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Thursday, April 13, 2006
Maddog, Glav — can we talk?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where have you gone, Greg Maddux (and Tom Glavine)? Braves Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
OK, so many around Braves Nation wouldn’t want Glav back even if he wins 15-18 games this season, which seems possible given his performance this spring and the lineup that will give him far more support than he got last year. Never ceases to amaze me how a comment made here or there can become forever ingrained in the minds of some, forever shaping their view of a person. Glavine’s a good guy, but hey, I understand he’s said some things that really rubbed people the wrong way, particularly his unbending pro-union stance on so many issues.
Maddux, who’ll be 40 next week, is 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA after allowing one run in six innings yesterday against homer-happy Cincinnati with the wind blowing out at Wrigley. The man never ceases to amaze. He looked close to finished when he left here, honestly. But here he is, on his way to yet another 15-18 wins, doing it with pure pitching prowess the likes of which we have not seen in the past couple of decades from anyone else.
How much do you think Bobby Cox would like to have Maddux and/or Glavine to turn to right now, to get at least 6-7 quality innings and give the bullpen a much-needed break? Someone besides Smoltz, who did it his last time out. No other Braves starter has gone more than five innings. That’s amazing. And ridiculous.
(Just one more aside, before moving on: If either Maddux or Glavine is healthy and affordable next season, it wouldn’t shock me to see one of them back in Atlanta again, since they’d both love to be here if given a comparable offer to other teams. But I know, this isn’t the time to start talking about Maddux and Glavine. Let’s get back to the mess at hand.)
What was I saying? Oh yeah, the starters. No quality starts, an 0-4 record and a league-worst 8.24 ERA in nine games.
And please don’t give me the Leo-is-gone story. This team finished sixth in overall ERA last season and 12th in bullpen ERA. The bullpen has actually improved this season, while the same group of starters has simply not performed, be it because of the cold weather in California, sickness or whatever. Sosa just hasn’t been able to wiggle out of jams like he did last year — he’s allowed a .545 average (6-for-11) with runners in scoring position, after allowing just a .194 average (24-for-124) in 2005. ‘Nuff said.
If Sosa’s already forgotten what Leo told him, well, I don’t know what that says for Sosa. And Smoltz, Hudson and Ramirez would tell you that Leo’s absence has absolutely nothing to do with their early struggles. Nothing.
Hudson is alarming, since his slide began in 2004, his last year with Oakland. He no longer looks like the guy who was the winningest pitcher in the AL over five seasons.
After going 2-0 with an 0.94 ERA in his first four starts for the Braves in 2005, he’s gone 12-10 with a 4.34 ERA in his past 27 starts, with only 99 strikeouts and 63 walks in 172 innings. His third start is against San Diego on Friday, and the Braves have to hope he’ll go beyond four innings for the first time this season. Their bullpen can’t take too much more of this workload.
Chuck James, asked to go two innings in each of his first three appearances, did so without giving up a run. He was asked to go three last night and gave up two homers and three runs in the third inning of that stint, the first runs the undersized lefty has allowed. 8-2/3 innings in four appearances is an awful lot of work for a reliever when we’re not 10 days into the season.
The Braves lead the league in runs (63), and their .295 average includes a league-high .360 with runners in scoring position. But the offensive work of Andruw, McCann, Renteria, Langerhans, Betemit and others is being undermined by the big early deficits the Braves have faced and their inability to hold an early lead when they get one.
Maddog and Glav, can we talk?
