Braves at 60
Braves played. Braves lost.
It’s becoming a familiar refrain, especially as Atlanta has lost nine of its last 12 games. Here’s more.
So much for the magic of Fred Gonzalez, huh?
All kidding aside, the Braves are flailing.
As for the crew on the field — a crew that is now 27-32 and a full 10 games behind the NL East-leading Mets — the issues are familiar.
Let’s review as they get ready to play game No. 60 tonight against Arizona.
The good: Drake Baldwin looks like a future star. The NL rookie of the month in May homered Tuesday — his sixth of the season — and threw out two Arizona runners in the seventh inning. Ronald Acuña Jr. has been aces since his return from the knee injury roughly a year ago. He’s hitting .342 (13-for-38) and has three homers since coming back late last month.
The bad: Matt Olson and high fastballs are an issue. Yes, in his first season with the Braves, Olson posted huge power and RBI numbers, but that he has played every game and hit third or fourth in all of them and only has 31 RBIs is troubling — for him and the offense. And let’s not even get started on Michael Harris at the plate. Oy, vey.
The ugly: Also, as good as Acuña has been in his return from a major injury, Spencer Strider has been every bit as surprising in the opposite direction. In his 19 innings this year, Strider has allowed 12 earned runs (5.68 ERA) and five homers. Yikes.
Thoughts?
College baseball
Wow, the news in and around college baseball these days has been head-spinning.
We’ll start here with a social media post from Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, who put this on Twitter:
“Spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend. I will only watch a select few teams from here on out. Reason? They have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players. Any team that doesn’t wear the uni correctly, taunts the other team, and has a coach that condones this behavior is a disgrace to the game. Big fan of coach Schnall at Coastal Carolina! He and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir! U stand for proper behavior.”
Coach Kevin Schnall of Coastal responded with a fiery outburst in a postgame news conference about Florida Coach Kevin O’Sullivan, who berated some of the support staff and the grounds crew at the Coastal Carolina regional last weekend.
This comes on the heels of the Wake Forest coach having to apologize for being caught on video mouthing a homophobic slur at Tennessee players.
Which brings us to the traveling road show that is Tony Vitello’s team, which has been great and frustrating and fascinatingly bombastic.
Jones’ wording is fascinating to me because it’s not like he was always the “Brian McCann-like” old-school baseball steward, you know?
Yes, Chipper played hard and clearly respected the craft, but I’m for bat flips and celebrations.
I enjoy the enthusiasm, but the extreme of the modern college game has become noteworthy.
And in terms of Florida’s O’Sullivan and Wake’s Tom Walter, it’s a head-scratching proposition when the coaches do things that certainly would draw a tongue lashing from the coaches who are doing those exact things.
Chipper would assuredly know about that. Heck, he played for Bobby Cox, who got more ejections than a defective F-18.
Where’s the line between youthful enthusiasm and disrespecting the game?
Does Chipper have a valid point here? It’s worth discussing as college baseball moves to the Super Regionals this weekend.
A cut by the Knicks
Most of the national narrative this morning has centered on Tuesday’s somewhat surprising news that the New York Knicks fired Coach Tom Thibodeau.
Coach Tibs led the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals in a quarter-century and had $20-plus-million on his contract.
Yes, $20-plus-million.
Two things struck me with this news.
First, there is not a professional sports team that gets more chatter nationally with less national relevance than the New York Knicks.
Whether that is fandom from the sports talking heads or that NYC is the central hub for a majority of the national sports media market is up to you. But seriously, the Falcons have had more success in the 2000s. Heck, so have the Marlins, Diamondbacks and Raptors over that time.
But the Knicks get the chatter.
Whatever.
As for Tibs, you know what? As a sports fan in general, I always want my team to make changes in an effort to claim the ultimate prize.
That’s the goal — to win the whole thing.
And if they think this is the ceiling under Thibodeaux, then pull the trigger.
The goal is not to be good. The goal should always be to win the title.
Granted, a lot of the narrative will hinge on who they hire and how the next coach fares.
Change just for change is never wise, but repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different is insane.
I do know this: however it plays out, the yapping crew on the ESPN day-time shows will assuredly weigh in on it.
This and that
› So TNT got left out of the NBA bidding wars, and “Inside the NBA” with Chuck and the crew is moving to ESPN starting next season. Looks like TNT is trying to figure out a way to continue the iconic studio show in other forms. Here’s more.
› So our electric bills are expected to be higher this summer than at any point in the last 12 years. Super.
› NFL iron man Jim Marshall, who made 270 consecutive starts for the Vikings on a defensive line famously known as the “Purple People Eaters” died Tuesday. He was 87.
› The women’s college World Series finals starts tonight. Texas Tech faces Texas. Man, a banner year for all Texas sports in year 1 in the SEC, no?
Today’s questions
Which Way Wednesday will be brief:
› Which nickname for an NFL defense was the best, because “Purple People Eaters” is pretty excellent.
› Which word would you use to describe the Knicks firing Tom Thibodeaux?
› Which place are you with these Braves — “they’re going to be fine and contend” or “they’re cooked.”
As for today, June 4, let’s review:
“Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen was released on this day in 1984.
The first Ryder Cup concluded on this day in 1927.
It also is National Cheese Day.
Rushmore of cheese. Go.
