Covering old ground; Francoeur is not very good this year

The AJC notes that Bobby Cox is again leaving Francoeur out of today’s day game against the Cubs to “‘mix (things) up a little.’” David O’Brien again throws the scary stats that are Francoeur’s ‘08 season at us:

Francoeur has hit .209 with six homers in 90 games since April 25. He hit a two-run homer in a 3-2 loss against the Cubs on June 12 and has only one home run in 176 at-bats since then.

The 2007 Gold Glove winner has hit .173 with four extra-base hits and nine RBIs in his past 42 games, and has no extra-base hits in his past 15 games.
…
After batting .338 with runners in scoring position in 2005, .320 in 2006, and .341 in 2007, Francoeur is worst among Braves regulars with a .186 average with runners in scoring position this season.

And after hitting .379 against lefties in 2005, .292 in 2006 and .317 in 2007, he’s hitting .208 against them this season.

Also McCann has been so good of late that he’s apparently become delusional: “Catcher Brian McCann keeps saying how the Braves aren’t mathematically eliminated and that they still need to play every game to win.”

Delusional or not he is the man.

In related news, I will be at the game tomorrow night, in awesome seats no less, wearing said man’s jersey. If there is a rain delay/cancellation for the one day I’m in town and available to see a game you’ll probably see me hanging out around one of the I-75 overpasses with a bottle of Jim Beam, chain smoking and muttering to myself.

Not saying it’s impossible, but yeah, it’s impossible

The odds of the Braves making the playoffs are now 1.01118, .54864 or 1.00497, depending on which confusing-as-fuck method you prefer.

Brandon Webb is good at this baseball thing; Braves lose 6-1

Infante drove in the Braves’ sole run on a sac fly. The rest of the line-up didn’t execute even though they had their chances against Webb (6 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB), who also had a RBI double for the D-Bags (see what I did there?).

It also appears that Hampton has reverted to his old (Colorado, not injured) ways, going just four innings and allowing six earned. Francoeur sucked about as hard as one can suck, going 0-4 with 2 strike-outs and leaving a mind-boggling six men on base in the process. His slash-line is now down to a manorexic .227/.287/.348.

But alas, not all is bad – the Braves did win three out of four against a division leader. Of course this particular division leader happens to be just two games over .500 and playing in one of the weakest divisions in the history of baseball. Whatevs, I’ll take it.

Boxscore here.

Chipper is back, does his best Chipper-in-May impersonation; Prado too

Chipper had a neat little 4-3-2-2 line, including a 434 foot home run, in last night’s 11-6 win over the D-Backs. Campillo struggled a bit, giving up 5 in 6.1, but other players stepped up. Here’s how CBS put it, italics mine:

Martin Prado went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and three RBI, and Casey Kotchman also had three hits for the Braves, who have won three of their last four.

That’s right, folks, we have a winning streak of sorts on our hands. Against the NL West-leading Diamondbacks, no less.

Five free-agent pitchers the Braves are going after in the off-season, or so they say

The AJC says the braves will go after the following pitchers in the off-season:

CC Sabathia
Jon Garland
Derek Lowe
Ben Sheets
Ryan Dempster

Let’s break this shit down.

CC: Clearly the best of the bunch. The 2007 award winner started off the season with a rough streak for Cleveland. In his first four starts, he gave up 5, 4, 9 and 9 earned runs, giving him a 13.50 ERA and an 0-3 record. In the twenty games since then he’s gone 11-5 with 6 CG, 3 SHO, 151 SO, and a 2.07 ERA, including an 8.1, 2ER run against the Braves last week. So yes, he’s corrected whatever problems ailed him those first few games. Of course, this means he will be outrageously expensive, most likely far beyond the Braves reach even if they have the $30-40 million the AJC claims they do. But…if this somehow happened…I…well, I’d probably die of some sort of bliss/alcohol-fueled heart attack. No worries, though; it’s not going to happen.

Sheets: Nasty stuff but injury prone. This year has been his best since 2004, when a 12-14 record kept him from a deserved top-3 Cy Young finish. So far in ‘08 he’s 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA and 123 SO in 146 innings. That being said, he hasn’t gone more than 156 IP since ‘04, a worrying pattern if your going to pay a player number-one starter money (15 million +) over the next 3-5 years. I’d take him, but I’d also be holding my breath during every start.

Derek Lowe: Fuck Derek Lowe.

Jon Garland: Interesting option, I guess. He’s consistent, but he’s consistently average. Aside from 2005 (18-7, 3.50 ERA, 1.172 WHIP), he’s never had a sub-4.20 ERA. We could probably expect 9-13 wins, 4.20-4.60 ERA, and 6-14 VORP over the next 3-5 years, which is alright for a number 3 or 4 but not worth a significant free agent investment.

Ryan Dempster: Of the four non-CC players, I find him the most intriguing. While it’s risky to invest in a 32 year-old pitcher who just recently converted into a starter, he is in the midst of a fantastic season (12-5, 2.93 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 40.9 VORP). And, because of his age and minimal experience starting, he might be a bargain.

Blaine Boyer was just kidding around, right?

Boyer came pretty close to fucking up an excellent start from Charlie Morton (7 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 4 K) in last night’s 6-4 win over the Diamondbacks. Kotsay hit his first home run, a solo shot in the 5th, since May 20th, and Yunel hit a 2 RBI double. McCann was 2-4 with an RBI, and newbie was hitless but added an RBI on a sac fly.

This is to be expected when facing the best pitcher in the NL

Braves lost 3-2 to Tim Lincecum and the Giants. McCann did his damnedest, going 3-4, but no one else did much of anything. Loses like this have to be accepted as inevitabilities if only because of the quality of the opposing team’s pitching. Losing to Pedro or Maddux or Glavine or Johnson in their primes should never be a source of shame and neither should tonight’s game; we made it close, which should be encouraging. When a pitcher is as good as Lincecum is at 24, then we should be thankful that a) he is not in our division and b) that we are around to see that happens with his career because he is going to be awesome(r).

EDIT: Baseball Prospectus folks, who know much, much more than I do, seem to disagree with my diagnosis of Mr. Lincecum. I will reevaluate my outlook because, generally, they are right. Regardless, he is having an awesome season, and tonight’s loss should not be interpreted as anything other than a team facing a pitcher who is absolutely crushing it this year, last few games be damned.

2ND EDIT: Perhaps I was being a tad rash with the Pedro/Maddux-in-their-prime part. Clearly Harden, Webb, Sheets, Peavy and Santana are great pitchers who are having seasons as good or better than Lincecum’s, but none have the same impossible-to-cheer-against youth about them. He looks and carries himself like an awkward teenager, and yet he has been the fourth most valuable pitcher in the majors this year. Of course, if he were a Phillie or a Met I’d hate him almost as much as I hate Cole Hamels, who is neither old nor a slouch. But since he is safely on the opposite coast on a shitty team and the Braves are all but done this year, why not root for him a bit.

Bizarro Season Reaches Pinnacle of Strangeness

Look at the above graph. Does anything seem strange about it? Yep, that’s right, the two Braves players who we, as fans, have long expected to be either bad or injured came through last night as the Braves beat the Giants 11-4. Hampton pitched 7, gave up just 2, and drove in a run with a double. Francoeur was 2-5 with a run scored, raising his average to a spine tingling .232.

You, Back There, Behind the Shit Storm Clouds, Oh My…It’s…Can it be Good News? It’s Been So Long I Barely Remember What You Look Like.

With the clouds finally (fingers crossed) parting to reveal the the healthy (?) return of Chipper and McCann and a possibly hangover-free evening for me full of strange ethnic food, maybe now is the time for the Braves to reel off 23 straight wins, which should be good enough to put them in second at the very least.

Yes, now that I think on it this seems highly probable; the pieces, including the death of our beloved announced, are set perfectly in place for a miraculous comeback. I’m suggesting some crazy shit here, I know, but I believe that the spirit of Skip and the bats of Chipper and McCann will lead us forth into the promised land. Lord, whatever sins I’ve committed in the past I’ve easily paid for ten times over today with this horrendous and slippery hangover; right now I’m kind feeling like you owe me one.

I am too hungover to say anything other than the Braves lost 4-2 to the Giants

Feel free to read all about it while I suffer through a two-hour mandatory all-staff meeting at my place of work. For now I’m going to look for my Gatorade IV and ear plugs before the meeting starts in 34 minutes.

More on this and the passing of Skip in a few hours hopefully; of course in a few hours I could be staring at the wall behind my office computer, still forswearing alcohol for all time. If that most likely scenario proves true, I’ll probably need a few more hours – let’s just be safe and say by 8 pm there should be something else up. Hungover gibbly goop. Kindly ignore.