Section 435 An Atlanta Braves blog. From the upper deck at Turner Field.

Yanks/Phils Game 4: On Damon’s Double Steal

Damon taking third last night may have just cost the Phillies the World Series.

This is insane. Not even Charlie Manuel knew who was supposed to cover third here:

After the single came a moment that will be long-remembered, and long-maligned, in Philadelphia. With Mark Teixeira batting, Damon stole second. Upon arriving there, he saw third baseman Feliz on the base, because the infield had shifted to defend against the lefthanded batter. With no one covering third, Damon continued.

Afterward, no one would say exactly which Phillie should have covered the base.

“It’s the catcher or pitcher,” said manager Charlie Manuel. “Evidently, there was some miscommunication there. . . . Usually the catcher tries to get down there.”

Said Lidge: “To be honest, that’s not really something you go over a lot. I don’t know who is supposed to cover on that.”

Neither did Feliz. “That’s a play, we never got anybody to say, ‘OK, you’ve got to go out there, you’ve got to go here.’ ”

Damon expected to see Lidge on third. “We have talked about it throughout the year, especially when Mark is up,” he said. “I was just trying to be aggressive and get into scoring position, and it just worked out where there was a throw. The third baseman covered [second], and the pitcher did not” cover third.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this was the first time the Phillies put the hard shift on with runners on base this year. Typically, in a shift with runners on, the third baseman plays somewhere between third and shortstop just for this kind of situation. Or you just don’t put on the shift.

I’m also willing to bet that all 30 teams will spend some time doing drills on that specific situation next spring training.

What I Got Wrong in 2009

Time to eat crow. Here are some things I got wrong about the 2009 season:

• Javier Vazquez – Okay, I only sort of got this wrong. I thought Javy Vazguez was a good addition and that he’d have a better year in a pitcher-friendly, National League park, playing under a player’s manager. But I had not idea just how good Javy was going to be this year. We got an inkling of this during his perfect, 4-inning performance in the pre-season exhibition at Turner Field.  But, damn, I think no one guessed just how good Javy Vazquez was going to be this year.
• Tommy Hanson – Well, I warned (via Twitter) before Tommy Hanson made his first start to remember that 300-game winner and future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine led the league in losses in his rookie season.  And yet, it took Tommy Hanson all of 3 starts to get acclimated to the majors and start pitching like an ace.
• Adam LaRoche – This probably speaks for itself. That said, I think LaRoche was a good addition in the second half this year because he’s a second half player. I think a full season (or two or three) of LaRoche may yet remind us why we had to get rid of him in the first place.
• Oh, and this may have been a little optimistic.

But other than that, ever word I uttered about baseball this year was completely, 100% correct. Seriously.

Maybe Still a Glimmer…

With the Rockies and Giants losing last night, the Braves are in sole possession of second place in the Wild Card race, 3 1/2 games back with 10 games to play. The Rockies have 9 games to play. Here’s how the schedule shakes out:

Braves: 3 games at the National, 3 games vs. the Marlins, 4 games vs. the Nationals

Rockies: 3 games vs. the Cardinals, 3 games vs. the Brewers, 3 games at the Dodger

It’s still a loooong shot. But with 6 of the Rockies’ last nine against division leaders and 7 of the Braves’ last 10 against the Worst Team in Baseball, it just might get interesting.

Of course, we also have three games against a tough Marlins team that is lurking just a half game behind us. And it seems that every time we’ve fought back into the thick of the postseason hunt, we’ve immediately followed that by something self-defeating, like getting swept by the Reds at home.

Still, it’s nice that we’ll be playing meaningful games the last week of the season. At the beginning of the season, I thought I’d be happy if that was the case.

Don’t Blame it on Bobby

Look, I’m not an apologist for Bobby Cox’s bullpen management. While I recognize that it’s significantly more difficult to manage a bullpen than it is to criticize someone’s bullpen management after the fact, I have no illusions that Bobby is a master of that particular art.

But let’s be real. You can’t blame last night’s loss on his decision to pull Tommy Hanson after 8.

Blame for this game, and every game we’ve lost the last few weeks fall squarely on the shoulder of our big men, Chipper “Getting Ready for Hunting Season” Jones and Brian “Even Goggles Make Me Blind” McCann.

Neither of them has gotten a single hit in a whole week.

Not one hit in a whole week.

As in, Corky Miller would be an upgrade at catcher right now.

If the team lives and dies by their leaders, we’re dying by them now. I guess that’s how it should be.

I comfort myself by thinking of the money I’m saving by not having to pay for playoff tickets, now.

A Few Notes on Braves’ Defense

Cliff Corcoran has a nice piece at SI.com identifying the best and worst defenders in baseball at each position by UZR and comparing them to the most recent Gold Glove winners. There are a few interesting notes in there about Braves players:

On former Brave, Mark Teixeira:

Mark Teixeira, who won the AL award in 2005 and 2006 before splitting each of the last two seasons between the leagues, was the best defensive first baseman in the majors last year.

Not that I have anything bad to say about Casey Kotchman’s defense (dude brings the leather), but after watching Tex for a year, I laughed a little on the inside when anybody said that he would be as good or better than Tex with the glove.

On Chipper Jones:

Chipper Jones, , who was once moved to left field because of his miserable defense at the hot corner, was one of the NL’s best fielding third basemen last year at age 37, though he’s back near the bottom of the list this year.

Well, no, Chipper’s defense had nothing to do with why he moved to left (unless “Chipper’s Defense” is a nickname for Vinny Castilla that I haven’t heard before), but this is one spot where the fielding percentage and UZR will correlate nicely this year.

On tiny center fielder, Nate McClouth:

[2008 Gold Glove winner Nate] McLouth was actually the worst defensive center fielder in baseball in 2008.

Yikes! It’s clear that he doesn’t have fantastic range, but I wouldn’t have figured him for worst. He’s made some spectacular catches. To paraphrase some dumb-assed TV commentator on Pat Burrell, “He doesn’t get to a lot of balls, but the one’s he gets to, he catches.” I guess that applies to our tiny center fielder. Expect McClouth to take over one of the corner spots for the Braves whenever Jordan Schafer is ready to return to the bigs.

On Brian McCann:

…it’s worth noting that perennial All-Star Brian McCann has shown considerable improvement behind the plate.

Though, this is largely because the stats for catcher have apparently been tweaked in the last year to give credit for the ability to eat Twinkies and throw balls all the way into center field when trying to throw out base stealers.

Breaking News: Media Beats Off Over Self Importance; Escobar Continues to Kick Ass, Anyway

There is not much worse in the world than when the media starts writhing around in a masturbatory tiff about their self-importance. And that’s what this whole Yunel Escobar not-talking-to-the-media enough non-story is. And yet Bowman is on it. Bradley is on it.

Here’s a thought: shut up, nobody cares!

We cared when Escobar had a rough week in the field making a number of costly mistakes a few weeks ago. But he’s over that shit, coming off winning NL player of the week for wielding some hefty lumber and picking up two (count’em two!) Web Gems tonight. I haven’t noticed anybody booing Escobar for not learning English so the AJC can chat him up. Funny, though, that I haven’t heard anything about any of the media members learning a little Espanol to speak to Escobar (and the myriad other Hispanic players in beisbol today) either.

Yunel Escobar is a fabulous defensive shortstop and has been one of our most productive hitter this year. And yet all the media seems to care about is themselves. Move on, folks.

NY Times: Increasing Pace of Injuries Hampers Baseball

From the New York Times:

If a pitcher needs to work on his mechanics, for example, a general manager could say that he is injured and put him on the disabled list, allowing the team to replace the pitcher while he works out his problems.

“Making good use of the D.L. allows you to expand your 25-man roster,” [agent Barry] Axelrod said.

I’m pretty sure KJ and GNort were both DLed for acute can’thittheballitis.

Most Popular Manager: Bobby Cox

SI polled 300 Major League players about which manager they would most like to play for. Bobby Cox came out on top with 25 percent.

If you want to know why Bobby Cox has a job for as long as he wants one, it’s not just because of 14 consecutive division titles, it’s also because players aren’t bullshitting when they say they’re excited to come to Atlanta to play for Bobby Cox. Even with the team languishing for the last couple of years. That’s especially a big deal for signing free agents.

Back at .500

Coming home from one game or another during our late April recover from our mid April swoon, I remarked to Maura that we were back at .500. I remember because I said I hoped I wouldn’t be saying that much more this season, that we’d pick up some inertia towards the positive side.

In fact, our win at Arizona on 5/31 was the 14th time we’ve been back at .500 this year. It’s become a running joke. And it’s beginning to look more and more like it should be our motto for the season. No longer 90 game losers! Atlanta Braves Baseball: Back at .500!

Of course this is due in large part to the heart of mediocrity that cuts across our outfield on a daily basis. I thought at the beginning of the season that the biggest factor determining our success this year would be whether Jeff Francoeur could turn around from his miserable 2008. Jordan Schafer hasn’t adjusted to major league pitching since his hot first week when major league pitching adjusted to him. And Garrett Anderson has shown about as much pop in his bat as he’s shown life in the outfield – or, you know, life period – which is about none.

So, we need some help. Here’s some hints:

• No, Mark DeRosa (as swell as DeRo is) is not the answer.
• Dear Jebus, No, trading Javier Vazquez is not a good idea.

Home Opener

Of course, it doesn’t do you much good when your new, big-money, hot-shot ace has to sit after 3.0 thanks to a two-hour rain delay.

It was great to see an almost–thanks surely to the forecast–full Turner Field with a crowd of folks (at least the 30% not stuck in ridiculous beer lines) ready to be excited about Braves baseball again. The best part of the evening was when the relievers involved in Thursday night’s 6-walk, 8-run, rollover-and-die inning were all booed when the roster was read as part of the opening night festivities.

It wasn’t as funny when the relievers tried to pull the same thing last night.

This was not the kind of win I want to see very often. (And I didn’t actually get to see the win part since we had to leave at 1am in order to make the last MARTA train.) But if this was last year, with the weird Nationals curse and the boring 1-run game thing, we’d surely have been in the loss column.