Gamethread: Red Sox @ Braves, June 27, 2009 (74/162) LOSS

[Chris_Moderato]

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x206/cgreg001/Boston_RedSox1979.png
Boston Red Sox [45-28]

.vs.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x206/cgreg001/Atlanta_Braves1987.png
Atlanta Braves [34-39]

Tim Wakefield (9-3) vs. Javier Vazquez (5-6)

This is the extent of my efforts. Game's on Fox, apparently.

Go Braves!

[Dreamscape]

It's been so nice to watch winning Braves baseball the past two days.

go pelicans

[BigWorm]

I'm late. I see McLouth's out, what's the word?

[Middle Man]

I'm late. I see McLouth's out, what's the word?

Strained hammy. Day to day.

[Middle Man]

Did you see the route GA took on that fly to left? Either the wind is swirling or GA was showing off his change-of-direction skills.

[Dreamscape]

McCann steals a base easily on Wakefield, who had a bout of alzheimer's and forgot there was a basestealing demon on base.

[Middle Man]

Ha, McCann with a SB. Goes for nothing though as JF flies out. Still, it's a smart move. If the pitcher isn't going to even look at you, what the heck - put yourself in scoring position. I wish they all had the baseball smarts of Brian McCann.

[BigWorm]

After Vazques was robbed of an inning ending strikeout on Big Papi, Maker's Mark Kotsay screws us with an opposite field single scoring youKILLus. 1-0 Red Sox.

Blanco with a leadoff single in the 6th. Wakefield wearing down with 79 pitches so far. Let's take advantage now.

[BigWorm]

Chipper lines one just not high enough over the second basemen's head. Now two out, Blanco on second.

I need a win here today fellas. Put a benji on it.

[BigWorm]

And our 3-4 hitters fail to deliver. Seems like they are not coming through very much lately.....

[slowride]

Well FOX is showing the Angels/Cards here in Texas...

oh well.

[RiknTN]

I think Francoeur has seen 4 pitches and produced 3 outs today. That's pretty dang efficient.

[RiknTN]

Well FOX is showing the Angels/Cards here in Texas...

oh well.
You are very lucky man.............

[ATL2123]

Just another horrible showing, Chipper seems to have lost something at the plate lately, and Kotchman has not impressed me since his arrival last year

[slowride]

Another excellent outting from Vazquez it looks like.....

I don't understand why Pendleton still has a job.

[Chris_Moderato]

Another excellent outting from Vazquez it looks like.....

I don't understand why Pendleton still has a job.

What the hell can Pendleton do about it? If he's responsible for this year's fiasco, he's gotta be credited for the above average offensive production of the team every year since he came in as hitting coach.

Of course, I don't think he deserves that much credit for that either. His effect on the hitters is negligible at best. Fire our *****ty hitters, if anything.

[argentina brave]

What the hell can Pendleton do about it? If he's responsible for this year's fiasco, he's gotta be credited for the above average offensive production of the team every year since he came in as hitting coach.

Of course, I don't think he deserves that much credit for that either. His effect on the hitters is negligible at best. Fire our *****ty hitters, if anything.

post of the week...

at some pt., we all have to stop bitching about pendleton, cox, and wren, and acknowledge that our guys are just sucking balls right now. it falls on the players... even the nats don't get shut out like this...

[hoosjon]

But ALL of the players? Simultaneously "sucking balls"? If you can't blame Wren, or Cox, or Pendleton at all, then should we send all of our players to the unemployment lines and start over? Or just wait it out and hope they wake up, against all reason?

You're telling me that Terry Pendleton is neither to blame or positively credited with our team's hitting at all?

Then, let's fire him for doing nothing and getting a paycheck.

I just finished watching the College World Series and seeing players PRODUCE runs. It seems to me that it's basic that you try something new when what you are doing isn't working. Do you agree that we need to change our strategy?

[Chris_Moderato]

Do you agree that we need to change our strategy?

I don't disagree at all that our strategy at the plate should change. I've been hoping to see something like that. But I don't think you can blame TP exclusively for this. This problem is an organizational issue. The approach needs to change across the board.

Additionally, in Atlanta, this strategy won't change while Bobby Cox is around. This is his approach to hitting. As long as he is managing the Braves, guys like Frenchy and Matt Diaz who go up and hack away will be tolerated. It sucks, and it reflects poorly on the team, but that is the way that goes. I don't blame Pendleton for that, because I don't really think the hitting or pitching coach makes a whole lot of difference. Some do. But most don't make a big difference.

[sdp]

Sorry for my absence, guys. I've been dealing with some personal matters over the past several days and I hope to get back at it next week.


:thumbsup:

[Dreamscape]

No, it's not all Terry Pendleton's fault. There is a wealth of blame to be handed about. As much as Leo (there you go, BFH) gets way too much credit, Pendleton gets way too much blame.

That said, he should be fired. Sure, the offense has produced in past seasons, but it's pretty easy to look awesome when you have a lot of established stars. Aside from McCann, has anyone "flourished" under Pendleton? We have seen Andruw go to pieces, Francoeur get worse, KJ completely change his entire approach from the KJ we first saw. Are these things all Pendleton's fault? Absolutely not, but I'm convinced a portion is.

And it definitely is an organizational problem. Our minor league offenses are historically pretty average to bad. Part of that is the design of the ballparks focusing on pitching over hitting. But a big part the Braves, and this is lessoning, focused on "potential" and "tools" over "skills" believing they could impart the last little nugget. Problem being they tended to have an aggressive let-the-hitter-swing type philosophy.

And as Chris elluded to, Cox is part of the problem. Frankly, I wish we could burn it down and start over again. While long-term losing brings hopelessness, a rebuilding project breeds hope. And with this organization, I lack much hope. Though, I firmly believe Jason Heyward will be a star. So glad I saw him play the last three days rather than be concerned with what the parent team did as it blew up.

[argentina brave]

No, it's not all Terry Pendleton's fault. There is a wealth of blame to be handed about. As much as Leo (there you go, BFH) gets way too much credit, Pendleton gets way too much blame.

That said, he should be fired. Sure, the offense has produced in past seasons, but it's pretty easy to look awesome when you have a lot of established stars. Aside from McCann, has anyone "flourished" under Pendleton? We have seen Andruw go to pieces, Francoeur get worse, KJ completely change his entire approach from the KJ we first saw. Are these things all Pendleton's fault? Absolutely not, but I'm convinced a portion is.

And it definitely is an organizational problem. Our minor league offenses are historically pretty average to bad. Part of that is the design of the ballparks focusing on pitching over hitting. But a big part the Braves, and this is lessoning, focused on "potential" and "tools" over "skills" believing they could impart the last little nugget. Problem being they tended to have an aggressive let-the-hitter-swing type philosophy.

And as Chris elluded to, Cox is part of the problem. Frankly, I wish we could burn it down and start over again. While long-term losing brings hopelessness, a rebuilding project breeds hope. And with this organization, I lack much hope. Though, I firmly believe Jason Heyward will be a star. So glad I saw him play the last three days rather than be concerned with what the parent team did as it blew up.

well said, can't say i agree with your philosophy, so to speak, about the path the braves should take, but i do agree about some of the problems at this point, namely, that pendleton should perhaps be let go, only b/c this team needs a shakeup, and this is the nature of the biz...ask gerald perry.

[wordslayer©]

I'm torn.

I don't know what our record was last year at this time, but it very well could have been better than we are this year.

First of all, I'm shocked that there isn't more grumbling amongst the fans and the media about calling for heads to roll in the organization.

When you spend tons of money like we have, there usually is some kind of expectation and accountability that goes with the spending of the money. When you spend the money that the organization has and you have just about nothing to show for it, usually people clean out every person in the front office.

Personally, I'd love to see Pendleton gone because I hate that fat ba$tard. But this is nothing knew. I hated him when he won that lame MVP that he didn't deserve.

But anyhow, I'm torn. My emotional/anger side would like to see the whole bunch of them thrown out.

But on the other hand, there is something about Wren that I like. He hasn't given away some of our best talent and that goes a long way with me.

But then again, I'm pissed at him for signing Chipper to a long term deal, and then overpaying and signing Lowe to a long term deal.....just irks me, so maybe he doesn't deserve as much slack as I cut him.

But still....I really do like the trades he has made.

I'm torn........for such a piss poor performing team, heads really should roll. It's just what organizations do. But then again, Wren hasn't done what JS did on his exit and give away the farm, so as to make himself look good on the short-term.

Man, tough one for me.

[KB 34]

The Braves are 74 games into the season with a record of 34-40. Last season after 74 games their record was 36-38. That is quite scary and I had forgotten it wasn't until later last season when things really fell apart. My feeling is the organization needs a real culture change. Acting like everything is going well and the organization is in great shape is great when an organization is winning every season. The Braves are in danger of missing the playoffs for the 4th straight season.

At which point does there need to be changes? I felt changes needed to happen after 3 seasons and took a lot of heat in the offseason for it. I said I wasn't sure how but I believed the Braves would find a way to lose. The offense is really coming through isn't it? For three seasons money was a nice excuse because the Braves weren't really getting payroll increases. They got a boatload of money last season and seem to have built a team that simply isn't good enough to win. That excuse is dead.

I want to see Bobby Cox retire and the sooner the better. He's an alltime great but that doesn't mean he'll always perform like an alltime great after years of managing. How many of you have thought about the benefits of bringing back Hank Aaron to help the outfield? Let's see, an average season for him was around .375 OBP with 40 HR. Add him as a cleanup hitter and the the lineup is magically fixed right? Nope, he's old and retired for a reason. I don't believe managers are exempt from the aging process. It's a nicer process for managers but the game changes, players change, but the human mind is stubborn and doesn't, unless we're talking about memory loss.

A new manager probably replaces a few coches as he sees fit and gets his crew working. Great, that simplifies the process of who to replace and who to let go. Now the question is how to get Bobby Cox convinced the place to watch games from is a luxury suite.

[bravos4evr]

IMO, Pendeleton needs to go because his philosophy oh being aggressive at the plate has been proven to not work in the long term. Being patient t the plate ,however, does work!
Is it all his fault? No! But His job is to develop and work with the batters, KJ has gone from a guy who took a ton of pitches and got most of his K's via the called strike into a free swinging goober! It has totally screwed him up. That's TP's fault.

Until the team learns to buy into the idea of high OBP players mixed in with two or three high SLG players, then we are going to be mediocre for awhile.

[Wahoo]

I'm sorry. It's time for change. This team has sucked for 3+ years now. Nothing would make me happier than a complete re-tooling of our management. Get rid of Pendleton. Force Bobby into retirement. Say adios to Wren, and all his underlings. Kiss Scheurholz's ass goodbye. I want a complete change in philosophy, because I'm convinced that our issues go deeper than just financial constraints (which quite frankly aren't that constraining).

[Freddy_Ballgame]

I attempted to post a similar reply earlier today, but it vanished. I don't think Wren is a problem. He went after pitching because it was the most glaring need. It's also what the 1990s teams were built on. I feel like Wren has found a good deal of pitching and even has some for the next year or two to work with. It's a solid mix of vets and kids. If the team would work on improving their defense and somehow add a couple of clutch hitters you would see marked improvement. I even like the idea of moving Escy down to fifth or sixth to try and take more advantage of his good work in the clutch. For this team, finding guys who can provide timely hits is more realistic than trying to find a hidden masher or two. I have been in favor of moving Cox out since the old streak was winding down because I just don't think he brings anything to the game anymore. TP I can take or leave. I really don't know what he prefers as a hitting style because I don't think we're seeing TP's plan. We're seeing Cox's style, as in "do whatever you want as long as you're on time." I'm all for calling in some minor leaguers and giving them a shot. What can it hurt? I want to see where Wren goes the rest of this season and after. Then I'll decide how I feel.

[Lauren T.]

Here are my pics (http://braveslove.blogspot.com/2009/06/game-day-pictures-braves-vs-red-sox-6.html) from the game. Even though it was hot and I couldn't see very well, I still thought it was a great time!