AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > June > 18
Monday, June 18, 2007
Powerful pitching this way comes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So this blog now has its own daily T-shirt feature and has gotten mention on a national Fox broadcast? Well, gosh, I guess you just can’t stop it, you can only hope to contain it. Me? I’m just trying to hold it up for the day.
And today, this morning, I’m thinking about the Red Sox and I’m thinking about Curt Schilling. And of Josh Beckett, and Justin Verlander, and even, Kenny Rogers possibly.
And as difficult as it might seem — with some of the (ahem) batters in the middle third of the Braves order swinging like they are — we have to appreciate the beauty of the pitchers we’ll see at Turner Field this week.
Schilling tonight (vs. Chuck James), Josh Beckett going tomorrow (vs. Tim Hudson) and possibly Kenny Rogers on Friday night. Word is, if a side session goes well this afternoon, Rogers (no relation) could make his first start of the year following surgery to repair an artery in his shoulder on Friday night against the Braves. This is the guy who led the Tigers staff with 17 wins last year on their American League championship league.
You might also remember a certain bases loaded walk in the 1999 NLCS. That was back when Andruw was seeing the ball well. But I digress.
And then somewhere waiting in the wings has got to be Justin Verlander of the Tigers. Originally everybody was talking like he’d pitch Friday against the Braves because that’s his regular rest. But Jim Leyland told reporters over the weekend that if Rogers was ready, he’d pitch Friday and he’d wait to announce the rest of his rotation for the weekend. I’ve gotten no love from the Tigers PR staff this morning, so I’m just going to venture an educated guess and say we’ll see Verlander on Saturday. And dang, I just want to see him.
This is the guy who threw the 109th pitch of his no-hitter last week 101 mph? And apparently knows how to pitch, not just in love with striking people out. So between him and Schilling the Braves will be facing two guys who gave up one hit in 54 outs their starts before last.
Verlander no-hit the Brewers and then gave up three runs in six innings — a quality start — to beat the Phillies yesterday to raise his record to 8-2.
Schilling is two starts removed from coming one out away from a no-hitter against Oakland. By now we all know the story about how Schilling shook off Jason Varitek to throw a first-pitch fastball to Shannon Stewart. And Stewart, who was swinging first pitch — as Varitek suspected which is why he wanted a slider — singled to right.
Schilling was beat up by the Rockies in his last start (six runs, five innings) but he’s tough against the Braves and especially at Turner Field. Since the beginning of the 1999 season, Schilling is 6-1 with a 1.98 ERA and two compete games against the Braves in Atlanta. And that’s not including his complete game win in Game 3 of the 2001 NLCS for the Diamondbacks when he four-hit the Braves and allowed only a run, striking out 12.
Maybe this 91-degree heat today will throw him off a bit. The Braves can hope.
It will be interesting to see if the Braves are up to this kind of challenge this week, now that they’re in reach-out-and-touch distance from the Mets. But the Braves have had a hard enough time with the likes of Rich Hill and Matt Chico this year. So we’ll see.
Well, it should be an exciting week. Expecting big crowds for the Red Sox and here’s hoping it’s not mostly Red Sox fans, eh?
Oh wait, I’ve gotta tell you about this. Some radio producer just called me from Boston, wanted me to come on for five minutes and talk about the Braves. Yadda, yadda. What the heck, I’ll do it. He probably tried David first and got no answer. But what was funny was how startled the guy was — or seemed to be — when he said “may I speak to Carroll” and I was like “this is she.” He seemed to stumble from that point forward.
I can’t help it; my parents gave me a family name that is spelled like it could be a man’s name, and I do a job that is done mostly by men. I pretty much had to do the interview just to keep the shock value going. He’s calling back in a couple hours. Maybe he’ll be less rattled by then.
Sometimes it’s just funny. Do they have women who talk about sports or are interested in sports in Boston? Or are we just way ahead of the game here in the capital of the South?
Yes, that’s what I thought. We are more progressive, aren’t we? Don’t we know it, the ladies of the blog? I know who you are. Your posts aren’t as mean, and they are well thought-out and they very often try to keep the boys straight. And only once have I gotten an e-mail asking me if Kyle Davies was single, and my guess that wasn’t from a regular blogger.
(Fine, I’ll answer that question this way: I’ll tell you the same thing I tell my friends who ask me about which players on the team are single. Girls, it’s a moot point. Major league ballplayers don’t get to the majors without either a wife or a girlfriend. Don’t care if they just got called up yesterday. They’ve got a wife or a girlfriend. That’s the way it goes. You wanna know about players being single single? Better show up and meet somebody in A-ball. Low A.)
Hey, the radio guy just called me back and told me they couldn’t wait and do the interview as late as I wanted to. (A girl’s got to get to the Y, doesn’t she?) And he said he thinks they got someone else to do it.
Wait a minute. Nah. They probably got a hold of David after all. Ah, the life of an understudy.
Also got a call back from Braves director of scouting Roy Clark who tells me the Braves are making big progress in signing their draftees. They have signed 14 of their top 23 picks, including sandwich pick Jon Gilmore, the third baseman from Iowa City High School and Freddie Freeman their second round pick, a first baseman out of El Modena (Calif.) high school. Among those signed is also shortstop Mike Fisher, sixth round, and left-hander Tim Ladd, ninth round, out of Georgia Tech.
Clark said Georgia pitcher Josh Fields should be signed by tomorrow and South Carolina second baseman Travis Jones, a seventh rounder, was expected to sign tonight at Turner Field.
Teams have until August 15 to sign all their draftees this year. Yet to sign is first round pick Jason Heyward, the outfielder who was chosen 14th overall out of Henry County, but Clark said “everything is going fine, but it’s going to take a little time.”
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