War Liberal

I've moved my other weblog over to the Movable Type publishing system, away from Blogger. There are several advantages of MT, and eventually I'll be moving this one over as well. One of the biggest is that we won't have to worry about YACCS and the occasional outages that make the comments unavailable.

ESPN.com: MLB - Ex-Brewer Yost candidate for Milwaukee post

Ned Yost interviewed for the Milwaukee manager's job yesterday. I'm not a big fan of his, and it's not much of a job.

Is Cox the greatest manager ever?

The Guru, Bill James, says even nicer things about Bobby than I did. (Thanks, Andrew.) I don't know that I'd say he's the best manager ever, but I do think Bobby has been wildly underrated. In many ways the manager he most resembles is Joe McCarthy, derided as the "push-button manager" but successful not only in New York but with the Cubs and Red Sox as well. And anyone who thinks this Braves team underachieved needs to try to figure out how a team with no credible MVP candidate and Keith Lockhart, Vinny Castilla, and Javy Lopez (backed by Henry Blanco) in the starting lineup won 101 games.

ajc.com | Braves | Initial offer fails to excite Glavine

I don't expect Tom Glavine to get that big of a contract, but if the Braves really offered a one-year deal at the same rate as last year, they couldn't expect him to accept it. It borders on an insult. Yes, $8 million, but for God's sake you gave two years to Vinny Flipping Castilla and Javy Lopez got $8 million with a player option. And Tom Glavine has to work on a one-year basis?

Given the choice between Maddux and Glavine, I don't see that one has to be made. It's Maddux all the way. I'm sorry, but Maddux has been a far better pitcher pretty much every year since he joined the club, and most of the data indicates that he also has a better future. Yes, he's had injuries, but not to his arm, and both his ERA and his peripheral numbers were better last year. And the year before, and the year before... These aren't two pitchers of similar stature; Glavine is a Hall of Famer, but Maddux is one of the ten greatest pitchers of all time.

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Cardinals at Giants - 10/14/2002

Well, congratulations to the Giants. I was rooting for them.

ajc.com | Braves | Mazzone not ruling out job change

Not that job change, though. He'd be interested in the right (i.e., not Tampa Bay) managing job.

Blast From The Past Department

Kevin McGlinchy refused assignment to the minor leagues and became a free agent. That's the thing about young pitcher, guys. They get hurt, and then one day they can't even make the Devil Rays.

Alex and JR may be getting their wish. Craig informs me that the Braves have a press conference schedules for 2 or 3 PM today. No word on what... but there's been a rumor circulating that Bobby will retire and Leo Mazzone will take over as manager. The record of pitching coaches turned manager is not good...

Top Ten Good Things About Last Night's Loss

10. I won't wind up spending hundreds of dollars and several vacation days on an attempt to get into a World Series game.

9. It's entirely possible we'll never have to see Keith Lockhart in a major league uniform ever again.

8. Alex Ramati free to spend less time obsessing about Bobby Cox and more time sticking pins into his Steve Spurrier voodoo doll.

7. Kevin Millwood's next start will be made on 144 days' rest.

6. Media can stop attacking Barry Bonds for not delivering in postseason and start attacking Gary Sheffield for not delivering in postseason.

5. Fans of remaining teams are concentrated on the West Coast, so when the games finally end it will be a decent hour for them.

4. Another week in which to hate Kenny Lofton.

3. Another week in which to hate Reggie Sanders.

2. Bobby gets five whole months to figure out even more creative reasons to not play Marcus Giles.

1. We can feel free to not watch the postseason now, in which case we don't have to hear Tim McCarver again for about eight months.

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Giants at Braves - 10/07/2002

Nothing much to say, really. The Giants got some big hits, the Braves didn't, and the season's over. Barry Bonds singled and scored, and later homered, and maybe the vultures will finally leave him alone. Well, for a few days. Kevin Millwood pitched well, but it was in vain.

While the blame will rest on the Braves' offense, let the record show that they averaged over five runs a game in the series (and outscored the Giants), and collected seven hits and five walks in the deciding game. When you have fourteen baserunners (two others reached on errors) you'll usually get more than one run. And while Gary Sheffield will get a lot of blame, in particular for striking out in the ninth inning, he again had three walks and at least got on base.

It just didn't happen. While the media will no doubt see this as some sort of mortal failure, the simple fact is that somebody has to lose every game, and that in baseball every single play results in someone failing to accomplish his goal. That is the nature of the game.

Chipper Jones' hard grounder with two out and the bases loaded went right to the shortstop, who was shifted over near second. Rafael Furcal's line drive with the tying run on second and two out hung up in the air where Lofton could get to it. If the Braves had been luckier, maybe those balls find holes and they win. They didn't, but that doesn't mean that Chipper and Rafael "failed". They hit the ball hard, which is all you can hope for. It just so happens that the balls didn't find holes.

Good luck to the Giants, now beat those damned Cardinals. As for me, I'll have some sort of postmortem on the Braves' season soon, then on to the offseason. I'll keep track of the Braves' transactions, say what I think of them, and maybe I'll have some other things to tell you about.

The Bullpen: Alex's Corner
By Alex Ramati
Bobby Must Retire

As expected, Alex takes exception to my Braves.net column. (And JR did too, in the comments.) Alex actually says he didn't read the column, so he could just let go with his emotions. He should have, because I address many of his points there. (He's actually pretty familiar with my arguments, since we've argued about them before.) To summarize: Leibrandt was the best choice in 1991, since the Braves had no experienced relievers of any quality left; Jeff Reardon pitched quite well for the Braves in the regular season, and his playoff collapse could not have been anticipated; when he went to his closer in the eighth inning of Game Four in 1996, it backfired and he got a lot of abuse, but it's exactly the same strategy Joe Torre has used and Mike Sciocia was praised for adopting after not doing in the Angels' first game against the Yankees.

Where Alex sees rigidity, I see patience; patience is Bobby Cox's greatest asset as a manager. And the thing is that in the long term the patient man will win out. Would any other manager have stuck with Kevin Millwood for so long if he had the number of options Bobby did? I thought that Kevin should move to the bullpen, and I know Alex agreed with me. But look what happened -- because Bobby gave him a chance to straighten himself out. It's not the best example because now he's with the Dodgers, but Bobby was extraordinarily patient with Odalis Perez as well. I never thought Odalis would make it as a starter.

To address the further point that Bobby doesn't give chances to young players, this is foolish and ignores the evidence. When Bobby has a young player with obvious talent, he'll find a job for him. I compliled a long list of major leaguers who broke in under Bobby last season; it's a very impressive list as well, and contains several players who will eventually make it into the Hall of Fame as well many all-stars.

However, Bobby will not risk using a young player he doesn't think can handle a job; for instance, I think he's certain Marcus Giles won't be able to play second base in the major leagues. And I can't say for certain that he's wrong. And Bobby will prefer to go with a "proven veteran" who may be a bad player, but at least a bad player who will make routine plays, over the youngster who might be good or might screw up. I don't agree with this decision, but on the other hand it's the decision that almost every major league manager will make. I don't think you can criticize Bobby for following the book.

Braves.Net - Bobby Cox

This is the long piece I mentioned last night, my first column for Braves.net. It's sure to enrage JR and Alex.

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Braves at Giants - 10/06/2002

Well, the Braves couldn't surmount the Giants' insurmountable lead. Big surprise, and the final score was 8-3. If there were any assurance he'd ever pitch for the Braves again, I'd be worried about Glavine. As it is, the Braves will have to win tomorrow behind Kevin Millwood just to keep the season alive. And if the rumors that the Braves will only re-sign one of Maddux and Glavine are true, they have to be leaning Maddux right now.

If you can explain why Julio Franco has started every game of this series, even with three righthanders starting for the Giants, I'm all ears. Bobby gave most of the starts against righties to Matt for three or four months, and now he changes his mind? Franco was 0-5 today and hasn't done anything in the series. Vinny Castilla, amazingly, has been the Braves' best player, and had two hits and a walk, scoring one run and driving in another. Go figure.

At least Bobby didn't have to use up his precious bullpen. Only Gryboski, Moss, and Ligtenberg pitched. And they did well, giving up only one run (off Moss) over 6 1/3. If he'd made the move sooner we might have had a game.

Tomorrow's game is supposed to start at 8:20. It's anyone's guess when it really will.

And just to show you that the Braves still had a shot if Bobby had pulled the trigger... It's now 8-3 Giants. If he'd made the move earlier, it might be something like 5-3.

I just wrote a long piece (more about that later) praising Bobby Cox. But he's made some major mistakes tonight that perhaps cost the team any chance of winning. With the score 4-0, Tom Glavine led off the third inning. He should have been pinch-hit for. That's an obvious move, to me anyway; he was pitching very poorly, it's the playoffs, and you have a seven-man bullpen, complete with a fourth starter (Damian Moss) you don't intend to use until Game Four of the NLCS -- if you even get there.

But Bobby let him hit. I can only assume he was saving his pen for the fifth game that will now almost certainly take place tomorrow night in Atlanta. The first problem is that Bobby basically waived the towel in the third inning with that move -- he admitted the game was already lost! Second, this decision -- leaving in the starter who is getting pasted to save the bullpen for a later day -- is a loser strategy. Not only does it concede the game, it rarely even accomplishes its goal of saving the bullpen, because most of the time the starter will continue to be pasted until you have to pull him.

As happened in the bottom of the third when Tommy gave up a three-run homer to Rich Aurilia, and Kevin Gryboski relieved him. Bobby had to go to the pen anyway, and the small chance of winning the game is now microscopic. Now the Braves will have to play an elimination game, with a pen that's seen heavy use, with Kevin Millwood on short rest against the Giants' ace on regular rest. The only advantage would be that the game is scheduled for Atlanta.

UPDATE: I should have checked instead of believing the computer. Glavine made the last out of the second, not the first of the third. With the based loaded, yet. I would have seriously considered hitting for him then, already down 2-0 and looking bad, but that's too much to ask for. But he should have been lifted when he got in trouble in the third.

Sickening. Glavine walks Bonds intentionally, then walks Benito Flipping Santiago to force in the fourth run of the game, all of them scored by the Giants. The Braves don't have a hit yet.

CBS.SportsLine.com - GameCenter

I don't believe this! Glavine just gave up two singles, then walked Kent to load the bases for Bonds. We're doomed.

The Bullpen

I've set up a new page for baseball things that didn't fit on this one. It's the Bullpen, and starts off with a little essay about the two recently concluded Division Series. No comments yet; I'll set those up eventually.

The idea here is that I'll have some longer pieces, maybe about the Braves and maybe not, and it can also be a place for guest articles and the like if anyone wants to contribute. Game recaps and links will remain here on the main page. I may eventually come up with a third page that would be a more traditional weblog. I haven't decided yet.

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Braves at Giants - 10/05/2002

You don't want to count on him, but Keith Lockhart was huge today, hitting a three-run homer and later putting the icing on a 10-2 victory with an RBI single. The only Brave position player to not get a hit was Gary Sheffield, and he had three walks. Andruw had a hit, two walks, a run scored, and two RBI, and Vinny had a two-RBI hit to give the Braves a lead. The game was 1-1 through five when Vinny and Lockhart did their thing to break it open. They piled on for four more runs to put it out of reach in the ninth.

How exactly is a pitcher with a 3.23 ERA in postseason play some sort of failure? Yet that's what people seem to think if Greg Maddux, because he hasn't gotten run support. (Obviously, today he did.) He didn't really pitch much better than in most of his postseason appearances today, but most of his postseason appearances have been good. He went six, struck out three, gave up five hits, a walk, and two runs. And needed 67 pitches to do it. Then the Hammond-Remlinger team took an inning apiece, and with the big lead Kevin Gryboski finished it in the Albie role.

The Braves really made Jason Schmidt work, and it paid off big-time. When he left with one out in the sixth, he'd already thrown 104 pitches. He wasn't exceptionally wild, either. They just made him make great pitches to get outs (Maddux, for one, had a great at-bat against him in the fifth), and he was out of gas. He loaded the bases and the Castilla/Lockhart heroics were set up, though Schmidt was no longer around to see it.

It looks like an afternoon game tomorrow, with Glavine against our old friend Livan Hernandez. Unfortunately for Livan, Eric Gregg won't be there to help him.

I'd just like to thank FX for showing me that fine picture of Vinny Castilla picking his nose. Really, guys, super job.

ESPN.com: Chris Hammond

Well, I guess he is available, since he's pitching right now. All right.

ESPN.com - MLB - Game Update

So I go away for a little while, come back and it's 6-1 Braves. And I find out that Keith Lockhart hit a three-run homer? And Vinny singled in two runs? Wow. Now 6-2 Braves after a Bonds homer, it looks like Maddux is going to leave after six fine innings. I don't know about that with Hammond unavailable.

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Giants at Braves - 10/03/2002

Braves 7, Giants 3 (Thanks, Ed), series tied at one. A couple months after I did, the AP has announced Kevin Millwood back. He only went six innings (Bobby said after the game that he was just so fired up he was worn out), giving up only a pair of solo homers. Mike Remlinger allowed a couple of baserunners in the seventh, but got out of it with a strikeout. Darren Holmes allowed a baserunner but got two outs in the eighth. John Smoltz finished it, allowing a solo homer to Barry Bonds.

The Braves got their runs mostly from the bottom of the order. Chipper drove in Julio Franco for the first run of the game, but the rest of it runs were scored by the bottom of the lineup. Mark DeRosa was 2-3 with a double and a triple before Bobby pulled him for Lockhart [roll eyes], Vinny had a homer and a walk, Javy a homer and a single, and both scored in front of DeRosa's triple. Mark scored the last run of the game on a passed ball; he also came home on a Furcal single.

The geniuses at MLB have decided that the appropriate time for the Braves-Giants Game Four on Saturday would be 3 PM CT. Opposite the Georgia/Alabama game. Really nice work guys.

ESPN.com - MLB - Game Update

Looking good so far, with the Braves leading 7-1 in the fifth. Heroes so far are the bottom of the lineup; back-to-back homers by Javy and Vinny; two runs scored and two RBI from DeRosa, who has a double and a triple thus far. And Millwood looks sharp, but I'm still a little worried about him hitting the wall.

I don't know if the postgame recap will be up tonight; depends on when the game ends, I guess.

As has been pointed out in the comments, I should apologize to Julio Franco, who did not pop out. I can only say that the play-by-play I saw (remember, no TV) made it sound like a popout. Sorry.

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Giants at Braves - 10/02/2002

I can't stand it. Tom Glavine had nothing and gave up six runs in five innings. And Chris Hammond gave up two of his own, after pitching basically shutout ball for two months. And he had to leave the game with a sprained neck, and might be out for awhile. Unbelievable, and it's 8-2 only because Tom had driven in two.

The Braves came back with three runs in the eighth, and it was 8-5, and those two runs off Hammond loomed pretty large. Then the first two runners got on in the ninth. But Julio Franco -- inexplicably starting at first base, especially with a lefty pitching tomorrow -- popped out, and Gary Sheffield, who had homered earlier, grounded into a double play. Argh.

Good game for Andruw, who scored two runs and stole a homer from Bonds. Matt Franco, the third-best hitter on the team in the regular season, never got to swing the bat, being lifted after coming in to pinch-hit when the Giants changed relievers. In the end, the Braves got ten hits; if Millwood and Maddux are effective and the Braves hit like that, they'll be okay... Night game tomorrow, Millwood versus Kirk Rueter. Here's hoping it's just the Marlins who have Kevin's number.

I think it's 3-2 Giants after two innings. It's hard to tell, because the guy doing ESPN Gamecast is even worse than usual. At any rate, JT Snow doubled home two runs then came home himself on a single, and I think Tom Glavine singled home two with two out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning... Checking other sites, that's what happened. Day baseball, you can keep it... Tom's gotten the first two in the third, now facing Bonds.

ESPN.com - MLB - Game Update

Yep, sure enough, there are the Glove Brothers hitting seventh and eighth, and Julio playing first base:

Furcal SS
J Franco 1B
Sheffield RF
C Jones LF
A Jones CF
Lopez C
Vortex 3B
Flockhart 2B
Glavine P

Easy first inning for Tom. Let's get some runs.

One more note: Greg Maddux has been pushed back to Game Three in SF, with Kevin Millwood to pitch Game Two, because Greg has a blister on his pitching hand. Actually, I think that's a pretty good idea. While Pac Bell is a good pitchers' park, Kevin might have trouble with the porch in right field. When he has problems, it's usually with the longball to right.

ESPN.com: MLB - Breaking down the four Division Series

Rob Neyer not only hasn't written about the Braves all year, he apparently hasn't even seen them play:

And he ain't the only one. Across the diamond at first base, you've got either Julio Franco or Wes Helms. Franco's got a powerful .382 slugging percentage, while Helms sports a sprightly .283 on-base percentage.

In case you came in late, like Rob, Matt Franco has been playing first base most of the time against righthanders most of this season, and the Braves are a lot better off at first base than the Giants, who are married to JT Snow, he of the .704 OPS -- lower than either Franco's, more than 200 points lower than Matt's.

UPDATE: Rob, very promptly, responded to my email. He says (1) that he's sure he's written about the Braves this year (I can't find a column, though, since January and the Sheffield trade) (2) that he simply forgot Matt Franco ("my bad") and (3) that he still feels first base is a problem, even if the Giants and Cards have the same one. Well, maybe. I think the Braves' first basemen are middle-of-the-pack. They aren't really pushing the team forward, but they don't pull it back either. Unlike Lockie and the Sucking Vinny of Doom.

UPDATE ON UPDATES: Rob has edited his column to include Matt Franco: "M. Franco's been great this year, but before you get too excited, it's worth remembering that he's Matt Franco." I can't really disagree with that.

CNNSI.com - Baseball - Mets fire manager Valentine - Tuesday October 01, 2002 04:03 PM



Loser.

Alex's Corner previews the Division Series with the Giants. I thought about doing one myself, but I didn't feel like it.