The optimist's view of the rest of 2014

depley

Awaiting a Promotion
There are 20 games left. We are 6 games out of 1st in the nl east. We have 6 of the next 10 games against the Nats who lead. What needs to happen to make this a race? Braves must win against Miami on Sunday then win 5 of 6 games from the Nats over that 9 game stretch. Can it be done, yes, BUT you cannot do it with Harang starting 2 of those games. The Braves must make the move to allow Hale to start the first of those games Harang is sheduled to start. If Hale fails at least you tried and can always go back to Harang on extended rest in the 2nd time through. But if Hale doesn't fail and somehow wins, then our chances of winning 5 of 6 go up tremendously.
 
We're not catching the Nats, i dont care if we do "own" them (we dont)

Also, not having Wood or Julio vs the Nats makes it very hard.
 
I think we might be better off having the Nats get best record in the NL while we get a wild card spot. Win the play in game and then we get to play the Nats in the NLDS.

You never know what can happen if we just make it to game 163. BJ Upton once carried the Rays to the world series. You never know.
 
As for the question about the Nats, pretty much the only way to do it is take all six against the Nats and hope that demoralizes them to the point where we pick up +1 in the other games. It's not going to happen, but it would be much more rewarding if we were able to beat them in the NLDS.

20 games left, starting today. We need to win every series. That's a 14-6 record and an 88-74 finish.
 
Mathematically, the Nats are catchable, but I am not counting on that. I think the four-game set with the Pirates is going to be crucial. Tossing out the cliche, we just have to take care of our business to put ourselves in a position for the playoffs.
 
And we have to get the stick out of our ass and beat the Phillies in September. Every game is massive from here on out in my mind. We're not going to win all 20, but we need to put ourselves in the best position to do so. That means putting the very best lineup out there to start with.
 
The pessimist view of 2014.

We can win every game for the rest of the year, and still lose to the Nationals as they beat every team aside from us. 94 wins and still can't win the division :Sad:
 
And we have to get the stick out of our ass and beat the Phillies in September. Every game is massive from here on out in my mind. We're not going to win all 20, but we need to put ourselves in the best position to do so. That means putting the very best lineup out there to start with.

Considering it's a lock our second worst hitter will hit 2 against LHP, we're boned in that department. If the Braves and to win they'd run 1 lineup for the majority of the remainder of the season.

CF - Jason
LF/RF - Gosselin
1B - Freeman
LF/RF - Justin
C - Gattis (he'll need a few games off of course, when that happens add Bethancourt move to 8 hole)
2B - TLS
3B - Johnson
SS - Simmons

For defensive replacements when needed bring BJ and Pena off the bench, Move Gosselin to 2B and Pena to 3B and rotate the OF to current position. Sure it's a defensive gamble but it's one I'm willing to take. As that lineup only has 1 SVOD with the bat and replaces a 70 wRC+ with someone much closer to average.
 
Considering it's a lock our second worst hitter will hit 2 against LHP, we're boned in that department. If the Braves and to win they'd run 1 lineup for the majority of the remainder of the season.

CF - Jason
LF/RF - Gosselin
1B - Freeman
LF/RF - Justin
C - Gattis (he'll need a few games off of course, when that happens add Bethancourt move to 8 hole)
2B - TLS
3B - Johnson
SS - Simmons

For defensive replacements when needed bring BJ and Pena off the bench, Move Gosselin to 2B and Pena to 3B and rotate the OF to current position. Sure it's a defensive gamble but it's one I'm willing to take. As that lineup only has 1 SVOD with the bat and replaces a 70 wRC+ with someone much closer to average.

Only other thing I'd do is limit CJ's at bats against righties. Don't bench him every game, but don't play him against really tough ones.

In those situations, something like

Jason
Gosselin
Freddie
Justin
Gattis
TLS
Terd
Simmons
 
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