Open Thread and Noc-A-Homa-Win-A-Lotta: Astors at Braves (8/1)

Today's Starting Pitchers

B. Carlyle Braves vs.  W. Rodriguez Astros 5-3 W-L 7-9 4.25 ERA 4.28 44 SO 103 16 BB 31 9 HR 15 vs. Astros -- vs. Braves

Game Time: 7:35pm on

A new month and a new Braves team. We'll find out today who stays in the bullpen and who goes. If you watched the game last night (or were at the game) you should agree that the scene in the later innings when Teixeira arrived in the dugout and got a standing ovation from the crowd after they showed him on the big screen was pretty cool - maybe even really cool. That made me very proud of the Atlanta crowd.

One of the comments I picked up on during the telecast last night was one attributed to Schuerholz in which he basically said that they couldn't get any starting pitching at a reasonable price, so they decided to acquire the offense and try and outscore all their opponents. That's going to make for some fun games. I'm also rather excited to have Jo-Jo stay and try and develop for the remainder of the year. Of course, that begs the question, who is our backup starter if someone should go down? Kevin Barry?

Don't forget to get your picks in before the game for Nok-A-Homa-Win-A-Lotta (click here to learn how to play and to view the leaderboard); the three categories are (1) Attendance, (2) Pick to Click, and (3) Above and Beyond Pick.

...and...

Order from July 29th until August 2nd.

Click here to go to the order page.

Regardless of whether you buy a shirt (though you should), tell all the people you know to wear black to the Braves/Giants series in mid-August. Spread the word through e-mail, over the interweb, tell people you work with, yell out your window and inform your neighbors.

Let's "Blackout" the Ted August 14th through the 16th!