5/30/15: GDT - Atlanta Braves @ SF Giants

USMA76 said:
Hey, it beats watching our guys strikeout 10 times while waiting for a long ball that never materializes.
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't mind watching the strikeouts; it's the long-ball never materializing that's the stinker.
 
jpx7 said:
For me, I don't mind watching the strikeouts; it's the long-ball never materializing that's the stinker.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I've enjoyed watching Houston so far this year and I have watched them a lot since Gattis is still one of my favorite players. But I'd also add that Houston was at last checked either tied or near the lead in the AL in stolen bases too. If you have a team with a lot of strikeouts that live on homeruns a lot it helps to have the speed Houston has too. Good combo of power and speed IMO.
 
jpx7 said:
Personally, I don't mind watching the strikeouts; it's the long-ball never materializing that's the stinker.
Click to expand...

I can take strikeouts if they're accompanied by intelligent, competitive at bats. Too often in the past, that didn't happen and it was incredibly frustrating. Melvin was perhaps the worst offender in recent Braves history--at least that I can recall.
 
Braves1976 said:
Agreed. I've enjoyed watching Houston so far this year and I have watched them a lot since Gattis is still one of my favorite players.
Click to expand...

I was thinking along the same lines when I submitted the previous post, as I've been watching a lot of the Astros as well. There are three reasons I surmise that allow it to work better for them than it did for the 2014 Braves: (a) the obvious, which is their home park (both a bandbox and, thanks to realignment, a designated-hitter zone); (b) the somewhat-unrelated, which is their really good shut-down starting pitching; and (c) the sneaky, which their superior deployment of speed on the base-paths, which helps to "make things happen" despite some deficiencies in putting the ball into play.

Edit: Based on your addendum, we're obviously assessing on the same page as far as power supplemented by speed. I think the Braves could have attempted the same thing over the previous two seasons, but it seems to run counter to organizational tendencies or proclivities.
 
Braves1976 said:
Agreed. I've enjoyed watching Houston so far this year and I have watched them a lot since Gattis is still one of my favorite players. But I'd also add that Houston was at last checked either tied or near the lead in the AL in stolen bases too. If you have a team with a lot of strikeouts that live on homeruns a lot it helps to have the speed Houston has too. Good combo of power and speed IMO.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear they are using Gattis' speed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top