AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2006 > December > 31
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Reitsma leaving, Kelly J. moving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the risk of spoiling the New Year’s celebration for many of you, l’m going to cut to the chase and tell you that Chris Reitsma will not be returning to the Braves.
OK, stop the derisive applause.
This according to the beleaguered reliever’s agent, who told me Sunday that Atlanta wasn’t among the dozen teams that expressed interest in Reitsma after the Braves non-tendered him last month.
Agent Mike Paolercio said six teams have made “legitimate offers” for Reitsma, who posted an 8.68 ERA and .362 opponents’ average in 27 appearances before the All-Star break, then went on the DL and had season-ending elbow surgery.
He’s been throwing off a mound since September and plans to be at full strength for spring training. But the Braves, in probably the best move for all parties given Reitsma’s performance and fall from favor here, apparently decided to cut the cord.
GM John Schuerholz said three weeks ago, when arbitration-eligible Reitsma and Marcus Giles weren’t offered contracts, that the Braves might try to re-sign Reitsma to a lesser contract (he could’ve expected $2 million-plus through arbitration). Not happening.
“I have not heard from the Atlanta Braves whatsoever,” Paolerico said. “I’m assuming at this point they did not want to follow up on that.”
He said he’s well into negotiations with “several teams” including Cincinnati, where Reitsma was a setup man, closer and fan favorite before being traded to Atlanta before the 2004 season.
(Yes, he was a seriously popular pitcher in Cincy, much as Dan Kolb was in Milwaukee and Bob Wickman in Cleveland. Hey, at least one of them didn’t see his career fall to pieces in Atlanta.)
Reitsma had stints as closer with the Braves but eventually blew ‘em all. He converted just 25 of 45 save opportunities in three seasons for the Braves.
There were some rough times in his tenure with the team, none worse than the day Reitsma was walking with his young daughter in their Newnan neighborhood when a guy in a pickup truck rolled down his window and shouted “You suck!” to Reitsma.
On the field, his performance since the summer of 2005 did, for the most part. He never made excuses, but after the elbow surgery he confided that the condition caused periodic numbness in his pitching hand since the World Baseball Classic last fall (that damn Classic _ did anything good come of it?)
Anyway, to his credit, Reitsma didn’t use the elbow as an excuse for the 2005 season, when he was NL Rolaids Relief Man of the Month in July, then the source of much antacid consumption by fans and team officials the rest of the season.
Talk about your precipitous declines, consider this epic fall: After converting 9 of 9 saves while posting a 1.04 ERA and .153 opponents’ average in 17 appearances July 1-Aug. 6, 2005, Reitsma had a 7.68 ERA and .358 OA in his final 51 appearances for the Braves.
He went 1-6 and blew 9 of 17 saves in that awful stretch.
He was often booed at home, but struggled even more on the road, posting a hard-to-fathom 11.39 ERA and .430 opponents’ average in his final 21 road games for the Braves, with 46 hits and five homers surrendered in those 21-1/3 innings away from Turner Field.
So again, it’s probably good it’s over here. You turn the page and hope the story gets better.
While most of you never met him, let me go on record as saying Reitsma was about as decent and good a dude as I’ve ever met in 12 years covering baseball. I know that probably doesn’t mean a lot to you, because, as I said, he did stink for most of his final 12 months here.
But next time he visits Turner Field, it really wouldn’t hurt to give him a little polite applause. Or at least quiet indifference. At least don’t roll down your window and yell obscenities at him. If you guys ever got to meet him and talk to him, you’d know what I mean. Good dude.
OK, moving on….
Just got off the phone with Kelly Johnson for a story I’ll probably do in the next couple of days, about his ongoing work at second base.
Kelly’s really excited and hopeful about the opportunity he might get to play second base and perhaps bat leadoff, though he’s quite to point out that no one’s told him anything definitive about the team’s plans.
Still, barring a trade that seems less likely by the day, it appears the Braves will go to spring training with Johnson, Martin Prado and perhaps Willy Aybar competing for the second-base job (though the Braves still seem to want Aybar to play plenty at both second and third base, spelling Chipper Jones from time to time in an effort to keep the veteran healthy).
Johnson was a shortstop in high school and in the minor leagues until a week before the 2004 season, when the Braves moved him to the outfield because they had infielders and because he’d made 45 errors in one season at Macon. But others before him also made an alarming number of errors on that notorious Macon infield, including Chipper (56, yes 56, in 136 games in 1991) and Giles (25 in 1998).
Point is, Johnson probably wasn’t as bad an infielder as we thought. He’s been working with coach Glenn Hubbard two or three times a week this winter at Turner Field, turning double plays, fielding grounders, doing everything he can to get comfortable on the right side of the infield.
It’s worth noting, Hubbard was instrumental in helping transform Giles from a minor leaguer who the Braves didn’t think could play major-league quality defense to a darn good fielder.
Johnson said he’s really starting feel good at 2B, and his elbow hasn’t been a problem (he missed the 2005 season recovering from Tommy John surgery). He sound confident and ready for the challenge, if the Braves are serious about using him there.
“I’m not working out there just to be able to play second base,” he said, “I’m working out to be good over there.”
For those who might have forgotten, Johnson hit .241 with 24 extra-base hits (three triples, nine homers), 40 RBIs and a .334 OBP in 87 games (290 at-bats) as a rookie outfielder in 2005.
Called to the majors in late May, he went 2-for-34 with two singles and one RBI in his first 12 games, but Bobby Cox stayed with him, pointing out how much he loved Johnson’s “setup” at the plate and noting how many balls he was hitting hard right at people.
Johnson hit .344 with 12 extra-base hits (six homers) and 23 RBIs in the next 24 games, with 19 walks, a .455 OBP, a 1.068 OPS and an NL Player of the Week award in that blazing stretch.
As first-time rookies are wont to do, he then went into a 2-for-24 slump, hit .165 with one homer over his next 22 games, and lost playing time to roommate and fellow Texan Ryan Langerhans, who finished his own rookie season with a promising surge.
It got largely overlooked, but Johnson finished that 2005 season by hitting .282 with a .378 OBP and .840 OPS over his final 29 games.
The kid _ Johnson will be 25 in February _ can hit, no question about it.
And Johnson said he’s learned a lot being on the sidelines, after watching all of the 2006 season from the bench or on TV, after seeing Langerhans struggle and Brian McCann put together a splendid All-Star season and Jeff Francoeur deal with some adversity, etc.
Johnson knows he needs to be more aggressive at the plate than he was as a rookie, and so far he said he feels stronger during his offseason hitting sessions.
Contrary to some reports _ and speculation from yours truly _ he’s not oversized for second base. Johnson said he’s 6 feet 1 and 200 pounds, significantly smaller than the likes of Jeff Kent, Chase Utley and, yes, Wilson Betemit.
If nothing else, it should be interesting to watch this spring. If I had to bet right now, I’d say Johnson’s got a good shot at being the opening-day second baseman, something I admit sounded quite far-fetched when last season ended….
OK, had to share this with you: A late entry into the quote-of-the-year contest, though more subtle in its ridiculousness than riotously funny. It’s from Orioles 3B Melvin Mora, to the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Zrebiec, after the O’s signed Aubrey Huff during the weekend:
“I am excited if we can sign him, Mora said. “I think [Huff] can put up the same numbers as a $70 million player. He can hit over 20 home runs, plus he can drive in 100. This is the perfect guy to hit behind Miggy [Miguel Tejada].”
Over 20 home runs, 100 RBIs = $70 million?
Oh, my. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that some baseball players are detached from the real word.
“If I Had Known” by Greg Brown
A little creek you could spit across/Jimmy and me each took one more toss/our spinners bright in the evening air/People always said,/ There ain’t no fish in there
Well grownups they ain’t always right/Jimmy and me walked home slow that night/right down Main Street in our P.F. Fliers/with two 5 lb. bass making grown men liars
Jimmy if I had known/I might have stopped fishing right then
It’s just as well we don’t know/when things will never be that good again…
A hayride on an Autumn night/Well we was 15 if I remember right/We were far apart at the start of the ride/but somehow we ended up side by side
We hit a bump and she grabbed my arm/The night was as cold as her lips were warm I shivered as her hand held mine/And then I kissed her one more time
And Jane if I had known/I might have stopped kissing right then
It’s just as well we don’t know/when things will never be that good again…
She was older than me I guess/Summer was invented for her to wear that dress/I knew about risk and she knew about proof/and that night she took me up on the roof
We could see the lights of the little towns/We could watch the August stars come down/Shooting stars, meteorites…/We went on a ride through the sky that night
And, oh, if I had known…/I’d do it all over again
Some things just get better and better/and better than they’ve already been
