GDT 8/6/20 Lineup with a Greek God

We have an abundance of OFs this season, why burn a year of control on Pache now? Keep him down until after the Super 2 date next season.

And you know Markakis will be starting every game for the rest of the season (and batting 5th). So between Acuna and Markakis, 2 of the 3 spots are filled everyday. Then rotate in Ender, Duvall, Riley, and Ozuna.
This makes sense

Moreover, Pache is right-handed, so he doesn’t at all help with the Braves deficit of LH bats. (The latter is why I hope they’re able to keep Schebler on the sixty-man post-DFA.)
 
Folks are going to be high on Touki from now until he allows 3 runs in an inning. At that point he will declared a bust again by the same folks calling him awesome now. Typical fickleness of baseball fans.

However, I’ve long said pairing Touki with someone like Matzek could be a very effective way to cover 5-7 innings. The key is not falling into the “pitcher is cruising” fallacy like Snit did last night, and stick to the plan. People conveniently forget games like last night when they complain about manager pulling a pitcher who was “cruising”...because people are mostly stupid.

Touki should have been pulled for Matzek after Grichuk the 2nd time, or after Bichette the 3rd time if his pitch count was low. That should have been the plan before the first pitch was thrown, and it should have been followed regardless of how well he was pitching (unless the wheel fell off, of course).

The other exception I'd supply is if the Braves had had a very large lead—say it was 10-1 instead of 3-1—then I think there's latitude to let Toussaint (or Wright or whoever) make a go of TTO, given a low pitch count and desire to "save" the bullpen a bit. As it stood, the margin was slim, Snitker was too slow to react, and the end result was putting the bullpen in position to potentially pitch even more high-leverage innings (if not for the Markakis bail-out walk-off).
 
Chris Martin to the DL, fortunately the bullpen is deep enough to manage his loss, especially with Smith back in the fold now.

The #Braves today placed RHP Chris Martin on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 6, with an esophageal constriction and recalled RHP Chad Sobotka to Atlanta. The club also claimed LHP Robbie Erlin off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
 
The other exception I'd supply is if the Braves had had a very large lead—say it was 10-1 instead of 3-1—then I think there's latitude to let Toussaint (or Wright or whoever) make a go of TTO, given a low pitch count and desire to "save" the bullpen a bit. As it stood, the margin was slim, Snitker was too slow to react, and the end result was putting the bullpen in position to potentially pitch even more high-leverage innings (if not for the Markakis bail-out walk-off).

Yeah, leverage of the situation should play a role. Let him struggle a bit if up big.
 
Moreover, Pache is right-handed, so he doesn’t at all help with the Braves deficit of LH bats. (The latter is why I hope they’re able to keep Schebler on the sixty-man post-DFA.)

Does Ender really help that either way?
 
Does Ender really help that either way?

Under normal circumstances, yes. If the bottom has really fallen out of his bat this year—as some of the underlying metrics seem to indicate—then, no.

And under normal, non-pandemic-season circumstances, I'd urge patience—thirteen games is relatively nothing, Inciarte's always a slow starter, and it's even tougher to determine if he's actually experiencing a defensive regression (which would be a much bigger deal) on top of a hypothetical offensive regression. However, considering that tonight's game represents the one-quarter mark of the season for Atlanta, it's hard to fault Snitker for pushing "abort" on Inciarte so soon—especially since his best outcome is, essentially, elite defense with slight-below-average offense.

For this reason and more, I still with they'd given more of a look to Schebler; at least he's a lefty with power—and, unlike Adams, can play OF.
 
Under normal circumstances, yes. If the bottom has really fallen out of his bat this year—as some of the underlying metrics seem to indicate—then, no.

And under normal, non-pandemic-season circumstances, I'd urge patience—thirteen games is relatively nothing, Inciarte's always a slow starter, and it's even tougher to determine if he's actually experiencing a defensive regression (which would be a much bigger deal) on top of a hypothetical offensive regression. However, considering that tonight's game represents the one-quarter mark of the season for Atlanta, it's hard to fault Snitker for pushing "abort" on Inciarte so soon—especially since his best outcome is, essentially, elite defense with slight-below-average offense.

For this reason and more, I still with they'd given more of a look to Schebler; at least he's a lefty with power—and, unlike Adams, can play OF.

The slow start aspect to him is valid but it just seems the trendlines for inciarte being a replacement level hitter even against right handers is drawing to a close.
 
Things must have gotten wild in the clubhouse celebrating the win last night.

Given the messianic return of Markakis, I was expecting some wailing and gnashing of teeth; but I didn't think any players would actually choke on their reverence.
 
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