Braves Drop Tigers In 9th

March 20, 2008 – 10:54 pm

Tonight’s game saw a pitching matchup between Tim Hudson and Justin Verlander.  Both starters looked strong, pitching into the 6th inning (Hudson pitched the full 6) and each giving up 1 run.  The Tigers got on the scoreboard in the top of the 1st inning with an unearned run.  Chipper Jones tied the game at 1 with a solo home run in the bottom of the 4th.  Aside from those moments of scoring, the majority of the game was about the pitching, with the score remaining tied into the 9th inning.

Chipper Jones vs. Cards on March 17, 2008. Photo: Kevin Hinton

Photo: Kevin Hinton

Tyler Yates took the mound for the Braves in the 9th and, though giving up no hits, walked three and allowed 1 run in the inning.  The Braves entered the bottom of the 9th trailing by 2.  Through the help of 2 hits and some errant fielding on the part of the Tigers, Josh Anderson plated two with a walk-off single, giving the Braves the 3-2 victory.

Tim Hudson looked strong and ready to go for the season, as well as his expected position to start the opener against the Nationals.  He’s given up only 2 earned runs in his 15 Grapefruit League innings thus far. Royce Ring fought off his bad outings of the preseason to pitch a hitless inning, striking out one.  Jeff Francoeur, making his first appearance since being beaned in the face, went 0-3 with a strikeout and grounding into a double play.

John Smoltz will face off against C.C. Sabathia tomorrow as the Braves meet the Indians at 1:05pm.  We’ll also be setting out for Florida tomorrow evening to cover a few games through the weekend.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the BravesBlast Insider newsletter for a chance to win tickets to a game in the opening series’ against the Pirates or Mets.  Contest ends March 25th.


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Braves Tie Tigers In 10

March 14, 2008 – 7:50 am

Yesterday the Braves played and tied the Tigers in 10 innings.  Led by three RBIs by Brent Lillibridge and help from a Joe Borchard RBI, the Braves took the lead after the sixth inning.  But Jeff Ridgway - whom we got in return for Willy Aybar - walked three and gave up an earned run that tied the game.

Chuck James, recovering from a partially torn rotator cuff, pitched two scoreless innings in which he gave up one hit.  He’ll likely start the season in Richmond, unless Hampton hurts himself again (knock on wood.  I’m not going to be responsible for Hampton’s injury…twice).  Following James’ outing, Jo-Jo Reyes pitched three innings and gave up five earned runs.  Reyes isn’t looking good this spring - He now has a 9.00 ERA. 

Some argue that stats mean nothing since the players aren’t all big-leaguers.  I agree that good stats can be misleading, but if a player is not doing well against a mixed staff of major leaguers and minor leaguers, they are not likely to get better against JUST big leaguers.  Jo-Jo fits in this last category and needs more time to develop his stuff - he has to find his confidence and get a grip on his game.  He doesn’t look ready for the big time to me.

Next up, Tim Hudson starts against the Phillies today at 1:05 PM.  He’ll face off against Francisco Rosario.


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Braves 5, Tigers 4

March 7, 2008 – 10:53 am

The Braves held off a late push from the Tigers yesterday afternoon to land a 5-4 victory, pushing their preseason record to 6-2.  Tom Glavine made his second start of the preseason for the Braves, yielding 2 runs on 4 hits.  Glavine handed the ball over to Ryan Drese to close out the third inning.  Drese faced 5 batters through the 3rd and 4th innings, issuing only 1 hit and gaining himself the win for the game.

Dontrelle Willis took the hill for the Tigers, pitching 3 solid innings, issuing only 2 hits and striking out 3.  Armando Galarraga replaced Willis at the start of the 4th inning and, through the next 2 innings, was accountable for all 5 of the Braves runs on the day.  The Braves took advantage of the 3 walks issued by Galarraga and doubles by Yunel Escobar and Joe Borchard to paste 5 runs on the board in the 5th inning.  Escobar was 2-3 on the day with 3 RBIs, increasing his preseason batting average to .500.

The Braves held the 5-2 lead into the 8th inning, when Braves pitcher Damian Moss gave up 2 runs on 3 hits before closing out the game and obtaining the save.  Zach Schreiber also contributed 2 innings of scoreless pitching for the Braves.  The Braves face off against the Tigers once again today when Mike Hampton takes the mound against Tigers veteran, Kenny Rogers.


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2008 Preseason Awards

February 25, 2008 – 7:48 am

We’re going to dig into this year’s preseason and hand out some of our own awards and make predictions as to the end of season awards.

Preseason Team Awards

Best AL Team: Detroit Tigers
Best NL Team: New York Mets (I said it, but I’m not happy about it.)
Most Hyped Team: New York Mets
Worst AL Team: Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Worst NL Team: Florida Marlins (this was a no-brainer.  The state of Florida is apparently cursed.)
Best AL Division: The AL East beats out the Central for this title with the Blue Jays being the determining factor.
Best NL Division: The East is strong (and beats out the West) with the Mets, Phillies, and Braves all looking for the division title.  We should see some great baseball out of this division all season long.
Worst AL Division:  The West is going to be ugly with Oakland, Seattle, and Texas.  Texas should be on the rise, but Oakland completely disassembled whatever they had last year in their fire sale.
Worst NL Division:  The NL Central has a couple teams that are decent (Chicago and Milwaukee), but Cincinnati, Houston, and Pittsburgh bring the division down to the worst in the NL.

This year is going to be fun to watch in several divisions - the AL East and Central promise to be intriguing, as do the NL East and West.  The Tigers and Indians are going to create some great story lines, and we’re all familiar with the NL East and the competition we’ll see there this year.

Preseason Individual Awards

AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP: Matt Holliday
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy
AL Batting Title: Ichiro Suzuki
NL Batting Title: Matt Holliday
AL HR Title: Alex Rodriguez
NL HR Title: Ryan Howard

There we go - our projections for the individual awards in 2008.  No, we don’t think Johan Santana will win the NL Cy Young award this year - he’s a great pitcher, but I think Peavy will pull it out this year.  The others don’t have many surprises - Matt Holliday is a very solid hitter that is only helped by the fact that he plays in Colorado.


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