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

Posts from April 2008

Wednesday Quick Hits

Today’s game? Yeah, don’t wanna talk about it. This was absolutely pathetic. So many of our one-run losses to this point were ones where we fought back to within one and just couldn’t get it done. But today, we went out of our way to blow it after leading in the top of the 12th. [...]


Braves Lead in Fake Standings

Baseball Prospectus compiles what they call the Adjusted Standings based on our Pythagorean won-loss record. Great news, folks! The Braves are leading the NL East in the fake standings (credit).
I know, I know. The idea is to try to somehow eliminate the luck factor from our actual record. And Pythagorean records end up being remarkably [...]


How Bad is it to Lose Smoltz?

On Sunday, the Hardball Times asked Are we sure John Smoltz ages? Of course, we found out that, yes, yes he does. Smoltz is out for at least one start. He’s headed back to Atlanta to visit the doctor to find out if it’s more. Considering how well he’s been pitching, it’s a pretty big [...]


Injuries and Depth

Well we’ve got a long list of folks on the DL (7 to be exact), we’ve also got a lot of guys who have been day-to-day with various little freak nags and tweaks. Kotsay’s been sitting the last couple of games because he slept funny. Chipper hurt has back talking to reporters this morning. Yunel [...]


Posted
24 April 2008 @ 11pm

Tagged
Recap

The Chuck James Experiment

Atlanta 7, Miami Marlins of Miami 4. The Chuck James Experiment started for the Bravos tonight and yielded precisely the results you’d expect from him: 5 IP, 4 ER. Even a 5 run lead doesn’t feel safe when Chucky toes the rubber. Chucky has an aversion to throwing strikes which leads to high pitch counts [...]


Posted
23 April 2008 @ 11pm

Tagged
Recap

Stranded? Call AAA - Not the Braves

Miami Marlins of Miami 7, Atlanta 2. The story of tonight was our complete inability to drive in runs. 13 runners left on base. We had 12 hits to the Marlins’ 11, but could only manage to plate a pair. Not much more to say than that.
Of course, I can’t help but feel that had [...]


Posted
22 April 2008 @ 11pm

Tagged
Recap

Smoltz 3K Day

Washington 6, Atlanta 0. Smoltz had another special day, worthy of the elite milestone that he achieved. He only needed 4 strikeouts to reach 3,000, but he ended up with 10 in 7 innings. He gave up only 1 earned run.

Unfortunately, Smoltz was outdueled by John Lannan, who was outstanding. He was a completely different [...]


Prelude to Smoltz 3K

Just thought it was a fitting (and hopefully auspicious) coincidence that John Smoltz adorns the ticket on the day that he’s set to join the 3,000 strikeout club.

(At least for the full season plan.)


Posted
21 April 2008 @ 11pm

Tagged
Recap

Tim Hudson’s Triumphant Return

Atlanta 7, Washington 3. Hudson returned to the mound tonight after his wonky start last week. The public address announcer referred to his performance as solid when naming him the player of the game, but I think that might be a little generous. His line looked a lot better than his pitching, going 6.2 and [...]


Posted
20 April 2008 @ 9pm

Tagged
Recap

Jair Jurrjens. Delivered.

Atlanta 6, Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles 1. This game was all about Jair Jurrjens. He was fabulous today. If this is a sign of what’s to come from Jair, he will be the anchor of our rotation for years to come.

He threw 7 strong innings, allowing only 1, and striking out 8. Of [...]


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