The Ted Turner Memoirs Part VI. - Lines in the Georgia Sand

[lilbiggio]

We head back to the bay during the second week of July. In what might be the worst highway construction project of all time, there was construction going on on the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge at the same damn time. Understand the Georgraphy brehs.. nobody not the mayor, the players, and not the trashman was getting in or out of The City for the past 4 days.

Now I can't speak for the good citizens of San Francisco but as for our Braves? They didn't deserve to be cruising around enjoying the slight perks of the road trip. Being forced to stay on the peninsula and focus on winning baseball was what was needed. We're fighting for our division lives in July for crying out loud!



Tommy La Stella continues to impress as he got the go ahead run in this ball game in the 2nd. He wound then tack on another 2 hits finishing 3-4 and a critical cog in securing a victory at AT&T park. He has risen 3 OVR points since the start of the season, and seems to be setting himself up as a point of interest after the all star break.

There's one more series to play before the all star break. So just a preview of our standings this is how it is shaking out so far:



Look at the runs scored for Washington.. that is an insane number for them which gets them a top 4 power ranking offensively. Another notable ratings is that they are #2 in pitching, behind only us... the talking heads truly believe they are the number 1 team in baseball, and as our final series before the break... we get a chance to either cut into the lead, or have it extended to a sizable margin.


This upcoming update will be the series of the 2015 summer for us.

[danzy678]

Good update!

[lilbiggio]

When we last left off, our hometown Boys were getting set for a do or die 3 game series up in our nations capital. Down 6 games to the Nationals, we'd need to take a minimum of 2 out of 3 to head into the All Star break not completely out of the race for the division crown.



Alternatively only coming out of Washington D.C. with a single win, or even worse... getting swept would pretty much put a fork in us and we'd then be forced into focusing on securing the first wild card for the rest of the summer.

So let's see how things shook out up state in D.C.

We took game 1, thanks in part to a solid outing from Mike Minor out dueling Jordan Zimmermann. Game 2 was going to be the USER game, and although it was tempting to put Julio Teheran (13-1) against Gio Gonzales (13-2) and try to out muscle Washington in Game 2. It was decided to go with the set rotation and let Brandon Beachy attempt to hold the fort down and if we happened to come out with the win, Teheran would be available to go for the sweep on Sunday..



That was the strategy, but the reality was that Beachy just does not handle the crucialness of a clutch moment very well. Beachy's M.O? Load the bases on 3 consecutive singles, strike out the next guy. Get up 0-2 on Harper. Proceed to give up a no doubt about it, camera swerve, grand slam.



Oh, then go on and strike out the next 2 batters. The damage was obviously done. See brehs? When the pressure was off he went back to regular Brandon Beachy. I think that made it more annoying than giving up the 4 run spot in a game where we couldn't get down by more than a run to have a realistic shot against Gonzales. That 4 batter sequence where he just was not going to get an out until something bad happened and then get back on track immediately following the HR made it worse to me.



So the Nationals even the series at 1-1. Game 3 would go to Teheran as predicted as he took his record to a league best 14-1. All and all, the Braves would make up a single game on Washington and end the first half 5 games out of first place.

[lilbiggio]

The 2015 All Star Break


The All Star break is upon us. It is now time to calculate all the little slips of paper and double votes and see who the heck is representing the two sides in Cincinnati, Ohio.




So while we got the American League returning 5 starters. (Cano, Reyes, Hamilton, Trout, and Jones.) The Senior circuit is putting out a brand new lineup. The only guy that was allowed to comeback was David Wright.

Freeman and Heyward were left at home. Pujols who for some reason is a St. Louis Cardinal barely got in by the skin of his teeth and is coming off the bench. Pittsburgh is sending 4 guys in the starting lineup. The Mets are sending 2 guys and we haven't heard one word from their lineup all season.

I dunno, pretty sketch voting in 2015... but we'll run with it. Julio Teheran is the voted starter with 700,000 votes. This will be the game for him to showcase his talents against the best in the league!

The next day... Media Day at The Great American Ballpark

Quote:

Julio how does it feel to be voted the National League's starter? It's a great honor. I know there are a lot of great guys on our staff. Kershaw and Strasburg easily could have gotten the nod, so it means a lot for me to know that the fans are behind me like this to set the tone for the National League. Is there one batter you are looking forward to pitching against? I'd have to say I'm ready to see the great Mike Trout in person. He's been tearing the league up for the past couple of years. And since I wasn't on our playoff roster I missed him during the World Series. Now we have a chance to finally meet man to man. Do you think that you will gain any advantage to take with you into the playoffs by facing these guys for the first time tomorrow? Haha, we got to make the playoffs first. We're in a tight race right now. Of course, it helps though but all of those guys are great players. I already know if I face any of them tomorrow, the next day, or on Christmas, these guys are capable of punishing mistakes. That's why they are here. I am here, because I limit my mistakes. It'll definitely be a fun experience. Tommy has told me to just relax, and don't worry about wins and losses. Balls and strikes. Just go out there and enjoy the moment.

[lilbiggio]

It's kinda sad having to sit on the sideline this season during the HR derby. Our power numbers have dipped real low, and as a result the voters kept Jason Heyward out of the contest for the first time in years. he should have atleast gotten a pity invite to defend the title, but I guess I'm preaching to the choir right now..



There were some embarrassing performances from the guys that didn't need to be there such as Beltre and Ramirez. Not that it mattered tho... Miggy Cabrera flat out dominated this tournament. He had 24 HR in just the first round. That's more than what 2nd place Paul Goldschmidt from Arizona could muster up for the entire event.



Is it Wednesday yet?

[lilbiggio]

The 2015 MLB All-Star Game

Yes, yes.. it is.

The 2015 All Star game reminded me a lot of the one from 2010 or 2011. One of those games was just a series of dominating pitching talent that came in one after another, after another. Getting down by 1 run pretty much was a death sentence for winning the game. And that's how this one played out.



Teheran pitched just like he has all season long. BUT he made the one mistake pitch. The one he so sheepishly and arrogantly didn't humble himself to allow before hand. Josh Hamilton was sitting on a breaking ball. He knew it was coming, he locked into it, and blasted it to kingdom come.




ooOOooH that one stung a bit. Hate that it had to yet another Angel ruining our postseason plans.



He'd do it again later in the night off of the hometown guy, Tony Cingrani. And how's that for a narrative friends? Hamilton exiled out of Cincy in 2008. Comes back in 2015 and blasts not 1 but 2 HR's in the all star game to gain MVP honors?

You can't make this up. And for his efforts the Angels road to the World Series crown just got a notch easier. The american league now has HFA in the World Series.

[lilbiggio]

First game back from the All Star Break, and we run into the buzzsaw known as Ian Kennedy and that damned Vulcan Changeup.

Through 4 innings the Braves were getting put down with relative ease, and for awhile the Kennedy name was ringing a bell but I wasn't quite sure why. Then.. he dropped the Vulcan change for the called strike on the outside corner, and I knew precisely why he seemed so familiar.



Last year he did work out in Arizona with a 3 hitter and we struck out a good 7 times. This season's matchup was damn near identical except he actually did himself a solid and didn't walk a guy and got a man further in before he took the hook.



Garbage thing about this game tho.. was the fact that we had a shot to win this one as Hanson was matching him throughout the evening. Don't believe me check the linescore bros!

But with horrible timing, Tommy slipped on a slider that didn't slide in the 7th and was taken over the right field wall for a 2 run shot that we couldn't recover from.

Excellent way to start the second half brehs.. I'm slow clapping in disgust right now.

[Gronk4M13]

All caught up, man this is awesome.