AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February
February 2007
Tuning up vs. the Techsters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ladies and gents, the fog has lifted _ literally and figuratively, I think _ and we’re about to play some ball. And you know what they don’t say, throw out the records when the Braves and Georgia Tech (or Georgia) meet in the spring.
Actually, the college lads would just as soon throw out the record, since the Braves are 19-0 vs. the baseball players who still are matriculating. (Wait, I’ve just been handed a note…. There’s a discrepancy. The Tech game notes point out that there was a rain-shortened, four-inning tie in 2003, so I guess it’s actually 19-0-1).
Oh, and there was fog this morning, a heavy layer that reduced visibility to zero in and around the The Happiest Place On Earth (no sarcasm intended, so don’t grill me). Actually, I have no complaints, they treat us well here (man, it’s hard to write with a gun in my ribs). But seriously, they do treat us well.
The place is clean, the weather’s beautiful and the ballpark is great, that’s all that matters. We’ve got some ball, a lot of ball, starting today and ramping up to the real stuff tomorrow with the Dodgers in town.
Then it’s Pittsburgh and presumably Adam LaRoche, since ‘ol Rochy (as Bobby Cox often called him) used to have a home in nearby Celebration, Fla., and I’m assuming he still does.
I hear that Francoeur hit a couple of homers off today’s Ga Tech starter, John Goodman, in a big high school game years ago, maybe even the state championship game, though that information hasn’t been confirmed. Frenchy said he wasn’t sure if it was the title game or not. Goodman played at Lassiter, Francoeur at Parkview.
(I attended a high school in a dinky town in Kansas that had no air conditioning [the school, not the town], where you sweated profusely after running from gym class across the street to your next class in the _ again, not making this up _ un-airconditioned main building, which was about 1,000 years old, or thereabouts.)
Talk about a tough first assignment _ Goodman is starting today in his first appearance of the season for the 6-5 Jackets. He’s missed most of two seasons recovering from elbow surgery. Now he’ll face the Joneses, etc., even if it’s probably just one inning he’s throwing.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting, always is, to see the Bravos regulars get an at-bat or two, then see some of the prospects try to make an impression. I’ll let you know as we go along if there’s anything noteworthy.
Greetings from Sunny Florida (like the old postcards, that’s us on the water skis at Cypress Gardens, waving). Wish you were here.
Wick really wants to win: Don’t know how serious he was, but the big man, Bob Wickman, was heard this morning promising the team he’d buy everyone big-screen TVs if the Braves won the Grapefruit League title.
Aybar situation nears end: I’m starting to feel like Ted Koppel reporting on a hostage situation _ the Willy Aybar crisis (relatively speaking) has reached Day Whatever It Is, but there’s an end in sight. The Dominican infielder is expected to report Thursday, his visa problems having finally been resolved, allegedly.
I’m just getting my work in, not in regular-season form, so I forgot to notice the lineup posted on the clubhouse door. That’s why the blog is late. Had to wait to see it posted in pressbox. And here it is:
Kelly Johnson 2B, 2. Edgar Renteria SS, 3. Chipper Jones 3B, 4. Andruw Jones CF, 5. Brian McCann C, 6. Jeff Francoeur RF, 7. Scott Thorman 1B, 8. Matt Diaz DH, 9. Ryan Langerhans LF.
Whaddya think? Not really anything too surprising. I didn’t think he’d bat Francoeur fifth behind Andruw, as some here had hoped _ too many strikeouts to protect Andruw. I like McCann there, given the options.
Music is essential: Love the Willie Nelson album “You Don’t Know Me: Songs of Cindy Walker” that came out last year and that I finally bought. Great old country tunes and western swing music…. They’ve got one of the worst band names since Afghanistan Banana Stand (actual band, look it up) (wait, that’s actually a brilliant name; can you have back-to-back parentheses?) (only in spring training) but the Swedish band Peter Bjorn and John has a strong, rockin’ album out, “Writer’s Block” (which is what I’d have if we had another day of workouts before the games started). I don’t know how long they’ve been around, but this is first I’ve heard of ‘ol Rochy … er, ‘ol Peter Bjorn and John (and no, they don’t sound one iota like Peter, Paul and Mary. It’s not folky at all). Listened to it on headphones at Virgin Records and had to have it. Love their single “Young Folks.” If you haven’t heard it, you should find it.
We’ll keep things Johnny Cash-themed in the week of The Man In Black’s 75th birthday, so here’s one of the many songs he covered not long before he died.
“JERUSALEM TOMORROW” by David Olney
Man you should have seen me way back then/I could tell a tale, I could make a spin
I could tell you black was white/ I could tell you day was night
Not only that I could tell you why/ Back then I could really tell a lie
Well I’d hire a kid to say he was lame/ Then I’d touch him and make him walk again
Then I’d pull some magic trick I’d pretend to heal the sick/I was takin’ everything they had to give
It wasn’t all that bad a way to live
Well I’m in this desert town and it’s hot as hell/But no one’s buyin’ what I got to sell
I make my lame kid walk I make a dumb guy talk/I’m preachin’ up a storm both night and day
But everyone just turns and walks away
Well I can see that I’m only wasting time/So I head across the road to drink some wine
This old man comes up to me He says I seen you on the street/You’re pretty good if I do say myself
But the guy that come thru here last month he was somethin’ else
Instead of callin’ out for fire from above/He just gets real quiet and talks about love
And I’ll tell you somethin’ funny He didn’t want nobody’s money/Now I’m not exactly sure what this all means
But it’s the damndest thing I swear I’ve ever seen
Well since that time every town is the same/I can’t make a dime, I don’t know why I came
I decide I’ll go and find him And find out who’s behind him/He has everyone convinced that he’s for real
Well I figure we can work some kind of deal
So he offers me a job and I say fine/He says I’ll get paid off on down the line
Well I guess I’ll string along Don’t see how too much can go wrong/As long as he pays my way I guess I’ll follow
We’re headed for Jerusalem tomorrow
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Are you ready for some baseball?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Something tells me that more than a few of you will be watching a game on ESPN Friday that will mean absolutely nothing in any actual standings that matter, and indeed will be all but forgotten in a week or less.
Yes, I get a sense that a lot of you folks are excited about watching the Braves play the Pirates on Friday night. And I gotta tell you, if I wasn’t covering the game I think I’d be watching it on TV myself. Seriously.
Not only will it offer the chance to see John Smoltz make the first start of what could be his final spring and season in a Braves uniform _ I don’t think it will be; I think he’ll be back _ but it will also feature one of the new Braves bullpen intimidators, lefty Mike Gonzalez, scheduled to make his Atlanta debut. Against his old team, to boot.
If I didn’t know better, I’d suspect Bobby Cox adopted some of the NFL’s schedule-making ways with that one, having Gonzalez open by pitching an inning against his former team. But I do know better, and can’t imagine that Bobby gave that any consideration. But we’ll ask him after today’s workout, if I remember to.
Anyway, back to the anticipation. Maybe I’m overstating it, but correct me if I’m wrong: For a team coming off a disappointing season, there sure seems to be a lot of anticipation and genuine excitement about these Braves from hardcore fans _ not to mention the players.
Bloggers here at Braves/Man in Black keep saying how offended they are that the Braves are only picked third in the division by many prognosticators, and Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and other players have commented that getting their butts kicked last year and getting knocked off the pedestal, then getting little “respect” from the pundits entering this season, has them stoked.
(By the way, a belated happy birthday to the late, great, Man in Black himself _ John R. Cash would’ve been 75 yesterday. I bought his remastered old “Silver” CD for $8 last week at Virgin records here in my first couple days. It’s been played often since. Also brought the debut “Fabulous Johnny Cash” CD down with me, and the entire Unearthed five-CD box set; again, simply timeless, essential stuff.)
(OK, wait, just mentioned it was Cash’s birthday to the AP guy here, Paul Newberry, and we just spent 10 minutes talking Cash, about the fifth and final album in the American Recordings series produced by Rick Rubin, where you can practically hear Johnny dying, but still somehow sound larger than life with that once-booming voice cracking and fading…)
So that’s why this blog’s being filed a few minutes later. Sorry, but even deadlines can wait a few minutes for a Cash conversation.
Now, back to anticipation. I’ll bet most of you would agree that missing the playoffs last year was a lot better for this organization than getting there and probably losing in the first round (given the state of their pitching last year) would have been.
That getting out from under that 14-year division title streak _ I know, seems an odd way to put it, but it’s true _ and being able to refocus on the real goal _ a pennant and maybe a World Series _ and doing the necessary things to try and do that despite a restrictive payroll, that’s what Braves fans are pleased may have occured because of what happened last June, when the Braves went through a 3-20 stretch that ended an era, for all intents and purposes.
A very good era, mind you. Fourteen division titles is nothing to sneeze at, despite how hard it is to appreciate sometimes when you’re as close to it as the Braves and their fans have been, which tends to distort context and reality.
Believe me, having covered the Marlins for a lot of years, having talked to team officials and players in every other city in the majors, I’ve been repeatedly told that every team but the Yankees and possibly the Cardinals would’ve gladly traded places with the Braves and what they did over the past 15 years.
That’s nothing to do with my own opinion on the matter, that’s what I’m told by players, managers, GMs in other cities. Again and again.
But that’s the past now. The Braves won only one World Series during their run, so it’ll never be considered a true dynasty by most sports fans and history buffs. And I agree _ you’ve gotta win more than one big championship to have a dynasty.
So it was a very good era. There’s plenty to be said for longevity.
But now we’re here, about to start anew, no division-title streak to continue, nothing to look back and try to protect. And I think that’s been a weight off the players’ and the entire organization’s shoulders.
Now they can just look ahead, both eyes on the future. The moves they made this winter, trading for Gonzalez and Soriano, will help the team now and for the next couple of years, at least. These were not moves of desperation, but sound moves designed to shore up the most glaring weakness from last year’s team and to help assure that wouldn’t be a problem area again for the forseeable future.
Think about Gonzalez, and how the Braves, unlike almost any other team, have a proven commodity waiting in the wings to move into the closer role, and a guy who won’t be making a budget-crippling salary for a couple more years, at least.
Gonzalez told me this morning, only half-joking I suspect, that he likes it so much with the Braves that he was going to go to John Schuerholz and ask for a multi-year contract. He said once Soriano arrived a few days ago, the bullpen felt “complete” and everyone got even more excited.
The fact that a guy [Gonzalez] who converted 24 of 24 saves last season, then was traded to a team that plans to use him in a setup role, the fact that he’s happy in his situation says something. Don’t you think?
Anyway, they’ve got the tarp on the field, a storm headed this way from Tampa. It feels like baseball now, getting more humid, temp pushing toward 80. Time to play some ball.
But right now, got to get down to the clubhouse, because the workout’s ended by the pending rain.
At this time tomorrow, the Bravos and the Georgia Tech fellas will be hittin’ it and throwin’ it a little. Then on Thursday, Braves vs. Dodgers. And then on Friday, Braves vs. Pirates on the tube.
Ya’ll ready for some baseball? (Maybe we can get Hank III to record that for the blog, so when you click on the page, his reedy voice says that in his distinct twang?)
BLOCK EDITING: OK, I’M BACK. FALSE ALARM ON THE WORKOUT ENDING. THEY PULLED OFF THE TARP AND THE BRAVES ARE ON THE FIELD TAKING BATTING PRACTICE. CARRY ON.
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Good night at Oscars, good start for the Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some initial impressions from the first (nearly) two weeks of Braves camp, while pondering how this was the first year I can remember the Oscars getting it right on all the major awards (best picture, director, actor, actress).
Oh, before I forget, just got the pitching plans from Bobby Cox for the opening week of spring games, which works out to Smoltz starting the season opener April 2 on six days’ rest, if my math skills haven’t entirely deteriorated.
No, he hasn’t announced his opening day starter, and rarely does this early. But process of elimination, logic, and now simple computations, indicate it’s Smoltz, followed by Tim Hudson and Chuck James.
After that, it depends whether Mike Hampton is healthy.
Anyway, for the first week of Grapefruit League games, it’s Kyle Davies starting Thursday vs. L.A., Smoltz vs. Pittsburgh on Friday, Hudson vs. Houston on Saturday, James vs. L.A. on Sunday at Vero Beach, Lance Cormier vs. Washington on Monday, and Davies vs. Washington on Tuesday.
If Hampton is ready, he’ll pitch in the same game with Davies vs. Washington, each going two innings. All the starters are scheduled to go two innings the first time through.
Again, to refresh, Davies and Cormier are contending for the fifth spot in the rotation, provided Hampton is recovered from elbow surgery and ready to fill one of the first four spots along with Smoltz, Hudson and James.
OK, back to who or what has impressed me most in the past two weeks (besides Penelope Cruz and Cate Blanchett at the Oscars).
Scott Thorman: We know the thick-armed rookie can already play at least a decent defensive first base, just from what we saw last year.
Maybe a slightly-above-average defensive first base.
But his hitting is the question, and just watching him taking live batting practice, you can’t form any complete judgments. But I like what I see, as does everyone else _ teammates, manager, coaches, etc. _ who has watched Thorman.
Bobby said yesterday he might have the “hardest” swing in baseball right now. I wouldn’t go that far _ Gary Sheffield’s violent swing is the hardest, Adam Dunn’s Paul Bunyan cut could bring down a three-bedroom house, and journeyman Russell Branyan’s hacks are forces of nature.
All-time big cut for me? That’d be juiced-up Jose Canseco. Frightening. The bat was like a toothpick in his hands. Toward the end of his career, when he was trying to hang on with Tampa Bay, his batting practice was comical and awesome.
Jose was so ripped then, and would just spin on his heels flailing at pitches in BP, trying to hit them through the damn roof of that dome.
By comparison, Mark McGwire swings were controlled, not violent, with that one-hand follow-through. And Barry Bonds’ inimitable short, quick swing is a thing of beauty, not violent or awe-inspiring until you slow it down and examine it.
Anyway … where were we? Oh, yeah, Thorman. The 240-pound Canadian swings so hard warming up outside the cage, you can literally hear it from 6-7 feet away. Not many guys make a whooshing sound with their warmup swings.
But it’s what he does in the cage that’s impressed me. He’s driving the ball to all fields, hitting line drives and towering shots off some pretty good pitchers. And each day, you can see him getting more comfortable in the clubhouse, doing interviews, hanging with his teammates, etc.
I really believe he’s going to be fine, though it remains to be seen what he can do against lefties. That’s why I think the Craig Wilson signing was so important, because we know what Wilson can do against lefties _ .296 career average with .395 OBP and .938 OPS in 558 at-bats against them.
That includes .278 with seven homers and an .843 OPS in 133 at-bats against them last year in a down season. From 2003-05, Wilson hit .284 with a gaudy .988 OPS against lefties (compared to .257 and .803 vs. righties in that span).
What else? Mike Gonzalez’s arm: This guy is special, and it’s obvious even when he’s warming up and throwing batting practice (not to mention his 24-for-24 saves last season with Pittsburgh). He’s not at all physically imposing; in fact, he’s far smaller than I expected, with nothing about his build, his arm, that would suggest mid-90s fastball.
But when he throws … wow. Loose, live, lightning-quick arm, like he’s double-jointed or something (and maybe he is; I need to ask him). Can’t really find the words to exactly describe why he looks different throwing than the other guys here, but he does. Say hello to the Braves’ 2008 closer. He’s a good one.
Rafael Soriano’s presence: When I wrote about his icy glare, his dead-serious demeanor, after his first day in camp, I hoped it wasn’t jumping the gun, that the next day I’d walk into the clubhouse and seeing him holding court, telling jokes to a circle of players.
Not to worry. It wasn’t jumping the gun. The man has the demeanor of someone doing gravely important work with no time for messing around, or someone dead-set on showing his new team he’s for real and his old team that they messed up trading him. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty confident that I’m not. This dude is a hardass, and to me that’s a good thing. He and Wickman don’t mess around.
Matt Diaz’s batting practices: When Diaz reported to camp a few days early, he looked stronger, especially in the legs. I asked and he said he started lifting weights earlier and did more work this winter with his legs.
Then he started taking batting practice and pounding balls all over the place. He’s killing the ball. And no, he’s not ripped-up and shredded, where it would raise red flags. I’ve seen some jump to speculation here because they’ve read about how he’s hitting the ball, but believe me, you see him in the clubhouse and you’d not have that kind of concern. He’s still not an imposing guy at all, not shredded with huge muscles and low body fat.
What’s not impressed me? Other than the visa process in the Dominican Republic, and ever-increasing traffic in the Orlando area, we’ll hold off bashing anything else. Too early to do that, since guys haven’t even played any games yet, and nobody showed up in awful shape.
Just heard from Bobby that reliever Blaine Boyer hurt a finger shutting a window. Not serious, just messed up the fingernail, but he’s questionable for his first scheduled appearance Friday.
Willy Aybar’s still not here. Supposed to be here sometime this week. Visa problems, blah blah blah.
Tim Hudson is having his charity golf tournament this afternoon, so of course today is the first day since camp opened that it’s supposed to rain. Forecast doesn’t look good, but Braves might be able to get their workout in this morning before the heavy stuff arrives.
“MAN IN BLACK” by Johnny Cash
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,/Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone./Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,/livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town.
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,/but is there because he’s a victim of the times.
I wear the black for those who never read,/ or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,/Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.
Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose./In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes.
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,/up front there oughta be a Man In Black.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old./For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold.
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been./Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,/believing that the Lord was on their side.
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,/believing that we all were on their side.
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,/and things need changin’ everywhere you go.
But ‘til we start to make a move to make a few things right,/you’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,/and tell the world that everything’s OK.
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,/till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.
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Soriano a pitcher, not a charmer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dan Kolb was too sensitive and lacked the fastball to be intimidating. Chris Reitsma seemed too polite and engaging to flick a switch and become a convincing mound menace.
Those won’t be issues with Rafael Soriano.
You want your relievers nasty, seething, with icy glares? You’ve got one.
Soriano may have cracked a smile since he reported to camp Thursday afternoon, but no one I’ve talked to has seen it.
He may have said something like, “I’m just glad to be here,” but no one I’ve talked to has heard it.
That’s fine by me. And I’m betting it’ll be just fine by Braves fans, long as he keeps doing what he did in Seattle. Dominate hitters in a setup role.
Atlanta’s new right-hander acts like he couldn’t care less about much except pitching. He’ll answer your questions, but it’s pretty clear he’d rather be doing something else, like blowing away hitters, for instance. Or chewing tobacco. Does that a lot.
“He’s a good kid,” manager Bobby Cox said after talking to him Friday morning and briefly explaning his role to the receptive pitcher. “I guess he’s a little cocky.”
That’s fine with Cox. Cocky can be good, long as one backs it up and doesn’t rub everybody the wrong way. Soriano doesn’t seem to rub anybody the wrong way, or any way, at least not yet.
He’s probably talked to several Braves since he’s been here, but I didn’t see it.
I saw him come out of his meeting with Cox and go to his locker, where he put on his Ipod and began a regimen of throwing motions and toe taps, in full uniform and spikes, while dozens of other roster and non-roster players sat at nearby lockers, sneaking glances.
Soriano appears to be all business. He spits in his cup, exchanges handshakes when approached, then continues doing what he’s doing. I might ask him what’s on his Ipod someday. Or not.
Here’s what’s important: He throws hard (96-98 mph) and has a good breaking ball. Right-handers have little chance against him (.173 career opponents’ average and puny .533 OPS by righties), and lefties don’t exactly dig in (.258 career average, .315 on-base percentage).
And for those who think he might be afraid since getting creamed in the right side of his head by that Vladimir Guerrero line drive last Aug. 29, the one that ended Soriano’s season and left him groggy into November? Well, ask him about it. But watch the tone.
“I’m not scared of that, I’m no little kid,” he said, and said it convincingly.
Shortly after it happened, he said he asked to see the videotape of the incident (“I wanted to see what happened”) and watched it more than once.
He said he was still woozy or tired or whatever in his first couple of winter-ball appearances, but after he took a couple weeks off per doctor’s orders, he came back and said he felt great in his remaining five or six appearances in winter ball.
“I’m 100 percent, ready to go,” said Soriano, who’ll team with lefty Mike Gonzalez to give the Braves what should be the most overpowering pair of setup men in the National League and perhaps the majors.
Gonzalez is friendly, engaging, smiles a lot, and throws heat that wilts hitters, particularly lefty hitters. He converted 24 of 24 saves last season for Pittsburgh, and was always pleasant and outgoing with reporters, fans, others.
Soriano, I’m not expecting that from. And that’s fine by me. And by you, I bet. He and Wickman, they couldn’t care less about the media or creating a good image.
Soriano’s career stats: 108 relief appearances, 2.17 ERA, .196 opponents’ average, 128-2/3 innings, 91 hits, eight homers, 37 waliks, 151 strikeouts.
That’ll be enough for most fans, I’m guessing. But don’t pencil him in to speak at the Rotary Club luncheon just yet.
You guys good with that?
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How about Chuck to start Game 2?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Welcome to another postcard-perfect day in what would be paradise if it weren’t the western side of Orlando/Mouseland Empire. It’s 70 degrees and sunny, and it ain’t even noon.
So, anyone out there have any doubts about who’ll be the Braves’ opening day starter this season?
Though nothing has been said yet, there isn’t much suspense this time. I’d be shocked if it’s not John Smoltz. Absolutely shocked.
Unlike last opening day, when Tim Hudson got the nod and the figurative “ace” baton (then fumbled it a bit), it seems a given that Smoltz will be the man who gets the honor again this time, like in 2005, when he returned to the rotation from closing for three-plus seasons.
The Phillies certainly think they’re going to be facing Smoltz on opening day, Monday afternoon, April 2 at Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Daily News reported that Phillies center fielder Aaron Rowand has Smoltz’s baseball card above his locker at spring training as an opening-day reminder _ and perhaps to distract him from rumors Rowand might be traded before April 2.
What do you folks think? Are you as certain as me that Smoltz will be the opening day starter, barring anything unforeseen between now and then? Should he be? (If not, I’d certainly be interested in hearing your reasoning.)
Assuming we all agree on that one (and I’ll run it by Bobby Cox this afternoon just to see if he wants to confirm yet, thought he usually doesn’t this early), here’s the real question: What about the rest of the rotation?
Personally, if I were the Braves I’d want to break up the left-handers, Mike Hampton and Chuck James, not have them pitching back-to-back the way they’re tentatively penciled in now at 3-4.
And instead of Hampton, I’d have James be the first lefty. Really, I would.
As unconventional as it might sound, I’d have James follow Smoltz in the rotation. I’d go Smoltz on opening day April 2, then come back with James in Game 2 on April 4 (there’s a rainout day built into the schedule on 3rd), then Hudson in Game 3 on April 5.
But I don’t know how the Braves would feel about having Hampton start the home opener April 6 vs. the Mets. That could be a good thing or potentially be a bit of a gamble, having his first start in 18 months come before a packed house at Turner Field, in a game against the defending division champion Mets.
Then again, do you want his first start in 18 months coming in the bandbox that is Philadelphia’s ballpark? Hummm. Decisions, decisions.
But I’d go Smoltz-James-Hudson-Hampton and No. 5, whether it’s Kyle Davies or whoever it is. What do you think? I really don’t think Bobby Cox is going to do it, but do any of you agree with me that having the lefties go second and fourth is better than 3-4, and that there’s no reason James can’t start ahead of Hudson?
I really don’t think Hudson would be offended or anything, especially since he’s said himself that he was entirely disappointed with his own performance last season. Besides, how could he be offended if the reasoning was to break up the lefties?
I know this isn’t the biggest topic of concern with five weeks to go until opening day, but I was just thinking about it now, because we’ll soon get the rotation for the opening week of spring games. At that point, it’ll be easy to count ahead the days and figure out what the tentative rotation looks like, what their plan is, because you just go every-five-days forward to opening day.
However, the fact that Hampton might possibly be held out of his first Grapefruit League turn could complicate that slightly, unless they simply stick Lance Cormier or someone else into Hampton’s slot next week for that first start.
Anyway, something to think about.
Chris Woodward is here. After fearing that his new utility infielder might miss several days with a severe sinus infection, Cox was pleased to see Woodward in uniform and ready to roll at Thursday’s workout. Woodward was on meds but looked fine and energetic, four days after he described as the worst day he’d ever endured for excruciating pain.
Seems like another really good guy, energetic and pleasant personality and all. More importantly, Woodward said his shoulder feels great and he has no restrictions. He had the labrum repaired in October, after playing part of last season with the Mets despite significant soreness and stiffness in the joint.
His stats sunk to career-worst levels. He finished at .216 with a .289 OBP and .600 OPS, with 10 doubles, three homers and 25 RBIs in 222 at-bats and 83 games.
This from a guy who hit .283 with .730 OPS in 173 at-bats in 2005, and totaled 20 homers and 90 RBIs in 661 at-bats during the 2002-03 seasons when he played a lot of shortstop for Toronto.
The Braves believe Woodward will be a key part of their roster because of his experience and versatility. I’ll be interested to see him play this spring, because his recent seasons have not been anything that would lead one to believe he’s an impact guy any longer.
Hey, maybe he just needs to get more at-bats again. We’ll see. He said that’s a big part of why he came to the Braves, because of Cox’s reputation for keeping utility guys fresh with plenty of playing time.
Willy Aybar and Rafael Soriano still aren’t here. At least the visa-problem guys weren’t this morning. Cox said he’s hopeful Soriano will be here today. The Braves would like the reliever to get in a week’s work before Grapefruit League games start.
Aybar, he didn’t have an ETA yet. The infielder was still in the Dominican waiting to get his visa appointment. Soriano had his appointment on Tuesday, supposedly.
It won’t become an issue unless they’re still out when Grapefruit League games begin, which is highly unlikely.
(BLOG WRITE-THRU: SORIANO REPORTED IN THE AFTERNOON, AFTER THE WORKOUT. SEE UPDATE BELOW AND SORIANO STORY POSTED ON THE AJC.COM WEBSITE.
Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.)
And speaking of travel and nomadic existence (OK, that’s a stretch of a transition)….
“ANYWHERE I LAY MY HEAD” by Tom Waits
My head is spinning round,/ my heart is in my shoes, yeah
I went and set the Thames on fire,/ oh, now I must come back down
She’s laughing in her sleeve boys,/ I can feel it in my bones
Oh, but anywhere I’m gonna lay my head,/ I’m gonna call my home
Well I see that the world is upside-down
Seems that my pockets were filled up with gold
And now the clouds, well they’ve covered over
And the wind is blowing cold
Well I don’t need anybody, because I learned, I learned to be alone
Well I said anywhere, anywhere, anywhere I lay my head, boys
Well I’m gonna call my home
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No need to remind these Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s 9:57 a.m. and the Bravos are bounding out of the dugout here at Dark Star Stadium, aka the Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, with one, two, three … seven camera crews on the steps, chronicling this event for posterity (and also because the box of Dunkin’ donuts one of them brought to the dugout is empty, save for one with nasty pink frosting).
Actually, I take that back. The players are not bounding. Major leaguers don’t bound before 10 a.m., at least not before stretching. I do think I see one prospect bounding. He’ll learn.
OK, it’s sunny, brilliant blue skies, temperature already about 60 degrees. It’s freakin’ beautiful here, folks. But let’s go back an hour.
Me and another reporter were sitting in Bobby Cox’s office, just the three of us and a tempting, unopened box of Macanudo cigars a foot away from me on the manager’s desk. It was literally a couple of minutes before the manager was about to go into the clubhouse and address the squad before the first full-squad workout.
He looked at us and asked us what we’d say to the team. He was half-serious, I think. Cox sounded as if he honestly wasn’t sure what the speech was going to be this year, in the first spring after the Braves’ division-title streak was over.
But he also didn’t seem too concerned, as if this was one spring when he wouldn’t need to light a fire under the boys.
Players have always said Cox’s speeches before the first workout are gems, the first and sometimes only time he really addresses them at length, as a group, unless something atypical comes up later in the season.
But this year he won’t have to remind them about how everybody’s aiming to end their streak. He probably did remind them about the proud tradition and all the Braves who’ve put it on the line before them and all that.
But really, this group and Cox already seem particularly motivated, more hungry than they’ve been in some time. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
Now, will that amount to anything once the games start, will it give the Braves an edge that might actually help them get off to a good start? I have no idea. No one does. Anyone who says they know is lying.
But it sure beats the alternative _ bored, taking things for granted, assuming this year will be like every other and the Braves will be in the postseason.
Don’t know how many of them may have felt that way in any past year, but none do now.
Craig Wilson has a sense of humor. Just met him this morning. Still got long hair, which I asked him about. Just asked him if any team official had mentioned it to him, if it mattered.
“What’s wrong with my hair?” he said. “Is it bad? I just got it cut last week.”
Seems like a good dude. For instance, someone asked him about Mike Gonzalez, his teammate in Pittsburgh. He thought a moment. “He’s left-handed. He throws hard.” Wilson looked around, smiled, and said, “His girlfriend’s hot.”
When I asked him about his decision to sign with the Braves, if they’d told him then what positions he was likely to play, he said with mock seriousness, “I heard center field is wide open. I figured with my speed….”
Edgar Renteria looks very fit. The shortstop was fit last year, looks even better this spring. Said he split his winter between his homes in Colombia and Miami, where he has a place on South Beach. I’ve known Edgar since he was an 18-year-old Marlins rookie. I told him he has a rough life these days. He smiled. I told him I saw his friend Shakira at the Grammys. “Yeah, did you go?” he asked. Then he realized what he’d just said, remembered I’m an ink-stained wretch and not a millionaire athlete from same country (Colombia) as Shakira.
“No, you didn’t go,” he said, smiling. “Did she win?”
Oh, she won, I said. Don’t know if she won any awards, but she always wins.
Chris Woodward is sick. No, not in a good way, like the kids say ‘sick.’ He’s actually sick, in a bad, painful way. The Braves’ new veteran utility man has a sinusitis, a very unpleasant condition, as those of you who’ve had it know. He’s not in camp today, and might miss a couple of more days….
Willy Aybar also has visa problems. The infielder is still in the Dominican, waiting for his visa. Bobby Cox didn’t know when Aybar would get here. Meanwhile, reliever Rafael Soriano had his visa appointment yesterday in the D.R. and could be here by tomorrow.
OK, that’s it. A newsy blog, without music. Gotta have some music. We’ll get back to some music later. Listened to David Allan Coe’s “I Still Sing the Old Songs” and Steve Earle’s “Mercenary Song” on that new Heartworn Highways soundtrack on the way to the park this morning, from the 1976 documentary, but with songs just restored and released as a soundtrack for the first time in 2006. That’s a real good album. A 21-year-old Earle, picking and impressing the oldsters with his talent, 10 years before his first album came out.
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Fit Andruw seeks “market value”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First the good news about Andruw Jones: He’s in his best shape since 1999, down 10 pounds to 225, and says he’s excited about the season and starting a new playoff streak.
The other good news: The center fielder reiterated Tuesday that he wants to spend his entire career with the Braves.
The not-so-good news for the Braves: He said, “the market value is the market value, and that’s what I’m going for.” Uh-oh.He also said he will not be traded, indicating he’d veto a trade, but also saying the Braves have assured him they didn’t try to trade him last year and aren’t going to now.
Yes, it’s going to be an eventful year for Andruw, who has 342 home runs, 1,023 RBIs and nine Gold Gloves _ and doesn’t turn 30 until April 23.
Jones, who has 92 homers and 257 RBIs over the past two seasons, will make $13.5 million this year in the final year of his contract. He’s eligible for free agency next winter if the Braves don’t sign him before then.
His agent is Scott Boras who has no peer when it comes to getting the most for his clients.
If Jones is serious about going for market value, the Braves’ only hope might be a sharp increase in team payroll if and when new owners Liberty Media finalize their purchase of the team.
Here’s what I mean: Consider that center fielder Vernon Wells signed a seven-year, $126 million contract extension this winter with Toronto, and Alfonso Soriano signed an eight-year, $136 million contract with the Chicago Cubs.
Wells is the closest comparable example to Jones, and it ain’t really that close.
Wells is 28, a career .288 hitter with a .336 OBP, 200 doubles, 141 homers, 501 RBIs, and three consecutive Gold Gloves.
He’s never hit more than 33 homers in any of his five full seasons, has topped 100 RBIs twice, with a career-high of 117 in 2003, and his highest MVP finish was eighth in 2003.
Jones is a career .267 hitter with a .345 OBP, 303 doubles, 342 homers, 1,203 RBIs, and nine consecutive Gold Gloves. He’s played at least 153 games in each of his 10 full seasons.
Jones has hit more than 33 homers in six of the past seven seasons, topped 100 RBIs in five of the past seven seasons with career-highs of 128 and 129 in the past two years, and was the MVP runner-up in 2005, when he led the majors with 51 homers.
Soriano, who’s more than a year older than Jones, is a .280 career hitter with a .325 OBP, 240 doubles, 208 homers, 210 stolen bases, 560 RBIs and no Gold Gloves. He’s hit 36 or more homers in four of his past five seasons, including a career-high 46 with 95 RBIs in 2006.
He’s also stolen 30 or more bases in five of his six full seasons, including three seasons with more than 40 (he had 41 steals and 46 homers last season).
So there’s the market that’s been set, really. If Andruw is serious about getting market value, and isn’t prepared to take a hometown discount, then it’s hard to imagine Boras not getting him at least $18 million a year for five or six years, and aiming much higher, perhaps more than $20 million or more a year for seven.
When I talked to Scott in the fall, even before the Soriano and Wells contracts, he scoffed when I asked him if Andruw might command $18 million to $20 million or more annually.
The insinuation was that he’d be worth a hell of a lot more than that, and again, this was even before the market exploded after the new labor agreement and news that baseball is awash in cash and teams were making money hand-over-fist.
Do the Braves have a chance to re-sign him? I still think they do. Not a good chance, I’d guess, but a chance _ that is, if the payroll is increased from $80 mill to at least $90-95 mill. Otherwise, I can’t see how they’d want to tie up such a high percentage of team payroll in one guy for the next 5-7 years, not to mention a player who has a lot of wear and tear.
If they go to $95 million with the payroll, and they can give Andruw some kind of backloaded deal _ say, six years at $118 million, with escalating salaries of $15 mill, $17 mill, $18 mill, $20 mill, $20 mill and $20 mill, or a $10 mill signing bonus and about $2 mill less off each of those annual salaries, then maybe it’s doable.
But the Braves would have to decide whether Andruw’s improved conditioning and weight loss might help curtail the knee and back problems he’s had.
Let’s be clear: He has been extremely durable, playing hurt and never asking out of the lineup. He’s to be commended.
But all those diving catches have put a lot of wear on his shoulders and back, and the Braves have to at least consider the chance he could decline sooner than some others who didn’t break into the lineup at such a young age and haven’t already put in 10 full seasons _ plus all those playoff games _ before age 30.
What do you guys think? If the new owners raise payroll, do you make Andruw the No. 1 priority? Or do you think about how you might use that $20 million or so annually in several other areas, and consider going with a younger, cheaper center fielder?
You’re not going to match Andruw’s overall production, offensively or defensively, that’s for certain. But can you make it up elsewhere, at least the offensive part, and hope to get solid-if-not-nearly-as-spectacular defense from, say, Brandon Jones a year from now? He’s very athletic, has good power and defensive skills, and might be ready then, though probably needs a little more time in the minors to be safe.
Gregor Blanco could definitely play the position very well defensively, but has very little power (no homers all last season in Double-A and Triple-A). Still, he hits for a high average and had over a .400 OBP last season. He’s a completely different type of player than Andruw, but could be a solid leadoff man they’ve lacked since Furcal left.
So many things to consider. But bottom line, the Braves will probably have to see if Andruw is willing to at least take a slight hometown discount.
If he’s not, it’s going to be extremely difficult to fit him into the payroll, barring a huge adjustment to team payroll by the prospective new owners.
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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.
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Davies wants to stop the rollercoaster
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kyle Davies is saying the right things and insists he’s physically sound and ready to get his career headed in the proper direction.
But the Braves’ former top-prospect pitcher from Stockbridge knows that the mental side of his game might benefit from the Chuck James ignorance-is-bliss school of thinking _ or non-thinking, as it were.
James is the undersized, country-boy lefty who surpassed expectations at every level to become the ascendant young pitcher Davies was supposed to be at this point.
James, 25, has a bald head, a devilish smiled, a fastball that rarely tops 90 mph, and doesn’t do much studying of hitters or read up about what other teams are doing in the offseason _ or his team, for that matter.
The kid from Mableton swears he didn’t know anything about the relievers _ Rafael Soriano and lefty Mike Gonzalez _ the Braves traded for this winter until friends told him how big the moves were for the Braves.
James couldn’t be bothered by hot-stove talk, since he was waking up before the crack of dawn for his job installing windows and doors for a Lowe’s subcontractor. Yes, dude who won 11 of his 18 starts as a rookie saw no reason to give up his offseason manual-labor job.
You couldn’t sell a movie script with the James character if he weren’t real, because he’d seem too implausible, the accent too thick, the demeanor too care-free, to be believed by most audiences today.
But he’s the real deal, James is. Penciled in for the No. 4 spot in the rotation after pitching better than any Braves starter except John Smoltz last summer, when James went 11-4 with a 3.93 ERA after moving to the rotation.
James freely admits he doesn’t know much about the hitters he’s facing, didn’t collect their bubblegum cards as a kid, played baseball but didn’t follow it on TV or the internet. Perhaps as a result, he’s seemingly never intimidated, and doesn’t overanalyze why he succeeded or failed or what he might have done differently.
“That’s where I’m trying to get to, just pitch how you can pitch,“ Davies said. “Stop trying to prove yourself and just go out and pitch.”
Davies said a lot this morning, before the first pitchers-and-catchers workout. Talked about how the torn groin that put him on the DL three months last year is completely healed, talked about how good his arm feels, how his major league career so far has been, “up and down, up and down, a rollercoaster,” and how he wants to erase last season and show he’s ready to help his hometown team.
He doesn’t want to worry about competition for the fifth-starter job, about the thought of possibly going to Richmond to begin the season, none of that.
Do you remember the night he came up from the minors and threw five scoreless innings on a raw, wet night at Fenway Park, winning his debut and being surrounded by Atlanta and Boston media members, his life story laid out in the next day’s papers for all of Red Sox Nation who wondered about this obscure kid who had stuck it to them? Davies remembers.
“I remember everything about that game, but it seems like 15 or 20 years ago,” he said.
After going 2-1 with an 0.77 ERA in his first four major league starts, he’s 8-12 with a 7.40 ERA in 31 games (24 starts) since then, including 3-10 with an 8.38 ERA in his last 18 games (15 starts). In the latter stretch he’s allowed a .328 opponents’ average and 15 homers in 72 innings. Yikes.
“I want to go out there and pitch, not think about anything else,” said Davies, who wants to get back to the relaxed, nothing-to-lose approach he took upon being thrust into the majors two years ago.
And for the next six weeks at Dark Star, aka Disney World, and other spring-training ballparks across Florida, he’ll get that chance.
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New season, new attitude for East ex-champs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Spring training is only a few days away, and I really get a sense that most of the Braves and members of Braves Nation _ shrinking though it may be, with the steady decline in TBS national telecasts _ are especially geeked up for this one.
Excited, anxious, more eager to get this thing going than they have been in recent years. Am I right? Do you guys get that feeling? Or it is more trepidation? You tell me.
I just think that maybe it took getting knocked off the NL East throne to stir some folks from complacency _ maybe not just fans, but front-office officials and players, too.
But for the first time since 1991, the Braves are going to spring training both as an underdog and without the supreme confidence, arrogance or whatever you call it, that accompanied them in everything they did in previous years.
Even if they were picked to finish behind the Mets or Phillies or Marlins in the past decade, the Braves always had that swagger, always would roll their eyes, perhaps say the right thing for reporters about having to respect all these teams aiming to knock them off, but deep inside really not have any fear whatsoever, no doubt that they could hold off all challengers.
Now they’re challengers, and the swagger resides in Queens, and even in Philadelphia. The Mets and Phillies really believe the Braves aren’t that special anymore, regardless of what some of those team’s players and officials might say publicly when asked directly about the Braves.
They’ll say how you can’t overlook them and how they’re still the Braves and all that, but I really don’t think most of them will mean it, not like they would’ve if you’d asked them a year ago.
And that’s good for the Braves, if you ask me. Teams aren’t going to be as intimidated when the Braves roll into town this year, or when those teams come to Turner Field. The Braves know it. And they’re driven by it.
The many holdovers from last year’s Braves hate that they were part of the team that blew the streak. They’re angry and seem especially motivated _ every one of them that I’ve talked to this winter says as much.
Meanwhile, newcomers like relievers Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez are thrilled to be going to a team that was in 14 of the past 15 postseasons.
We all know it’s going to come down to pitching. The offense will be good to very good (not great, I’d guess, but good to very good, and definitely productive enough). The bullpen is going to be dominant.
The starting rotation is going to be … well, if you can say with any certainty, then you’ve got a better feel for it than me. I really don’t know.
It’s strange because this rotation really could be anywhere from below average, if Hampton struggles in his comeback and Hudson pitches like he did last year, to very good, if those two pitch well and Smoltz and James repeat their performance level from last season.
People wonder if Smoltz’s divorce might affect him on the field, and I’ve said several times already, I really think he’s one of those rare guys who can compartmentalize things and not be distracted when he’s focused on the task at hand.
Another was Rafael Furcal in the division series a couple years ago, when he knew he was going to jail the day after the Braves were eliminated (for his second DUI charge inside five years), yet he performed at a high level and never seemed distracted while in uniform.
And don’t forget, Smoltz is in the option year of his contract, and has no intention of retiring as long as he stays healthy. So he’s in a free-agent “walk” year just like Andruw, though almost-40 Smoltz’s next deal obviously isn’t going to be half as long or lucrative as the not-quite-30 nine-time Gold Glove center fielder.
I’ll go on record now and say I feel very confident that Smoltz will be back with the Braves by the way. Very confident. I’m fairly certain they’ll re-sign him, far more certain than I am that they’ll be able to afford Andruw, though I also think they’ve got at least a decent shot at doing that.
Anyway, if those first four starters are all pitching well, the fifth starter just needs to be serviceable for this to be a very good rotation. But that’s a big “if” _ all four of those guys have to clicking, or the fifth starter _ Davies likely _ has to step up and pitch well.
But the rotation doesn’t have to be great, just good, for the Braves to have a strong chance to win the division. I really believe that.
Right now, if I had to pick: 1. Braves, 2. Mets, 3. Marlins or Phillies, pick ‘em; 5. Nationals.
There, I’ve done it. Call me a homer, but I really just think it’s going to work out for the Braves, and I don’t have any faith in the Mets’ starting rotation. And while I don’t expect the Marlins and Phillies to finish in a dead heat, I do think it’ll be only a game or two between them, in whatever order.
Another voice heard on Kelly Johnson: We’ve told you how much Cox likes Kelly Johnson and how both the manager and GM John Schuerholz agree that Johnson is probably the frontrunner to be the leadoff hitter provided he wins the second base job.
Here’s another influential voice to give you an idea why the Braves believe Johnson can handle the leadoff job:
“The fact that he can do some positive things offensively,” hitting coach Terry Pendleton said. “At the plate he’s more a veteran because of the way he approaches it, or attacks it _ not in a hurry to get things done.
“That allows him to take a walk, to get on base that way. He doesn’t get the calls sometimes because he’s a young player, but he’s got a great eye up there.”
Interesting about the inexperience factor and how it can play against a patient rookie, because some umps simply aren’t as likely to give him a close call as they would be for a proven hitter whose shown a knowledge of the strike zone for many years _ Chipper, for instance.
And I agree completely. Watch games sometimes and you’ll see a veteran pitcher with modest stuff but exceptional command just slice and dice patient young hitters by throwing everything an inch or so off the plate and getting a lot of called strikes.
And now, in tribute of her new album coming out Tuesday….
“LAKE CHARLES” by Lucinda Williams
He had a reason to get back to Lake Charles
He used to talk about it/He’d just go on and on
He always said Louisana/Was where he felt at home
He was born in Nacogdoches
That’s in East Texas/Not far from the border
But he liked to tell everybody/He was from Lake Charles
Did an angel whisper in your ear
And hold you close and take away your fear
In those long last moments
We used to drive/Thru Lafayette and Baton Rouge
In a yellow El Camino/Listening to Howling Wolf
He liked to stop in Lake Charles/Cause that’s the place that he loved
Did you run about as far as you could go
Down the Lousiana highway/Across Lake Pontchartrain
Now your soul is in Lake Charles/No matter what they say
Did an angel whisper in your ear
And hold you close and take away your fear
In those long last moments
He had a reason to get back to Lake Charles
He used to talk about it/He’d just go on and on
He always said Louisana/Was where he felt at home
Did an angel whisper in your ear
And hold you close and take away your fear
In those long last moments
Did an angel whisper in your ear
And hold you close and take away your fear
In those long last moments
What about the starting rotation?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The late, great Harry Caray once said, “It’s the fans who need spring training. You gotta get ‘em interested. Wake ‘em up. Let ‘em know that their season is coming, the good times are gonna roll.”
God bless Skip’s dad. Now are we just about ready to get this thing rollin’?
Here’s a Friday night blog, a few thoughts on the starting rotation for home nine, just some junk pulled from the margins of my brain or notepad while attempting to clean them out on this last work-free weekend for a long time, before we break out the sunblock and head to Florida.
We’ve all made a big deal about the bullpen overhaul, and me, John Schuerholz and everyone else has laid the blame for last year’s season at the feet of a ragtag and injury-depleted relief corps.
But let’s not forget how bad the ragtag and injury-depleted starting rotation was, too, at least a whole. I mean, the bullpen didn’t lose all those games on their own. They got plenty of help most nights from the starters other than John Smoltz and Chuck James.
And with the notable exception of Mike Hampton, who’s coming back from elbow and knee surgeries and after 18 months away from competition, the Braves didn’t make any additions to the rotation, and subtracted two starters (Horacio Ramirez, John Thomson).
In other words, cautious optimism might be as far as we should go with this unit, for now.
But anyway, a quick recap on just how bad last year’s rotation was, at least by Braves standards.
The starters were a combined 54-60 with a 4.71 ERA that ranked ninth in the NL. It was the first time that Braves starters posted a losing record since 1990, when the starters finished 48-69 and half of their wins were by two kids named Smoltz (14-11) and Glavine (10-12).
Every season from 1991 through 2005, Braves starters finished with a cumulative record of at least 13 games over .500. They were 20 or more games over .500 in 12 of those 15 seasons, 30 or more games over three times, and an astonishing 90-40 in 1998.
Let’s repeat that: Braves starters were 90-40 in 1998, when they led the NL in innings (1,074-2/3), strikeouts (888), fewest homers (84), had the second-fewest walks (2.93), and an ERA (3.06) more than half-run lower than the next-best.
That rotation included Glavine (20-6, 2.47 ERA), Greg Maddux (18-9, 2.22), Smoltz (17-3, 2.90 in 26 starts), Kevin Millwood (17-8, 4.14) and Denny Neagle (15-11, 3.59).
We’re not likely to see a similar rotation again, not with the price of free-agent pitchers. The Braves, with their self-imposed payroll restrictions, realized it’s easier to build a formidable bullpen, which is what they’ve done by re-signing Bob Wickman and trading for Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez.
Schuerholz said this is the best bullpen the Braves have had since he arrived in October 1990. It’s certainly the most talented in terms of the back end, though the bullpen as a whole may be hard-pressed to match the 2002 Braves’ league-leading 2.60 bullpen ERA, 30-14 record and 57 saves in 71 opportunities.
Anyway, back to starters. The Braves only had two starters pitch 110 innings last season, Smoltz (232) and Tim Hudson (218-1/3), with Chuck James totaling 107-2/3 in 18 starts after joining the rotation in late June.
It was the first full season since 1990 the Braves didn’t have at least three starters pitch 185 or more innings, and in every full season from 1991 to 2001 they had at least three pitch 208 or more innings. Five times in that stretch, they had three pitchers work at least 225 innings apiece, and three times the Braves had four pitchers work 210 or more innings.
In 1997, the Braves got more than 230 innings out of four different pitchers: Smoltz (256), Glavine (240), Neagle (233-1/3) and Maddux (232-2/3).
Don’t need much more in your bullpen than a closer and a situational lefty when you’ve got four horses like that in your rotation.
But as we said, those days are no longer. And probably never will be again, for the Braves or anyone else.
This season, the Braves would just like to be able to get steady work out of four or five starters, so they don’t have to scramble to piece together the rotation like they did all of 2006 because of injuries to John Thomson and Horacio Ramirez and poor performance by Jorge Sosa.
All of those guys are gone now, and it’ll be up to 40-year-old Smoltz, Hudson, 34-year-old comeback lefty Hampton and at least one and probably two guys who haven’t had a full season in the majors: James and Kyle Davies.
Good thing that bullpen looks loaded….
Speaking of Hudson…. Lest we forget how good Huddy was for six seasons with Oakland, and what he and the Braves hope he’ll finally be again on a consistent basis in his third season with the Braves, I’ll refer to a comment that Baltimore first baseman Kevin Millar made to ESPN’s Buster Olney last week.
Buster asked him who threw the best game Millar, formerly of the Marlins and Red Sox, had ever seen pitched against a team he played for?
Millar: “Hands down, Tim Hudson in 2003. He threw a nine-inning complete game against us. We were leading the league in just about every offensive category, and hot as a firecracker as a club, and I think he threw a two-hitter in mid-August, and both hits where infield hits, one by Nomar, and I can’t recall the other. I don’t think we got a ball out of the infield. He had command of every pitch that day — fastball, slider, and splitter, and didn’t get a pitch above the knees, it seemed.”
As for Hudson, I was talking to him the other day and he was saying how excited he was about this bullpen, particularly the addition of Soriano. While most Braves fans haven’t seen much of the former Mariners right-hander, Hudson remembers him well from a 2002 matchup with him.
“I already know what kind of stuff that kid Soriano has, because he almost no-hit us when he was a starter,” Hudson said. “He was filthy. I think he beat me. I pitched a good game but had to suck on a loss.”
For the record, that was June 4, 2002, at Oakland. It was Soriano’s fifth major league game and third start, and he limited the A’s to two runs on two hits (both homers) in seven innings. He got no decision in the Mariners win.
That was, and is, the best start of Soriano’s career. He went 0-2 with a 6.29 ERA in his next five starts, then moved to the bullpen, where he’s been since.
It was a wise move, judging from results: In 108 career relief appearances, Soriano has a 2.17 ERA and .196 opponents’ average, with 151 strikeouts and only 37 walks in 128-2/3 innings.
And now music, a Blue Rodeo song that really makes me think of my ex-wife. Damn.
“FALLING DOWN BLUE” by Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo)
Everyone tells me I’m lucky/Got my whole life to live yet
I can’t say they’re wrong/But the days seem so long/Living inside of my head
Maybe I’ll get some relief now/Now that your things are all gone
I won’t sit here staring/At nothing all night/Bleary-eyed greeting the dawn
(chorus)
All right I miss you tonight/And I’m not really sure what to say
It keeps rolling in like a slow moving train/It gets harder and harder each day
Each time I think that the worst of it’s through/I am stopped in my tracks by some vision of you
All right I miss you tonight/I admit that I’m falling down blue
She lived outside of the city/On days when I’d visit her there
I’d watch her out dancing/All lit by the moon/The cold winds of time in her hair
Then we’d go driving for hours/Turn off the lights and just glide
Moving like spirits/Along through the night/The light through the trees as our guide
(chorus)
All right I miss you tonight/And I’m not really sure what to say
It keeps rolling in like a slow moving train/It gets harder and harder each day
Each time I think that the worst of it’s through/I am stopped in my tracks by some vision of you
All right I miss you tonight/I admit that I’m falling down blue
Cox is bullish on ‘pen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Assuming you good folks survived two weeks of mind-numbing banality disguised as Super Bowl preview/analysis, and aren’t incarcerated today for a crime committed in the fog of temporary insanity that can result from Stuart Scott saturation, let’s return our focus to Braves baseball and other important matters.
A couple of things I heard as the pitching camp got started at Turner Field:
_ The bullpen is so strong that manager Bobby Cox believes it’ll have an effect on the starting rotation akin to what good hitters can do for other hitters in a lineup. In other words, give them protection and make them better.
The Braves believe they have basically reduced a lot of games to six innings.
Starters don’t have to pace themselves and try to get through seven or eight innings, at least not every night (though you can count on ultra-competitive John Smoltz, regardless of what he might say this spring, wanting to stay in as long as his arm is attached and he’s still got any chance to win a game).
Now that they know now that the trio of Rafael Soriano, Mike Gonzalez, and Bob Wickman is anchoring a ‘pen that has gone from perhaps the weakest in the NL to potentially one of the two or three best in baseball, the starters and Cox won’t be fearful of turning it over to the guys in the “bully.”
In addition to that potent trio at the back end, the Braves’ ‘pen might leave spring training filled out with lefty Macay McBride, durable Oscar Villarreal, and two others from among a group of quality candidates including hard-throwing Blaine Boyer, working without restrictions after missing all but the first week of the 2006 season for shoulder surgery; Joey Devine, who had a promising late-season stint after severe April control issues and back problems; and journeymen Tyler Yates, Chad Paronto and Peter Moylan, who all pitched well for varied periods last season.
The Braves signed veteran Tanyon Sturtze with the expectation that he’d be ready to pitcher around May, giving them more quality depth. And don’t forget Phil Stockman, the 27-year-old rookie who did some good things in a few outings before a hamstring injury.
_ The fifth starter battle figures to be between leading candidate Kyle Davies, the once-golden boy prospect whose rookie year was severely hampered by May groin surgery, and Lance Cormier, who could be a candidate for the bullpen or trade by late spring if Davies shows what the Braves hope he’ll show in Lake Buena Vista.
But keep in mind the name Matt Harrison. The Braves’ top pitching prospect (and No. 3 overall prospect) is a 21-year-old lefty who made only 12 starts above A-ball last season, but he’s the real thing by all accounts, with good stuff and great command, and will get a chance to show what he can do early in camp.
It’s exremely unlikely he would be on the opening day roster, but Harrison could get consideration for a callup at some point if his development continues. He had a 114 strikeouts with 33 walks in 158 innings last season in 25 starts between high-A Myrtle Beach and AA Mississippi.
_ The first four starters are set, obviously, with Smoltz, Hudson, Hampton and Chuck James. The Braves really are counting heavily on a healthy, productive return for Hampton, not just hoping he can win 7-8 games. “You never know, because he’s coming off surgery,” Cox said. “But I feel good about it. A big part of our team is him.”
Pitching coach Roger McDowell agrees, but isn’t going over the top in his expectations, cautioning that some pitchers require more than two full seasons after Tommy John surgery because they completely shed the mental restraints and aren’t concerned with anything other than making a big pitch when they have to.
_ Among those who believe Kelly Johnson will be a quality second baseman is former Braves infielder Mark DeRosa, who knows a little something about moving between positions and eventually winning a regular job at second base.
DeRo used his breakout season with Texas to get a three—year, $13 mill contract with the Cubs. He’s been working out at Turner Field and taking ground balls with Johnson, the former shortstop and former outfielder who enters spring training with the second-base job his to lose after a winter spend working with Glenn Hubbard on the ins and outs of the position.
I asked DeRosa if Kelly can do the job at second base.
“Absolutely,” he said. “The guy’s an athlete. You could tell that when the drafted him. Big kid, strong. And he’ll have the luxury of working with Glenn Hubbard all spring training, being able to pick his brain. I don’t see any reason he can’t do it.”
And if Kelly isn’t ready?
Bobby Cox said: “We’ve got Prado, Orr, Woodward, Aybar … we’ve got some guys to choose from.”
But since Cox plans to go with a 12-man pitching staff again, a couple of those extra infielders and possibly an outfielder are going to be in the minors or traded.
_ Speaking of Willy Aybar, early in the winter GM John Schuerholz mentioned in an interview the possibility of having Aybar spell Chipper Jones from time to time in an attempt to keep the veteran third baseman healthy after three seasons plagued by injuries.
But it sounds as if that plan, if it ever was really more than discussion, is no longer being seriously considered. In other words, it sounds as if Chipper, as long as he’s healthy and wants to play, will be in the lineup every day.
And Chipper said he has no intention of asking Bobby Cox for a day off unless he’s “struggling mightily” at the plate. In other words, don’t expect Hoss to sit when he’s healthy, at least not more than a game here or there like any other lineup regular.
At least that’s the impression I got from both Chipper and Bobby.
“I think you play Chipper until … if he starts sensing [his chronic foot problems] are bothering him, give him a breather,” Cox said.
Jones said he wants to play 150 games, to give you an idea what we’re talking about here.
OK, we’ll add some more stuff later. Gotta get to this lunch meeting with WSB Radio folks.
In the meantime, some music, maestro:
“LIKE A HURRICANE,” by Neil Young
Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar,/Dancing on the light from star to star.
Far across the moonbeam I know that’s who you are,/I saw your brown eyes turning once to fire.
You are like a hurricane/There’s calm in your eye.
And Im gettin blown away/To somewhere safer where the feeling stays.
I want to love you but I’m getting blown away.
I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream,/You could have been anyone to me.
Before that moment you touched my lips/That perfect feeling when time just slips
Away between us on our foggy trip.
You are like a hurricane/There’s calm in your eye.
And I’m gettin blown away/To somewhere safer where the feeling stays.
I want to love you but Im getting blown away.
You are just a dreamer, and I am just a dream./You could have been anyone to me.
Before that moment you touched my lips/That perfect feeling when time just slips
Away between us on our foggy trip.
You are like a hurricane/There’s calm in your eye.
And I’m gettin blown away/To somewhere safer where the feeling stays.
I want to love you but I’m getting blown away.
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