AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > May > 30
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Big void until Chipper’s back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Alright, let’s do a quick in-game blog sort of update here, to give you good folks and blog denizens a clean canvas upon which to compose and/or spew. We love it all here, and are guilty on both accounts ourself.
And I can’t help but wonder how Willie Aybar, were he not in rehab in some undisclosed location, sure could have helped the Braves this past week with Chipper out of the lineup. Orr and Woodward just ain’t getting it done in Hoss’ stead. At all.
Anyway, the ball absolutely rockets out of here (Miller Park) when hit to right field. (How’s that for a non-existent transition? Hey, it’s a noon start, getaway day, etc.)
Prince Fielder hit a couple of bombs up in the second deck in this series, and Kelly’s third-inning homer was a blast, too. By the way, that’s seven homers and 28 RBIs for the leadoff man (through five innings) and we’re not quite a third of the way into the season.
How many teams do you think would like a leadoff guy to hit .280 with 21-22 homers, 75-80 RBIs and a .380 OBP _ and in his first full season….
Oh, and those who tried to convince us that Hudson was reverting back to last year’s poor form based on his past two starts, I guess you’ll have to find a way to dismiss today’s performance, which has been pretty solid so far (through five innings, it’s a 1-1 game).
Come on, face it: Hudson is back to being an ace, having a fine season. At least acknowledge and enjoy the things that have gone very well this season. He’s one of them.
Smoltz update: He played catch for five minutes this morning, no problems with the right pinky and a little soreness in the shoulder, but nothing unexpected after he left last night’s game with tweaks in both areas.
Smoltz said everything went well today, but he won’t know for sure about his next start until he throws his bullpen session Friday. But he said worst-cast scenario, he’d move it back two days. And he doesn’t think that’ll be necessary. He thinks he’ll be ready to go as scheduled Sunday at Chicago.
Willie can play third: Like many of you, I thought Bobby might give Willie Harris a start at third base today and have Diaz in left. No, Orr’s back at third base, Diaz on the bench.
Though Harris/Diaz has been a platoon in left that’s worked extremely well since Ryan Langerhans was traded, Diaz has shown he hit lefties and righties.
And since today’s a righty _ a bad righty, Dave Bush _ I wondered if we might see Harris at third. He played it plenty this year at Richmond and Bobby played him there in spring training. I asked Bobby, when I was talking to him alone in his office this morning, whether Harris was good enough to play third up here.
He said yeah, sure, like there was no question. But if you’ve been around Bobby, you know you don’t follow that, when he’s in certain moods, with a question such as, “So why don’t you play him there instead of Orr, who’s hitting way below .200 and butchered a ball last night?”
See, there’s a craft to covering Cox. You don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. You can see from his reaction to certain questions, when it’s worth it to follow with another, and when you’re only going to p%$# him off and ruin any chance of getting anything else in the interview by following up with the obvious question.
In other words, he knows what you’re getting at, and if he wants to answer the question he’ll answer it after you ask the first one. And if he doesn’t, he’ll let you know with a look, a tone … whatever. It’s quite clear.
Again, if you’ve not been around him in these settings, you won’t know what I’m talking about and I don’t expect you to. Suffice to say, those few of you out there who have been in his office in those settings, you know exactly what I’m saying.
And it’s not about him being intimidating or whatever. He’s really not. Well, he is until you get to know him, but not so much after that.
But it’s really about not poisoning the rest of a conversation by getting him in a bad mood with a question you know he’s not going to answer with more than a terse, one- or two-word answer you can’t use anyway.
But I just wanted you to know, I agree with you on giving Harris a start while Chipper’s out, with a bad right-hander on the mound.
And Diaz can play first base: I also think it might be wise to give Diaz a start at 1B with a lefty on the mound, unless the Braves are showcasing Thorman and trying to prove he can hit lefties.
So far, he can’t. Thorman is 7-for-35 with nine strikeouts against lefties.
That’s not the kind of showcasing you want to do, in the event you’re trying to trade someone (and I haven’t heard anything that suggests they are, so that’s not what I’m insinuating. They’re probably playing him every day to see if he can hit lefties, since he didn’t get many chances with Craig Wilson on the team).
By the way, between Thorman’s .239-6-25 (before today) and Wilson’s black-hole numbers while he was here, Braves 1B ranked 15th in the NL with a .213 average, had the second-most strikeouts (56), the lowest OBP (.270) and the third-lowest slugging percentage (.372).
Chipper update: Nothing new. As I said yesterday, they’re waiting until Friday to decide whether he can play or needs to be DL’d.
By the way, Chipper leads the NL with a .625 slugging percentage, ahead of home-run leader Prince Fielder (.610) and cranial circumference leader Barry Bonds (.608). And Hoss is also second in OPS behind Bonds.
Punchless pinch-hitters: I don’t know where some of you get off saying the Braves’ bench is lacking. So their pinch-hitter were hitting .213 with no homers and a lowly .238 slugging percentage in 80 at-bats before today.
Well, the Brewers, Padres and Nationals didn’t have a pinch-hit homer before today, either. So there.
OK, that’s not much of a defense. Nevermind.
Wickman at Wrigley: Looking ahead, it’ll be interesting to see how a well-rested Bob Wickman does at Wrigley. In nine career appearances there, he’s 0-2 with a 10.00 ERA and three blown saves in five opportunities. He’s allowed 13 hits and 12 walks in nine innings at the old ‘yard.
Chipper, by the way, also struggles at Wrigley. He has a .201 career average in 45 games there, though he does have nine homers in 169 at-bats.
Take us out, Shooter….
“IT AIN’T EASY” by Shooter Jennings
When I was just a young boy,/my daddy came to me, said son
Out in this world there’s a lot of things/that’ll make you feel like your supposed to be.
You don’t have to read the good book,/ to be a good man just the same.
And forget about the money,/ money ain’t brought nothing to your daddy but pain.
It ain’t easy.
It ain’t eeaasyy…
But you’ll be alright
Now it’s 15 years later, and I’m out on the road,
And it’s been 4 years to day he died,/ and they won’t even play us on the radio.
And I think I’ve found my way alright/ without him here to catch me now and again,
I just keep on moving along, keeping my mind on my song,/and trying to figure out love.
And it ain’t easy.
It ain’t eeaasyy.
But I’ll be alright.
Any other fool, any other fool would throw this away.
Any other fool, yeah.
I wanna take a minute to thank you,/ for all the things that you done
Yeah you gave me a light in the dark of night,/ when there was no place to hide, no where to run.
And it ain’t easy.
It ain’t eeaasyy…
It ain’t easy, it ain’t easy.
But you’ll be alright.
We’ll be alright.
It ain’t eeeeaaaassssy….
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