Pawtucket 6, Richmond 7 (Game 1 - 7 Innings)

• B. Canizares 2-4 2B,RBI
• D. Hernandez 3-3 RBI
• C. Loadenthal 3-3 2B, RBI

The Richmond team survived the onslaught of homers from the Boston farmclub by loading the bases in the bottom of the 7th inning and getting Scott Thorman home on a wild pitch. Rumor has it this was a carefully devised scheme from Richmond manager Dave Brundage. Either way Diory Hernandez has been stroking the ball again lately currently riding a 6 game hitting streak. Carl Loadenthal is hitting .316 after tonights performance but I'm going to go ahead and say that .300 might be his only skill. He has some speed sure, but he gets caught too much really to be effective. He does walk his share, but he's pretty much another Gregor Blanco/ Josh Anderson type.

Pawtucket 6, Braves 1

• R. Gorecki 2-2 BB
• B. Lawrence 6IP 4H 2R 3BB 2K

This is more like what I expect when the Braves and Red Sox play each other.

Mississippi 1, Jacksonville 0

• J. Parr 6IP 2H 0R 2BB 5K

James Parr has just been getting better and better. He is 8-4 on the season and 6-1 in his last 10 starts. In his last 3 starts his line is thus: 18IP 3H 2R 10BB 16K. That is probably one of the better 3 game stretches in the minors this season (though the walks are odd). I'll still stick with my previous stance that Parr isn't going to be a major league starter, but he's going to get a shot at something.

Myrtle Beach - Off

Greensboro 3, Rome 5

• F. Freeman 4-4 3B, 2 RBI
• C. Johnson 2-3 BB
• C. Miles 2-3 3B, RBI, BB
• E. Cordier 2.2IP 2H 1R 2BB 2K

Freddie Freeman is trying to make sure we don't forget him. Oh we know, Freddie, we know. Cody Johnson is still hitting and is having a great July so far. Some interesting news here is that Eric Cordier, acquired last year from the Royals for Tony Pena, Jr., made his first start for the Braves outside of rookie ball. I guess he wasn't horrible and was most likely on a strict pitch count. Anyone see him throw tonight? How was he? Velocity? Control?

Bluefield 1, Danville 10

• S. Moody 2-4 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, K
• J. Gilmore 4-5 3 2B
• R. Delgado 4IP 1H 0R 2BB 5K

This Moody kid has been raking the ball ever since we signed him. He is hitting .349 currently and has shown decent plate discipline and some doubles power. Jon Gilmore also doesn't want to be outshone from last year's draft class, but he needs to proves something at Rome  before the season is out if we are going to put any faith in him.

Braves 4, Phillies 5

• C. Maddox 1-2 2B
• R. Voelkel 2-2 2B, RBI, BB
• D. Delgado 3IP 5H 3R 1BB 3K

Delgado is one of our hotshot young arms but he's been 'meh' in the past couple of games. Ryan Voelkel is a big first baseman from Washington. I don't think we drafter him from anywhere since he isn't listed in the last couple of years, but if you want to see him hit a home run here is a video link.

What a miserable season. Just when we thought the season couldn't sink any lower we almost get perfecto'ed by Hideo Nomo's doppleganger.

Imagine if we had Andruw Jones on our team this year, imagine the black hole that our outfield would be in that scenario. Francoeur would not have gotten demoted because he's hitting 75 points higher that AJ.

A few more of these losses and we should be in full sell mode. I'm not sure if I want us to lose a few more so that we can make some trades for prospects or if I want us to win some more so we feel like we're still in the race. I've said it several other times, but the underachieving style of this team makes me afraid that if they seem like they're getting back into it, that it won't last long and we will have missed our opportunity at more than just two draft picks.

Perhaps the new homeboy upstairs should just roll the dice:

Hot off the presses:

The Atlanta Braves today signed free-agent right-handed pitcher Julian Tavarez to a contract through the remainder of the 2008 season. Financial terms were not disclosed.  Tavarez is expected to be in Los Angeles in time for the Braves’ game versus the Dodgers tonight at 10:10 p.m. ET.

Tavarez owns an 84-72 career record with 22 saves and a 4.46 ERA in 750 games.  He has appeared in 16 games this season (nine with Boston and seven with Milwaukee) and is 0-2 with a 7.50 ERA. Tavarez has not allowed a home run in 20.0 innings pitched this season and has limited right-handed batters to a .213 (10-for-47) average.

The Braves are Tavarez’s 10th major league club. He broke in with Cleveland in 1993 and has pitched in the postseason five times, including twice in the World Series (1995 with Cleveland and in 2004 with St. Louis).

I spit on this move.

The 10 hours days are starting to catch up to me. Meh. Also, I'm watching Sportscenter right now and I just saw that R.J. Swindle made his major league debut for the Phillies tonight. I went to school with him at Charleston Southern University. Classis soft tosser who dominated the low minors and then got released and then picked up again after some time in an Indy league if I remember correctly. The Mets have a pitching prospect name Robert Parnell who I roomed with in college as well.

Richmond - Off

Chattanooga 3, Mississippi 4

• M. Young 1-3 HR(2), 2 RBI, BB
• M. Diaz 0-4 2K (.188 AVG)
• K. Medlen 7IP 4H 3R 1BB 10K

This game is still going on but Kris Medlen had another solid outing as a starter. We could reasonably see this guy in Atlanta next year if he continues to show this kind of prowess as a starter. Our rotation could be very young. The Braves pull off the come from behind win in this one with a walk-off Sac Fly from Quentin Davis in the 9th.

Wilmington 2, Myrtle Beach 5

• W. Cabrera 2-4 3B, RBI
• T. Flowers 1-3 2B, BB, K
• R. Gress 2-2 HR(1) RBI, BB
• C. Vines 7IP5H 1R 0BB 5K

Tyler Flowers really is a walking machine. He now has a 63/65 BB/K rate on the season and has a .409 OBP. He is quietly putting together a solid season at Myrtle Beach in a horrible park at home and playing a demanding position. I'm impressed. Randy Gress made his debut in full season ball tonight and promptly homered to announce his arrival. He was an 18th Rnd pick out of Quinnipiac last season and struggled pretty heavily last year in the GCL and Appy leagues, but pummeled the Appy in a few games this season.

Greensboro 2, Rome 8

• J. Heyward 2-4 2 RBI
• F. Freeman 2-5 3B, RBI, K
• J. Locke 7IP 3H 0R 0BB 6K

Jeff Locke turned in what was probably his best performance of the year and dropped his ERA below 4 for the first time this season. He has been getting stronger and stronger as the season wears on. Heyward left the game in the 8th inning. I'm not sure if he is injured or what but he has missed some noticeable time lately. Freddie Freeman continues to rake.

Danville - Off

Indians 5, Braves 9 - Suspended due to Rain

Better late than never...

The damage from last night's 17-inning affair was plenty. Infielder Omar Infante reaggravated his strained groin early in Sunday's contest (after recently straining my groin I can tell you what a pain it is - I used to make fun of players with strained groins, not anymore). Jeff Bennett injured his right shoulder in Saturday's game and Manny Acosta strained his hamstring trying to leg out a bunt in the wee innings of yesterday's marathon.

The Braves recalled Jeff Francoeur from double-A Mississippi, of course I was puzzled by that earlier... still am. The team also recalled infielder Brent Lillibridge and called up for the first time as a Brave, RHP Vladimir Nunez, who last pitched in the majors in 2004 with Colorado. Don't look for Nunez to be anything too spectacular, he's one of those barely marginal major league players.

I wrote earlier today that I thought it was a mistake to demote Jeff Francoeur to the minors. Well, he has now been recalled to the majors, which, to me at least, is puzzling, and in some respects calls the reasons for his demotion into question.

If the point of his demotion was for the team to "straighten him out" or "get him back to his old form," then how can three days in the minors solve those problems? To me this further underlines the real reasons for his demotion. If it really was for him to get his swing back, then the right thing to do would have been to keep him down there until that occurred (as per the original plan). In this instance, the team should have recalled Brandon Jones or Brent Lillibridge or Josh Anderson.

My feeling, especially after this hasty recall today, is that the real decision to demote Francoeur was a punitive measure, and had less to do with him rediscovering himself as was publicly stated.

This decision to recall Francouer also seems like a knee jerk reaction to the possible negative reaction that many had to his demotion.

Some chinks in the Braves front office armor are beginning to show...

It seems that the demotion of under performing players is en vogue this year; Dontrelle Willis, Brett Myers, and now Jeff Francoeur. When it comes to demoting these pitchers, I can see the value of giving them time to rediscover their form in the minor leagues -- pitching is more about the repetition of mechanics than hitting -- but when it comes to Jeff Francoeur demoting him was the wrong move -- because his problems hitting major league pitching cannot be fixed by hitting minor league pitching.

We all know that Frenchy is a free swinger -- that's why some of his love him, but it is also one of his flaws. Announcers often quip that he's never met a pitch he didn't like. But this is not a habit that will be broken at double-A Mississippi. The minors are full of fastball pitchers who locate their pitches nearer to the plate than major league pitchers -- and Francoeur's free-swinging style will no doubt find more pitches to hit in that fastball paradise. The nature of pitching at the double-A level plays right into the bad habits of Francoeur's approach to hitting.

Another reason not to demote him is that we really have no one better to replace him with. We're filling in with Greg Norton and Jason Perry, one of whom is hitting worse than Francoeur since his arrival from Seattle, and there is a reason the other has never made the major leagues in six previous professional seasons.

The right thing to do would have been to continue to let Francoeur work out his problems in Atlanta. He's a major leaguer and that's what they're expected to do. This demotion is possibly a further indictment of at least one other member of the Braves -- hitting coach Terry Pendleton. TP has often practiced a hands-off-I'll-wait-until-you-come-to-me-for-help approach, but it is becoming more apparent that this approach is not working for everyone. It didn't work for Andruw Jones, who likely needed someone to get in his face and tell him what to do; and it also doesn't seem to be working for Jeff Francoeur, who needed TP to tell him to ignore everyone else except him and his advice -- Pendleton needed to be the one to straighten out Francoeur.

This demotion could also pose a serious threat to Francoeur's psyche. This is a player who was held up by the Braves as the new face of the franchise. I understand the need to not have that face struggling, but punishment is not the way to fix him.

In all likelihood Jeff Francoeur will rip into Southern League pitching for the next two or three weeks, and his replacements in the majors will fail to provide any positive replacement value. We'll see Frenchy back up after the All-Star break, after swinging at double-A fastballs for a fortnight, and he'll fall right back into the same bad habits he had before he was demoted, because the problem is not that Francoeur can't hit professional pitching, it's that he can't hit major league pitching. The adjustments he has to make to be able to hit in the majors simply cannot be realized in the minors, this time in the minors will only reinforce his bad habits.

That was another game last night... what a game.

I was gonna say, "I wonder if this guy is in the minor leagues yet," but I caught a rogue wireless connection and found out that he was demoted. Wow! Just wow.

What a game last night... and those fireworks after the game... nothing like the fireworks during the game... I really have no idea what happened.

Here's a picture of a real All-American guy: