Dude, you’ve got to cut back on the cough syrup. It’s making you delusional again. 
Let him enjoy his fantasies for now. Reality is going to hit him hard enough this weekend as is.
Well, as a Mets fan, I’m pretty unobjective about current crop of Braves (though I dig McCann). Why do you hate Francoeur?
And hey! It looks like Mike Hampton is on track to pitch more innings than he has since 2004! Not that it’s hard:
Year … IP
2005 … 69.3
2006 … 0
2007 … 0
2008 … 46.0
The only thing getting hit hard this weekend will be the Dodgers pitching staff!
Oh yeah, I forgot all about Hampton. I was trying so hard to keep my thoughts away from anything involving the disabled list that I neglected to remember the one guy who came off the list this year. Another positive - his contract ends this fall.
To be fair to Francoeur, when I first started disliking him it was mostly in reaction to the fans who thought he was the best new Brave since David Justice. But he’s shown an inability to learn from his mistakes and improve as a player in a way that’s eerily reminiscent of Andruw Jones’s problems beginning last year. He still doesn’t walk very often, and has no clue how to work a count - he’s always behind, and even when he finds a way to get it to 2-0, which is surprisingly rare, he still has trouble working it to his advantage.
Like a lot of the fans, he still thinks he’s as good as we thought he was in 2005 - witness his pouting when we sent him down to the minors in July for an all-too-short visit to correct his swing and psychology.
He’s also a fundie. I can forgive that in John Smoltz, since he’s been so good for so long, but everyone else has a lot of work to do to overcome my prejudices. (Not that I imagine they care too much about that.)
That said, I hope the team doesn’t sell low on him and trade him this off-season unless they’re sure he’s done for, which isn’t a complete certainty. There are several outfield prospects who’ll be ready by 2010, if not next year, and once they come along I’ll be more than happy to see Francoeur go.
Yeah, that’ll make room for his logical replacement - Carl Pavano.
Fortunately, Atlanta suffers more from bad luck than GM incompetence. I doubt the Braves intend to go after anyone with even a hint of injury risk, which probably means they’ll pass on Ben Sheets, too. A much more likely scenario, in my opinion, is that they sign a known innings-eater (Derek Lowe?) who starts to feel extremely minor discomfort in his arm during spring training, goes to James Andrews to check on it, just to be safe, and ends up having to have it amputated.
It’s too bad Bill Bavasi got fired. If he hadn’t, Pavano would be a perfect fit for the Mariners.
Diamondback, Diamondbacks, Diamondbacks. What are you doing to me? This is not the way we need to start this series. Yet another weak outing from Dan Haren.
Fuck it. I can’t even get the board to let me post a grin.
Hmmm … Seattle’s Brandon Morrow has a no-hitter through 4 against the Yankees …
Five innings …
Typical. Now the Jays are eating up the teams that have to win to keep the Red Sox and Yankees out of the playoffs.
Since Cito Gaston took over as manager the Jays are playing .600 ball. That’s what we get for J.P. Ricciardi keeping his old buddy on as manager long after it was obvious he was a loser. Christ, Ricciardi needs to be fired.
Dang, Morrow lost the no-no with 2 outs in the 8th 
Still, pretty damned impressive for his first Major League start 
“It ain’t over until it’s over”
It’s over and the Yanks are fading fast now.
For the D-backs, tonight looked like it was over. We need to come back and win the next two.
Dude, it was over when they let the Blue Jays beat them.
The Yankees were 7 behind on Sept. 1. If I am not mistaken, no team in the entire history of baseball has ever come back from seven games or more on the first of September. If you also have to pass more than one other team, it just cannot be done.
At this point they’re in a dogfight just to finish third.
In a miracle, Fox is actually televising the Diamondbacks/Dodgers game today. I thought for sure we’d get the East Coast game.
D-backs need to take these last two.
You can blow 7 game leads past Sept 1st. I would know…
How far back were the Phillies last year in September?
Look leave me my delusions.