Look,
I’m not going to pretend that a certain sub-sect of degenerates, like me, isn’t just going to watch any Braves (and other) baseball put in front of them. But that aside, if you were going to be choosy, what’s left to watch for? Share your own reasons for putting in the time through September below. Off the top of my head, random possibilities are:
- The now even less likely even though it was already essentially impossible miracle run. I’ll admit, there was some small satisfaction from watching the team from the perspective of, “But what if they pull off a legendary winning streak and win pretty much all of their remaining games?” The offense was actually doing walks and homers, the baserunning/etc. stupidity was localized, and the pitchers weren’t victimized by HR/FB and other stuff as much as earlier in the season. All of that came crashing down against the Mets, though, as pretty much the opposite happened in essentially every respect. So now it’s just… featherless. Mostly.
- Drake Baldwin’s possibly/likely ill-fated Rookie of the Year campaign. Baldwin himself has started to scuffle a bit (94 wRC+ in August so far is his lowest in any month), and though it’s largely a mirage (his .360 xwOBA in August is near-identical to his .363 mark on the season; he’s just underhitting it a ton again), I don’t think any of us believe the voters are going to look at inputs when assigning votes (nor is it clear they should).
- The shine has rubbed off of Joey Wentz lately, leaving Hurston Waldrep as the main appointment viewing pitcher. I guess Spencer Strider’s starts are appointment viewing insofar as it’s pretty important that he figure out a way forward that at least resembles a return to his pitching before his last few starts, but that’s also the sort of thing you don’t have to subject yourself to.
- Ronald Acuña Jr. exists. But, he has “just” a 120s wRC+ in July and August after going thermonuclear in May and June.
What else is there?
