Gamethread: Braves @ Nationals, July 5, 2009 (81/162) LOSS

[sdp]

STARTING LINEUP
N. McLouth cf
M. Prado 2b
C. Jones 3b
B. McCann c
Y. Escobar ss
G. Anderson lf
M. Diaz rf
C. Kotchman 1b
D. Lowe p

[jamminHANES]

Lets go Braves, finish off the series.

[Hobbes]

STARTING LINEUP
N. McLouth cf
M. Prado 2b
C. Jones 3b
B. McCann c
Y. Escobar ss
G. Anderson lf
M. Diaz rf
C. Kotchman 1b
D. Lowe p

I like that lineup.

[Wahoo]

Prado with a 1-out double. If he keeps raking like this, he just might make me a believer.

[BigWorm]

Is Diaz a four hit game away from being proclaimed the "everyday right fielder"?

[CanadaBravesFan]

PRADO is a BEAST

[luvdembravos]

Why do we always struggle against these damn gNats?

[KB 34]

Is Diaz a four hit game away from being proclaimed the "everyday right fielder"?
That would be great if it actually happens. Diaz is really hot and it's time to ride the hot bat and hope someone wants to ridiculously overpay for him in a few weeks.

[IkeWagner]

It's great to have Fransewer out of there.

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Lets see. Our problem: Hitting. Our best hitting corner outfielder - you hope we trade him? I don't see the logic in that.

[bmitm76]

Derek Lowe really, really sucks at baseball lately. Dang.

[bravestud]

How do we keep losing to this horrible team?

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp247/thevelouriumcamper/wtf-1.jpg?t=1246820774

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Agreed. People can't blame the "Great AL hitting" for this game. Thats one expensive #5 stater.

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

How do we keep losing to this horrible team?

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp247/thevelouriumcamper/wtf-1.jpg?t=1246820774



Hey man, there is something wrong with that picture. I can read all the words but that last one, a letter seems to be scratched out though. I can't quite figure out what it's trying to say?!?!

[bravestud]

Hey man, there is something wrong with that picture. I can read all the words but that last one, a letter seems to be scratched out though. I can't quite figure out what it's trying to say?!?!
It's supposed to say "WTF is this shot".

[Hobbes]

Did anybody really expect more out of Jeff in that situation? :rolleyes:

[KB 34]

Lets see. Our problem: Hitting. Our best hitting corner outfielder - you hope we trade him? I don't see the logic in that.
The fact that Diaz is the Braves best hitting corner outfielder is a problem. Last season he was a horrible everyday outfielder but typically has been merely a below average outfielder in a platoon. He's gotten hot after not playing much for a while. I would have been fine non-tendering him before so now I hope to see the Braves cash in.

[bravestud]

What are you doing, Prado!?!? We need more than one run.

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick.

[Chris_Moderato]

What are you doing, Prado!?!? We need more than one run.

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick.

Dammit. He doesn't walk on water.

[Chris_Moderato]

I hope we can pull off a nice comeback in the last inning off the Nats' bullpen.

Losing two to the Nationals after a five-game win streak is what makes it so hard for some of the less-than optimistic fans to jump on the bandwagon during one of those streaks, in case anyone was wondering.

I just hope we can make a big push in the ninth. Fingers crossed here.

[Hobbes]

After getting swept by us the Philles sweep the Mets by beating Johan Santana in today's game (with Joe Blanton on the mound).

[Chris_Moderato]

Good start with the double by Diaz. Fingers still crossed.

[Wahoo]

Wow. More mediocrity from Lowe. 10 effing hits in 5.1 innings pitched. He's lucky he didn't give up 7 or 8 runs.

[Chris_Moderato]

Down to the last out. Come on Nate. Hit a five-run home run and let's skip town!

[Chris_Moderato]

Ok, a two-run home run is good! 5-3 now. Come on Braves!

[Chris_Moderato]

Martin Play-Dough comes through again! Single to right. Chipper up with two outs, chance to tie this one up. Come on Braves-of-old!

[Hobbes]

Prado goes 4-for-4.

Come on Chipper!

[Chris_Moderato]

A bit of bad mojo for the Nats, the fireworks guy gets an itchy trigger finger and launches them after a Chipper foul ball. Chip then walks. McCann can put us ahead here.

[Hobbes]

Chipper works the walk even though they shot off game-winning fireworks.

Now it's up to McCann.

[Hobbes]

Crap! Braves lose.

[Chris_Moderato]

Sh*t...McCann grounds out to first to end it. Braves lose the series to the Nationals. Fingers uncrossed, pessemism building back up...dammit.

[bravestud]

Those two hits by Olsen were the difference in the game. Hate losing on silly stuff like that.

[bravestud]

Martin Play-Dough
Birth of a nickname?

[BigWorm]

How does a Braves homer rationalize a series loss to one of the worst teams of all time?

I give away one of the wins against Philly, so that means we've won 2 out of 3 in the last two series.

Go Braves. Bums.

[wordslayer©]

Through our last ten games, we are 5 and 5. Yeah, I know, that's even with the winning streak.

The good news is.....everyone else in our division sucks, too.

We are the republican party. We all suck.

[luvdembravos]

Then it's time for a vacation in Argentina.

[slowride]

We never should have let Erin Andrews go.....

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

On a positive note: it seems as if we've found our new 2nd baseman.

[slowride]

http://redstatebluestate.mlblogs.com/erin.andrews.jpg

[Wahoo]

Is there a more biased set of broadcasters than those on MASN? I mean seriously, they continually referred to the Gnats as "we" the entire time and the Braves as "them", as if they were somehow part of the team. I get that all team announcers have a degree of bias, but seriously, in all my years of watching the Braves on TBS did I ever hear Skip Caray refer to the Braves as "we" or the opposition as "them." You could tell he was pro-Braves, but he wasn't so grossly biased as those Gnats announcers. It was sickening.

[Dreamscape]

I remember Skip constantly referring to the Braves as "us", though TBS eventually played that down. If you listened to the radio, you heard more of it. TBS became a different beast, one that wanted to play up national audiences vs. regional. Obviously, MASN is more of a regional homer crew than TBS became.

Really, you don't remember "a lot of room in right center, if he hits one there, we can dance in the streets?"

[slowride]

MaSN is the worst I've heard so far this year. Especially their bickering about other teams and umpires....

[Chris_Moderato]

Yeah, the MASN guys are no more or less homerstatic than Skip used to be. Really, I can understand them getting excited too. The Nats so rarely do anything worth getting excited about.

They do love their Nyger, though.

[Dreamscape]

Yeah, for the record, I can't stand Rob Dibble. One of the absolute worst announcers in the game. I'd rather listen to Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan wax idiotic than Dibble. I didn't know how good Sutton could be until I listened to Sutton on MASN vs. Dibble.

[Chris_Moderato]

Yeah, for the record, I can't stand Rob Dibble. One of the absolute worst announcers in the game. I'd rather listen to Tim McCarver and Joe Morgan wax idiotic than Dibble. I didn't know how good Sutton could be until I listened to Sutton on MASN vs. Dibble.

I do agree with that. He's just about useless up there. The other guy, Bob Carpenter, he's ok. I'd almost rather watch a game on MASN than listen to Chip Carey babble away.

[BigWorm]

I remember Skip constantly referring to the Braves as "us", though TBS eventually played that down. If you listened to the radio, you heard more of it. TBS became a different beast, one that wanted to play up national audiences vs. regional. Obviously, MASN is more of a regional homer crew than TBS became.

Really, you don't remember "a lot of room in right center, if he hits one there, we can dance in the streets?"


that was on the radio dreamsteronies

[Wahoo]

that was on the radio dreamsteronies

Yeah, that's what I thought. I think he probably projected more as a homer on the radio than on TV.

[Dreamscape]

True, I didn't consider that. Skip was more of a homer on radio, definitely.

If you care, here is Dibble's take on "we (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/06/why_rob_dibble_says_we_about_t.html)." It's probably a lot less annoying when the homer is your homer, I guess.

[Wahoo]

True, I didn't consider that. Skip was more of a homer on radio, definitely.

If you care, here is Dibble's take on "we (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/06/why_rob_dibble_says_we_about_t.html)." It's probably a lot less annoying when the homer is your homer, I guess.

True, it definitely, but I just felt that the TBS even when they were exclusively Braves, did a fairly good job of not being massive homers. Those MASN guys, they don't even pretend. It makes it difficult to watch them.

[Dreamscape]

True, it's hard to watch.

But then, if you read a Mets board in the late 90's and polled them on who the biggest homer is, they'd probably say Skip Carey. I believe perspective is huge here.

[wordslayer©]

I've never listened to a braves game on radio, but I do know that there was plenty of homerism from the braves announcers on TV. I think we tend to not notice it as much because we pull for the team. Everything is looked at with a bias when you pull for a certain team.

I remember, on TV, how one of the announcers, when giving the score, would always say, "good guys three" or whatever.

As for bad announcers, I usually don't get too worked up about it. I really dislike Joe Morgan, but still, it's just not something that gets me too wound up.

Here's the way I try to see it....these guys have three hours of time to fill, and since baseball is a dreadfully slow game, this leaves a lot of empty time to fill, and it's just so easy to say dumb things in that amount of time. When you are just having to say something to fill up the time, you are just going to sound stupid the majority of the time, which is why that the good announcers are so rare.

Personally, I just hate most former athletes that are announcers, but again, I try not to let it rattle me too much, because I think it's a helluva lot harder to do than it looks.

[Wahoo]

True, it's hard to watch.

But then, if you read a Mets board in the late 90's and polled them on who the biggest homer is, they'd probably say Skip Carey. I believe perspective is huge here.

Big difference...no one gives a sh*t what a Met Fan thinks. :D

[Hobbes]

Skip used to be a bit more oblique in his homerism, referring to the team as the "good guys".


Edit:...like Slayer said.

[bravos4evr]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but Skip and Ernie's homerism was party of what made them great! I don't want some schmuck who acts like it's just as important when the enemy scores as when we do!!!!! I want to feel like I'm watching the game with a baseball educated buddy who knows the ropes yet likes to have a little fun! And loves the team he's calling games for!

[Lauren T.]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but Skip and Ernie's homerism was party of what made them great! I don't want some schmuck who acts like it's just as important when the enemy scores as when we do!!!!!
...Like Chip, when we play the Cards or Cubs? ;)

[Hobbes]

Every time I hear Chip say the word "Cubbies" I want to strangle him.