re: 2019 Atlanta Braves season long in-game thread

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'91 Pendleton hype train

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love me some TP (both the player and for my bunghole), but is there any doubt that Barry Bonds should have won MVP? The only thing that TP had over him was batting average.

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Pendleton had a good narrative and people hated Bonds back even in 91.

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I understand WHY he won it, but there is no doubt that he SHOULDN'T have won it. The numbers weren't even particularly close.

Tyler Flowers found his stick.

3-0 Braves in the 3rd.

I’m obviously biased but it sure seemed like the braves got the short end of the strike zone both pitching and hitting tonight.

Crazy that only 92 pitchers have ever done it... Per Wikipedia

I could have sworn that Kimbrel did it a few times, but I'd be wrong.

AA did exactly what he said he would do, and we have a team on the verge of 100 wins because of it. at all the idiot fans in the offseason/spring training/early regular season bitching about "not spending" and "not doing anything"

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To be fair, he didn’t make any moves during the offseason, despite fan outcry, and our bullpen was hot garbage and lost us several games early on.

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that's not really being fair. again, he did exactly what he said he'd do.

1. they signed Donaldson and McCann during the offseason. How is that "nothing".

2. I would imagine that greased the skids for the Keuchel deal during the offseason as well.

3. I think they clearly wanted to see what the bullpen arms looked like before making drastic moves. I think it worked out with Luke. If the fans had their way, he would have never suited up again. he has turned into a good piece. I think they also wanted to see if some of the younger starters had what it took to succeed in the pen. I think that failed (especially with Touki). With many of the big ticket FA and trade acquisition bullpen arms failing this year, this was the correct move. We were able to see what worked and what didn't (turned out to be most of the pen didn't work) and we used the money that we had saved to fill those gaps. We acquired 4 bullpen arms in trades that have all paid off in a big way.

4. who cares about fan outcry? the fan opinion means nothing.

5. we all knew the BP needed addressing? maybe, but I'd counter that no one ever knows how bullpen arms will fare from one season to the next. it was smart to see how they would do to start off and then go from there. We're on our way to 100 wins, so no one will convince me otherwise that AA's approach in the offseason was the wrong way to go about it.

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but we all knew the BP needed addressing prior to the season. It did work out for the best, so I’d say the fans and AA were both right to a degree.

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Not really.

There was absolutely no way to know that Sobotka, Minter, Carle, Biddle, Venters, Vizcaino, et el. were ALL going to turn into trash right from the start. Not to mention the insanely juiced ball skewing HR numbers and poorly performing bullpens league-wide (this is the first time in ages since relievers are collectively putting up a worse ERA than starters).

And most of the big-time free agent relief pitchers signed in the offseason the last few seasons have been busts. It's an intensely volatile position. AA has handled things well.