Braves at Phillies.
8:10 ish:
First Inning
Myers is on the bump, and Johnson’s leading off. I can’t quite believe Garrett Anderson is hitting fifth in this line-up. Schafer’s batting 8th, and I’m excited to watch this kid deal with Brett Myers’ breaking stuff. Speaking of Myers, he looks about 10 times less douchey without that giant goatee.
OPS is apparently a baseball shorthand used by many, and gosh darn do those new Braves uniforms look awful. Chipper slaps it to left center, and ESPN’s K-Zone is still awful.
McCann cranks the shit out of it, and it looks like the WBC didn’t set him back.
The Highlight of this half-inning was clearly the new-found respect for On Base Plus Slugging. I wonder if we’re going to be in for a years worth of random SABRmetrics thrown out there with no explanation other than “…it’s baseball shorthand”.
Bottom of the First, Phils at Bat:
I didn’t realize Utley was good to go, I predict a DL-stint in the next month. Furthermore, I cant get over the numbers on the back Braves jersey being the exact same color as their jerseys.
Lowe’s sinker is really dippin’ tonight, we’ll see if he can locate it.
Second Inning
Top of the Second, Braves at Bat:
Francoeur just roped that over the fence, lets see if he can hit .270 this year. Schafer’s at-bat, let’s see what the kid can do. Schafer’s making Myers throw strikes, and I’m liking it. Round those bases young man! Myers finally gave it to him and Schafer killed it to straight away.
I get the feeling that Myers isn’t exactly ‘on’ tonight. Braves are up 4 – 0.
Bottom of the Second, Phils at Bat:
I’m already craving a cigarette, and it’s only been 20 minutes. Live Blogs are a thing of the past in these parts. Time to ween this shit down, and only include the important stuff. Like how much I like that touch of Gold around the Phillies script on their uniform’s chest.
3 up and 3 down, 9 pitches and Lowe gets out of the Inning. Smoke time!
Missed Escobar getting magically to second base while smoking and checking out the remnants of the tree that fell into the front yard. This is the second 25-year old tree that’s just fallen over while I’ve lived here. Inning over, Escobar doesn’t move from his magical second base appointment.
Speaking of Escobar, if you’re in an OBP & SLG league, he’s a sneaky good pick. He’s one of the guys who’s draft value is inflated by using OBP instead of average.
Third Inning
Feliz pops up and Johnson nabs it, but I couldn’t help but notice the great jump Schafer got. Franceour on the other hand, just shat the bed — just missed it.
Ruiz railed it down the line, and ended up with a double out of the deal.
MLB.com is really doing a solid job with Gameday and they’ve added a few neat features, but it looks like you’ll have to pay 19.99 to access them all season
Fourth Inning
Steve Phillips and Joe Morgan have a rather large hard-on for Franceour’s new hitting stance. Brett Myers still has a nasty curveball. He’s bringing it in at around 78-79mph and getting a good amount of break (14″). Myers has also notched his fastball back up to 92mph, which is where he needs to sit in order to succeed.
Schafer took the change and banged it up the middle for a solid single, 2-for-2 so far for the kid.
As much as I hate the Braves uniforms, I love that hat. Terry Pendleton still looks great, and when the Braves came to Toronto last year, he was a huge fan favourite. It was nice to see him sign plenty of autographs.
Lowe still looks solid, and he’s still only allowed the one hit.
Fifth Inning
I’ve been corrected, apparently the Braves wore these ugly ass uniforms last year too.
Chipper just pounded a ground-rule double to deep center. Myers, for some screwy reason, has been throwing 85mph sliders waaaay up in the zone. The Braves have been smash-killin’ ‘em.
Myers has already thrown 80 pitches, and after taking a peak at GameDay, his release point doesn’t seem anywhere near as consistent as it should be.
Lowe is making the Phillies look silly with that sinker; It’s coming in at about 88-89mph, and it’s got about 7 inches worth of break. Lowe’s creeping up on the 60 pitch mark, and has been throwing a boatload of sliders. GameDay is having some issues deciding whether or not Lowe’s fastball is a fastball…or a sinking fastball. It appears as though if it doesn’t get to 7 inches of break — it is indeed a fastball.
If you haven’t looked at all the variables in GameDay, they’re pretty neat. Scoot over to Mike Fast’s website, FastBalls. He writes for the Hard Ball times and he does great analysis on the Pitch FX stuff.
Sixth Inning
Anderson got on base with a bone-headed stab by Myers, and Franceour’s back up at bat. Joe Morgan’s babelling on about crap that really makes no sense.
Apparently Jordan Schafer is now known as Logan Schafer — Ball the fuck out! Schafer is now being intentionally walked, what a game! Hooty-Hoo, finally after being called Logan Schafer 4 times, ESPN has decided his name is Jordan. Oh Jon Miller, how I adore thee.
Myers barely gets out of the jam by throwing yet another belt-high slider, this time to Derek Lowe.
Rollins knocked it up the middle for the second hit off Lowe breaking what seemed like a 45 minute circle-jerk trying to tell the viewers that Charlie Manuel isn’t just a country bumpkin.
Jayson Werth refuses to swing at perfectly good pitches. We’ll wait and see, as Lowe’s starting to leave a pitch here and there up in the zone.
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan just talked about how Lowe calls his slider, a curveball. Lots of boring anecdotes and such, unfortunately Pitch FX which screws up somewhere around 1/10th of the pitches it tries to analyze is pretty certain it is indeed a curveball.
By the way, Pitch FX seems vastly improved tonight. It’ll be interesting to see what the pfx guys cook up based on Lowe’s movement tonight.
7th Inning
I’m almost bound to miss this entire inning due to a cigarette.
Hopefully I’ll be back for inning 8.
Nice, Calming Cigarette. 4-0 Braves.
8th Inning
Scott Eyre’s in for the Phils, and he sat McCann down, got the next Brave to fly out.
Chicago White Sox home opener is apparently pushed back to Tuesday after the oh so lovely, Snowstorm that’s predicted.
Durbin’s been brought in for Franceour and his new stance. A stance that’s been mentioned 12 times tonite.
Lowe’s still out there for the 8th, and seems to be baffling Phillies hitters. Victorino softly grounded out. Lowe made Pedro Feliz look stooopid. Escobar’s been busy tonight, and Lowe’s out of the inning in 8 pitches.
9th Inning
Brad Lidge into…save the game? Schafer vs. Lidge should be a solid at-bat for the kid. I wonder if Bobby Cox leaves Lowe in for the complete game?
Schafer just looked silly on that Lidge slider.
Guess not, Norton’s in to pitch-hit and flies out to Ibanez.
Gonzalez is ready for Hot-Lanta and looks to come in for the 9th.
Eric Brunlett takes the slider into the corner, and nabs a double. Maybe it woulda been a good idea to leave Lowe in?
Rollins gets Bruntlett to third, and Werth knocks him in. 4-1
Gonzalez can’t seem to throw a strike to Utley, and walks him. Howard’s coming up to bat with men on first and second. Derek Lowe’s probably crying and listening to Bright Eyes, at this point.
Ball One — Not Close. Ball Two — Howard Swings at it anyways. Howard just doesn’t give a shit, son. Gonzalez got Howard to swing again, this time at a strike. We’re sitting at 3-2. Fastball down the pipe…I wasn’t thinking Howard would strike out looking.
Ibanez time!
Another 3 and 2 count, and Ibanez best be looking fastball or taking…Nope, Gonzalez blew a 93mph fastball by Ibanez on the inside.
End O’ Game
Lowe looked great, but you know what you’re getting from him. Schafer on the other hand looked terrific! Maybe he starts tomorrow’s game atop the line-up, leading off.
