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September 2007
This is it for Bravos, end of the line
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few observations and facts I consume another grande from the ubiquitous coffee behemoth that has one of its locations in my hotel lobby, before heading across Houston to witness the last game of a season that’s flown by, hasn’t it?
Seriously, it seems like yesterday when I was pulling into Dark Star in the rental sled, settling in for seven weeks of spring training for a season when I was sure the Braves would take back the NL East.
They didn’t. But here we are 7-1/2 months later, after seven weeks of spring training and 161 regular-season games for every team, and still the NL East title hasn’t been won.
Which only makes the Braves’ wasted chances all the more difficult for them to swallow, of course. Folks, this was the year when the Braves could’ve played mediocre and still won the division. Oh, well … water under the bridge.
Moving forward now. Or rather, looking back. Or sidways. Whatever. Before I forget, don’t be surprised if the Braves announce soon that all of their coaches are coming back next season, along with Bobby Cox.
OK, this isn’t going to be a big, definitive anything blog today. No season-in-review. We’ve already done enough of that, haven’t we?
Just a couple things off top of my head as we wind down. (I still have to pack and check out of my hotel in next hour, because I’m going straight from ballpark to airport tonight.)
Willie Harris ain’t the answer: Hopefully any of you who thought he could be the regular center fielder (really, there were some here suggesting that) have seen why that’s not an option. Not even remotely an option.
Dude had a real good season. Surprised us all. Tip of the cap. But it’s been a reality check lately. How does 9-for-82 (.110) average in his past 30 games sound, with seven RBIs, 22 strikeouts, a .202 OBP and .220 slugging percentage.
Not to mention, he has a sub-.200 career average against lefties and one homer in 200 at-bats against them.
Francoeur’s had a second wind down the stretch, hasn’t he? A few weeks ago I figured he was getting too tired to produce much in the latter stages, but he’s hit .310 with three homers, 22 RBIs and a .376 OBP in his past 22 games.
Sure, you want more power from the right fielder, but a .294 average with 40 doubles, 19 homers, 105 RBIs and a .339 OBP that’s up over 40 points from last season? That’ll work for a 23-year-old who’s only going to get better.
I’ll predict at least a .285-30-110 season from him next season.
Andruw’s finish a head-scratcher: I know him and Bobby Cox said Andruw Jones is beat up and no sense in playing these last three games, but really, aren’t you guys a little stunned by the decision? I mean, this is a guy who prided himself on playing almost every day for more than a decade.
And now, in what could be his final three days in a Braves uniform, he’s content to watch from the bench? I mean, it ain’t like he’s protecting a .300 average or anything, either.
Oh, well. Add it to the lifts of life’s mysteries. Way down the list, though.
Chuck’s shoulder: I’m inclined to believe it’s just the typical wear-and-tear and soreness that so many pitchers work through late in a season. But the problem is, I don’t know that Chuck really has an idea what’s acceptable soreness and what’s the kind that should raise a red flag.
And since he doesn’t usually begin his winter throwing program until early January, it would seem like a precautionary MRI should be done just to be on the safe side, right? (Maybe one has been scheduled, and neither Chuck or Cox knew. But I doubt it).
Chipper’s chase: Another head-scratcher, for me, is why he didn’t stay in the games the last two nights and try to get a couple more hits. The way he’s been raking, he had a good chance against Houston pitching to get two or three hits a game, instead of going 1-for-3 and leaving in the sixth inning both nights.
It was Bobby’s call to sub for him, but believe me, if Chipper wanted to stay in, all it would take is for him to tell Bobby he wanted to. No question.
Colorado’s Matt Holliday went 2-for-4 before coming out of his game near the end last night, raising his average to .340, just above Chipper’s .339 entering today.
If Chipper falls a hit short of a batting title….
By the way, it’s startling to see how the disparity has increased in Chipper’s left/right averages, which were really close for a lot of his seasons. Not the past couple, not at all.
This season he’s hit a whopping .382 with an 1.181 OPS vs. righties, and .274 with an .803 OPS vs. lefties.
Last season, he hit .332 with a 1.036 OPS vs. righties, and .293 with an .885 OPS vs. lefties.
But during the 2002-05 seasons, he hit .283 with a .917 OPS vs. righties, and .282 with an .878 OPS vs. lefties.
That’s a very significant change the past couple of seasons.
This season, his average vs. righties leads the majors by a wide margin, but he’s a handful of plate appearances shy of qualifying for the Stats Inc. leader list in that particular category.
That says plenty about the extremely inordinate number of lefties the Braves have faced this season, because Chipper didn’t miss enough games to knock him out of qualifying for any other statistical categories.
Considering how he hit vs. righties, it’s easy to imagine Chipper would’ve hit .345 if this had been a normal season in terms of the breakdown for the Braves against righties and lefties, if they hadn’t faced so many more lefties than any other teams.
My head’s spinning as I try to digest the possible playoff scenarios in the National League going into this final day, when the Braves have been reduced to irrelevance outside our little corner of the baseball world while four other teams fight it out for the final spots in the October tourney.
Oh, well, at least I can gear up for the big Sunflower State showdown next weekend, when my Jayhawks take on the Wildcats of Kansas State, who are coming off a shocking win over Texas.
By the way, I’d like to thank Craig Biggio for picking this year to retire, because it’s made what might have been an otherwise depressing atmosphere at corporate orange-juice ballpark in the last weekend of the season.
I mean, sellout crowds over 40,000 for each of the final three games between the long-dead-in-the-water Astros and recently deceased (in terms of postseason chances) Braves? Very unusual, and good.
Plus, the swag’s been sweet _ three Biggio t-shirt giveaways, one for each of the uniform eras he’s played in with the ‘Stros, from the rainbow-stiped numbers to the forgettable blue/white/gold ensembles of the latter 90s to today’s rather generic red (do half the teams in the majors now have red as a primary color?)
”CHILDISH THINGS” by James McMurtry
Aunt Clara kept her Bible Right next to the phone in case she needed a quote
While she talked to someone
In my memory she smiles While the blessing is said
And visions of freeze tag dance in my head
She says I’ll grow up bigIf I eat all my roast
I’ll still believe in heaven
But I won’t believe in ghosts anymore
I’ll put away childish things
Every other weekend at the age of thirteen
With my fishing pole and my Field and Stream
Ridin’ back home on the Trailways bus
I looked out the window
‘Til I saw too much
And I called my parents by their own first names
I played in the alley
But I didn’t play the game anymore
I put away childish things
The wolves howl all night long
They won’t stop and they won’t go home
Beneath my window they run
Probably it’ll be alright
If I keep it all locked up tight And wait ‘til daylight comes
Now my boy goes like a house on fire
He’ll never burn out and he’ll never retire
And I remember when I used to think like that
When I was young and the world was flat
But I’m forty some years old now and man I don’t care
All I want now is just a comfortable chair
And to sell all my stock
And live on the coast
I don’t believe in heaven
But I still believe in ghosts.
Sounds like Andruw’s good as gone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My phone rang while I was in the visiting manager’s office this afternoon at Philly’s corporate-bank ballpark. I stepped out to answer, and 25 minutes later, the conversation with Scott Boras had ended.
I’m writing a lead note about it for my Braves notebook, which I’ve got to get started real quickly (I’m doing this blog late today, because I wanted to finish the Saturday story before tomorrow’s 7:20 a.m. flight to Houston, etc).
So I won’t go into great detail here. Suffice to say, I’ll be getting a five-year, $75 mill contract before Andruw Jones accepts a one-year deal. Boras made that pretty clear: There’s no way his client, Andruw Jones, would even have to consider a one-year deal.
In fact, Boras insisted that the market for Andruw is going to be at the “top” of the free-agent scale for the entire 32 years that Boras has been in the biz. Hey, that’s what he said.
His thing with Andruw, his big marketing points, are going to be these:
Andruw has durability that’s a “demonstrated unique characteristic” (he man employs buzz words like a political strategist) that Boras said makes him like a Greg Maddux (another of his clients) years ago when people assumed Maddux was about done.
Boras said that he’s still the best center fielder in the game, “bar none.” And the bad season, Boras is going to stress, is a one-year blip and nothing that a half-dozen or more players he named (Fred Lynn, Willie Stargell, Willie McCovey, etc) experienced before bouncing back with strong seasons. He’s got the list in front of him, ready to cite the stats.
And without giving me any salary figures, he made it pretty clear that five years and $75 mill ain’t gonna get it done for Andruw’s next deal. And again Boras reiterated there would be no hometown discount for the Braves.
Folks, I don’t think there’s any way the Braves will make Andruw an offer even close to what Boras wants. Not when they plan to try to sign another Boras client, Mark Teixeira, who’s going to cost at least as much if not plenty more a year from now.
I had been moving more toward the middle on the possibility of Andruw returning, thinking there might actually be a decent shot of it happening because of his poor offensive performance this season.
After that conversation with Boras. I can say I’m at least 95-percent certain Andruw is gone. Braves will get a stopgap guy like Mike Cameron for a year or two, then insert Jordan Schaffer when the kid’s ready.
Hey, stats say Braves are in good shape: You want more reason to feel lousy about the Braves not being one of the eight teams that still have legit postseason hopes in the NL? OK, here it is:
The Braves rank third in the league in pitching with a 4.12 ERA, are tied for second with a .275 batting average, third in runs scored, and rank in the top five in doubles, homers, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
In other words, on a purely statistical basis (again, purely statistical), they are one of the best three teams in the NL.
And while I’m thinking about it, do any of you realize the Braves once-maligned bullpen has whittled its ERA to 3.62, second in the NL - albeit a distant second - to San Diego (2.95).
And that they’ve blown just 15 of 51 save opportunities, after blowing 29 of 67 in 2006?
Anyway, as we’ve said, I think at the end of the year and all winter, the Braves are going to think about a lot of those stretches when they couldn’t get a bit hit, when they had bases loaded or two on with none or one out, and couldn’t hit a ball out of the infield.
Yes, the lack of starting-pitch depth was their biggest downfall, obviously. But when you look at the difference in their hitting in the first through sixth innings (best in the league) and in the seventh and later innings (middle of the pack), it’s clear the Braves let a lot of games get away when a hit here or there would have sealed the deal.
And there were stretches where nobody, or only one or two guys, could get a hit, period. Team slumps that went for nine games here, five there (remember 0-5 with a .150 average and one run in the stretch vs. Boston and Detroit? Or .195 and 1-5 record in the two late-season series against the Mets?)
And, of course, there are the averages with runners in scoring position, with RISP and two outs, with bases loaded, late-and-close — most of which aren’t bad for the team in general, but are brought down by the woeful numbers put up by Andruw Jones, who unfortunately had the second-most at-bats in most of those spots, behind only Jeff Francoeur.
I don’t mean to pile on Andruw, but I was doing a story for Saturday on team hitting and a couple of stats jumped out: With bases loaded, Andruw as 3-for-16 with a walk and six strikeouts. The rest of the Braves were 45-for-144 (.313).
After the sixth inning, Andruw has hit .199 with 50 strikeouts in 176 at-bats.
With runners in scoring position and two outs, he’s hit - brace yourselves — .169 (14-for-83) with 24 walks and 26 strikeouts. Only Braves lower were Langy, Salty, and Sneezy, er, Craig Wilson. And the three of them together only had 30 such at-bats, so they didn’t do much damage in those spots.
The only Brave with more at-bats with RISP and two outs than Andruw was Francoeur, who hit .333 in 97 such at-bats.
With two strikes, Andruw’s hit .156 (48-for-307). In interleague play, he hit .061 (3-for-49)…. Oh, I’ll stop. Enough.
September swoon: A bunch of Braves have been slumping in September, most of them youngsters in their first or second full season in the majors. Here’s the rundown before tonight:
— McCann was 9-for-42 (.214) with zero extra-base hits and four RBIs in 13 games.
— Francoeur was 10-for-49 (.204) with four doubles, no homers and six RBIs in 12 games.
— Kelly Johnson was 15-for-74 (.203, yikes) with two doubles, one homer, five RBIs and 19 strikeouts in his past 21 games.
— Matt Diaz was 15-for-61 (.246) with two doubles, no homers, seven RBIs and 15 strikeouts in his past 20 games.
— Willie Harris was 8-for-74 (.108; oh, my) with four extra-base hits, six RBis and 19 strikeouts i his past 27 games.
Whew. That about covers it.
”YOU GOT GOLD” by John Prine
Is there ever enough space between us
To keep us both honest and true?
Why is it so hard just to sit in the yard
And stare at the sky so blue?
I’ve got a new way of walking and a new way of talking
Honey when I’m around you,
But it gives me the blues when I’ve got some good news
And you’re not there to bring it to.
Life is a blessing, it’s a delicatessen
Of all the little favors you do.
All wrapped up together no matter the weather,
Baby you always come through.
It’s a measure of treasure that gives me the pleasure
Of loving you the way I do
And you know I would gladly say I need your love badly
And bring these little things to you.
Cause you got gold
Gold inside of you
You got gold
Gold inside of you
Well I got some
Gold inside me too
Well I’m thinking I’m knowing that I gotta be going
You know I hate to say so long.
It gives me an ocean of mixed up emotion
I’ll have to work it out in a song.
Well I’m leaving a lot for the little I got
But you know a lot a little will do
And if you give me your love
I’ll let it shine up above
And light my way back home to you.
Cause you got gold
Gold inside of you
Cause you got gold
Gold inside of you
Well I got some
Gold inside me too
You got wheels
Turning inside of you
You got wheels
Turning inside of you
Well I got wheels
Turning inside me too
Braves’ surge helping Chipper’s MVP cred
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’re watching something special here, folks, these Braves winning eight of their last nine, staging comeback win after comeback win, pulling themselves up off the proverbial canvas and getting back in the playoff race, going from impossibly long odds to, well, still long but at least reasonable enough to consider.
And even if it ends tonight — if, say the Braves lose and the Padres win (which would put Atlanta four games behind the San Diego with four to go) — then it was still impressive, wasn’t it? Maddening, I’m sure, for Braves Nation and the denizens here who wanted so much to believe in them back in July and August, when they kept frittering away opportunities in “must-win” series and such.
But it’s still enjoyable, isn’t it, for you folks to watch these games? Has to be, admit it. And it should at least give the Braves and their fans something to remember for next season, a reminder of how good this team should be, and how it’s imperative to get your act together early and not wait too long just because the 162-game season is so epic.
Just imagine, a few of those leads they blew, a few of those games when they left bases loaded … OK, I’ll stop torturing you.
Anyway, let’s get to this MVP thing I wanted to blog about real quickly before I head over to the ballpark.
I still don’t think Chipper Jones will win the league MVP award, primarily because he’s played only 129 games and three of the other four top candidates (Prince Fielder, Matt Holliday David Wright) have played more than 150.
Fielder’s hit .291 with 50 homers, 119 RBIs, .392 OBP and a 1.017 OPS. He’s a terrific force and the Brewers wouldn’t have a prayer without him.
Holliday has hit .338 with 48 doubles, 36 homers and 131 RBIs, albeit with a .374 average, 25 homers and a 1.159 OPS at Coors Field, compared to .300 with 11 homers and an .858 OPS on the road.
Wright’s hit .322 with 30 homers, 105 RBIs and a .964 OPS, and if he weren’t doing it in New York and ESPN wasn’t calling him MVP every other night, I don’t think he’d really be considered a top-three candidate. He shouldn’t be.
Reigning MVP Ryan Howard, who I’m assuming is still in the top five in many voters’ eyes, has played 139 games for the Phils. While his 43 homers and 127 RBIs are impressive, his .264 average and major league-record tying 195 strikeouts in 511 at-bats are not. Besides, four other Phillies have 22 or more homers, and Howard might not even be their team MVP — Chase Utley’s hit .336 with 22 homers and 101 RBIs in 127 games, and has a .991 OPS to Howard’s .957. And don’t forget SS Jimmy Rollins, who’s hit .293 with 84 extra-base hits (18 triples, 30 homers, 134 runs and 91 RBIs. Damn, do they have some punch.
Which brings us back to Chipper, and I can already hear a legit counter-argument that he might not even be the Braves’ MVP, since I’ve said myself that Edgar was the team MVP before he got hurt, and hey, Mark Teixeira might be their MVP since they got him July 31, hitting 15 homers and 52 RBIs in 50 games.
But take a look at what Chipper’s done, and you might see why I think some voters who wait until the end of the regular season to vote, like you should in a close race, are probably considering shifting their votes to Hoss.
He’s hit a league-high .340 with 41 doubles, 28 homers and 100 RBIs, with a .428 OBP and a league-leading 1.036 OPS.
On the road, he’s hit a majors-leading .360 with 53 RBIs and a 1.090 OPS in 61 games.
Against right-handers, he’s hit a majors-leading .383 (yes, .383) with 52 extra-base hits (21 homers), 72 RBIs and an 1.181 OPS.
Here’s something to think about: The Braves have had a flukish season in that they’ve faced far more lefties than any other major league team; think if they’d had a couple more at-bats against righties, an amount similar to the breakdown for most teams? I’m just saying…
OK, since his return from the DL in mid-June, he’s hit .359 with 46 extra-base hits, 73 RBIs and a .444 OBP in 87 games.
Since the Braves added Teixeira to the lineup behind him, Chipper has hit .341 with 11 homers, 44 RBIs, 44 runs and a 1.068 OPS in 46 games.
And in his past 27 games, Chipper has hit .374 with eight homers and 32 RBIs.
Hey, I think Prince Fielder will win it, and I wouldn’t argue that he’s not deserving. But you really have to consider Chipper Jones, don’t you?
If he’d just played in that Mets series a couple weeks ago, got a key hit or two in that series, gotta wonder if he might be considered a favorite about now.
Leadoff next season? Whether or not the Braves keep Kelly Johnson at second base next season or trade him, they might have found another solid leadoff hitter.
Because as good as Kelly was in the role, rookie Yunel Escobar has been about as good or even better. (I’m still amazed at some of the things I see this Cuban rookie do. Escobar is seriously good, people).
This came to my attention today, when I decided to look up the leadoff on-base percentage guys after Escobar had two doubles in the role last night.
And I was surprised by what I found: Escobar leads NL leadoff men with a .414 OBP hitting in the No. 1 spot in the lineup. Kelly still has enough plate appearances to qualify and is fifth with a .375 OBP (yes, the Braves have two of the top five NL leadoff OBPs, with Hanley Ramirez, Cincy’s Norris Hopper and Rickie Weeks between Escobar and K.J.)
Escobar has hit .364 (52-for-143) with 14 doubles and two homers as a leadoff man.
By the way, his .331 overall average includes a .352 mark (82-for-233) in his past 68 games.
Phillies didn’t get memo: That, or the Phillies are ignoring the script that was sent out to all NL teams 10 days ago, the one titled “Unflappable Braves Rally for Wild Card.”
I say this because they’ve decided not to pitch Adam Eaton on Thursday. Eaton, of the plus-6.00 ERA that includes a plus 11.00 ERA vs. the Braves.
No, they’re going with rookie Kyle Kendrick, who is 4-1 with a 3.63 ERA in his past seven starts.
The Phillies supported the kid with a whopping 40 runs during the 25-2/3 innings he pitched in those four wins. Imagine what John Smoltz might do with such run support?
Smoltz, who goes against Kendrick in the series finale, is 4-1 with a 2.77 and 2.17 ERA during 10 consecutive quality starts since Aug. 8, including three in which the Braves scored only one run while he was in.
OK, that’s it’s I’m running late. Gotta file this.
“BOOMTOWN” by Greg Brown
Here come the artists with their intense faces,
with their need for money and quiet spaces.
They leave New York, they leave L.A.
Here they are — who knows how long they’ll stay
It’s a Boomtown
got another Boomtown
and it’ll boom
just as long as boom has room.
Here come the tourists with their blank stares,
with their fanny packs — they are penny millionaires.
Something interesting happened here long time ago.
Now where people used to live their lives the restless come and go.
Nice to meet you, nice to see you
in a sheepskin coat made in Korea.
Welcome to the new age, the new century.
Welcome to a town with no real reason to be.
The rich build sensitive houses and pass their staff around.
For the rest of us, it’s trailers on the outskirts of town.
We carry them their coffee, wash their shiny cars,
hear all about how lucky we are to be living in a …
The guy from California moves in and relaxes.
The natives have to move — they cannot pay the taxes.
Santa Fe has had it. Sedona has, too.
Maybe you’ll be lucky — maybe your town will be the new…
It’s a Boomtown
got another Boomtown
and it’ll boom
just as long as boom has room.
‘Slim’ hasn’t left town
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Braves still have a chance to make the playoffs.
Yes, what seemed like an impossibility more than a week ago, is now not out of the question. Heck, Major League Baseball didn’t even include the Braves in tie-breaker coin flips, but we’ve had a near perfect storm since. The Braves have won 9 of 10 games and the teams in front of them — the Mets, Phillies in the NL East and the Padres in the wildcard race — have struggled.
With five games to go, the Braves trail the Mets by four games. If the Braves win out and the Mets lose out, the Braves could still win the division. However, the Mets’ magic number over the Braves is two, meaning any combination of Mets wins and Braves losses that equal two and a division title is out. Baseball Prospectus’ website lists the Braves’ chances of winning the division as .16320 of a percent (The Mets are listed at 91.57880 percent and the Phillies are listed at 8.25890).
The wildcard race is much more complicated. The Braves are three games out with three teams in front, but anything is possible. Even if the Braves win the rest of their games, the Padres would need to win only three of their remaining five games to clinch the wildcard. Or if the Padres falter, the Rockies would need to win only three of their remaining five to clinch the wildcard. If the Braves were to lose one of their remaining five games the Padres would need to win just two more games.
Come back tomorrow for an update.
Chipper and Braves take it to final week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gonna crank out a scattershooting blog here between writing this four-part series they’ve had me working on, which begins tomorrow with a pitching story about the Braves’ rotation woes the past two seasons and what they might do to fix it before next season (hint: Tom Glavine’s name might make the story….)
I think they’re running a story I’m finishing on Andruw the next day (Wednesday paper), then the last two stories are running next weekend, on the closer situation and the offense going into for next season.
I’m partial to the first two stories in the series, which, to me, will be the biggest topics for immediate discussion as we wind this thing down and head into the offseason.
What’s that? Someone just said the Braves are still alive. Oh, that’s right.
Technically, yes. There is a faint pulse in their playoff dream. But folks, let’s be real: Braves waited a couple or three weeks too long to play the kind of baseball that would have won them the wild card or NL East (and the way the Mets have sputtered down the stretch, don’t think the Braves aren’t absolutely kicking themselves for blowing it in the last two head-to-head series against the New Yorkers).
The Braves just let the Mets and Phillies get too far ahead, along with a couple other teams in the wild-card race, which just gave them practically zero room for error in the final couple of weeks.
Must be maddening for Braves fans (and players), how the team that couldn’t answer the bell in so many must-win situations earlier is now reeling off wins when they’ve got nothing to lose and everyone’s written them off.
Braves have won seven of eight games. However, the Phillies have been nearly as good in that stretch, winning six of eight including three of four over the weekend at Washington.
Here’s two stats that don’t bode well for the Braves as they head to Philly for a three-game series starting Tuesday in a must-sweep situation for the Bravos:
The Phillies are 6-3 in the last nine games against the Braves, and, probably more pertinent, the Phillies are 9-3 with a .313 batting average and 23 homers in their past 12 home games, averaging nearly seven runs in that span at their cozy corportate-bank ballpark.
Chuck James gets the start Tuesday, and fortunately for the Braves, he’s cut down on the homer yield lately, giving up only two in his past three starts while going 2-0 with a 2.76 ERA. This after he served up nine bombs in under 20 innings over his previous four starts.
By the way, Chuck’s only given up one homer in 11 innings at Philly’s corporate-bank park, and he’s 2-0 with a 2.79 ERA in five career starts against the Phillies.
Big Menace Ryan Howard is only 1-for-14 with seven strikeouts and a homer against him. (Howard has five homers and 16 RBIs in 15 games vs. the Bravos this season)
Then the Braves have Hudson and Smoltz going in the last two games of the series, and they keep it in the park about as well as anyone.
So if Chuck, who’s really pitched well lately, can beat the ancient lefty Jamie Moyer on Tuesday, yes, a sweep is possible. Then things could really be interesting. But again, the Braves need continued help from the not-so-Amazins (Mets).
Sorry, folks, but I just don’t see it happening. Then again, I never play the lottery, either, which means I’ll never win the lottery.
This late surge by the Braves does, however, go to underscore how silly it was for a few folks here a few weeks back to suggest the Braves start playing all their kids as some sort of tryout for next season. Remember that?
Someone even said Smoltz should have been shut down the rest of the season, so convinced were they that he was pitching hurt and that there was no reason to keep him out there (as if he would have agreed to sit, when, at it turned out, he was being honest about the shoulder being sore for several starts, but then improving).
Not that it was ever going to happen, benching of veterans and playing all the kids with a month to go. Nevermind how it would have been perceived by other teams, giving an advantage to playoff contenders playing the Braves down the stretch — how about having fans who paid full price in advance for tickets to late-season games, to watch a glorified minor league team?
As it turned out, some very big crowds got to see some good baseball in the last homestand, including a couple of come-from-behind Braves wins and some stellar pitching from the starters and bullpen.
It’s almost certainly too late to matter this season, but it did provide plenty of enjoyment for those folks, and those watching on TV or listening on the radio, while also providing a glimpse of what should be a very strong team next season, provided the Braves fix their rotation. They simply must do that.
Chipper’s pursuit:The NL batting leader’s got his average up to .341, giving Chipper a four-point lead over Colorado’s Matt Holliday and six-point lead over Philly’s Chase Utley.
Who’d have thunk old Hoss would be going for his first batting title at age 35? And some who’ve continually derided his defense, you might want to start sending out e-mails or something, because I’m hearing a lot of talk about Jones possibly winning his first Gold Glove. If you watched the national broadcast the other day, you know what I mean.
Well, at least we won’t have to answer questions about Chipper moving to first base this offseason. Between’s his play at third and the presence of Mark Teixeira at first base, that tired subject will have to wait another year.
By the way, Chipper is 12-for-33 (.364) with five doubles, a triple and four homers in his past nine games against the Phillies.
And those wondering about the OPS, OBP and slugging “titles” as it were, some of you will be pleased to know that Barry Bonds has slipped form the Stats Inc rankings because of too-few plate appearances, and that Chipper now ranks first in the National League in OPS at 1.033, ahead of Holliday (1.009).
Potential Cubs owner A-Rod (1.059 OPS, possible $300 mill contract, are you freakin’ serious?) is the only major leaguer ahead of Chipper in OPS these days, with David Ortiz (1.032) just a tick behind.
Chipper’s second in the league in OBP at .428, behind Todd Helton (.433), and third in slugging at .604, trailing Holliday (.609) and Prince Fielder (.606).
Oh, and Chipper leads the majors by a wide margin with his .363 road average, ahead of Albert Pujols (.353) and Edgar Renteria (.336) in the NL (yes, Braves have two of league’s top three road averages).
Tampa Bay teammates Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton share the AL lead at .342.
If it was Andruw’s last game at Turner Field as a Brave, then at least he got a couple of hits and avoided most boo-birds. He played hard Sunday, and it was good to see him perform well in a win in the last home game of the season.
But there’s a reason, of course, for Andruw being been booed at Turner Field quite often this season. His .196 home average is 17 points lower than any other NL lineup regular’s home average this season.
His .220 overall average is second-lowest among league regulars.
By the way, Andruw hit .220 with 19 homers, 64 RBIs and a .774 OPS in 323 at-bats as the Braves’ cleanup hitter this season.
Mark Teixeira’s hit .325 with 14 homers, 49 RBIs and a 1.006 OPS in 191 at-bats as the Braves’ cleanup hitter.
Here’s what Andruw said when I asked the nine-time Gold Glove winner about being booed at home:
“It really doesn’t matter,” he said. “You’re going to get booed, you’re going to get cheered. There’s fans out there who boo you because they think you’re better than that, and some who boo you because they think you suck. It’s really no big deal.
“It’s their perception, their thinking, and you can’t change it.”
I then asked him if the roles were reversed, and he was a fan, would he boo this year’s Andruw Jones:
“I wouldn’t boo nobody,” he said. “You don’t know what he goes through. You don’t play the game [to give you the credibility] to criticize people. So it really doesn’t matter.”
Soriano suspension will hurt: The Braves could be without Rafael Soriano for three or four of the last six games depending on the outcome of his Tuesday appeal of a four-game suspension. It’ll hurt them, because he’s really dealin’.
Soriano has allowed eight hits and one run (on a homer) in 18-1/3 innings over his past 16 appearances, posting an 0.49 ERA and .127 opponents’ average with three walks and 24 strikeouts in that span.
Folks, I’d really be surprised if he’s not next year’s closer.
”GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY” by Bob Dylan
You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You might be a rock ‘n’ roll addict prancing on the stage,
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage,
You may be a business man or some high degree thief,
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk,
You may be the head of some big TV network,
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame,
You may be living in another country under another name
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride,
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side,
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair,
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk,
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk,
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread,
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy,
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy,
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray,
You may call me anything but no matter what you say
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Refreshing change of pace, thanks to pitching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It might be foolish to think the Braves’ 5-0 run will get them anywhere come October, but it’s been refreshing in its change of pace, hasn’t it?
We all know the reason for recent success, don’t we? All five starting pitchers won - something that hasn’t happened all year in one trip through the rotation. Here it just happened with Tim Hudson, John Smoltz, Jo-Jo Reyes, Chuck James and newcomer Jeff Bennett.
I think after that win Sunday, when Tim Hudson pitched the Braves’ first complete game all season in Washington, and a shutout at that, everybody took a deep breath. Then John Smoltz went out, pitched like he always pitches and actually got good run support. Then Jo-Jo Reyes got his first major league win, then Chuck James actually pitched seven innings and then last night, you saw, rookie Jeff Bennett did his thing.
What it means beyond some warm fuzzies for the Braves and their fans, will depend on whether the Mets keep tanking, the Braves keep winning and whether the Braves can somehow sweep the Phillies next week in Philadelphia.
The match-ups for the weekend have to favor the Braves, with Hudson tonight (vs. Carlos Villaneuva), Smoltz tomorrow (vs. Yovani Gallardo) and then Sunday Ben Sheets a likely scratch because of hamstring issues (vs. Reyes).
And hey, don’t you know that everybody other than the Braves, as in the Brewers, the Phillies, the Mets (and hey, the Red Sox? Oh my) - they’ve been feeling the screws tighten lately. The Braves don’t have a whole lot to lose at this point, and they’re playing like it. The pressure is on everybody else.
Last night after the game, while we were talking to Bennett, a bunch of the Braves were gathered back in the players’ lounge watching the Mets cough up another one. There was a big loud roar when the Marlins started their ninth inning rally.
It’s becoming fun again for the Braves.
And thoughts on the Rafael Soriano suspension: He’s looking at a four-game suspension with nine games to go and one very important series coming up with the Phillies next Tuesday-Thursday.
I would think MLB, which is considering his appeal, wants to make darn sure this is important enough to uphold four games. Normally I’d have a hunch they’d shorten the suspension to two games, perhaps, given that there was no warning before Soriano hit Dan Uggla, there was no ejection, no ensuing fight, not much of anything except a disgruntled Uggla. And they also have to consider this is a key stretch that will affect the outcome of the NL East race. The Braves possibly losing their closer for the entire series against the Phillies is a big deal.
The Phillies’ Antonio Alfonseca just got a four-game suspension for throwing at Todd Helton. He appealed it but eventually dropped the appeal. He’s serving his four games and will return when the Braves get to Philly on Tuesday. The one difference, though, is Alfonseca was ejected from that game.
I guess we’ll just have to see.
Batting title, schmatting title, is what I told Tim Hudson yesterday, let’s talk about the Silver Slugger.
Huddy has quietly gotten himself 19 hits this year, which ties Carlos Zambrano for the lead among pitchers. And Zambrano, who won the Silver Slugger last year, is hitting .253 compared to Huddy’s .264. And yes he has two homers this year while Hudson has none, but Hudson has driven in nine runs to Zambrano’s five and has three doubles to his Zambrano’s one.
But ultimately. managers and coaches who vote are just they everybody else apparently. They dig the long ball.
Leave it to Mike Hampton, who won the Silver Slugger five times from 1999-2003, to explain. Think Hudson can win it?
“No,” Hampton said. ”Gotta have pop.”
Hudson, the former center fielder for Auburn who hit 18 home runs his senior year, has yet to hit a home run in the majors.
“Little bit more drop and drive I think,” Hudson said. “Maybe work on my swing a little bit this offseason.”
He knows it hurts him when it comes to a silver bat.
“Nah. I think for any pitcher to hit over .200 is pretty good. There are some guys in the league who’ve hit over .200 and they have a bunch of homers. I don’t exactly have explosive power coming out of my bat these days. But it’s kinda cool to be mentioned along those lines.”
Managers and coaches vote on Silver Sluggers and they base it on triple crown categories: batting average, homers, RBIs and also on total bases. And while Hudson has more hits than anybody else and more at-bats than anyone other than Zambrano, there are other pitchers impressive in a couple categories:
Micah Owings .291 (16-for-55), 4 homers, 12 RBIs.
Kip Wells .327 (17-for-52), 1 homer, 5 RBIs.
But Hudson has to feel good about himself this year, going from hitting a combined .117 (15-for-128) his first two years as a Brave to .264 (19-for-72) this year.
“Coming from the American League, when I first got here it was not too fun up there; it seemed really hard,” Hudson said. “Having a lot of fun playing two positions in college, you would think it would come back pretty quickly. It’s taken a couple years. I’m not saying I’ve figured it all out, but I feel a lot better than I did my first year up here, handling the bat….
“You go over to the American League, six or seven years, not seeing anything and all of a sudden you see an 88 mph fastball, it seems like it’s 98. You really don’t have a chance. Until you start seeing pitches and having more at-bats, trying to recognize sliders and curveballs and that kind of thing….”
The Braves have a pretty rich tradition of Silver Slugger awards on the pitching staff. Hampton won one of his as a Brave in 2003. Tom Glavine won four of them - in 1998, 1996, 1995 and 1991. And Smoltz won one in 1997.
“It’s going to be pretty interesting next year when Hammy comes back,” Hudson said. “He’s already talking smack. He’s had a couple years off now. He says it’s like riding a bike. I beg to differ.”
How much do Braves miss Leo?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Judging from e-mails and comments some have posted here, I get the impression Braves fans have mixed opinions about pitching coach Roger McDowell’s performance in his first two seasons with the Braves, despite the praise he’s gotten from pitchers and team officials.
And believe me, I understand why many would view the Braves’ unparalleled pitching tradition under former pitching coach Leo Mazzone, see their relative mediocrity (and for many of the starters, worse than mediocre) in McDowell’s first two seasons, and come to the conclusion that it’s his fault, or at least in large part his fault.
It can’t help that folks who were so used to seeing Leo quoted so often here and on TV and radio, with his folksy demeanor and self-deprecating personality, hardly ever see McDowell interviewed on camera or hear his voice on radio, or even see him quoted in print at length.
But put aside the limited public presence for a moment, folks, because it really means absolutely nothing in terms of his job performance. He’s not paid to be interviewed, and most pitching coaches and hitting coaches don’t like to be front and center, they’re uncomfortable taking attention from the players and manager, I’m sure in part because they feel there’s better job security in laying low and just doing your job.
So let’s look at the pertinent stuff.
As I see it, all we can go on, really, are two things:
1. Statistics for Braves and Orioles pitchers in the past two years and in the years immediately before McDowell and Mazzone arrived in their new jobs (what the Braves did in the 1990s, when they had a budget that routinely ranked in the top three in baseball and had rotations better and deeper than all other teams in the modern era, is really not very relevant in comparisons to their current team);
2. What the pitchers are saying, on or off the record. Because believe me, when things go south, you can almost ALWAYS find folks willing to point a finger at a coach or manager, off the record at least, to try and defer some blame. That is, if there’s any dissension or problems in that regard.
Let me reiterate what I’ve said before: I and other reporters can’t find a pitcher, including some who’ve struggled, who’ll blame McDowell or even say they don’t want to talk about his performance, or even roll their eyes and say, no comment, etc. Folks, I’m giving it to you straight on that one. They really do seem to all like the guy and his methods.
Me, I’ve got no real relationship with him to convey to you much more than that he’s cordial enough, says hi when you greet him, etc. He’s the antithesis of Leo in that regard; Leo, I’d talk to almost daily. But again, it’s not the coach’s job or responsibility to be engaging with media members. It’s nice when they do, and I do like talking to Terry Pendleton a lot. But it’s not essential they do.
OK, a few stats: A lot of people recall that the Braves were far and away the best pitching staff in baseball over the 1991-2002 period. None other was even close over that period, either with its pitching staff as a whole or its starting rotations, in particular.
The Braves ranked third in the NL in 1991 in overall ERA and third in starters ERA, then ranked first in the NL in overall ERA in ’92, ’93, ’95, ’97, ’98, ’99, 2000, ’01, and ’02. The only years they didn’t lead the league in that 11-year span, they finished second (’94, ’96).
And in that 11-year span, the starters led the NL every season. Repeat, every season.
Amazing stuff, folk. Just amazing.
But people tend to forget that after the budget was cut, and there was no longer the funding to pay for rotations three- and four-deep with healthy, established veterans in their prime, the ERA streak ended.
In Leo’s final three seasons as Braves pitching coach, the pitching staff finished with these NL rankings: 2003, ninth in overall ERA (4.04) and seventh in starters ERA (4.16); 2004, first in overall ERA (3.74) and second in starters ERA (3.84); 2005, sixth in overall ERA (3.98) and third in starters ERA (3.65).
In Roger’s first two seasons as Braves pitching coach, the pitching staff ranked, in 2006, 10th in overall ERA (4.60) and ninth in starters ERA (4.71); and this season they’re seventh in overall ERA (4.16) and seventh in starters ERA (4.45).
It probably should be noted here, they’ve been without Mike Hampton in both of McDowell’s seasons. Hampton, after going 14-8 in 2003 and 13-9 in 2004, got hurt in 2005 and hasn’t pitched since late that season.
Meanwhile the bullpen, an area that the Braves never emphasized too much during their loaded-rotation era, was one they hoped would improve under McDowell, a former reliever.
Bullpen ERA isn’t the greatest indicator of success, but for what it’s worth: The Braves finished sixth in bullpen ERA in 2003, third in 2004 and 12th in 2005, Leo’s last three seasons.
They finished 11th in bullpen ERA in 2005 and are third this season.
In Baltimore’s last three seasons before Leo arrived, the Orioles in the American League finished 10th in overall ERA and 10th in starters ERA in 2003; seventh in overall ERA and 10th in starters ERA in 2004, and 10th in overall ERA and ninth in starters ERA in 2005.
In Leo’s two seasons there, they finished 13th (in a 14-team league) in overall ERA and 13th in starters ERA in 2006, and this season they’re 13th in overall ERA and ninth in starters ERA.
I don’t profess to know the ins and outs of the Orioles staff and challenges they’ve faced, so I decided just to look at starters who were there in the last year before Leo arrived and how the holdovers fared under his tutelage.
Erik Bedard was 6-8 with a 4.00 ERA in 24 starts in 2005, the last year before Leo arrived. Bedard was 15-11 with a 3.76 ERA in 2006, and he’s 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA this season.
Daniel Cabrera was 10-13 with a 4.52 ERA in 2005 before Leo, 9-10 with a 4.74 ERA in 2006, and 9-17 with a 5.51 ERA this season.
Bruce Chen was 13-10 with a 3.84 ERA in 2005 before Leo, and 0-5 with a 7.41 ERA in 12 starts last season and spent the rest of his time in the bullpen. He wasn’t re-signed.
Hayden Penn, the big Baltimore prospect the Braves pursued last winter, was 3-2 with a 6.34 ERA in eight starts as a rookie in 2005 before Leo. Penn was 0-4 with a 15.10 ERA in six starts in 2006, and hasn’t started in the majors this season.
That’s all I could find for starters who were there before Leo. Not much of a sample, so make of it what you want.
Now, the second part of this is an interview I did with John Smoltz a few days ago. John was the most-quoted pitcher after Leo left the Braves, mainly because he was the most-asked, having been with Leo all those years.
Smoltz’s answers to most questions about Leo were along the lines of, he’d be missed, he’d done a lot for Smoltz’s career, but the Braves would move on and be just fine without him.
And some took Smoltz’s silence on some Leo questions to indicate the veteran pitcher didn’t think too highly of some of the coach’s methods or his persona or whatever. People read what they wanted to read into it.
So I’m going to run the interview with Smoltz verbatim, at least his answers.
It was part of a bigger interview I did with Smoltz for a story to run at the end of the season, but I wanted to go ahead and run the part about Leo. I’ll paraphrase my questions, but not Smoltz’s answers, some of which ramble a bit (Smoltz does that, and it’s far more preferable to short, clipped responses; I’ll never complain about Smoltz being long-winded or roundabout in responses):
On the good-cop, bad-cop theory that some fans have come up with regarding the loss of Leo and how he was the need balance to manager Bobby Cox’s players-manager persona, and how that’s been sorely missed:
Smoltz: “You’ve seen this organization turn over a lot of people. Everybody has had a huge impact. He [Mazzone] had a huge impact, but his time … it was probably best to move on. For whatever reason.
“Leo is a mechanical guy. He was good at mechanics. But Leo would admit, he wasn’t going to teach you how to pitch. He wasn’t going to show you how to get hitters out. That wasn’t his forte. And I think with the emergence of some young pitchers, they needed a little bit more. They needed to be able to pitch with what they had. He was so used to great stuff, that it was probably difficult - it would have been difficult for me [in his shoes] — to see someone not have particularly great stuff.
“Everybody that’s been through here, with the exception of Bobby, who’s been here the same time, everybody had something to add. But as times have changed, the game has changed. The strike zone has changed, You have to adapt. And I think the adaptability was difficult for [Mazzone’s] mindset, and a younger mindset.
“I think that, more or less, to be fair about it, that’s what became difficult…. Take an older player, someone who’d had success — they’d have success [again under Mazzone]. But the younger player who was struggling with certain components of what we were trying to do — you now, if you’re talented enough that you can hit down-and-away and down-and-away and down-and-away [in the strike zone], you can fit it [with Mazzone].
“But if you can’t, you’ve got to find a way to adjust to him, as a player.”
So Roger has, in your view, had nothing to do with the disappointments of past two years, that it’s been injuries and whatnot and not the absence of Leo?
Smoltz: “Absolutely. I think what Roger’s done is given a player an insight that will help them from a pitching standpoint — how do you get guys out with what you’ve got, and how do you improve on it? Where, again, everybody has something different. You go to 25 different pitching coaches, you’re going to get 25 different ideas, which is great, but in no way does that….
“This is the thing. In Leo’s last three years, we were pretty bad. Our ERA went the other way. It wasn’t just Leo, it was the product of some of the things that were changing here — philosophies, budgets. It’s not a blame or pointing the finger at anybody, it’s just the way it evolved. And you just didn’t have your power arms, your guys who could strike guys out when they needed to.
“I think any time in sports when someone’s spent a long time somewhere, i.e. Glavine, Leo — there’s always going to be a bigger story [when they leave], it’s always going to be ‘Oh, my God.’ And it’s always going to be more emphasis on trying to figure out why it happened.
And sometimes the media will take silence as a negative thing.
It’s just one of those deals where, if I’m fortunate enough to have accolades come my way, [Mazzone] be there. That’s how important he was for my in my career. It’s just that, uh— I don’t mean this in the wrong way, but when that story becomes bigger than what it is….”
He left it at that, folks. Draw your own conclusions. But I will say, that viewpoint is shared by several other veteran pitchers I’ve talked to.
OK, I’m gonna be at the ballpark tonight, but all this week I’m working on some interviews for feature stories to run next week. Carroll’s got the game coverage, and she’ll be responding to any in-game blog queries and such.
Hope the Smoltz interview helps, at least in some small way, to allow you all to understand the sentiments of those who worked under Leo the longest.
”CRY, CRY, CRY” by Johnny Cash
Everybody knows where you go when the sun goes down.
I think you only live to see the lights of town.
I wasted my time when I would try, try, try.
When the lights have lost their glow, you’re gonna cry, cry, cry.
I lie awake at night and wait ‘til you come in.
You stay a little while and then you’re gone again.
Every question that I ask, I get a lie, lie, lie.
For every lie you tell, you’re gonna cry, cry, cry.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry and you’ll cry alone,
When everyone’s forgotten and you’re left on your own.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry.
Soon your sugar-daddies will all be gone.
You’ll wake up some cold day and find you’re alone.
You’ll call to me but I’m gonna tell you: “Bye, bye, bye,”
When I turn around and walk away, you’ll cry, cry, cry,
When your fickle little love gets old, no one will care for you.
You’ll come back to me for a little love that’s true.
I’ll tell you no and you gonna ask me why, why, why?
When I remind you of all of this, you’ll cry, cry, cry.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry and you’ll cry alone,
When everyone’s forgotten and you’re left on your own.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry and you’ll want me there,
It’ll hurt when you think of the fool you’ve been.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry.
Skip’s back, ready to return to booth
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With my apologies, but the blog isn’t going to be too extensive today. I spent much of the morning on the phone with Skip Caray and writing a story about his recovery from congestive heart failure.
It’s up on ajc.com if you want to read it, but let me just say Skip is doing very well. He is going to finish the season in the booth. It was serious and it was scary - and I’m no doctor so I’ll leave it at that - but it seems the worst is behind him. And if this happens again, he knows what to watch for and how to handle it.
He sounded very positive and funny as always and was especially touched by TBS’s gesture to have him and son Chip work the very last Braves broadcast on TBS. He will have worked the first and the last. Ought to be something special. It’s the last game of the season, Sept. 30 in Houston.
I see Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com just picked the Mark Teixeira trade as his No. 1 of the “starting 9” as the biggest dud move of the trading deadline, as in having little impact down the stretch. He writes: “It’s been a weird deal for Atlanta. Teixeira has been a terrific addition, with a 1.015 OOPS and 43 RBIs in 44 games as a Brave. But he can’t pitch, and as a result, his impact has been negligible.”
That’s a hard point to argue, but let me just say this. Let’s say the Braves had not made the trade, would they be any better off in this pennant race right now? Sure you’d like some of those prospects to build for the future, and the return of another division title hasn’t come, but if you had it to do over again, would you have not pulled the trigger? Just curious. And that’s also given that the Braves couldn’t trade for a starting pitcher. Trust me, they tried that.
Tex has been playing some great defense, hasn’t he? And let’s reflect for just a second on the defense as a whole that we saw last night. Wow. One e-mailer thought I didn’t heap enough praise on Yunel Escobar for the double play he made behind Peter Moylan and he’s probably right.
Some times things - especially defense - get a little lost in the shuffle of a game story. But it was quite a play. For him to bare-hand the feed from Edgar Renteria, and it was the only way he could get the ball, which was a little behind him, and in one fluid motion turn and fire to first. It was something special to see. And it was key in the game as well.
And of course, there was Andruw’s catch that saved the game 4-3 in the eighth inning. With 11 games to go now in the season, tell me you didn’t think it. That when you saw that, oh my, what the heck are the Braves doing if they give that up in center field. I know there are 3,002 (or .200) reasons you are ready for the Braves to part ways with him, but I, for one, would feel a little sick to my stomach to see him making plays like that in another city.
Isn’t that like breaking up with a boyfriend when you loved his family and friends? Or his spaghetti? Or his backrubs? Something. Work with me.
Here’s what Matt Diaz had to say about that catch, which happened a couple innings after he made a pretty terrific catch himself.
“The funny thing is, it was the most unbelievable catch you’ll see all night,” Diaz said. “It should be No. 1 on top plays, but the whole time he was going to catch it, I fully expected it. I was like ‘He’s got that.’ Sadly, we take it for granted, because that’s unbelievable.”
The reporter who asked the question said “We’re spoiled.” And everybody in that little scrum nodded, like yeah, we’re all spoiled.
And a couple things that didn’t make it in my notebook yesterday for whatever reason:
• The Braves dear and wonderful usher Walter Banks is going to be featured on a show on ESPN tonight called “Never Miss a Game” at 7 p.m. It’s a one-hour special highlighting some of the stars of the game like Cal Ripken, Jr., Bob Uecker, Bruce Froemming, Ichiro Suzuki and Omar Minaya, as well as some special baseball people you might not necessarily know like 4-year-old Orioles fan Ray Daughert and Banks, who has manned the Turner box for years. One of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
Erin Andrews is hosting, which might be enough to make some of you watch anyway. Ahem.
• With his homer Monday, Andruw Jones became the 14th player in major league history to have 10 consecutive seasons of 25 or more homers. It was only his sixth homer in his last 51 games.
Chipper Jones needs seven RBIs to reach 100 for the ninth time in his career….He was named one of five NL finalists Tuesday for the Hank Aaron award for overall offensive production.
A batting title for Chipper?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chipper for a batting title. Still seems kinda strange, doesn’t it? For all the great things he’ss done in his career, for the steady and professional hitter, it’s still really interesting to me that he’s got a shot - and a very real one now - at the National League batting title.
Entering Tuesday night’s game, Chipper was at .339, Matt Holliday at .334, Edgar Renteria, Hanley Ramirez and Chase Utley at .333. And Chipper is hot. He’s hitting .426 (20-for-47) in September. Holliday has cooled to merely mortal, hitting .333 (19-for-57) in September.
Chipper was a .304 career hitter coming into this season, so it’s not like this is completely foreign. He hit .330 in 2001 and .327 in 2002. But he had some serious hitters to chase those years. Larry Walker won in 2001 hitting .350. Barry Bonds won in 2002 hitting .370.
So why now? He’s 35. What he might lose in durability he makes up for in knowledge of pitchers and experience at the plate? He’s got Mark Teixeira hitting behind him, getting him more fastballs. He’s drawing walks. He’s got 74 walks in 122 games, his highest rate in four years.
And maybe there’s been some drop-off among elite batting average type-guys around the league. It never hurt that Tony Gwynn retired. Bonds isn’t the same guy. Walker is gone.
I kept waiting for Chipper to drop back because it’s just seems so impossible to maintain such a super high average. But here we go, a dozen games to play, and it’s in his sights. Will he get it? What say you, denizens?
And a good trivia question for you perhaps. (Not as good as the one in the Braves broadcast last night, asking who won the AL batting title the year Terry Pendleton won the last NL one for the Braves in 1991? Julio Franco was the answer. Cool.) What two former Braves won the NL batting title since Terry Pendleton in 1991, albeit with other teams? Answer below.
Some other thoughts on this gorgeous Tuesday afternoon….There’s been lots of discussion, and rightly so, about what happens with Yunel Escobar next year. Will Edgar Renteria be traded to make room for Escobar at shortstop and get the Braves some help in the rotation? Will Kelly Johnson move back to the outfield to make room for Escobar at second?
I say, what about Martin Prado? I guess there are some players who just get lost in the shuffle sometimes. But I think he’s got to be a guy that forces the Braves to make a tough decision somewhere. Isn’t he a darn solid player? How about the defense he played in the game Tim Hudson started in New York? How about the clutch hit he got Friday night in DC?
He was lights-out in Richmond this year. One hit on his final day shy of winning the International League batting title. Didn’t he outplay Kelly Johnson in spring training? Prado hit .354 (17-for-48) while Johnson hit .254 (16-for-63). Granted the job was not really open. Spring training was about getting Kelly comfortable at his new position and back in action after his elbow surgery.
But I’m just saying, I see value in Prado, even if it means working him into a trade for a starter.
Just read about what Pedro Martinez said about how tired he is following rehab for shoulder surgery he had last October and that if he faces another serious injury in the next several years, he’d retire: “If anything goes wrong, Hasta la vista, baby.” He said he was as tired as if he’d pitched all year.
You have to appreciate his honesty. Also makes you (or does me) appreciate what Mike Hampton is dealing with. I know he gets a lot of heat in these parts for getting hurt all the time, but you don’t hear him saying something like that. For all the disappointment and the rigors of rehab, he doesn’t complain. And he’s been back in the clubhouse for a while now, traveling with the team, and being his jovial, good teammate self here in recent weeks. There’s something to be said for that.
Is it just me, or are we passing into a strange phase of the season now. I just got this e-mail from a reader:
“If the Braves are out of it next weekend, any chance they’d hit Biggio a couple of times? He’s sitting at 285 HBP, two behind Hughie Jennings who has held the record since 1901. Maybe a nice going-away gesture to drill him and get him the record.”
So do we think this is an Astros fan? Or is it a Braves fan that has an old vendetta against the Braves’ ole friend and Killer Bee? I can’t see the Braves wanting to put extra runners on base in that park, record or no record. But maybe they come inside a little and maybe Biggio and his body armor leans in. You never know.
Did anyone else see that crack from Michael Gearon Jr. in Tim Tucker’s story Sunday on the latest yadda ya with the Hawks/Thrashers ownership dispute? About how the Thrashers were the only Atlanta franchise to “win any division in the last two years?” That’s weak, if you ask me. Somebody let me know when the Thrashers get to about say, seven or eight divisions, or perhaps maybe win a game in the postseason. Then his smack-talking will ring a little less ridiculous.
Batting titles? Gary Sheffield won it in 1992 with the Padres when he hit .330. Andres Galarraga won one in 1993 with Colorado when he hit .370.
Braves can’t beat Mets, but Phillies do
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two weeks left in this difficult Braves season, and the question arises: Who will be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs earlier, the Braves or the Falcons?
We kid.
Sort of.
Yet these surely must be disappointing times for hometown-centric fans of Atlanta pro-sports teams. For when is the last time late September felt so, well, so empty in our fair city?
Whether you liked their playoff chances or not, at least the Braves were always gearing up for the postseason at this stage of the game, often having left the rest of their division in their tracks weeks before and set the auto-pilot during late September, for better or worse.
(Speaking of that, someone should tell the Mets the auto-pilot setting isn’t prudent when you’re talking about a lead under five games. It’s also inadvisable with a 10-game lead, as the Braves found out so many times when the postseason began. But that’s another story. At least the Brave always got there before blowing it; the Mets seem determined to make getting there less than a given.)
Oh, well, at least the weather’s beautiful in Atlanta, our 105-degree days having morphed into crisp 78-degree afternoons in a span of only a couple of weeks (uh, I’m not weatherman, but is that normal?).
A hint of fall in the air these cool mornings means October baseball is just around the corner and … oh, sorry. There we go again.
You had to wonder if the Braves were looking at the out-of-town scoreboard at RFK Stadium over the weekend and wondering how the Phillies keep doing it - how do they keep beating the Mets in crucial series down the stretch?
Philly swept them in three games over the weekend in New York, when a Mets series win, or even one win in three games, would’ve gone a long way toward putting the Phillies’ longshot division-title hopes to rest.
Mets couldn’t do it. Couldn’t win one game against them.
Mets certainly know how to beat the Braves in crucial series, as they have each of the past two seasons. But the Phillies have won eight consecutive games against them, including two sweeps down the stretch this season.
Face it: The Mets probably aren’t as good as Braves made them look lately. The Braves are a very flawed team, obviously. But that’s beside the point. I mean, seriously, six errors on Sunday for the Mets? Six errors in a crucial game?
And good luck winning a playoff series or two when you can’t beat the Phillies in a home series in late September that would have, for all intents and purposes, clinched the division title.
Then again, the Mets have a better road record (43-31) than home (40-34). So maybe they’d be better off sliding into the wild card and letting the Phillies win the division.
After all, winning the NL East hasn’t done much for teams’ World Series chances in recent years, has it? And winning the wild card has worked out well a couple times for a certain other NL East team, if I remember correctly.
For all those who think the Mets are the antithesis to the Braves’ button-downed, stoicism, here was something from today’s NY Times regarding the weekend sweep of the Mets:
“…. It is reasonable to ask: Do these Mets have the hunger, focus and maturity to contend for a World Series title? In their postgame clubhouse, their collective demeanor showed little emotion as they packed for a seven-game trip that begins tonight in Washington.”
Here a Jones, there a Jones…. So what are the odds of the Braves having three Joneses in the lineup on a regular basis next season?
Or how ‘bout this: What are the odds of simply having two of three Joneses making an impact in the lineup together between now and the end of September?
The way Andruw’s going, the best hope of the latter occuring might be if rookie Brandon Jones has a big game or two to coincide with Chipper Jones’ continued surge. Because Andruw isn’t exactly roaring into that interesting offseason, is he?
Some statistics that Scott Boras will probably not include in the spiral-bound book he’s preparing for Andruw Jones’ pending free agency: In 118 games since May 2, Jones has hit .210 with 19 homers, 69 RBIs, 49 walks, 103 strikeouts, a .292 OBP and a .387 slugging percentage.
In his past 50 games, he’s hit .219 with five homers, 23 RBIs and a .299 OBP. He’s grounded into more double plays (seven) than he’s hit homers in that stretch.
In his past 14 games, Andruw has hit .152 (7-for-46) with one double, four RBIs and a .174 slugging percentage.
While Chipper Jones (.335) and Edgar Renteria (.334) compete with Colorado’s Matt Holliday (.334), Philly’s Chase Utley (.334) and others for the NL batting title, Andruw Jones (.220) is trying to avoid the dubious distinction of having the lowest average among those with qualifying at-bats.
He’s got the second-worst average, better than only the decrepit Ray Durham (.217). It’s a big space between Jones and the next guys on the list, the spectacularly declining Marcus Giles (.228) and J.D.’s little bro Stephen Drew (.231).
3B’s absence way down list: Chipper is often maligned for his numerous injuries, and deservedly so. But it’s hard to put blame for the Braves’ late-season mediocrity at the feet of their third baseman, who’s played 79 of the past 84 games.
Of course, three that he missed were in the crucial series at New York a week ago, when the Braves lost two of three. But where would you rank the five games that Jones missed in the last 85 among reasons for the Braves’ 41-43 record in that span? (By the way, they were 40-39 with him, 1-4 without him in that span.)
Fact is, their poor and erratic starting pitching (after 1-2) and their lack of consistent hitting in the late innings are the primary reasons the Braves are almost certainly going to be sitting at home when the playoffs begin.
The Braves’ .286 average in the first through sixth innings is tied with Philadelphia for best in the National League, and Atlanta’s 543 runs in those innings trail only the Phillies (566).
But in the seventh innings and later, the Braves rank just eighth in the NL with a .253 average, and just 11th in the league with 207 runs.
So blame the bullpen for blowing a lot of leads earlier in the season if you want to, but hey, don’t be afraid to, you know, score a few runs in the late innings, either.
By the way, that often-maligned Braves bullpen has a 3.60 ERA that ranks third in the NL behind the Padres (3.07) and Dodgers (3.57). And the Braves’ 15 blown saves is tied with the Mets for fifth-fewest, one behind NL leaders Chicago, Arizona, L.A. and Colorado, who all have 14 blown saves.
San Diego has blown 20 of 60 save opportunities.
Speaking of Chipper: He’s hit .354 with a .439 OBP and 64 RBIs in 79 games since returning from the DL.
He’s hit .356 with six homers, 23 RBIs and a 1.130 OPS (.690 slugging) in his past 21 games. The Braves only won 10 of those 21.
In his past 162 games since July 7 (I find this fascinating, which is why I keep going back 162 just to check), Jones has hit .340 (210-for-618) with 99 extra-base hits (51 doubles, 6 triples, 42 homers), 133 runs, 130 RBIs, a .425 OBP and a .646 slugging percentage.
In 81 road games during that stretch (yes, it breaks down to exactly 81 home and 81 road for him since July 7), he’s hit .370 (121-for-327) with 30 doubles, 5 triples, 22 homers, 70 RBIs, a .443 OBP and .694 slugging (1.137 OPS).
”TOO LONG IN THE WASTELAND” by James McMurtry
Hear the trucks on the highway/and the ticking of the clock
There’s a ghost of a moon in the afternoon/bullet holes in the mailbox
Bullet holes in the mailbox
Too long in the wasteland
Too long in the wasteland
I’ve fallen behind
She said why don’t you come see me/when the sun goes down
It’ll be just like the old days/when I used to let you hang around
Well I don’t know/I might not speak the language anymore
Too long in the wasteland
Too long in the wasteland
Will close some doors
The people in the village/watch their children play
At the sight of a stranger/they call the kids away
Just leave that man alone/I hear the mother say
He’s been too long in the wasteland
Too long in the wasteland
Is what made him that way
Well, I hadn’t intended/to bend the rules
But whiskey don’t make liars/it just makes fools
So I didn’t mean to say it/but I meant what I said
Too long in the wasteland
Too long in the wasteland
Must’ve gone to my head
Jet trail in the sunset/a long way away
Cutting ‘cross the horizon/at the edge of the day
And it calls Jimmy/come fly away
But I’ve been too long in the wasteland
Too long in the wasteland
I believe I’ll have to stay
Yeah, I’ve been too long in the wasteland
Too long in the wasteland
I believe I’ll have to stay
Former Braves playoff-bound
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greetings from the lovely RFK Stadium, where I’m not just complaining because it’s not an ideal spot to take in a baseball game, but because I was born with an aversion to the Redskins. I was born in Dallas. It happens. I’m staying here right near the Navy Yard where the new stadium is going up. All I’ve had time to see today is a couple cranes off in the distance - flight was a coupla hours late. But I’m going to try and check it out this weekend and let y’all know my impressions. And onto other stuff _ and the thoughts I’d had earlier while sitting at my gate at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, waiting to get on a plane. Still feels weird to me, to have the Braves pretty much out of contention for a playoff spot. I look around at the teams in contention and I see familiar faces, and I wondered if, just for the heck of it, I could put together a playoff roster of former Braves, who are all still in position to play in October. Bear with me:
Starter: Tom Glavine, Mets. Won his 300th game this season, went 13-6, with a 3.95 ERA. Has a little experience pitching in October.
Starter: Greg Maddux, Padres: had a five-game winning streak snapped last night but still hasn’t allowed a walk in 57 2/3 innings. He has 12 wins and a 3.86 ERA.
Starter: Paul Byrd, Indians: He’s 15-6 with a 4.34 ERA. That would have tied Tim Hudson for the most wins of any on the Braves roster.
Closer: Joe Borowski, Indians. He’s had his tight-rope walking, no question, and a 5.40 ERA, but he has 40 saves in 46 chances.
Reliever: Rudy Seanez, Dodgers. He’s 6-3 with a 3.89 ERA, 69 strikeouts in 69 1/3 innings.
Reliever: Justin Speier, Angels. Don’t remember he was here? Check the book. He was in 1999. I vaguely remember something about him liking donuts. Anyway, he’s 2-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 43 games (because he was on the DL for two months). Still, he’s seventh in the AL with 20 holds.
Reliever: Kyle Farnsworth, Yankees. He’s 2-1 with a 4.25 ERA, striking out 45 in 55 innings. He’s holding right-handers to a .239 average.
Catcher: Johnny Estrada, Brewers. When he’s not getting in arguments with his manager, he uses that competitive fire on the field. He’s hit .282 with nine homers, 25 doubles and 47 RBIs in 112 games.
Shortstop: Rafael Furcal, Dodgers. He’s hitting.271 with a .334 on-base percentage and 83 runs scored. His home runs are down, but that has probably helped him play to his strengths, keeping the ball on the ground and use his speed. And we know about that arm.
Third base: Wilson Betemit, Yankees. He’s hit only .226 this season but we’ve heard his name quite a bit thanks to his 14 home runs. He has 20 RBIs in 28 games, with four home runs, since he was traded from LA to New York on July 31.
First base: Wes Helms, Phillies. He’s a part-time guy but with a little production. He’s got five homers, 19 doubles and 38 RBIs in 105 games.
Second base: Mark DeRosa, Cubs. He’s hit .289 with nine homers and 68 RBIs in his first season since signing a multi-year contract with the Cubs. He’s played all over, but as a second baseman, he’s hit .296.
First base: Daryle Ward, Cubs. He’s hitting .340 in 70 games. He’s really stronger off the bench for this playoff sort of thing, but we’re a little thin at first.
Center field: Kenny Lofton, much as it pains me - he was not my favorite player - we’re a little weak in the outfield. He seems to keep finding his way back to the postseason. Coincidence? Maybe not. He hit .303 in 84 games for Texas and since his trade back to Cleveland, he’s hitting .284 with a .353 on-base percentage in 41 games.
Right field: J.D. Drew. He’s been a total bust by Boston Red Sox standards but at this time of year, we’ll take his glove and his speed in the outfield to save some runs and hope he gets hot. He’s hit .263 with 77 runs scored, with only 8 homers and 50 RBIs.
Left field: Hey, wait a minute. Looks like I’m short here. I guess I’d have to stick Mark DeRosa in the outfield and put Marcus Giles at second? Giles has had a rough year though. OK, so this “team” is not without its flaws. It doesn’t have a whole lot of punch, does it? Fine, rip it. Or better yet, tell me something I’m not thinking of. But it’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? Might not be a bad pitching staff, not exactly a power 1-2 punch but it’s worked for the Braves before.
Hey, it’s what you write about when you haven’t been around the team since last Sunday. But I’m back and I’m here this weekend. And I’m about to go down and be around the team for a while. Apparently a handful of the Braves got to go to the White House today and have a private meet-and-greet with President Bush: John Schuerholz, John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann. I’ll be curious to hear about that and find out what’s going on with Chipper. Talk to me…
Mark it down: Escobar’s an emerging star
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let me start by saying Edgar Renteria has long been one of my favorite players, one of the classiest I’ve covered in 13 years as a baseball beat writer.
And he’s still one of the best 7-10 all-around players at his position, which happens to be the deepest position in baseball right now, in terms of elite guys at the top.
That said, if I’m the Braves, I trade him this winter.
Not because I think he’s about to slip due to age (I don’t), and not because he isn’t one of the most valuable players on the team (to the contrary, despite missing August due to injury, he’s still probably the MVP of this team).
No, they should trade him because he’s probably their best trading chip in terms of being both a sought-after player — one that some other teams would really want — and a player the Braves could move and replace from within without taking a big step back.
Which brings me to my real point: Yunel Escobar is good. Really, really good. An extraordinary talent who is clearly ready to play every day, not just play but perhaps star, and whose best position is clearly shortstop.
First, one other important point on Edgar: His $9 million salary next season if very reasonable, and his $11 mill option for 2009 includes a $3 mill buyout the Red Sox will pay if it’s declined by the team (how all this would translate in a trade would have to be worked out, since Braves are paying about $6 mill annually for Renteria, when the portion that the Red Sox pay is taken into account).
Again, no one is disputing Renteria’s importance to this Braves team. And given their druthers, the Braves would surely prefer to trade several other guys instead of him.
But because of the entire set of circumstances, including their still-constricted payroll (it’s going up next season, but not by a huge amount I’d bet), their dire need for another starting pitcher (not necessarily an ace, though that’d be great, but at least a strong No. 3 or No. 4 guy), and again - this is important - the talent they have to fill his spot, Edgar just makes the most sense, in terms of being a guy other teams will want, whose not over-the-hill, not injury-prone, and has a sterling reputation as a no-nonsense player who’s great in the clubhouse, sets a strong example, makes no waves, etc.
Now, back to Escobar. Folks, I really believe we’re watching the emergence of a future star, from the confident way he carries himself to the undeniable physical gifts. It’s much the same feeling I got watching Renteria emerge as a Marlins rookie, the same feeling I got when I covered that team and he hit the extra-innings game-winning single for them in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series.
Only difference: Escobar has more offensive potential and a stronger arm than Renteria had. Of course, Escobar is also five years older (24) than Renteria was when Edgar emerged as a star for the Marlins.
It’s time for Escobar, no question. And he needs to be at his natural position, shortstop. Not second base, where the Braves can go with Kelly Johnson again (I think Kelly’s been better than anyone could have expected, and more than good enough to play the position on a championship team if surrounded by quality players at the other infield positions).
Braves would have a very strong and potent-hitting infield next season with Teixeira, Johnson, Escobar and Chipper Jones, provided Braves have a solid backup for Chipper (be it Willy Aybar or a more reliable, experienced veteran not named Woodward or Orr).
We can discuss the outfield later. But I just wanted to say, Escobar’s got to be in the lineup, and no, he’s not an outfielder. He’s not a 3B or 2B, though he can certainly play either position adequately. He’s a shortstop, and that’s where he needs to be next season. And the Braves had damn sure better not trade him. He’s too good. Better than Saltalamacchia, in my opinion. No question.
Just look at this stats, which are a big enough sampling now to hold up to skeptics who might say, wait until other teams get a look at him and learn to exploit his weaknesses. They’ve all gotten a look at him since his June arrival from the minors. And he’s hitting better now than ever.
For the season, he’s hit .322 with 18 doubles, five homers, 27 RBIs and a .380 on-base percentage and .442 slugging percentage in 80 games. That includes a .344 average and .400 OBP against lefties (.304/.364 vs. righties).
He’s hit equally well at home and on the road, and he’s hit well when the stakes are raised, batting .311 with nobody on base, .344 with runners on, and a robust .373 (19-for-51) with runners in scoring position (if only the same could be said for a couple other prominent Braves).
He’s hit .350 from the leadoff spot and .329 from the No. 8 spot. The only spot in the order he hasn’t hit particularly well from is No. 2 (.276 in 58 at-bats), which is where the Braves will need to come up with a replacement if they move Renteria, one of the very best No. 2 hitters in the game over the past decade.
Here’s what I was talking about when I mentioned Escobar is only getting better as the season has progressed.
In his past 60 games, he’s hit .343 with 14 doubles, four homers, 22 RBIs, 40 runs and an .875 OPS (.404 OBP).
In his past 20 games, he’s hit.350 (28-for-80) with six doubles, four homers, 19 runs, and a 1.028 OPS (.453 OBP).
It’s too bad we’re probably not going to get to see him hit in the postseason this year, because I think he could be like Renteria or a young Andruw Jones, a kid who thrives in his initial opportunity in those klieg lights.
Escobar is special, folks. Rue the one that got away (Salty) if you will, but the Braves kept the best one of the bunch. You can mark my words.
I think most of you probably realize that anyway, just by watching him. But I can tell you that the way he carries himself off the field has also impressed me. I heard stories about him having a bad attitude or whatever in the minors, but those were either overblown or he’s grown up or, hey, maybe he just realized he was too good to be in the minors and was anxious to get to The Show.
Regardless, he’s here now. And he’s going to become a star on this stage. And in this largely disappointing Braves season, he’s one reason for Braves Nation to have plenty of reason to believe in a brighter future.
Speaking of reasons to believe: Here’s a reason the Braves have little reason to believe they’ll make the playoffs this season. A reason they are 16-23 in one-run games, and a reason they are where they are today.
Mediocre to bad clutch hitting. I’m talking close-and-late hitting, which is hitting after the sixth inning of close games, “close” having a complicated definition you don’t want me to bore you with here.
Anyway, the Braves, as much as they rank among NL leaders in so many offensive categories, close-and-late hitting ain’t one of them.
(While I’m at it, let’s give a bit of due credit to an often-maligned Braves bullpen, which actually has the third-best ERA in the NL at 3.63 in the third-most innings, and which has done its part in a lot more close games than Braves hitters have. The Braves have a .228 opponents’ average in late-and-close games, some of that by starters, but much of it by relievers like Moylan and Soriano).
But back to the hitters.
Braves hitters have a .255 average in close-and-late situations, tied with the Nationals for seventh in the NL and a long way behind leaders St. Louis, Phillly and Chicago.
But it gets worse. The Braves’ .708 OPS in those situations is just ninth in the NL, far behind the likes of the Cards (.898), Phillies (.802), Brewers (.796) and Diamondbacks (.775).
The Braves’ best in those spots: Kelly Johnson (.338 average, .944 OPS), Renteria (.311 average, .895 OPS), Chipper (.290 average, .921 OPS), Francoeur (.289 average, .704 OPS).
Their worst: A. Jones (.230, .651 OPS), McCann (.233, .753 OPS), Harris (.239 average, .588 OPS).
Alright, enough hotel-room confinement. It’s a beautiful, almost fall-like day here, and I need to smoke a cigar outside my hotel before heading to lovely Shea. Tom, take us out:
”LONG WAY HOME” by Tom Waits
Well I stumbled in the darkness/I’m lost and alone
Though I said I’d go before us/And show the way back home
There’s a light up ahead/I can’t hold onto her arm
Forgive me pretty baby, but I always take the long way home
Money’s just something you throw/Off the back of a train
Got a head full of lightning/A hat full of rain
And I know that I said/I’d never do it again
And I love you pretty baby, but I always take the long way home
I put food on the table/And roof overhead
But I’d trade it all tomorrow/For the highway instead
Watch your back if I should tell you/Love’s the only thing I’ve ever known
One thing for sure pretty baby, I always take the long way home
You know I love you baby/More than the whole wide world
You are my woman/I know you are my pearl
Let’s go out past the party lights/Where we can finally be alone
Come with me and we can take the long way home
Come with me, together we can take the long way home
Come with me, together we can take the long way home
Mets have “it,” and Braves do not
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is what a championship-caliber team does: After being knocked on its butt with everyone watching, it collects itself, gets up and comes out fighting harder than before.
This is what the Mets have done: After being swept in a four-game series at Philadelphia at the end of September, and seeing its lead cut to two games over the Phillies and 4.5 games over the Braves, New York has won 9 of its past 10.
Nine of 10, including four straight games against the Braves, three in Atlanta and last night’s 3-2 series-opening win at Shea.
This is what a non-championship team does, what a pretender does: Given repeated opportunities to stay in a race, it repeatedly fails to capitalize. It loses just about every close game in the crucial stages of the season.
Oh, and when things are at a nadir, that team starts talking more about how it can’t catch a break. Sorry to say, Braves fans, but you know what I’m talking about.
David Wright is making a run at the MVP by putting his team on his back, not quite as ferociously as Chipper Jones did with the Braves in his 1999 MVP season - Hoss’ 45 homers that season included four extra-innings game-winners — but at least worthy of being in the same discussion.
Wright’s a beast, folks. What a hitter. Damn.
Meanwhile, Chipper gets hurt again, in batting practice, with less than three weeks remaining in a season that’s spiraling down the drain. He’s probably out for the rest of the series, at least, though we’ll know more shortly after the clubhouse opens this afternoon.
Want to know another huge difference between these Mets and this year’s Braves? Oliver Perez has 14 wins (four against the Braves) and a 3.42 ERA, and yet the Mets lefty might not be one of the four starters in their rotation for the first round of the playoffs. So say the folks up here in New York.
The Braves would kill to have a third starter with 14 wins and/or a 3.42 ERA.
The Mets have won nine of 10 games, and beaten the likes of Hudson (twice), Smoltz, Oswalt and Harang in that stretch.
“You couldn’t have picked a better time to peak,” Wright told reporters last night after the game. “I think this is the best baseball we’ve played all season…. We knew that after that Philadelphia series, we really had to bear down.”
The Braves knew they had to bear down before their last road trip. Then they lost six of 10. The Braves knew they really had to bear down before their last homestand. Then they lost five of nine.
They really, really knew they had to bear down on this road trip. Then they lost the opener 3-2, getting five hits including one extra-base hit.
Braves hitters had seven strikeouts and two walks in seven innings against Perez, who had issued five walks in each of his previous three starts, and issued 22 walks in 28-2/3 innings over his previous five starts.
The Braves strike out too much, don’t walk enoughm, swing for the fences in crucial situations when they should make sure they put the ball in play, and fail more often than not in situational hitting, not to mention their horrid and infrequent use of the bunt.
Other than that, and the aforementioned starting pitching shortfall, really no reason I can find for the Braves to be where they are. Uh-umm.
Braves in close games — yikes: Since Aug. 16, the Braves are 9-15 and the Mets are 15-9. The Mets have hit for a 20-point higher average in that span and posted an ERA .30 lower. Oh, and very importantly, the Mets have played well in close games. The Braves? No. Not now, and rarely this season, have they done that.
The Braves are 3-7 in their past 10 road games, and six of those losses were by one or two runs, including four one-run defeats. Their only wins in that road stretch were by scores of 7-2, 13-2 and 7-4.
That’s what these Braves do, pile up a great many of their hits and runs in games they’ve won handily.
Let’s go back to that San Francisc0-Arizona trip in mid-August, when it really started to become apparent that these Braves just lacked something needed in close games, especially on the road.
They are 9-15 on the road beginning with consecutive losses in San Francisco Aug. 16-17, and in those 24 games the Braves are 1-7 in games decided by one or two runs.
They scored at least five runs in all nine road wins in that stretch, including seven or more in seven of those wins and nine or more runs in five of them.
It’s what these Braves do.
Country in New York City? It’s like that old Pace picante sauce commercial, where the guy sees that the picante sauce someone else is offering is made in New York City, and goes “New York City?!”
That’s what it’s like listening to two hours of the best country-music radio I’ve heard since, well, ever. Better than anything I’ve heard in Nashville (much better, actually), and better than anything I’ve heard in Atlanta (far, far better).
But that’s what you get when you listen to a anti-corporate-garbage station like this listener-supported 89.1 WFDU in Teaneck, N.J., which I believe is connected to Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. It’s one thing that makes staying at a LaGuardia-area hotel tolerable, rather than in the the city (Manhattan), where you can’t even get this station on the cheap hotel-room radios.
Killer station that plays all genres of music, and has genre shows like the country block they just finished. I’m talking everything from Hank and Loretta to George Strait and David Ball, from Johnny and Hag to Josh Turner. Awesome.
”SCAR” by Joe Henry
What does this look like to you?/A mark so fine, you barely see.
You have one just like it, too/A twisting vine,/A mark so fine;
Cause I love you with all I am/And you love me because you are
As fearless as a twisting vine,/A mark so fine/But still a scar
Fear plays dumb then eats the soul/Like a vagabond with a fishing pole
He whistles but he cannot sing,/It’s an awful tune
But very soon/I find that I am whistling, too
And your window is like a star/That I sit beneath like a vagabond
Who wears his fear/Just like a scar
The blade of our outrageous fortune/Like a parade, it cuts a path,
Light shows on our foolish way/And darkness on/our aftermath;
If I love you to save myself/And you love me because we are
So fool to think that our parade/Could leave a path/But not a scar
And I love you with all I am/And you love me with what you are
As pretty as a twisting vine,/A mark so fine/But still a scar
Biggest Braves Series of … oh, nevermind.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coming to you from within shooting distance of Shea Stadium, where the Braves’ season could get either a jolt from the defibrillator paddles or last rites, if the Mets do to them what they did just over a week ago in Atlanta.
With the U.S. Open going on, room rates were $450 and higher at any decent hotel in Manhattan, so I’m holed up at a LaGuardia hotel, where there was an interesting mix if tennis folks and Farm Aid concert people in the lobby just before noon (Neil Young, Willie, Mellencamp and the Allmans played the Farm Aid thing here Sunday).
Anyway, we’re here for latest Biggest Series of the Season for the Braves.
(I say that in mock capitalization, because it’s really probably too late for this series against the Mets to unseat the one with the Mets just over a week ago as the true biggest series of the season for the Braves, since getting swept by the Mets in that one virtually assured the Braves would lose the division and also significantly decreased their wild-card chances.)
Despite stumbling to a 4-5 record in the Most Important Homestand, the Braves still are “only” 4-1/2 games off the wild-card pace, albeit with five teams ahead of them and a couple of those teams playing much better these days than the Braves.
Braves would have to make an unprecedented comeback from 8-1/2 games down to win the division, so forget that. It’s wild card or sit home and watch the playoffs on TV again for these Braves.
Braves could get right in thick of wild-card race if they pull off a series win here, particularly if they could somehow pull off a (most) improbable sweep.
Just how improbable? Braves have Buddy Carlyle (8-6, 5.21) going in the middle game against Orlando Hernandez, who hasn’t pitched since hurting his foot Aug. 30, but who is 5-0 in his past 10 starts and a stunning 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA and .160 opponents’ average in his past eight starts at Shea. Yikes.
Oh, and there’s this: Hernandez is 3-0 with a 1.36 ERA in his past five starts against the Braves, although with no decisions and a 2.77 ERA in two this season.
Long time below .500 for Braves. Many of us made snide comments about the Nationals and suggested the Braves should be able to sweep them, etc. (Many of us just make snide comments all the time, so that should not come as a surprise.)
But consider this sobering little statistic: Since May 13, the Braves are 49-58, while the Nationals are 53-54 in that same span.
The Nats started out a crippling 9-25 in their first 34 games this season, but have since played one game over .500 (55-54).
Meanwhile the Braves started out 24-12, and have since played nine games under .500 (49-58).
Snide that.
That got me thinking, wondering how other wild-card contenders have fared in that same period while the Braves have been on their march to mediocrity.
Behold, others’ records since May 13: Padres (58-47), Dodgers (53-53), Cubs (56-52), Brewers (48-58 — a slide even steeper than Atlanta’s), Rockies (58-47), Phillies (58-58), Diamondbacks (61-45).
As you can see, most wild-card contenders have played 10 games or more above .500 during the stretch in which the Braves are nine games below .500. My astute observations and instincts tell me this is no way to make the playoffs, this route undertaken by the Braves (snide, again).
None until No. 100? Ouch. Just saw Sports Illustrated NFL guru Peter King’s ratings of the top 500 players in that league, and found it interesting that Alge Crumpler was the first Falcon listed, all the way down at 100.
Think of that. Not one player from the Falcons in the top 99? Wow.
And I was wondering, how many Braves do you think would make, say, the top 50 of a list of the top 250 major league players? (Rosters are about half the size of NFL teams, so I just used those numbers.)
I honestly don’t know. Would have to give it a lot of thought, weigh current performance and all. If any of you have a serious opinion, I’d be curious.
It’s not TV, it’s HBO: You’d better believe it ain’t TV. A few extremely explicit sex scenes in last night’s series premiere of “Tell Me You Love Me” were … well, did any of you folks see it? Were you as surprised as I was, or had some of you read about it beforehand?
I thought the show was solid.
Of course, Curb Your Enthusiasm’s season premiere that followed had me howling, as usual. Always 3-4 scenes in that show that make you laugh out loud.
Happy Birthday, Patsy: We missed it Saturday, so better late than never for the Man In Black blog to extend our wishes toward the late Ms. Cline.
”LEAVIN’ ON YOUR MIND” by Webb Pierce & Wayne Walker
If you got leavin’ on your mind,/Tell me now, get it over,
Hurt me now, get it over,/If you got leavin’ on your mind.
If there’s a new love in your heart,/Tell me now, get it over,
Hurt me now, get it over,/If there’s a new love in your heart.
Don’t leave me here in a world/Filled with dreams that might have been,
Hurt me now, get it over/I may learn to love again.
If there’s a new love in your heart,/Tell me now, get it over,
Hurt me now, get it over/If there’s a new love in your heart,
Hurt me now, get it over,/If there’s a new love in your heart.
How does Frenchy stack up next to young Joneses?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve said that Chipper Jones would’ve been a leading MVP candidate each of the past couple of seasons if he’d not gotten hurt, if he played more. We’re not exactly going out on a limb with that expert analysis, obviously.
But to illustrate what we mean, take a look at these statistics, which show the old boy is still getting it done when he can avoid slipping on a wet field or tripping over a Pirates third baseman:
In his past 162 games before Friday night, Chipper Jones hit .343 with 53 doubles, 6 triples, 41 home runs, 130 runs, 130 RBIs, 92 walks, 90 strikeouts, a .425 on-base percentage and a .647 slugging percentage (1.072 OPS). And 14 errors.
And in 79 road games during that period, he’s hit .366 (yes, .366) with 30 doubles, 5 triples, 21 homers, 66 RBIs, a .434 OBP and .688 slugging percentage.
Holy Cornelia.
The knock, of course, is that you have to go to June 28, 2006 to get to 162 games for Chipper. The Braves have played 224 games in that stretch. That’s not ideal, sir.
Just FYI, Braves are 89-73 when Jones has played in that stretch, though that includes pinch-hit appearances, so it’s not really a great indicator either way, but it sounds good.
Why mention this today? No real reason, other than it’s the dog days, we’re not quite ready to start breaking down into detail the offseason projections and next year’s lineup (can we get a payroll idea first?), and I found it interesting when I stumbled on the stat while doing research on Jeff Francoeur.
Yes, Francoeur. So much debate about the right fielder on the blog the past couple days. Golden Boy, overachiever, franchise cornerstone, impatient bull-in-a-china-shop, underachiever…. the opinions seem to run the gamut. As they do in most open forums when a popular player is discussed.
It does seem safe to suggest the vast majority of folks here agree that he’s a solid young (23) player who’s still developing, who has flaws including his low walks and OBP, but whose overall solid skills set and drive/intensity make him a guy likely to be a fixture here for years.
Anyway, I just wanted to see how he might compare at this stage of his career with a couple of other Braves fixtures, the Jones Boys. Granted, this is strictly a numbers comparison, and there are many other factors such as age upon arrival, position on the field and in the lineup, supporting casts, etc., that must be weighed to make a better, more valuable comparison.
Also, I’m not suggesting if either of the Joneses is the career path that Francoeur is headed down. I really have no idea. Neither do you, I’d bet, if you’re being honest.
If I had to guess I’d say he’ll probably keep getting better for the next 3-4 years, level off, never have an MVP season like Chipper, never have 45-50 homers like Andruw, but will be a very solid player who’ll give you something like .280-.300, 25-35 homers, 40-45 doubles and 100-110 RBIs annually.
But back to the admittedly rudimentary comparison:
Francoeur has played 372 games since arriving from Class AA in the summer of 2005. He’s had 1,469 at-bats and hit .279 with 78 doubles, 7 triples, 59 homers, 234 RBIs, 67 walks, 301 strikeouts, 7 steals (in 17 attempts), a .316 OBP and a .462 slugging percentage (.778 OPS).
So I was curious. What had the Joneses done offensively at the same point (372 games) of their careers? (Not counting postseason, where young Andruw had quite a game in a World Series, if I remember correctly….)
Anyway, after 372 games, the numbers for Chipper and Francoeur were surprisingly close in few areas, with the notable exception of OBP and walks/strikeouts. Also, Chipper was a good base-stealer; Francoeur isn’t much of one at all.
After 372 games, Chipper had 1,375 at-bats and hit .289 (10 points higher than Francoeur) with 73 doubles, 8 triples, 62 homers, 245 RBIs, 195 walks, 228 strikeouts, 31 steals (in 36 attempts), a .374 OBP and a .489 slugging percentage (.863 OPS).
Yes, young Hoss was good. And remember, his rookie season was delayed a year by the ACL surgery for the spring-training knee injury in 1994, after his eight-game 1993 callup.
Andruw played 31 games in the majors in 1996 (after starting in A-ball and moving up through Double-A and Triple-A that same season), then platooned or plate late-innings defense for much of the 1997 season.
Anyway, after 372 games Andruw had 1,192 at-bats with a .254 average, 62 doubles, 13 triples, 59 homers, 198 RBIs, 118 walks, 286 strikeouts, 54 steals (in 72 attempts), a .324 OBP and .477 slugging percentage (.801 OPS).
A few things jump out for me immediately: Andruw used to be a serious threat on the basepaths before he bulked up and became a power hitter; Francoeur has three more homers and 15 more strikeouts than Andruw did in his first 372 games (Francoeur also has 183 more at-bats); and Andruw’s OBP was almost as bad as Francoeur’s at the outset of his career. Oh, and the Braves could use some steals about now (but that’s another story).
By the way, the Braves were 241-131 in Andruw’s first 372 games, 228-144 in Chipper’s and 190-182 in Francoeur’s. Based on my simple research, it appears the Braves were a whole lot better back then. But I could be wrong.
Also, here’s a bone tossed to our Mets interlopers: Just out of curiosity, how does the Mets’ Golden Boy stack up next to the Braves’ guys? Quite well, we’re here to report.
Metropolitates 3B David Wright got off to a better start than any of the Braves’ trio, including Chipper.
Wright in his first 372 games, through June 17, 2006, hit .304 with 99 doubles, 6 triples, 65 homers, 252 RBIs, 42 stolen bases (in 54 attempts), a .375 OBP and a .527 slugging percentage (.902 OPS). Wow.
Yes, it’s a different era than when Chipper broke in just before the homer explosion. But those Wright numbers are gaudy-good, especially next to Francoeur’s in the same era.
Wright’s only knock are the big error totals, which the Mets can certainly live with given his huge offensive production.
Nationals in town: And it might not be the pushover that the Braves and their fans would hope. Washington has a five-game winning streak with a 2.20 ERA in that span, albeit against San Fran and the floundering Fish of Florida.
Tonight it’s Nats rookie Joel Hanrahan (4-2, 5.14 ERA) making his eighth major league start against John Smoltz, who’s making his 8 millionth, or thereabouts. Smoltzy can only hope to get the kind of run support young Hanrahan has received in a couple of hits.
Do you guys realize that Smoltz has won just twice in his past eight home starts, despite a 3.48 ERA in that span? Braves have scored one or no runs while he’s been in five of his past eight home starts. Just awful support.
Tomorrow night it’s the enigmatic Chuck James, aka the Homer Serving Machine, against the spendidly named lefty Matt Chico, who is probably glad to face one of the few teams he’s had much success against.
Chico is 2-1 with a 2.87 ERA in three starts against the Braves, including wins in each of his last two starts against them. But since he beat them May 17 in D.C., guess how many wins he’s recorded? Two.
He’s got as many wins in three starts against the Braves this season as he’s got in his past 17 starts, a stretch that’s seen him go 2-3 with a 4.47 ERA and Smoltz-like run support (or lack thereof).
The Nationals are 9-8 in those past 17 starts by Chico, even though he’s only got two wins.
Oh, and by the way, his next road win will be his first. Chico is 0-5 with a 5.12 ERA in 11 road starts this season, and the Nats scored two or fewer runs while he was in seven of those games.
If he wins at Atlanta tomorrow, there’s no truth to the rumor the Braves will refund tickets purchased for the last homestand Sept. 17-23.
By the way, thought I’d sneak this Andruw stat here at the bottom: In 74 games since June 10, Andruw Jones has hit .226 with 13 homers, 42 RBIs, 63 strikeouts and a .307 OBP (.719 OPS).
“MY MY, HEY HEY (OUT OF THE BLUE)” by Neil Young
My my, hey hey/Rock and roll is here to stay
It’s better to burn out/Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.
Out of the blue/and into the black
They give you this,/but you pay for that
And once you’re gone,/you can never come back
When you’re out of the blue/and into the black.
The king is gone/but he’s not forgotten
This is the story/of a Johnny Rotten
It’s better to burn out/than it is to rust
The king is gone/but he’s not forgotten.
Hey hey, my my/Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture/Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.
Where did Braves season hit the skids?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Where did this season go awry for the Braves? Where did it take a turn down Irrelevant Ave., a place where Braves teams never visited from 1991 through 2005? (And man, is this street a depressing neighborhood; it’s a gorgeous day at the ‘yard in early September, and I’m sitting here lookin at a mostly empty Turner Field 20 minutes before game time.)
(I should note, however, that the Braves’ Tomahawk Team has held up better than the Braves’ baseball team over this long and grueling season. Much better.)
Anyway, back to the fateful day. We’ve pinpointed it here before, but we’ll do it again for those who might not have been on the Braves/Man In Black blog every day this summer, the way you should have been.
It was May 13 at Pittsburgh, a sunny Sunday when the Braves absorbed a 13-2 whipping that ended a five-game winning streak and trimmed their lead in the NL East to a half-game. Yes, the Braves were 24-12 with a game-and-a-half lead before that series-ending loss to the Pirates.
They are 46-57 since then, at least before today’s series finale against the Phillies, which, contrary to rumors, will not be canceled due to lack of interest. The Phillies need to play the game just in case, you know, while their scoring has been almost identical (4.9 runs per game since July 13, compared to 5.0 before).
Has the pitching been the sole reason for the demise? Of course not. Absolutely not. But it’s been a huge reason. They’ve had spurts where they pitched great for a week or two, and in most of those cases the offense sputtered more often than not.
Fact of the matter is, this team just never has had a championship feel to it since, oh, some would say since the four-game skid against the Marlins and Cubs that began with the second game of a doubleheader with the Marlins.
Certainly they haven’t been viewed as a serious championship-caliber team since the disastrous 0-5 stretch against Boston and Detroit June 19-24, when the Braves scored one run in five games.
But there were enough three-game surges since then, and enough rampant parity/mediocrity (call it what you want to) in the NL to believe the Braves still had a chance of squeaking into the playoffs and, if Smoltz and Hudson were both hot, of doing some damage once they got there.
Then came the terrible West Coast trip in late July, when the Braves again revealed an alarming tendency to fold or stumble (call it what you want to) in close games. They lost four consecutive games at San Francisco and Arizona, each by two runs or fewer, including two extra-innings defeats that just sucked the life out of the team.
They haven’t been the same since. While their record has stunk since that Pittsburgh game in May, their overall demeanor, their performance, their toughness under pressure, their confidence … that’s all suffered since that West Coast trip.
Not even the addition of the best hitter on the trade market, a seriously good power hitter in Mark Teixeira, who drove in 32 runs in his first month with the team, could turn the tide on a season that’s careened off course.
The Braves now seem like a once-mighty train that went off the tracks and is lying on its side, a bit of smoke coming out in random bursts as its engine futilely chugs and sputters toward silence (smoke such as complaining about umpires — that by Chipper last night was just not good, and nothing productive ever come from those rants, not to mention it always sounds like sour graps regardless of how it’s phrased.)
What happened to this season? Too many things to put a finger on right now. But I did give Terry Moore a few of my thoughts to assist in some small way in a column he’s writing for tomorrow, some things better said in that forum than by me.
For now, I’m gonna score this game. It’s the first inning and surprise, the Phillies have runners on the corners against Hudson. And there goes an Aaron Rowan RBI single to left…. It’s gonna be a long September, folks.
Before we go… Wait, forgot that I had a few stats I wanted to share.
It probably won’t surprise any of you that Willie Harris is still in the lineup and still batting leadoff today. The ship’s going down, but Bobby Cox doesn’t show any indication of changing course at this point, despite Harris’ skid.
And man, it is a skid.
Harris is 3-for-47 (.064) in his past 17 games before today, with one RBI, one stolen base and a .151 on-base percentage. (AS I WRITE THIS, he just snapped an 0-for-25 streak with a single in the bottom of the first inning).
Statistically it’s Harris’ career-best season in most regards. But it’s a tale of two seasons for the 29-year-old outfielder, and the second of them has been, frankly, pretty awful.
Harris hit .383 with a spectacular .940 OPS (.440 OBP) in his first 45 games for the Braves through June 25. But in 58 games since then he’s hit .215 (38-for-177) with a .648 OPS (.309 OBP). Folks, he’s been mediocre to bad longer than he was good this season.
And despite that .309 OBP over 58 games, he remains in the leadoff spot on days he’s in left field, which is more days than not since he plays against right-handers and Matt Diaz against left-handers.
Look at those stats again — .215 average, .309 OBP, .339 slugging - since June 26, and compare them to a few other relevant players.
In that same period Diaz has hit .355 with a .397 OBP and .610 slugging percentage (not to mention eight homers, seven more than Harris has hit all season).
And how ‘bout the two other, better leadoff options? Glad you asked.
In that same span, since June 26, Kelly Johnson has hit .314 with a .404 OBP and .527 slugging percentage (not to mention 22 extra base hits and seven homers).
In that same span since June 26, Yunel Escobar (who is dropped from leadoff to eighth on days when Harris plays) has hit .349 with a .397 OBP and .457 slugging percentage.
There is no reason, no explanation given or plausible, for Harris to still be hitting leadoff.
And with the way he’s hit in recent weeks, plenty of folks wonder why he’s still playing at all ahead of Diaz, who was given what was apparently just a one-day trial as the regular left fielder when he played against a righty last week and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, after which it was back to the platoon.
By the way, it now seems clear the Braves were a better team with Johnson batting leadoff, doesn’t it? They were at least better at the leadoff position.
They went from leading the league in several leadoff categories when he was the guy, to ranking in the middle of the league in most leadoff categories now, including a .276 overall average that ranked eighth among NL teams from the leadoff position.
For the season, Harris has hit .228 with a .316 OBP and .357 slugging percentage in 171 at-bats from the leadoff spot. Escobar has hit .351 with a .385 OBP and .465 slugging percentage in 114 at-bats from the position in the lineup, and Johnson hit .284 with a .387 OBP and .470 slugging percentage in 264 at-bats from the leadoff spot before today.
Ahh, what are you gonna do? Pass the BBQ, please. And let’s go out with a tune from the classic Uncle Tupelo album, Anodyne.
”GIVE BACK THE KEY TO MY HEART” by Doug Sahm
Take my picture off the wall/It don’t matter to me at all
Said I was headed for a fall/But you wanted me to crawl
Give back my TV/It don’t mean that much to me
While you’re giving back my things/Give me back the key to my heart
Give back the key to my heart/Give back the key to my heart
And let my love flow like a river/Straight into your heart, dear
Well, you say I was the one/To blame for the wrong that’s been done
Well, you got a friend named cocaine/And to me he is to blame
He has drained life from your face/He has taken my place
While you’re alone in San Antone/Give me back the key to my heart
Give back the key to my heart/Give back the key to my heart
And let my love flow like a river/Straight into your heart, dear
Some what-ifs and second-guessing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ok, ok, yes it’s time for a new blog. Just tried to scroll down the old one and my computer locked up a couple times. A thousand some-odd posts. Did something happen over the weekend?
Uh-hum.
Yes we’re giving DOB a day to recoup, because I had three lovely ones in God’s country, Carolina Lady, and the most unfortunate part was that I didn’t get over to Boone to celebrate with fans who actually got to be overjoyed this weekend.
I did have brunch in Chapel Hill yesterday morning and saw a kid driving around with ASU flags flying from his car - probably a grad student at UNC — and people were honking at him and cheering with him. (And no, I don’t mean Arizona State.)
Oh, yeah, anyway. Back to the doldrums. It would seem some of the blogging masses are ready to look ahead to the offseason and next year. If so, skip on down. Me? I’m a dweller. And I have a little more dwelling to do.
Entering tonight’s game against the Phillies, the Braves are 7-1/2 games down in the NL East, (They’re 5-1/2 back in the wild card but with four teams ahead of them that probably looks even more bleak, if my mind isn’t playing tricks on me.)
These are the times for some what-ifs and second-guessing, sure. So I’m going to play a little what-could-so-easily-have been. Here’s how easy you make up those 7 ½ games. Think of ALL the games the Braves should have and could have so easily won:
— Tim Hudson Part I: Hudson pitched eight shutout innings against the Marlins on April 25 and took a 3-0 lead into the ninth. He gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases with nobody out and it was too much for Wickman, who couldn’t stop the bleeding. Braves lost 4-3.
— Hudson Part II: Hudson had a 2-0 lead on the Twins through 7-1/3 innings on June 14. Wickman gave up three runs in the bottom of the ninth. Braves lose 3-2.
— What about July 1 in Florida? The Braves had just rallied for four runs to go up 5-4 in the top of the ninth on a clutch hit by Yunel Escobar. Then Wickman surrenders a homer to Miguel Olivo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Marlins go on to win 6-5 in 10 innings.
— Then there was my personal tipping point: Braves vs. the Houston Astros on Aug. 2. The Braves lost 12-11 in 14 innings on the base hit by pitcher Jason Jennings. Remember the pinch hit grand slam off Rafael Soriano by Mike Lamb?
— Or Escobar’s error vs. Philadelphia on Aug. 12 that would have been a double play and became a Ryan Howard three-run homer.
— How about that game John Smoltz pitched against the Nationals on April 12? Pitched eight innings of two-run ball and the Braves got shutout, one-hit by Jason Bergmann for six innings. Can’t somebody get a hit?
— Or what about the one where Smoltz faced Bergmann on May 14 in Washington and lost 2-1? He yanked his pinky finger out of joint making a tag but had pitched beautifully, and still the Braves could score only one run on Bergmann -on two hits in eight innings. That was good for Bergmann’s first major league win in 15 career starts.
Ok, that’s seven right there. Seven the Braves could have easily won. And I wasn’t even trying very hard to research them. And you guys probably have others in mind. Eh?
Not trying to apologize for anybody or make excuses. What’s done, is very much almost done, unless something miraculous happens in the next couple of days. And then it has to keep being miraculous for weeks.
I’m just trying to point out how very easily this September could have been a fun month and October something to consider. Little things add up.
Oh, and do we still think it’s bad luck with me on the clock? Not so sure bout that anymore.
And a couple of random thoughts: sending a shout-out to my colleague Mark Bradley, who gets bonus points in my book for his Music Man reference in his weekend column…. Oh Thththista! (That’s ‘Oh Sister!” for the Music-Man challenged.)
And I see the M-dog finally won a game in Arizona. And at such an important time — it moved the Padres a game up in the West. Never could really figure out why he didn’t pitch well there. Fluky is my answer.
And he hasn’t walked anybody for 49-1/3 innings, stretching over seven starts and 191 batters. Not since July 28. He’s got a ways to go to catch his 72-1/3 inning streak he had with the Braves in 2001. Remember how it ended with an intentional walk? Anyway. Gamer.
Just thought I’d throw that out there. For those feeling nostalgic. Off to the yard.
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