notch has obviously exposed some weaknesses . . . not to mention the fact that the starters have been struggling to go beyond 5.
 
It's worth acknowledging that we did trade away Carpenter, Shreve, Varvaro and Hale in deals that weren't really necessary for the re-building effort. I'm not saying they were bad trades, and there's a perfectly reasonable argument that gutting the bullpen this year in exchange for some future potential was a good idea. But those are some guys who be helpful right about now.

Oh, and Kimbrel.
 
Spreaking of Shreve, he did great again tonight for the Yankees. I didn't like losing him and considered him the true headliner from our side of that trade. But at the same time the potential that lefty Man-Ban brings made it one of our better trades, IMO.

However, I do agree that losing so many good to great relievers, including Simmons to TJS and Kimbrel who's the best in the business, has really made our bullpen not near the strength that it was in previous seasons.

PS: Did y'all have to remind me that Hale is no longer a Brave? He was my Martin before Martin was Dalyn's Martin, lol. :)
 
Dalyn said:
This is not meant as a negative or sarcastic question or anything. I'm genuinely curious. Have you watched much this year? You defend Freeman with this or that without ever addressing the body language and play on the field, so it makes me wonder if you've actually seen him much. He's starting to remind me of how Yunel acted after the team traded Brayan Pena.
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I try to watch every game, so I have been watching. I did qualify in my post that he doesn't look upbeat this year. I am not disagreeing with that point.

I'm just arguing that if he had any luck with the balls he's hitting in play that we would be singing a different tune to his season. Or in other words, we aren't mad at Freddie that he's not hugging as much, but that he's hitting .230.

He will be fine. He's adjusting and we all have to recognize that he, moreso than any other player on the Braves, was hurt most by the trades made. I'm willing to give the guy a chance to readjust himself.
 
MadduxFanII said:
It's worth acknowledging that we did trade away Carpenter, Shreve, Varvaro and Hale in deals that weren't really necessary for the re-building effort. I'm not saying they were bad trades, and there's a perfectly reasonable argument that gutting the bullpen this year in exchange for some future potential was a good idea. But those are some guys who be helpful right about now.

Oh, and Kimbrel.
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We also have to keep in mind that the issues our team is having was almost by design. As far as I can tell, the fact that Simmons has made tremendous progress offensively, Bethancourt looks okay (despite what his statistics show), and we have had some promising starts for some of our minor leaguers. Those are what we need to take out of this season, and not whether Jim Johnson is a viable 8th inning option or if Stults and Cahill are dependable starters.
 
CrimsonCowboy said:
Biggest concern I have is the bullpen's workload. The starters have to start going deeper into these games. Cannot afford the starters leaving the game before the seventh inning. That continues and the bullpen will be taxed.
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Yeah I believe that we have the fewest starter innings of any team. Even with 4 and 5 as crap our starting pitching was supposed to be our strength. It's certainly not that. Reality is sitting in. This is a horrible horrible team.
 
chop2chip said:
I try to watch every game, so I have been watching. I did qualify in my post that he doesn't look upbeat this year. I am not disagreeing with that point.

I'm just arguing that if he had any luck with the balls he's hitting in play that we would be singing a different tune to his season. Or in other words, we aren't mad at Freddie that he's not hugging as much, but that he's hitting .230.

He will be fine. He's adjusting and we all have to recognize that he, moreso than any other player on the Braves, was hurt most by the trades made. I'm willing to give the guy a chance to readjust himself.
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I do think Freeman will be fine as far as stats go. Doesn't change my opinion that his play in this particular game combined with his general attitude throughout the season so far warrants being benched tomorrow.
 
Dalyn said:
I do think Freeman will be fine as far as stats go. Doesn't change my opinion that his play in this particular game combined with his general attitude throughout the season so far warrants being benched tomorrow.
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Do we really want to risk agitating a sleeping snake?

The last thing we need is bad blood with our corner stone
 
I haven't been able to watch any of the games (for SOME reason the Braves aren't on national TV much), but it's not difficult to imagine that Freddie's in kind of a bad place right now. You sign a huge long-term contract, than watch all the friends you played with for years get dealt away. The Kimbrel deal seemed particularly devastating. Freddie's still a young guy, and he would have to be almost inhuman not to feel a little crappy about how things have worked out.
 
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