Atlanta Braves News: The Morning Chop, Box Score, Adam LaRoche In The News Again
By Jeff Schafer
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Atlanta Braves took on the Washington Nationals again on Wednesday night in the third game of a four game series. The Braves and Nats have played five times already this season. I was impressed last night with Matt Wisler’s performance. The 23-year-old should good composure on the mound against a few talented lineup. He gave up three runs, all in the 4th inning, off two home runs…one by Stephen Drew and the other off the bat of Jayson Werth. It’s nice to type this again…the Braves bullpen did an excellent job on Wednesday pitching two innings and not allowing a run or a hit! Braves offense only collected five hits, but did out hit the Nats as they only had four.
Braves lose 3-0
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mallex Smith CF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .091 | .167 | .091 |
| Nick Markakis RF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | .276 | .382 | .483 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .080 | .303 | .200 |
| Adonis Garcia 3B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .308 | .438 | .423 |
| Kelly Johnson LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .167 | .286 | .250 |
| A.J. Pierzynski C | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .200 | .200 | .250 |
| Erick Aybar SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .182 | .200 | .182 |
| Jace Peterson 2B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .167 | .211 | .167 |
| Matt Wisler P | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .250 | .250 | .250 |
| Gordon Beckham PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .308 | .438 | .462 |
| Chris Withrow P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Hunter Cervenka P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Team Totals | 29 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 34 | .172 | .273 | .172 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Wisler, L (0-1) | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4.97 |
| Chris Withrow | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Hunter Cervenka | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Team Totals | 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3.38 |
The Atlanta Braves Are Very Bad, And Fredi Gonzalez Isn’t Helping
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Before you ask it, I’ll answer it…no, no team has ever gone 0-162, but yes the Braves still have a chance at doing so. We all knew heading into this season that the Braves would struggle, there’s no question about that. We were just hoping for a couple wins early and to stay relevant…kinda like last year. Well, they are staying relevant in a laughing matter and now the news about Hector Olivera worsens everything. Our fan base must hold on because it only gets better from here…right?!? Should the Braves fire Fredi??
"It’s not easy managing a team as bereft of talent as the Atlanta Braves, so my first impulse is to feel bad for Fredi Gonzalez, who has steered his garbage team to an 0-7 start. But the Braves have been in some very winnable games, and Gonzalez hasn’t been doing much but tripping over his own feet in the early going.The Braves have now lost four games in which they’ve held a lead in the seventh inning or later, but it’s not the results or even Gonzalez’s decisions that should worry Braves fans as much as Gonzalez’s reasoning.It’s hard to effectively manage a team this bad. Every night, Gonzalez is going to be faced with what are essentially lose-lose decisions. Do I bring my bad hitter off the bench, or let my worse hitter swing away? Which of my not-very-good relievers should I use in this situation? But those moments become even bigger minefields when the guy making the decisions is starting from a false premise such as “Jeff Francoeur comes up with bigs hits in those situations.” If Gonzalez keeps going like this, what was already going to be a bleak season for the Braves is going to be that much harder to watch."
LaRoche details experience rescuing underage sex slaves
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: WHAT?!? If that was your first response after reading that headline, you’re not alone. Adam LaRoche was in the headlines a couple weeks ago after he decided to walk away from the game of baseball after the Chicago White Sox told him to scale back on how many days his son should be in the locker room. Now this? The former Atlanta Braves first baseman (played in ATL from 2004 to 2006 and again in 2009) had a solid 12-year career with 255 home runs and a slash line of .260/.336/.462 as he played for six organizations. Though some details are already out about this story, I’m sure we’ll get more when this article is published later this month.
"In Tim Keown’s profile of LaRoche that will appear in ESPN The Magazine’s April 25th issue, he touches on LaRoche’s decision to retire, but he also details how LaRoche and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Blaine Boyer spend 10days in November in Southeast Asian brothels.LaRoche and Boyer wore hidden cameras, doing undercover work to help rescue underage sex slaves. According to Keown, the pair worked through a nonprofit called the Exodus Road. They tried to determine the age of the girls, who were only known by the numbers that were pinned to their bikinis, and also tried to determine who their bosses were.“Something huge happened there for us,” Boyer says. “You can’t explain it. Can’t put your finger on it. If you make a wrong move, you’re getting tossed off a building. We were in deep, man, but that’s the way it needed to be done. Adam and I truly believe God brought us there and said, ‘This is what I have for you boys.’”“I was sick,” he says. “I was thinking about my kids and then thinking about the hundreds of thousands of parents who are searching for their 12-year-old daughters.”"