The Braves series, June 11-13

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, Roy Firestone said:

Max Fried pitched on my son's Little League team, and is a beloved family friend as is his entire family. He's a wonderful young man, and it thrilled us to watch him win a World Series and pitch in a World Series at Dodger Stadium. I root hard for him every time he pitches...but not tonight.He will be an extremely tough pitcher to face tonight...but I will hope he pitches well, but we somehow get the best of him. This matchup is gonna be tough on my heart, sentiment wise. But Orioles are always my choice. Max is a free agent next year...it would be my dream come true to see him in Baltimore...but I think he will become a Dodger...HIS childhood dream come true.

He’s terrific pitcher who somehow flies a little under the radar when people talk about the best pitchers in MLB.   Take a look at this head-to-head comparison with Corbin Burnes — in a nearly identical number of innings in their careers, Fried has a 144 OPS+ compared to 133 for Burnes.  

By the way Roy, in case you missed it, here’s a fun interview that David Laurila did with Fried last week.  Laurila is the @Roy Firestoneof print baseball interviews — love his stuff!

[Frobby]

Speaking of Laurila, here’s his Sunday column that lead with an interview with Schwellenbach.  

[Frobby]

Back to Fried, I was reminding myself about last year’s game where we beat him in Atlanta.  He was very effective for six innings, limiting us to two runs (one unearned).  We finally got to him in the 7th, scoring 5 times.  Fried made two errors in that game, both of which cost him runs.  It was the most runs (7) and earned runs (5) that Fried gave up all year in 14 starts (he was shut down for a couple of months with a forearm strain following his start against the O’s).

[Cuellar35]

IIRC Norfolk torched Fried pretty good during one of his rehab starts last year here in Atlanta.

[Cuellar35]

What is the O/U for the Wednesday game?  I'd love to play the Over!

[Sports Guy]

 

[Hank Scorpio]

3 hours ago, Roy Firestone said:

Max Fried pitched on my son's Little League team, and is a beloved family friend as is his entire family. He's a wonderful young man, and it thrilled us to watch him win a World Series and pitch in a World Series at Dodger Stadium. I root hard for him every time he pitches...but not tonight.He will be an extremely tough pitcher to face tonight...but I will hope he pitches well, but we somehow get the best of him. This matchup is gonna be tough on my heart, sentiment wise. But Orioles are always my choice. Max is a free agent next year...it would be my dream come true to see him in Baltimore...but I think he will become a Dodger...HIS childhood dream come true.

I hope we club your family friend over the head and chase him after 2 1/3. 

After that, best wishes.

[dtk9119]

I am not overly concerned w/ the ATL and PHI series and would be satisfied going just 3-3. The BIGGIE is next week in NY. Since the Skanks refuse to start losing regularly (losing 2 of 3 to LAD not withstanding) that makes the head to head against them next week even more important.

Back to the ATL series, what concerns me is that they are coming off a sweep vs the Nats (the Nats?!?). Good teams like ATL won't lose 5-6 in a row so chances are they ding the O's for at least 1 game in this series. We are also starting our 3 "weakest" starters. So that said, if we get 1 or 2 against them, I'm satisfied. Then get 1 or 2 vs PHI and prep for that NYY series.

BTW, who the heck is starting vs NY next week? We are burning our best starters vs PHI. Maybe with the off day, we can push one of the 3 up on regular rest? I really hope we don't go into that series starting Suarez, Povich, and Irvin. And hopefully, Cole won't be back yet.

[Roy Firestone]

3 hours ago, Fiver6565 said:

He didn't pitch in a WS at Dodger Stadium did he?  How would that work?  Maybe the NLCS?  I can't remember who they beat there.  Anyway, imagine Mayo on the team, and a Fried-Mayo matchup a couple times tonight!  That'd be a tough one for you!

he did pitch and win in a World Series,but youre right, it wasnt at Dodgers Stadium,..it was the NLCS. Still love the kid..I have since he was 8 years old.

[Malike]

Bring on all comers. This stretch isn't going to be easy, but it's not going to be easy for the Braves, Phillies, or Yankees, either. They have to play us.

[Tbone83]

3 hours ago, dtk9119 said:

BTW, who the heck is starting vs NY next week? We are burning our best starters vs PHI. Maybe with the off day, we can push one of the 3 up on regular rest? I really hope we don't go into that series starting Suarez, Povich, and Irvin. And hopefully, Cole won't be back yet.

Yeah, I kind of wish the Philly/MFY series was in the opposite order. Would be great to have our top 3 guys going vs New Yuck. Hope they tweak it so we can at least get Burnes against NY. Burnes, Irvin and whoever wouldn't be the worst.

[SteveA]

I don't go into games with a negative attitude, not when our team is as good as the O's have been for the last 2+ years.

But situationally there can't be a much worse situation than tonight:

• Teams that play a night game and then travel and play the next day only win about 40% of their games.   I imagine the flight git in around 2 or 3 am, add an hour for deplaning and getting home and to bed.  Not only that, we are playing an opponent who has had about 50 hours off since their last series and they have essentially had no travel in that period.
• We just put our best reliever on the IL
• We are giving our best hitter the day off.
• Atlanta is starting their best pitcher and we are starting the guy who came into the season about #8 on our starting rotation depth chart.

A win tonight would be fantastic, but I am not going to sweat it if we lose this one.

[Moshagge3]

1 minute ago, SteveA said:

I don't go into games with a negative attitude, not when our team is as good as the O's have been for the last 2+ years.

But situationally there can't be a much worse situation than tonight:

• Teams that play a night game and then travel and play the next day only win about 40% of their games.   I imagine the flight git in around 2 or 3 am, add an hour for deplaning and getting home and to bed.  Not only that, we are playing an opponent who has had about 50 hours off since their last series and they have essentially had no travel in that period.
• We just put our best reliever on the IL
• We are giving our best hitter the day off.
• Atlanta is starting their best pitcher and we are starting the guy who came into the season about #8 on our starting rotation depth chart.

A win tonight would be fantastic, but I am not going to sweat it if we lose this one.

Don't forget that we're starting two guys who haven't been in the batter's box in a week!

[SteveA]

1 minute ago, Moshagge3 said:

Don't forget that we're starting two guys who haven't been in the batter's box in a week!

At least we've got the T. Rowe Price uniform ads to look foward to.

[SteveA]

4 minutes ago, Moshagge3 said:

Don't forget that we're starting two guys who haven't been in the batter's box in a week!

Two?