This has been a wonderful, surprising run for Atlanta this season. For it to continue will require sustained effort, attention to detail, and a drive that most of these players have never had the occasion to experience at this level.
The Atlanta Braves lost to the Cubs on Tuesday essentially because Mike Foltynewicz needed to clear his throat.
I refuse to blame him for the loss, because that’s just a “life” thing. The real reason for the defeat was because while that 2nd inning incident was overcome later, the offense failed to score over the last 4 innings and thus could not match the Cubs’ efforts.
Last night, the pitching – once again – did enough to win. The game was lost, though, due to a lack of offense and general inability to overcome adversity (though I would understand it if you repeated that statement back to me while pointing at Folty about the Cubs’ game).
I was going to lead off this Morning Chop with an upbeat note about how much the crowd’s energy was in the game Friday night. The Tomahawk Chop is soooo much better when it begins “organically” from the crowd and doesn’t have to be cued or enticed to participate.
The fans seem to have sensed that the home stretch is now upon us and that “more” needs to happen. This Braves’ team needs to shift gears and feed off that fan energy.
1-run losses – and there have been 3 in the past week, plus a 2-run defeat to the Marlins – seem somehow to be indicative of one team simply wanting it more than the other.
That’s a gross over-simplification – yes. But the Braves’ offense has been sluggish for an entire month now, and that is showing in terms of wins, losses, and general angst among fans.
We’re in September now. The home stretch is upon us. The offense is pretty much going to be what it is with the last addition arriving today.
It’s been all fun and games to this point, but after most of a full season or more in the majors, even the rookies (aside from Ronald Acuna, who is clearly not the focus of the concern today) need to step out of that rookie shadow and into the veteran spotlight.
The talent is clearly there. The chemistry is there. The desire is there. The results need to follow.
Standing at the altar
The Braves did not get Josh Donaldson from Toronto last night. At least the Cardinals and Phillies didn’t, either. Whatever value he may now provide to the Indians, the races in the NL are certainly close enough to wager that Donaldson’s presence could have made a notable impact… and that’s specifically why I was personally in the camp of wanting to acquire the former MVP.
There’s a good question about what the Indians yielded in order to acquire Donaldson. MLBTR picks up the story here:
"The Jays will get a player to be named later “with some value” while covering some of Donaldson’s remaining salary, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer suggests (on Twitter) that the PTBNL will in some manner be dependent upon Donaldson’s health status."
They went on to report that Toronto will cover $2.7 million of his remaining salary, so it sounds like the teams divvied it up into 2/3rds and 1/3rds chunks of financial responsibility; Cleveland getting the smaller portion.
Based on the rest of the transaction, it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a ‘Column A/B/C’ choice of player that Toronto will receive depending on how much Donaldson is able to play.
This is conjecture, but I’ll at least wade in with these potential equivalents in terms of Braves’ prospects – noting that Toronto is essentially spending $2.7 million for a prospect:
- If he plays a lot: Dustin Peterson
- If he plays some: Jacob Webb or Rio Ruiz
- If he’s essentially unavailable: a non-prospect
Now in my own mind, I’m thinking “the Braves should have pulled the trigger” if these were the terms. However…
- These ‘equivalents’ are mere guesses… and could end up involving higher ranked players. That “with some value” phrase may carry actual weight to it (as was definitely the case for the PTBNL in the Chris Archer trade).
- Toronto may not have had any interest in any Braves’ farmhand below… say the Top 15. Given this farm system, that’s a fairly stiff price, and my ‘guesses’ intentionally stayed out of the Top 15, for I could not see parting with such a player.
Perhaps Alex Anthopoulos felt the same way.
In any case: the Braves now have their horses for September. The front office have given them a means to succeed. How far they can run will now depend on them.