re: The ATL Thread - 10/6 - The Chris Sale Game @ Truist

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This is Game 3 and pretty much a must win.

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Game 2 was a must win and we didn't use Sale, so take that for what it's worth.

They are obviously being very careful with Suarez, else he would've gone one more inning on Sunday instead of having Fuentes cover 3.2 IP.

He looked the best in the game last night than in like 2 months imo.

Go back and watch him face Max Muncy. It was vintage early year Lee with picture perfect pitch sequences, all the sliders are low, and he paints the high and inside 98 mph 4 seamer on a 3-2 count for the K.

Really as long as Lee is keeping his slider down, like preferably between the 3 inches above and below the bottom of the strikezone but at the very least below the middle of the zone he is elite. He has been leaving sliders up for like 1 1/2 months though now and thats why he has gotten shelled.

Last night he didnt leave a single slider above the middle of the zone

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They are obviously being very careful with Suarez, else he would've gone one more inning on Sunday instead of having Fuentes cover 3.2 IP.

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Agree.

Good news is the inning he did pitch he was filthy. His stuff is 100% back and the command while still not id say fully back to his pre injury pitching it was still really good and a lot better than the game he pitched in against the Phils so his command is definitely getting better and trending up with the stuff already as good as ever.

No one knows apparently lol

The Ronald simps online say that central American spanish slang is hard to translate and vulgar.

Still dumb to release this before the biggest game of the year

Probably. Snit didn't do himself any favors sucking up to Trump but Acuna should save this shite for the offseason.

Why is he using Ronald Simp as a pejorative?

He and Harris carried the team through the month of September but Ronald was on another level than even Harris in September.

He had a .950 OPS, and he especially destroyed Philly back when the division was still in play so people calling him not clutch just isn’t true.

He just showed us for an entire month he is still one of the best players in the game when healthy and can come up big when it’s needed. IMO he is just pressing too hard right now. Ronald is a very momentum driven player. He will be okay and people that make comments like “I’m ready to move on from Acuna” or whatever similar stuff are not serious people

It wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to let him lead off again with Harris behind him batting second. I think that’s the best way to put him in the best spot to have success because no pitcher would rather throw to Harris than Acuna presently

If he is forced to face a righty like Taeoscar Hernandez that would be a hell situation.

The simple fact is to be blunt his mechanics are not sufficiently repeatable right now to be a guy we can just say go get us 3 outs and have full unbridled confidence it gets done. If this wasn’t the case he wouldn’t have to worry about hanging sliders upper middle to be crushed 450 feet

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They are obviously being very careful with Suarez, else he would've gone one more inning on Sunday instead of having Fuentes cover 3.2 IP.

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No doubt. But is it to protect his arm or do they just not trust him to be effective without more rest in between outings? Like, does his velo drop 2-3 mph after a certain amount of pitches in 1 appearance without a couple days’ rest? If they’re not worried about his arm, with Truist rockin’ and the chop in full effect in the top of the 8th, I think the adrenaline would help him get through a hitter or 2.

And he’s experienced enough to harness it correctly and not get out of his mechanics by overthrowing. I’m talking about 5-15 pitches in the 7th or 8th trying to protect a 1 or 2 run lead. Forget the lefty-lefty, I’m not trying to see Dylan Lee come in and hang a slider to Ohtani or Freddie to tie the game or take the lead in
the 8th. I don’t want to see Dylan Lee even slow tossing in the pen after the 6th inning unless we have at least a 3-run lead.

But we’ll see. I’m sure there are some serious conversations being had right about now. Just gotta hope they’re honest ones and nobody tries to be a hero when they know they don’t feel good.

You mentioned not starting Sale in a “must-win” Game 2. I’ve got to believe that was due to him being honest about how he felt. “I can maybe get you 5 today, Skip, but give me 2 more days, and I’ll fricking shove for 8 or 9. Whichever you feel is best for the team.” Either move was going to be a gamble. But the one he went with had the chance for the biggest payoff. Steal a duct-taped together win on a sleepy early Sunday game in L.A. (those were the 2 most “non-playoff” feeling atmospheres I can remember us playing against the Dodgers, even in 2020), and get Sale and Mahle at Truist at night(ish) on full rest to try to close it out. Let’s see if we can do it.

Yamamoto hasn’t pitched in 13 days. Hope we have a similar approach tonight as we did against Snell, especially early. Make him work. But be ready to pull the trigger in any count if he leaks a dick high fastball out over the middle of the plate. Calling my shot—he walks Drake on 5 pitches, gets down 1-0 or 2-0 on Ronnie, next pitch catches too much plate, and he hits one 440 to give us a 2-0 lead, and we never look back.

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I don’t think velo is a concern whatsoever for Robert right now

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I don’t think it is either. Maybe if he went back to back days. But with yesterday off, and Didi throwing as much as he did Sunday, I think we almost definitely see Suarez for at least a hitter tonight. Unless Sale goes 8 or 9. Or the game isn’t close (relatively) late.

Fun stat fact from Dimino earlier: Phillies and Dodgers are 2-25 with RISP against us in our 5 post season games so far. Says a lot about our guys really being able to lock in and focus and make pitches in high leverage/high pressure situations. Hope they keep it up. And the walks down. If they are gonna hit homers, make them be solos.

AA in all seriousness at least feels like to me he is extremely good at finding cast offs from other teams or maybe not that bad players their own team considers a reclamation project and identifying which of these guys the collective unit that is the Braves (coaching, front office, etc) can bring them into our culture and turn them into categories ranging from extremely vital to much needed role player.

He has done this so many times now its impossible to believe it is luck. He isnt going to make big trades or sign the highest price FA but he is fricking great at what I typed out above

Example: Trading for Mahle. Lesser teams couldve made that same trade and just hoped he improved while still using the same pitch mix and % of each pitch thrown while he struggled in SF. We didnt just trade for him once he got here we basically transformed him into a completely different pitcher regarding his sequencing, the pitch mix he uses, etc.

Casual fans just watching almost certainly do not know any of this and likely think AA just got lucky. He did not. Tyler Mahle as a brave is a completely different pitcher in his overall profile than he was with SF and that is why he has a lower ERA as a brave than Sale does since when traded for hiim