It really does feel like everything is just falling into place this season. Offense has been pretty good most of the year, but they've really dialed it up here lately with all the starting pitching injuries. Very timely. My guess is in the 2nd half we go through some doldrums offensively but we get guys like Keuchel back, McCullers rounds back into form and maybe even get McHugh in the rotation and pitching well...and the freight train just continues.
"Do the Astros only hit doubles? Cause they hit an incredible amount of doubles. Simply amazing. And Bregman has been their worst hitter. Good lord that lineup is insane." Posted by Sparhawk on Jul 6, 2017 | 8:42 AM People have taken notice. Don't take this team for granted.
Exactly. What a fun time to be a fan. I wish Yuli wasn't such a slacker. Maybe he can get a couple of hits tonight and get going.
LOL Yuli has 295 PA, and only 6 walks. I knew he wasn't very patient, but damn. If you can hit close to .300 with a little pop, not walking is completely fine, but that's a hard way to live. Walking or not he has been making some extremely loud contact, one bullet after the other. Over the last 14 days he has a 57% hard contact, and 27% LD (Reddick has been smoking too, 53% and 26% himself). Hopefully Gurriel can stabilize, but I'm starting to feel pretty confident he's just a streaky hitter thats gonna be meh most of time, but is gonna have stretches where he goes nuclear.
From the Baseball Reference Play Index: In a season in which he qualified for his league's batting title: Whitney Alpermann, 1909: 2 in 442 plate appearances Among AL players who currently qualify for the batting title, Yuli and Alcides Escobar are tied with 6 walks. Escobar, however, has 339 plate appearances, which gives him a 1.77% BB rate. Yuli has 295, good for a 2.03% BB rate. Jose Peraza of the Reds has 5 BB in 320 plate appearances (1.6% BB rate) this year.
The Astros are 9/2 odds to win the WS and 250-1 to win the division according to Bovada. Might have the betting lines backwards; don't know how the bets work really
Got to go to the game last night. Really happy to see them win (I haven't seen them win in ATL since Game 1 of the 2004 NLDS). Suntrust Park is nice, but certainly not a major improvement over Turner Field. I'm 31 years old and have been to 3 different Braves stadiums.
The Angels one year where the entire lineup had averages over .300 for a few games well into the season, IIRC. Just last night, going into the game the lowest average of the 8 Braves position players was .286 (Dansby Swanson didn't play). Edit: http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/4842/remembering-the-angels-300-lineup They finished with a team average of .285
Curious...how terrible is the traffic around there? Seems like it was possibly the worst place to put the park. IIRC, MARTA didn't go that far out and it's in an area where traffic was already a major nightmare. I used to drive through there a lot when I worked for a company based in Union City and had manufacturing in Dalton. Not that Turner was the easiest to get to but it didn't prevent large portions of the population from getting there since it was centrally located. I knew the Cobb County Commissioner who put the deal together. He is as dirty as they come.
Parking was terrible (Buying a parking pass in advance is definitely recommended, and they sell out). Very limited space, and getting there off the interstate sucked there. Getting out was incredibly easy though as the parking is more spread out (plus it helped fans started heading for the exits after the 7th). Definitely a lot more traffic than I usually encountered near Turner and very confusing with where to go to find parking. Thankfully there wasn't any construction and only one accident on the interstate (which we were able to route around) which helps a lot. They really push using Uber, to the point where you could even get a free ride from the Braves site. Definitely a much nicer area.
Tonight's game was truly a total team effort. Every batter in the starting lineup in tonight's game either scored at least a run, or drove in run(s). Bad news is the All-Star break. I rather watch a true All-Star team.
