Thing They Should Have Discussed Yesterday, April 21, 2011

Hello again everyone! Things are back to normal here in Michigan, as it’s overcast, drizzly, and cold. Must be Spring :-). Now, if we could only get things back to approaching normal for the Braves, we’d be in good shape.

I, along with most of the Braves “tribe”, am trying to figure out what Fredi can do to shake up what is quickly establishing itself as the worst offense in the National League. But what I’d like to get your opinions on is something that he did yesterday that got no mention in the broadcast booth, yet may have cost the Braves the win. What am I talking about?

I’m talking about the defensive substitution of McCann for Ross at catcher in the bottom of the ninth inning. I’m pretty sure the broadcast team actually missed the change, as it wasn’t mentioned with the other changes as the home half of the ninth began. In fact, the first I knew about it was when Chip (wow, I originally wrote that as Skip; where did that come from?) said something to the effect that “Brian couldn’t get to that one” as a pitch got by McCann that allowed what turned out to be the tying run to advance to second base. As things played out, if there was no wild pitch the Braves win the game. Listening to Chip you would have thought that McCann had been in the entire game.

The strangest part of the situation to me is that Fredi had to bring Brian in for defensive reasons, unless Ross was too gassed to continue (which I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere). Since when is McCann an upgrade defensively over Ross? I think it was the third of Neveruary. I don’t know if Ross could have corralled the pitch, as it was ruled a wild pitch not a passed ball. I will say that I have seen him stop pitches that looked “wilder” than that one. Plus, Ross was in “hero mode”, having just put the Braves ahead in the top of the inning. And putting McCann in at catcher meant not having him on the bench to pinch hit in what ever situation developed. That, to me, was a major loss of flexibility.

So, what do you think? Did this justify discussion? What do you think of Fredi’s move? The way it was presented, I bet many fans didn’t even pick up on it. Let us know what you think! The comments have been really light lately; makes me think I need to change brands of deodorant or something!