***THE Official Atlanta (chop chop) Braves (chop chop) 2013 Thread *********

Of course. Why can't he be both good and a little lucky?

"Ray Finkle wrote:

All his numbers, especially power numbers, are basically the same as his entire career. The only thing that is different is his slash line which is boosted by his higher BA. For example his OBP is 52 points higher, yet he's walked the same number of times as he did last year in 8 fewer at bats. Not saying Freeman is lucky or unlucky but his BABIP is 30 points higher than his career numbers which is completely fair to point out, especially when that's the only thing that's different from Freeman in 2013 to 2012. His ground ball, fly ball and line drive rates are pretty much the same as they were last year too.

Again it's not knocking Freeman, he's had a good year, but it's not like he turned into en elite 1B like Paul Goldschmidt has. He's a nice player but not a star (yet), he's still young so who knows.

He's not that far behind Goldschmidt in any category except home runs. Despite that the RBI production is not far behind. The Braves get enough HRs up and down the lineup that they can live with him being a little shy of 30. He's two years younger than Goldschmidt but has a little more MLB time as he didn't play in college. I'm sure nobody is knocking him, but suggesting he's trade bait on a first place team is grossly undervaluing the player. I know that suggestion was made a couple of months or so ago but even then I guarantee you Frank Wren would have had to have been completely blown away with an offer to even consider it.

Who suggested he was trade bait?

"muscle979 wrote:

That's just a fancy sabermetrics way of him saying that he thinks Freeman is lucky. He's an MVP candidate b/c he's lucky.

Sort of player he reminds me of is Steve Garvey, his numbers will not blow anyone away, he's solid, affordable, and is always in the lineup.

The problem with purely stats is say he fouls off 7 pitches then flies out, stats wise it is merely a put out, however it also works the pitcher more.

Throw skips in the dirt, is dug out for the put out, stats do not account for it etc.

"padre31 wrote:

Sort of player he reminds me of is Steve Garvey, his numbers will not blow anyone away, he's solid, affordable, and is always in the lineup.

The problem with purely stats is say he fouls off 7 pitches then flies out, stats wise it is merely a put out, however it also works the pitcher more.

Throw skips in the dirt, is dug out for the put out, stats do not account for it etc.

They account for both of your scenarios, actually.

"Mainge wrote:

They account for both of your scenarios, actually.

Hmm, could see the fouled off pitches scenario, not the dig a ball out of the dirt one as it merely shows as a put out not a "quality play" as that is subjective not objective.

Do tell?

"padre31 wrote:

Hmm, could see the fouled off pitches scenario, not the dig a ball out of the dirt one as it merely shows as a put out not a "quality play" as that is subjective not objective.

Do tell?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/first-basemen-scoops/

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/9/13/4720036/can-you-dig-it-a-look-at-first-basemen-scoops

"Mainge wrote:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/first-basemen-scoops/

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/9/13/4720036/can-you-dig-it-a-look-at-first-basemen-scoops

Nice, no surprise Freddie is right in there, good teams just don't sort of happen, there are many parts to the orchestra.

Freeman would not be nearly as valuable in say SD as his good all around game is in Atl.

Well we get the Dodgers. The Cubs couldn't do us a favor and even win one damned game over the weekend. Medlen's performance against Philly was encouraging. They'll need another like that in game one b/c they'll be lucky to get one or two runs off of Kershaw.

Im hoping they just have to turn it on so to speak and have just been lazy or something. Either way not how you want to go in to the playoffs

"unluckyluciano wrote:

Im hoping they just have to turn it on so to speak and have just been lazy or something. Either way not how you want to go in to the playoffs

Despite the mediocre September they won 5 of their last 7. Not against top notch competition but still... I don't exactly love our chances to finally win the NLDS again but I'm still super excited for Thursday.

Huge win and a great game tonight. So many big plays, especially on defense. For the first time we saw J-Hey come up big at the plate in the postseason.

hoping behind julio teheran we can take the next one. If our bats erupt we'll run to the series.

"unluckyluciano wrote:

hoping behind julio teheran we can take the next one. If our bats erupt we'll run to the series.

Really looking forward to Teheran's postseason debut Sunday night. We win that and we'll get a chance to take the series against Nolasco who we know very well.

The bats took a step in the right direction tonight. Upton's getting close he even put together some pretty long ABs against Kershaw last night. Chris Johnson has excelled early with RISP. That hit tonight for Heyward was huge. We need him to come up big in the worst way. I was happy to not see any big defensive mistakes that seem to have become a trademark for the Braves in October lately. Elliott Johnson looks almost as bad at the plate as Uggla. I'm starting to think maybe they should have just put Uggla in, at least he hits a homer every now and then. For such a young team tonight was huge.

chris johnsons a beast! hope we can resign him. Think he's here for what? Another year? Going to be tough to sign him.
I thought Teheran pitched last year? Am I delusional?

"unluckyluciano wrote:

chris johnsons a beast! hope we can resign him. Think he's here for what? Another year? Going to be tough to sign him.
I thought Teheran pitched last year? Am I delusional?

Chris Johnson won't be a free agent until 2017. If the Braves want him back they can keep him.

No team finds ways to lose the NLDS like the Atlanta Braves. This falls on Freddi Gonzalez. As soon as they ran into trouble in the eighth Craig Kimbrel should have been called out. Why do you have the best closer in the universe if you're not going to use him late with everything on the line. As if he can't make it through two innings with as little work as he'd had in the series.

Without looking at the actual lines it seems like Mike Minor, Evan Gattis, and Chris Johnson all had a good series.

Some duds:

Kris Medlen - Young yes but not his first postseason start and we needed him to be better than that.
McCann - Did he even end up with a hit in the series?
Eliott Johnson - Now I know it was a mistake holding out Uggla despite his awful average and strikeout numbers.
Teheran - We'll chalk that one up to being young and first time in playoffs nerves.
Freddi Gonzales - I won't complain too much more about him. He wasn't horrible but he should have been quicker to give Teheran the hook and he should have brought Kimbrel in when there was trouble in the eighth last night. He does those things and there's a MUCH better chance Atlanta's still playing baseball right now.

You can't be too hard on a very young team trying to match up in a short series with the best team money can buy. Still frustrating though. It would have been nice to have that Tim Hudson guy available.

I am ok with freddi as long as we make progress of some sort. Sure we didn't win the first round, but we did win the division. I think freddi needs to work on keeping our team in it near the end of the season though.

"muscle979 wrote:

No team finds ways to lose the NLDS like the Atlanta Braves. This falls on Freddi Gonzalez. As soon as they ran into trouble in the eighth Craig Kimbrel should have been called out. Why do you have the best closer in the universe if you're not going to use him late with everything on the line. As if he can't make it through two innings with as little work as he'd had in the series.

Look at it this way, key game, Kershaw starts on 3 days rest, key situation in the game, Freddi does not rely on Kimbrel for 6 outs.

"padre31 wrote:

Look at it this way, key game, Kershaw starts on 3 days rest, key situation in the game, Freddi does not rely on Kimbrel for 6 outs.

I think it cost them the series, they hold on there they go to game 5 with a lot of confidence from beating the Dodgers ace and knowing they've beaten Greinke once already. And all Freddi had to say about it afterwards was "Carpenter was good all year it was the right situation" or something to that effect. They have a closer who is dominant and has missed bats at a historic rate and they don't bring him in. It's mind boggling. It's as if he didn't know that was an elimination game.

"muscle979 wrote:

I think it cost them the series, they hold on there they go to game 5 with a lot of confidence from beating the Dodgers ace and knowing they've beaten Greinke once already. And all Freddi had to say about it afterwards was "Carpenter was good all year it was the right situation" or something to that effect. They have a closer who is dominant and has missed bats at a historic rate and they don't bring him in. It's mind boggling. It's as if he didn't know that was an elimination game.

I mentioned earlier something about the Braves making the playoffs and being blasse' about the whole thing, stuff like this M979, there is just no intensity

"unluckyluciano wrote:

I am ok with freddi as long as we make progress of some sort. Sure we didn't win the first round, but we did win the division. I think freddi needs to work on keeping our team in it near the end of the season though.

I think he needs to realize that the postseason isn't the regular season. Why even have a guy like Kimbrel on the roster if you're not going to ride him to postseason success? A lead going into the eighth should = game over. They didn't lose the NLDS because of the slow September. The Dodgers were even worse in September. I see the Nats getting their act together and the division getting a lot tougher next season. It will not be as easy to take the East in 2014. Baseball season is a grind and these NLDS opportunities aren't guaranteed for anybody as the 2013 Nats I'm sure would happily tell you.

Andrelton Simmons wins a Gold Glove . Also voted as the best defender overall by the ESPN people.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/41952/best-defender-of-2013-andrelton-simmons?ex_cid=espnapi_public

Who was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2013?

In our view, it's not a close call. The SweetSpot voting panel named Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons as its Defensive Player of the Year.

Simmons took nine of the 10 first-place votes from our panel to win easily. Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez edged Orioles third baseman Manny Machado for second place by one point (Machado got the only other first-place vote). Diamondbacks outfielder Gerardo Parra finished fourth. Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia placed fifth.

yup. Saw that. Was thinking back to all those people who wanted us to trade him. Glad Wren didn't. Congrats to him.