Heat Check: Matty Ice starts hot; Ben Sheets begins to cool
Ben Sheets after yielding the second of four Dodger home runs. (AJC photo by Hyosub Shin)
Our weekly Heat Check commences where you’d expect, although falling five games behind the team you’re chasing does tend to lower any case of pennant fever.
BRAVES: They’ve lost only two of 12 series since the All-Star break, which is good. Less good is this: They haven’t won a series from a team that is currently above .500 since June 26-28, when they took two of three from Arizona.
Dropping the final two games of the Dodgers series only served to underscore a sore point: The Braves are 26-30 against plus-.500 opposition, and they’re 10-20 against teams that are leading divisions. This week they’ll play three games against Washington and four against San Francisco, and they’re 5-10 against those two.
That said, the September schedule is, to borrow a line from the great Joe Dean Sr., as soft as church music. Heat Index: So long as the Braves don’t go 1-6 these next seven days, they should be fine.
BEN SHEETS: It almost seemed too good to be true, and maybe it was. He won his first three starts, yielding one run in 18 innings. On Saturday he lost for the third time in his past four starts, yielding three runs on four pitches. Granted, the loss to Los Angeles was one of the weirdest you’ll ever see: Sheets was touched for only four hits, but all were homers, meaning the Dodgers’ BABIP (batting average on balls in play) was .000 on a night they won 6-2. Heat Index: Even if Sheets doesn’t win another game, he was worth the investment. And he’ll surely win some more games, don’t you think?
FALCONS: They lost another exhibition, which means they haven’t won a game that doesn’t count since August 2010. But I would remind you that the 1990 Falcons of the Great Glanville were 4-0 in preseason and 5-11 in the real season. Heat Index: Wake me when September rolls around.
MATT RYAN: Even as we note that exhibition stats aren’t to be taken as gospel truth, we must note that the quarterback seems to have taken to Dirk Koetter’s offense as (inelegant image upcoming) a pig takes to slop. Ryan has completed 27 of 34 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns (against one admittedly bad interception). He has not been sacked. Heat Index: If Ryan doesn’t post banner numbers this fall, my name’s not Mike Mularkey.
GEORGIA BULLDOGS: Mark Richt was upset because Scrimmage No. 2 was festooned with eight turnovers. “It wasn’t just awful, but it wasn’t great,” Richt told reporters. “I didn’t see a team that was ready to be great. I saw a team that was still pretty good. So I wasn’t that thrilled about it.” Heat Index: Just wondering if any team has ever looked “great” in a scrimmage. And if so, why?
GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS: Paul Johnson wasn’t happy because Saturday’s scrimmage was, to use his word to reporters, “ragged.” Also it included “a lot of mistakes.” But Vad Lee apparently looked pretty good, so there’s that. Heat Index: See above.
By Mark Bradley
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74 comments Add your comment
TuffShhhtuff
August 20th, 2012
12:50 pm
There are two “lead weights” dragging down the Braves that hinder them being successful. Drop one, Dan Uggla, from the lineup, and replace the current managerial wizard, Fredi Gonzalez, and the difference will be immediately noticed. Otherwise expect nothing more than possibly a wildcard playoff game, and even that will be a “one and done.”
GTT
August 20th, 2012
12:53 pm
Sonny Clusters has yet to deny that he’s really Norman Arey.
Ted M
August 20th, 2012
12:58 pm
The first team offense was absolutely pitiful in the last two preseasons and the Falcons lost the first game of the reg season each of the last two years. So this is a really great sigh for the Falcons.
Ben Sheets just needs some run support.
Brian McCann is so far repeating last season.
Melky Cabrera…hahahahaha!
Ted M
August 20th, 2012
1:12 pm
I meant “sign” although some might say “sigh” is more appropriate.
Ted M
August 20th, 2012
1:13 pm
Mark – Nobody seems to be reading your heat check…have you been burning bridges?
todd
August 20th, 2012
1:15 pm
I think they should skip Sheets next start and see how he does when he is fresh. He’s just not throwing as hard. The zero strike out game he pitched was kind of an indicator there.
Ted M
August 20th, 2012
1:29 pm
Uggla wishes he was repeating last season. I didn’t think it was possible for him to follow last year with an even crappier season. Next year you gotta expect that this is the new norm not what he did 3, 4 or 5 yrs ago.
Eisendawg
August 20th, 2012
1:42 pm
Frank Wren’s fault, the slump immediately followed Wren saying this team could go all the way. This is why I hate to see you write an article assuring success for the Dawgs.
Big Al
August 20th, 2012
2:09 pm
Why get so upset about the Braves? This is the time of the year when the Braves usually fold the tent. This is nothing new, just another verse.
Batcork
August 20th, 2012
2:12 pm
Went to the Braves game Friday night. I was shocked how clueless Uggla and Freeman were at the plate all night long – swinging early, swinging late, swinging at 59-footers, watching fat strikes go by. Heyward and Prado weren’t much better, although Heyward did get the clutch hit in the 8th. Couldn’t watch Sat or Sun games, but from the box scores I have to assume things weren’t any better with this foursome. Slumps happen, let’s just hope at least 3 of them snap out of it before we take a big tumble in the standings.
Pitching isn’t the problem right now. This last couple of go-arounds, everybody except Sheets has pitched well enough to win.
urban redneck
August 20th, 2012
2:21 pm
dammit bradley. no kudos for first. stop encouraging this.
worried about sheets………..think we may go back to the five man rotation pretty quick.
Stinger 2
August 20th, 2012
2:32 pm
Clusters: As I said last week, I never tell you how to think or what to say. If you don`t like Uggla that is fine with me. The question is why did it take you three rambling posts to say the same thing about him? Do you just like to see your name on the blogs?
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 20th, 2012
2:35 pm
21 completions and only 175 yards?
The Dink & Dunk fest continues……………..
GB's Hamburgers
August 20th, 2012
2:50 pm
Our teams represent the top tier of mediocrity. We are enduringly hopeful, but the gravity of predicibility seldom allows a reprieve.
Gofortwo
August 20th, 2012
4:32 pm
Mark, please text me before you post your next article so I can be the dreaded first since it seems as if it will never go away.
LakeDawg
August 20th, 2012
4:37 pm
The Braves are going cold. It natural. They’ve been hot for a while. However, so has Washington and they’re not going cold. Hmmm.
Skeezix
August 20th, 2012
5:04 pm
‘Excellent pitching’ will put the brakes on the best offense, but the Braves offense (except Chipper) struggles to hit ‘average to good’ pitching. That, and not starting pitching, has turned out to be the Achilles heel of the 2012 team. Does Uggla ever get a hit against a good pitcher? He struggles to hit even sub-par pitching.
Lately Freeman has been swinging at a lot of bad pitches. He has been swinging so hard, that sometimes it looks like he is trying to bring down a tree. Against L.A., Freeman, McCann and Uggla all were big fat holes in the line up. That made it pretty easy for the L.A. pitchers.
Ralph
August 20th, 2012
5:56 pm
Braves got an early start into September!
Semper Fi Braves fan
August 20th, 2012
6:47 pm
Bourn = Strikes out way to much for lead off man
Prado = Leads the team in double plays
Heyward = Big improvements over last year and 1st half, still strikes out to much.
Jones = 3 out of 4 games
McCann = .227 and 2nd in double plays hit into
Uggla = .211 nuff said
Freeeman = Should never see a 1st pitch strike, and always be behind in the count.
Janish = He plays great defense, and the whole reason he is here
Ladies and Gentlemen, your starting 8.. what I find funny however is they started off the year doing amazing in situational hitting. Getting the runner over, getting him home from 3rd with 2 outs, and all that jazz. Now it seems like that’s not good enough, its home run or bust.
Semper Fi Braves fan
August 20th, 2012
6:48 pm
*Less than 2 outs*
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
August 20th, 2012
7:08 pm
ATTENTION: This year’s superbowl matchup is being aired on MNF
kerryb
August 20th, 2012
8:30 pm
Big series and Tim Hudson gives up 4 in the first. The slide begins.
Thomas Brown
August 22nd, 2012
6:18 am
Our favorite game to watch this weekend, according to ecdawg, is not 2012 season, not 2011 season, not 2010 season, not 2009 season, not 2008 season, but 2007 season in a bowl game against a hapless Hawaii team 2007 who beat no one and ended up # 19 in every poll, 6 seasons ago now 2012. A near-defunct WAC conference, their Hawaii team who beat a 4-9 Washington (Washington also beat Boise State that season 6 seasons ago now.), a team who beat 6-7 WAC Nevada, a team who beat 4-loss Fresno State, a team who beat 4-9 WAC New Mexico State whom Mark Richt left Aaron Murray in against to throw his 5 TD passes, who beat 5-7 San Jose State, who beat 2-10 Utah State, who beat 1-11 Idaho, who beat 5-6 Charleston Southern of 1-AA, who beat 2-10 UNLV, who beat 5-7 Louisiana Tech, and who beat 1-11 Northern Colorado of 1-AA also as all their wins 2007 season. Despite all these cupcakes only on their schedule 2007, Hawaii ended up # 116 Rushing Offense, # 41 Rushing Defense, # 34 Total Defense, # 46 Scoring Defense, # 107 Net Punting, # 93 Turnover Margin, and # 100 Sacks Allowed team, Hawaii 2007. 2007 the same season we lost to 6-6 South Carolina who did not even play in a bowl game and lost to the vols in a blow-out a not that good vols’ team, and watched instead as LSU beat 2 teams who made the AP Poll Top 10 while Mark Richt, again, beat none 2007.
A (slightly) stronger Matt Ryan will power the Falcons upward | Mark Bradley
August 22nd, 2012
2:06 pm
[...] Speaking of Ryan during June minicamp, Koetter said: “He has everything you want and more.” If two exhibitions are any measure (and exhibitions aren’t always a measure of much), the new coordinator plans to unleash Matty Ice. In those two practice games Ryan has thrown 34 passes, completing 27 for 329 yards and two touchdowns. [...]