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Sunday, June 10, 2007
Chipper takes batting practice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You thought the win last night was good news, folks? Because the Braves finally broke their four-game losing streak? Well, I’ve got some more for you: Chipper was on the field taking batting practice just now, and saying shortly thereafter depending on how things go, he could be back as soon as Tuesday when the Braves start a series against the Twins.
And even if he has to take it slower than that, he said he hopes no later than Cleveland, which is Friday.
“I’ll probably come in early tomorrow before we leave to go to Minnesota, take some more batting practice from both sides, see how it feels,” Jones said. “Depending on that I guess we’ll make a decision on Tuesday. If it feels good enough to go, I want to get back in there. If I’m still feeling pain, I’ll probably wait another couple days.” “I really hope it’s soon on this road trip,” Jones said. “But at the very latest maybe Cleveland.”
Chipper saw a hand specialist Saturday and came out of the hand splints he’s been wearing for five days. He took groundballs and did a little throwing Saturday, but the big test was with the bat. And he took his first steps toward answering that Sunday, first by hitting off a tee, then hitting against coaches on the field.
Jones hit from both sides, including the left, which gives him more pain on the follow-through.
“I don’t feel any pain going to the ball, it’s mostly on the follow through left-handed,” Jones said.
“It’s still a little tender. Right-handed I feel ok. My bat is slow - you take two weeks off, the ball is not coming off the bat the way you want it to. The main thing is being able to get in there and look at something coming at you and take swings.”
Jones said he is going to get some pads put in his batting gloves to help absorb some of the shock. But he’s coming away encouraged right now.
“My bat speed is really slow, but I was happy with the way it held up,” Jones said.
Brian McCann gets the night off tonight. Bobby said he wanted to give McCann two days off, and with the off day Monday that would give McCann’s left ankle a chance to get an extended rest.
It dawned on me driving to the ballpark this afternoon: did DOB really want today off to make a presentation on blogging to the Georgia Sportswriters Convention? Or was it more about the finale of the Sopranos. Hm.
It’s all right. I might be the only one in America not into that show. Don’t have HBO. So I might as well be here. And yes, you good readers have helped make Dave quite the trailblazer in our industry. So give yourselves a pat on the back.
And thanks to those who responded to my plea
for comments on watching the draft. Y’all did great. And I’m giving a shoutout to Roy Clark, who came out of the draft room Friday in the middle of making 50 gazillion picks, to help keep AJC readers well informed.
And lastly, did you catch the SportSouth spotlight on Jeff Francoeur last night? His baseball life story? Not sure if I’m supposed to be plugging TV on this here blog, but it’s definitely worth catching. Think it’s on again tonight at 11, Monday at 1 p.m. and Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Clearly Katy Temple will be picking up our next dinner tab on the road. But hey, it’s well done.
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