Braves/Mariners

Notes from Tuesday night's Braves/Mariners game: Traffic wasn't too bad. Stopped at Cheeseburger Bobbys to take advantage of an expiring special. Picked up Will at the Ansley Mall Publix, and we took Juniper the rest of the way. Saw four people I knew in the dollar line. At BP I talked to Johnny and Marshal. Will decided there was less competition for balls in right field, and he was able to catch a Robinson Cano BP HR – barehanded.

Will's classmate Alyssa and her family showed up during BP, so it was good to catch up with them. Their youngest just graduated from high school, so they will be empty nesters this fall. Alyssa was named captain of the West Point tennis team, though her career so far has been injury plagued. From my seat in the upper deck I saw Alyssa during the national anthem - standing at attention, crisply saluting the flag. That's them in the 9th row.

Huge crowd for a Tuesday, thanks to the thousands of teenyboppers there for the Austin Mahone concert. It was hilarious to hear all the comments. For a while I was wondering if some of them could wait nine innings for the show to begin. Mahone threw out the first ball. A smiling Ervin Santana had to stand up from his crouch to catch the high pitch.

Hopefully Gattis will continue to hit. In the Driven show about him, Gattis mentioned that when in Rome he led the league in hitting, like it was no big deal. Made me wonder if he had always hit for average. Wasn't his winter ball BA well above .300? That makes me wonder if he'll be at least a 270-280 hitter in the bigs. He's up to .260 now. BJ had two more hits, including the homer that just carried and carried.

Good defensive play by Floyd, throwing to third to catch the runner off base. His throw was actually off the mark. CJ had to reach way on the right field side of the bag to catch the throw, then bring the glove back across his body to make the tag – making the play closer that it had to be. McLendon argued, but they didn't replay it. I was worried that it would've been the defensive play of the game instead of one of LaStella's gems, but the rookie's play did turn out to be highlighted on the jumbotron. Three more hits for LaStella. If he can do half of what he's done so far, his addition will be a huge boost to the lineup. I'll ask first - rookie of the year?

Will met MC at the game. Her dad and brother also came, but I didn't see them either. With time on my hands I checked out the All Star Ballot for a Bobblehead deal. Many were picking up ballots, though few were going for the BJ Upton bobblead. Two-hundred fifty All Star ballots are heavy – they really weighed down my backpack. Perhaps when I return to Turner Field in a couple of weeks they'll be giving out someone other than BJ. I didn't start punching ballots until the fourth inning. I didn't rush, but only completed about 35. I'll need to do twenty a day to finish. One more thing – the chads make a mess.

After I tweeted that Mariners catcher John Buck lived in a trailer, I remembered a friend lives in a trailer. Tried to delete the post off Facebook, but I'm not sure it worked. Interesting Fox segment on Buck, whose nice trailer was is parked in a beautiful trailer park in the mountains, near a stream. The trailer has everything he needs, including a big screen TV. He says the trailer was larger than where he lived in NYC. While the segment was being filmed his buddy came to visit, a player on the team visiting Seattle.

Every time Cano batted the Braves organist played the same Simon & Garfunkle song. Thought at least once he could've come up with something else.

680's Matt Chernoff said today's 12:30 game was a "lock" – there is no way the Mariners can win. Of course, he was wrong.

What Rob said: In 2013, the Braves scored 4.25 runs per game, compared to 2014 when they have scored 3.46 runs per game. The MLB average for runs per game has remained virtually unchanged - 4.17 last year and 4.16 this year. Last year's number placed them 13th among MLB teams, while this year they are 29th.

In 2013, their team On Base Pct was 13th in the league - this year it is 26th. Looking at the top 8 hitters in terms of plate appearances, Johnson has the largest year over year drop of 88 points of OBP. Uggla is down 57 points from last year and Gattis is 33 points lower than Mac was last year. LaStella should eventually bring that 2014 number up. The Gattis/Mac drop is just going to be what it is - I think Gattis will just be a high power, low OBP guy. The key here is Johnson - if he continues to be another low OBP guy, it is going to be hard for them to score runs consistently.

Heyward's OBP has dropped a mere 10 points from last year, while dropped 8 points. Simmon's OBP is actually 1 point higher. With as much grief as the Upton's take, it is interesting that their OBP's are 26 and 24 points higher for BJ and Justin, respectively.