Warning: Profanity laced tirade ahead.
Warning: Profanity laced tirade ahead.
(Actually, from when I wrote this last night until I posted it this morning I had a change of heart, and so I've "TBS'ed" all of the curse words.)
How bad is Mark Redman? I'll tell you how f-ing bad he is. Say you're handed a FOUR-RUN lead in the top of the first and you go out to the mound in the bottom of the first and just let them have it right back with four in the bottom of the first. And then your team goes out there and gives you two more runs and the lead, and two innings later, what do you do - you give it right back to them, once again.
No, no, we're not talking about walking people when we talk about the Redman Plug. He's so f-ing horrible that he's just out there throwing batting practice - he doesn't even have a chance to get deep enough into a count where he can walk someone. I'll tell you who's a better pitcher than the plug, and that's Eddie Perez throwing batting practice; probably fewer hits per nine with Eddie on the mound, than with Redman.
What f-ing purpose is he possibly serving at this point? He's not an innings eater, he's not someone who keeps his team in a ballgame (good lord, we learned that tonight), and he is certainly not someone who can pitch in a must win game. His only talent is giving up runs -
that's it, that's all. Where the hell is Anthony Lerew? He'd probably give us more innings with more upside. Redman is 33 and he's not getting any better...he's getting progressively worse.
What the frick are we doing with him in our rotation? I yearn for Shane f-ing Reynolds or Andy f-ing Ashby. What the hell were we thinking? He was UNSIGNED in the middle of spring training, and we were stupid enough to "say uncle" when Hampton went down.
Call up anybody, for the love of God! Where the hell is Jonathan Johnson? Call up f-ing Buddy Carlyle - f-ing Buddy Carlyle would be better! What about Kevin Barry? Where the hell is Travis f-ing Smith? How about some young guys like Matt Harrison or Jo-Jo Reyes -
couldn't be worse than the plug! Shit, call up Tommy Hanson and his minor league leading 33 strikeouts and 0.81 ERA all the way from f-ing Rome!
Can you tell I'm miffed?
Can we stop picking up players from last place teams. Let the f-ing Pirates and the Royals have their also-rans and have-beens, and let's pick up players from good teams. But no, we have to go out and sign Craig ".135" Wilson and Mark "10.12" Redman. Those teams couldn't win
with those guys, so what the hell makes us think we can? Jeez-us!
<end sanitized profanity laced tirade>
Anyway, we did win the game...despite the plug. How great was Peter Moylan in relief! He really pitched well and kept the Braves in the game until they could put some more runs on the board.
It was great to see Francoeur have back to back multi-hit games. By the way, does anyone know who leads the National League in RBI? If you said Jeff Francoeur by a margin of four, you were correct.
Also great to see Thorman starting to break out of it. He is starting to get some hits in key situations, and if they would just keep him in the lineup I think he'd really break out. Kelly Johnson might be making a case for being a better leadoff man than Rafael Furcal. With three walks last night, Johnson now has a team leading .435 on-base percentage, which is good enough for eighth best in the National League. He's also fourth in the league in runs scored...Marcus who?
Atlanta 11, Florida 6 at Dolphin Stadium
Atlanta Record: (13-7)
Florida Record: (9-11)
Winning pitcher - Peter Moylan (1-0)
Losing pitcher - Matt Lindstrom (0-1)