SB Nation User Blog: Jareth Cutestory

Braves v Giants 07.23.09

Jareth Cutestory — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:30:46 -0000

I know Gondeee does these for every game, but I figured I'd try my hand at it. I also understand that some of you don't like or disagree with me, and that's okay.

Today was just a bad loss for us. With the caliber of baseball we've been playing lately, there is no reason we should have given this game away the way we did.

First of all, Barry Zito was great. He was in command most of the day, was able to work out of jams, and got the benefit of some questionable strike calls, a near sure-fire recipe for success. That being said, we also squandered at least one great opportunity when we loaded the bases against him and failed to put one runner across the plate. Also, once we got into the bullpen, we should have been able to keep up the decimation that we have laid upon it the rest of the series. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, etc.

Cons of the game:

no timely hitting today
bad defense late (Kotch, Chipper, Moylan)
a couple of our hitters looked asleep at the plate today (see Chipper's 2nd AB)
home plate umpire was fairly erratic, giving VERY high strikes to Z and missing the play @ first where Moylan's throw hit the Giant IN THE HEAD inside fair territory
Gonzo's apparent injury

Pros of the game:

Esco, Prado, McCann continued their good hitting, albeit not when needed most
KJ, in his first appearance back from the DL, got a solid, up-the-middle base knock and turned one of the QUICKEST double plays I can recall where the ball was gloved
our pitching was, once again, very solid. I cannot really fault them for today for much. KK held the fort down, Medlen was very good, and Moylan got ground balls that found holes along with at least 2 Ks. Acosta didn't let the Giants' lead balloon

I'm sure many of you can come up with things that I missed, both pros and cons, of today's game. However, I feel it is very important to remember that we won 3 of 4 from the former Wild Card leaders. It is very difficult to sweep any series, let alone a 4-game set, yet we took 3 out of 4. Not too shabby. As long as we can continue the great baseball, and avoid too many bumps in the road, such as today's game, we should be able to win most of our remaining series. We need to take the positives we can gather from each game, because there are many lately.

With our great pitching, our resurgent offense and (lately) solid defense, Huddy on the mend, Omar coming back soon, and Kelly Johnson's continued good work from Gwinnet in the limited time he'll see, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to take the lead in either the Wild Card or East. I'm sure many of you may disagree with my modicum of analysis, but please be polite and I shall return the favor. Thanks for reading...

With all that said, Chipper had better get hot. I'm tired of not seeing the .3 lead his batting average.

My day in Atlanta - Braves v Mets 07.17.09

Jareth Cutestory — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:48:24 -0000

Pics with Maddux, Chipper, Justice, McCann, Murphy & others: check. Autographed Bobby Cox baseball: check. On the field during BP: check. Seats against the visitors' dugout, home plate side: check. Foul ball from the game: check. Getting on TV: check. Bashing the Mets' brains in: CHECK!

So, from the intro, it's fairly obvious that I had one of the best days in a long time. Let's begin with the pre-luncheon silent auction. There was a lot of great stuff there, obviously, but I could only afford a choice from a grab-basket of surprise autographed baseballs. A lot of people were getting Eddie Perez baseballs, I saw someone get a Brian McCann baseball, which was cool. I decided to try my luck, and I got a Bobby Cox ball! I was pretty excited about that.

Once the luncheon doors were opened, I was seated at a table with Jeff Porter, trainer of the Braves. At first I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a current player, but as it turned out, he had a few great stories to relay to us. We were talking about the pitching rotation from years past and I brought up Steve Avery's awesomeness before he got hurt. Porter told us a long story from Spring Training of 95 when Maddux was sick and quarantined for a bit in the hotel because his daughter had chicken pox, and he hadn't had the pox before. Jeff finally worked it around to where Maddux told Jeff that Steve Avery would be the best out of Smoltz, Glavine, and himself. It's unfortunate what happened to Avery's shoulder, but impressive, nonetheless, how highly Maddux thought of Avery.

The best part of the actual program was when there was a small panel of Braves personnel giving some memories of Mad Dog, which included Schuerholz, Mazzone, Eddie Perez, Chipper, and Cox. They all good stories to tell, but the funniest were the two that Bowman described in his blog. When asked by Joe Simpson, the moderator, to remember Maddux's best performance, they all essentially said the same thing: there are too many to remember, but 3 of them recalled Maddux's dominating performance in Game 1 of the 95 World Series, as well as Game 2 in the 96 WS.

The best non-programmed part of the luncheon was all the great players I got to meet. Generally speaking, they were all very nice and hospitable. The only one that I encountered that was giving the cold shoulder to many was John Schuerholz. Frank Wren was pleasant, and I told him that I agree with about 80% of his roster moves, and I also told him not to trade Kelly Johnson (I'm sure I'll catch some flack from the community on that one). I also asked Chipper and McCann to say the same thing to ol' Frankie. They thought it was funny and said they would do what they could. I got pictures with Jones, McCann, Murphy, Kawakami, Justice, McClouth, and Maddux. Obviously, the toughest to get was Maddux. He was somewhat off-limits, and the only opportunity to get pictures was as he was getting rushed out of the room after the ceremony. He was nice enough to let me have a picture, but couldn't pose because everyone else was handing him stuff to sign!

Before the game I changed into my Maddux T-shirt from '94 and got on the field for batting practice. A pretty cool experience; I recommend a big fan try it out. I got a couple player's attention--no small feat--and even got some of them to laugh, which was like a badge of honor. I say that because many of the fans were just screaming "(insert player's name), over here! over here!" I actually tried some good-natured comments towards the Mets, and got Murphy, and Castillo to laugh, and I got Francoeur to wave and thank me for the well-wishes with that perennial smile on his face. Matt Diaz talked to me a bit, too, and he was expectedly very nice.

To my seats, which were incredible! I was assigned to sit to the 3rd base side of home plate, but I was able to move, ending up seated against the concrete of the home plate side of the visitor's dugout, so I was right on top of the action. What made it more special was the fact that there were over 50,000 in attendance. I cannot remember the last time that many people filled The Ted. Jair Jurrjens was incredible, the Braves' offense was clicking on all cylinders, and we mashed those Mets 11-0. In the process, I got a foul ball off of Nate McClouth's bat (the one off his foot). Brian Snitker picked up the ball in foul ground, looked into the stands as I stood up and waved my glove at him. He tossed it right to me as other fans tried to out-position me for the ball, but to no avail. Obiously, it's not as cool as catching the ball, on the fly, off the bat, but technically, I DID catch a foul ball =) You can clearly see the grain of the wood imprinted on the ball with the black paint of the bat, as well as some infield dirt implanted into the hide of the ball--pretty cool.

I even got on TV...I don't know how many times yet as I haven't watched the broadcast as of now, but if you watch the Maddux interview from the broadcast booth on Braves.com, you can spot me as they focus on the back of my Maddux shirt during the session. I believe it's a little after the 1:40 mark.

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200907175595045&c_id=atl

Just disregard the growing bald spot =)

Then I drove 400 miles home.

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Little Things

Jareth Cutestory — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:47:15 -0000

And I'm not talking about the Bush song. Braves @ Rockies 070909

So tonight we had another great opportunity to take the lead, and ultimately, the win. Jeff Francoeur, of all people is having a great night. He had just hit his 3rd double, and is in position to give us the lead. So, our new favorite Brave, Brooks Conrad comes in to move him over with a bunt--which is fine, but I would have been okay with him swinging away, too, with the way he's swinging the stick. First pitch is a high fastball, which we all know you should NOT attempt to get down for a bunt. But this is Braves baseball, so of course he pops it up to the pitcher. One down. Lost opportunity there.

Cue Chipper Jones. Why, Bobby? How long have you been in baseball? You can't possibly expect us to believe you thought they would pitch to him? So not only do we burn Chipper, we burn Gregor Blanco to run for him. Now the Rockies have force outs available at any bag. Advantage: CO. The only think I can figure is that Bobby KNEW we'd get an extra baserunner by PH Chipper, but it still befuddles the Jareth.

Since Brooks failed to get the bunt down, and we're on the road with 2 above average-to-fast runners on base with only one out, baseball logic usually tells us it's time to take a chance since we don't have final at-bat. I see this as an opportunity to double steal. Like I said, we have two good baserunners, and the double steal gives the catcher the opportunity to decide which base he wants to throw down to, possibly resulting in a bad throw if the steals don't work outright. Instead, Li'l Nate goes up there hacking with no movement whatsoever on the basepaths. Nate got down 0-1 on a BAD high "strike" call, so he's instantly in defensive mode, and ends up striking out. Another opportunity dashed.

Then all the pressure is on Martin Prado, and with all of his success lately, he was due to fail at some point. He weakly grounds out and that's that. I stopped watching at that point.

This is just more of the same from our begrudgingly beloved Braves up to this point this year. Failing to seize opportunities, failing to take calculated risks, and failing to do the little things has cost us another adequate pitching performance. I hate to question a baseball man like Bobby Cox, because certainly he has forgotten more about baseball than I will ever know. However, I feel like he is forgetting the wrong aspects of winning baseball. Here's hoping he, and the rest of our battered squad, can salvage a split (it may be asking too much to hope for a series win) going into the All-Star break.

As a side note, and I know this goes without saying, belong in left field, Garret Anderson does not. Diaz should have been in there from the beginning tonight, and for the rest of the series, regardless of who is pitching.

This is my first FanPost, so please don't be too harsh on me, and please pardon any formatting/mechanical/grammatical issues. It's late. Go Braves, and at least Jeff Francoeur looked good tonight.