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Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Eyeballing Maddux vs. Smoltz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As the great James McMurtry would say, we’re gonna have us a time at the ballyard tonight. Maddux vs. Smoltz, one a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and the other almost a lock to make it to Cooperstown eventually, in my opinion.
But you know what? I bet tonight doesn’t live up to last night’s pitching matchup between the two youngsters just up from Triple-A, Anthony Lerew and the Padres’ Jason Germano.
Folks, those guys were both outstanding. The numbers don’t lie. They really pitched well, and Lerew obviously earned himself another start or two in the rotation, with a chance for perhaps much more. We’ll see, though.
Anyway, it’ll be fun seeing Maddux and Smoltz got at it on Atlanta soil. And it is too bad that the game didn’t get picked up by ESPN, but we didn’t know for sure that this matchup was going to materialize until late last week.
While ESPN can shift games, they usually do it a lot earlier than that. Besides, I don’t even have a clue how the broadcast rights thing works on non-Sunday games (ESPN has its pick of those, and can move games to night games if it wants on Sunday).
But anyway, too bad it’s also not on TBS going nationwide. But this is the last year fans nationally will even see the Braves on TBS, unless they happen to be picked up for the national broadcasts TBS will do. But the Braves will probably be just another team for them after this year.
Wonder what effect that’s going to have on their status as a team with a national fan base? The days when the Braves drew huge crowds on the road, and huge throngs in their hotel lobbies, might be ending.
By national fan base, I mean the way teams such as the Yankees, Cubs and Red Sox draw wherever they go. The Braves built such a huge audience over the years because in a lot of non-major league places — like me growing up in Greenville, N.C., Memphis, and southern Kansas — the Braves were the only team that folks could follow on the tube without paying for special packages, etc.
Didn’t mean to wander down that road. Where were we?
Oh, yeah, the bullpen: The Braves are starting to get exactly what they envisioned from power reliever Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez, whom they acquired because they wanted to dominate the seventh and eighth innings and have options to close in case Bob Wickman was injured or needed a breather.
Soriano blew away a couple of San Diego hitters in a perfect ninth inning Tuesday night for his second save in a week, and in his past nine games the intimidating Dominican has allowed just two hits and three walks in nine scoreless innings, with 10 strikeouts.
Gonzalez, who’ll be returning to Pittsburgh this weekend, will be doing so in something very close the form he showed while coverting 24 of 24 save opps for the Pirates last season. He told me yesterday he’s getting real close to that level, though not quite there yet. But he’s healthy and throwing harder than before the recent elbow scare, and the big thing - he’s throwing strikes.
The lefty has recording 12 consecutive scoreless appearances, and in his past seven appearances he’s allowed six hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in seven innings.
If Wickman’s ready after his 15-day DL stint, which I think he will be (or shortly therafter), the Braves’ bullpen should be even better for having had the chance to work Gonzalez and Soriano more in the eighth and ninth lately.
And for those suggesting the Braves should trade one of them - it’s a long way to July 31, but yes, I can at least see a scenario in which they might be willing to trade Wickman, if he’s healthy and pitching well and another contender is willing to give up something the Braves really need for their stretch run, or something that could really help them next season.
But again, that’s way down the line. But yes, I can see a scenario in which it might possibly happen, but only if Gonzalez and Soriano are healthy and the Braves have at least one more guy, like a Yates or Moylan, whom they can really rely on in big situations. We’ll see how it works out.
Power outage: As Andruw noted last night, the Braves aren’t concerned about their home run dropoff lately, because they know how quickly it can change. But it’s worth nothing, the Braves have hit .230 with no homers in the past six games, going 4-2 with a 3.00 ERA in that span.
This after hitting .316 with 17 homers over the previous nine games, and going 5-4 with a 5.36 ERA in that span. Imagine what they might be capable of if they had the offense and pitching going full-tilt simultaneously.
They sure could use a little winning streak, though. After starting out 7-1, with winning streaks of three and four games in that stretch, the Braves haven’t won three in a row in their past 24 games, going 13-11 in that stretch.
They’ve won back-to-back games only twice in that 24-game stretch, and lost two in a row only once, and not lost three in a row all season.
Speaking of punchless: How ‘bout the Padres, who are 6-7 with a 3.10 ERA and - are you ready for this? - a .200 batting average in their past 13 games, and scored four runs or fewer in 10 of them.
The Braves have won eight of 11 games against S.D. since the beginning of the 2006 season.
That’s twice in three days: Not only have the Braves rallied in the late innings twice in the past three days to pull out wins vs. L.A. and S.D., but they did it at the expense of relievers who had been nearly unhittable.
The Dodgers’ Chin-hui Tsao had allowed one hit (.032 opponents’ average) and two walks in 10-2/3 scoreless innings all season before being charged with three hits, five runs and two walks in two-thirds of an inning Sunday in Atlanta.
The Padres’ Heath Bell allowed one run and seven hits in 20-2/3 innings (0.44 ERA, .104 opponents’ average) with four walks and 23 strikeouts before Tuesday, when he gave up three hits, two runs and one walk while recording one out.
Hey, dig this: I just realized that I’d placed a large glass that had a little bit of a smoothie still in it (blended yogurt/milk/protein powder and such) on the coffee-warmer device I have on my desk, a force of habit.
Anyway, I just took a drink of it, and it taste like some kind of eggcream or something you’d actually pay for in an ice cream shop in the Northeast. Wow.
Is this the way Flubber was invented?
”EYEBALL KID” by Tom Waits
Well Zenora Bariella/And Coriander Pyle
They had sixteen children/In the usual style
They had a curio museum/And they had no guile
All they ever wanted/Was a show biz child
So on the 7th of Dec. 1949
They got what they’d been wishing for/All of the time
He grew up in a trailer/By the time he was 9
He rolled off to join/The circus… telling fortunes/On the side
Hail Hail, the Eyeball Kid
Well the first time I saw him/Was a Saigon jail
Cost me 27 dollars/Just to go his bail
I said your name will be in lights…/And that’s no doubt
But you got to have a manager/ that’s what It’s all about
People would point/People would stare
I’ll always be here/To protect you and to cut down on the glare
I know you can’t speak/I know you can’t sign
So cry right here on/ the dotted line
Hail Hail, the Eyeball Kid
Well he was born with outa body/Not even a brow
I made the kid a promise/I made the kid a vow
He’s not conventionally handsome/He’ll never be tall
He said “all you got to do is/book me into Carnegie Hall”
Hail Hail, the Eyeball Kid
He’s just a little bitty thing/He’s just a little guy
But women go crazy/for the big blue eye
They say how does he dream?/ How does he think
When he can’t ever speak/and he can’t ever blink?
I said Hail Hail, the Eyeball Kid
Hail Hail, the Eyeball Kid
Give it up and throw me down/a couple of quid
Everybody wants to see/the Eyeball kid
How dies he dream/How does he think
When he can’t even speak/and he can’t even blink
We are all lost in the wilderness/ we’re as blind as can be
He came down to teach us/how to really see
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
So give it up and throw me down a couple of quid
Everybody wants to see the Eyeball Kid
Eyeball kid
Eyeball kid
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