AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 19
Monday, February 19, 2007
Chipper: We’re going to be good
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For any Braves fans worried about this season, if you could talk to Chipper Jones for 15 minutes you’d feel better about things, for sure.
I talked to him this morning, and folks, Hoss really believes this Braves team is better than last year’s. He thinks they have a good chance of getting back to the playoffs, and pointed out that Braves teams that advanced deepest into the playoffs were the ones that featured stellar pitching rather than their best-hitting teams.
The kind of pitching he believes the 2007 Braves will feature, after rebuilding their leaky bullpen and with a promising rotation that features three former 20-game winners _ Smoltz, Hudson, Hampton _ and Chuck James, who went 11-4 with a 3.93 ERA in 18 starts as a rookie.
“We’ve still got to score runs, but I think this team is going to score runs,” Chipper said. “It’s not going to be the best offense in the National League, but it’s going to be a good offense. And we’re a better team if we have a little less offense and a better pitching staff.
“If we’re going to win the division _ win anything _ we’ve got to pitch better than we did last year. We sat back and watched a team [St. Louis] that won 83 games in the regular season win the World Series, because the pitching got hot. That’s no secret.”
I asked him a bunch of stuff about Andruw, about Smoltz, about the unproven projected right side of the infield _ Kelly Johnson and Scott Thorman _ about his feet, about his scraggly goatee (“Just trying something different,” he said). I’ll put most of it in a story today or tomorrow probably, unless I decide not to, in which case I’ll throw it on here tomorrow.
But here’s a couple of snippets: About the bullpen, he said, “You can’t have the blown saves we’ve had over the last couple years and not feel like it’s a glaring weakness that needed to be addressed. We did that _ and then some.”
On Andruw and Smoltz being eligible for free agency at the end of the season: “I’d obviously like to see us keep both of them. You’re talking about two guys who’ve been lifelong Braves; it’s not a hard decision, to me. I do think they’d stay here if the money’s competitive.
“If I had a hunch, I’d say both of ‘em will stay.”
But he added about Smoltz, “If pushed, he will go. Glav [Tom Glavine] went. Maddog [Greg Maddux] went.”
It’s 10:15 a.m. on Monday, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky above Central Florida…. as we get the first full week of spring training started. There are about 30 pitchers and catchers sprawled out, stretching on the grass in right field here at Wide World of Sports as we sit in the pressbox looking out at the flags and palm trees ruffling in the breeze.
Bobby Cox is talking to some coaches in the dugout, Glenn Hubbard has a glove on and a bat in his hands, doing the Sheffield waggle with it along the first-base line, and Terry Pendleton and a couple other coaches are standing at the pitcher’s mound, with a basket full of balls ready for batting practice.
Just one more day before all the position players officially report (even though all the key guys except Andruw Jones and Edgar Renteria are already here working out), and two more days until the first full-squad workout.
Good people up north, don’t want to make you envious or anything, but it’s supposed to be 80 degrees here tomorrow and the rest of the weeks. A chilly 65 today.
A few observations from the first week… Bob Wickman’s lost some weight. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to ask him, because he still is quite large and looks like he could body-slam anyone in the clubhouse. But he’s lost some weight….
Outfielder T.J. Bohn looks like a surfer or basketball player, about 6-5 with long, blond hair. Actually, he looks like a young Thurston Moore, but I didn’t know how many would latch onto a reference to the Sonic Youth guitarist….
You’ve heard of “hat head” (most of us have it when we wake up), but how about “huntin’ hair”? That’s what Ryan Langerhans called his long hair and beard when he reported last week. The beard’s gone, but the hair’s still long. “He’s getting it cut,” manager Bobby Cox said, after seeing several guys needing a trim. “All of ‘em…. We’ve got a lot of hunters.”
After a three-day hiatus, the return of our music segment: After giving it several listens, I’d rank the new Lucinda Williams “West” CD among her best work, just a cut below “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” It’s a tear-in-my-beer gut-wrencher of an album, and all I can figure from a couple of B or B- reviews I’ve seen is that maybe it doesn’t appeal as much to folks who are really content with their personal lives and family situations, etc. Personally, I’d give it an A (the album, that is).
If you folks have never heard Greg Brown, you really should grab his greatest hits or “The Poet Game” or any of his other CDs. He’s one of the more underrated brilliant songwriters out there, just a rootsy singer/guitarist who can “bring it,” as the fellas say in spring training.
“LAUGHING RIVER” by Greg Brown
I’m goin away,/’cause I gotta busted heart.
I’m leavin’ today,/if my Travelall will start.
And I recken where I’m headed,/I might need me different clothes
Way up in Michigan,/where the Laughing River flows.
Twenty years in the minor leagues/ain’t no place I didn’t go.
Well I got a few hits,/but I never made the show.
And I could hang on for a few years,/doin what I’ve done before.
I wanna hear the Laughing River,/flowin’ right outside my door.
My cousin Ray/ said he’s got a job for me.
Where the houses are cheap,/and he knows this nice lady.
He said she even saw me play once,/said she smiled at my name.
Well upon the Laughing River,/could be a whole new game.
So goodbye to the bus./Good bye to payin’ dues.
Goodbye to the cheers,/and goodbye to the booze.
well I’m trading in this old bat,/for a fishing pole.
I’m gonna let the Laughing River,/flow right into my soul.
I’m goin away,/’cause I gotta busted heart.
I’m leavin’ today,/if my Travelall will start.
And I recken where I’m headed,/I might need me different clothes
Way up in Michigan,/where the Laughing River flows.
