The Next Nationals

First thing every morning my cheerful co-worker in Augusta calls me to discuss the most recent Braves happenings. Sometimes I have to pull up Twitter or the internet to get a complete report. Today he helped me realize that even though the Braves dropped three straight to the Pirates, the Nationals were only able to make up one game in the standings, thanks to the Mets. That didn't matter to the doomsday theorists on the AJC blogs, who were ready to fire Fredi after the first two losses in Pittsburgh (though the Braves still had the best record in baseball).

Good thing I was busy Saturday, and missed a second-straight Nationals/Strasburg/Harper love-fest on the Fox nationally-televised game. ESPN joined the party, going on and on about Harper's fourth career multi-home run game. Gerard Mulligan, a Letterman writer, did notice Bryce's bad haircut, and blamed it on his youth. Nice that the Mets beat up on the Nats this weekend, confounding the national media. Now the trendy thing for Sports Illustrated, and other media, to do is determine who the NEXT Nationals-like powerhouse will be. This week Sports Illustrated published this laughable "Nats-ometer":

2013: Mariners
2014: Royals & Mets
2015: Pirates, Cubs, & Marlins (weren't they the team to beat last year?)
2016: Rockies, Padres, & Twins
2017: Astros

Little has been written about the MLB's youngest team: your Atlanta Braves.

Did Andrelton make WebJems or the Top Ten plays? Mark Bowman had the Tweet of the Day: "I think Sam Holbrook was impressed with the range Simmons showed while making that incredible catch." By my reckoning, Simmons ran forty yards to make that play. MLB's twitter feed called it a "sick catch." Less heralded was the tag to nab the Pirate base stealer. Had Andrelton not slapped his glove straight down to the ground immediately after catching it, Marte would've been safe. At the plate Simmons collected three hits, his third multi-hit game of the year.

The Braves aren't the only NL East team with injuries. Ryan Zimmerman was placed on the DL, and his pheenom replacement went 0-4 in his debut. Philadelphia's Ryan Howard says he is pain-free, but runs slower than ever, like he's walking on egg-shells.

Bill & Kitti's oldest son Matthew is listed in 42's credits. He was cut from the movie, but had gotten work as a stuntman.

As much I love Duck Dynasty, I'm wondering if Wednesday's season finale is when the show finally jumps the shark. The family vacations in Hawaii, and Uncle Si surfs. He'd better look out for great whites. I was afraid the show would come to this.