AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > March > 04
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Soriano’s elbow, Chipper’s hammy, and Tiger
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — We’re back on the case at Dark Star after three days home in Atlanta, three relatively relaxing days of bike riding, bill paying, sleeping in, watching The Wire and helping my girlfriend move into her new apartment.
Anyway, I can report to you that Rafael Soriano has a little bit more of a problem than we’ve previously been told, and Chipper Jones has a little less of a problem than we originally feared.
First, the closer. Soriano.
He hasn’t pitched yet and we’ve been told several times that a stomach ailment of some sort has been the problem. True that, but he’s also got some inflammation in his pitching elbow, or slightly above it where the triceps connects to the elbow.
I know this because Bobby Cox mentioned the elbow inflammation to me in passing when I was talking to him in his office an hour ago, after first reiterating that Soriano had some tests to rule out an ulcer or something along those lines that might be causing his stomach discomfort.
Apparently that is/was just a stomach flu, since the other tests came back negative.
More important, potentially at least, is the inflammation in the elbow. When Bobby walked through the clubhouse after my brief discussion with him in his office, he stopped by Soriano’s locker. He asked the pitcher how he felt and leaned in to hear Soriano’s response (the man of few words also talks in a quiet rumble of a voice). Soriano pointed to the area just above his elbow, in back of the arm.
Hey, could be that it’s nothing more than the typical soreness or minor irritation that a lot of pitchers get who haven’t thrown much in the offseason. For now, that’s the assumption.
But obviously there’s more attention paid, or will be paid, to Soriano given that he’s moving into the full-time closer role and the Braves gave him a two-year contract and, oh yeah, Soriano had Tommy John several years ago.
I would seriously advise everyone not to jump to any conclusions just because he had T.J. surgery. Every time a guy who’s had T.J. surgery has any elbow problems whatsoever, people assume the worse. I get that. It’s understandable.
But if most fans understood how often pitchers get a little irritation in shoulders and elbows, surgically repaired or otherwise, they’d understand that 95 percent of the time it’s really nothing to be concerned about.
That said, we’ll certainly be paying close attention to whether Soriano pitches in four days, as Cox indicated was the revised plan. He also typically downplayed any significance to Soriano missing the first week or more of games.
“If he gets out there four or five times [in spring training games], that’d be fine with me,” the manager said.
You can bet the Braves would like to see more than four or five spring appearances by their closer. But as long as he’s healthy when the season begins, that’s all that matters, ultimately.
So stay tuned.
Hoss update: Talked to Chipper and told him we really need to hook him up with a laptop down here so he can give Braves/MIB blog updates on his health at times such as these.
He tweaked or strained or did whatever you want to call it to his right hamstring on Saturday during batting practice, and for a while much of Braves Nation - at least that part with internet access — thought the worst.
Again, given his injury history, entirely understandable reaction.
“I can just hear the bloggers now, ‘Chipper’s gonna miss 50 games,’” he told me this morning in the clubhouse, smiling as he mimicked the typing motion, which we all know ol’ U Kno Who has some experience doing.
He hopes to be back in the lineup by the weekend. On Monday he took some ground balls and 30 swings from the left side, no problems other than a little soreness. Since he hurt it batting right-handed, he was going to wait another day or two before he hit from that side.
I asked him how many at-bats he requires in spring training to be ready for the season. “I need about 30 left-handed at-bats,” he said. “Right-handed, I’m good to go.”
Lillibridge at 3B: Bit of a surprise at 3B today and batting leadoff, young (and even younger looking) Brent Lillibridge.
Braves want to see if he can play third base good enough to be the backup to start the season, since Omar Infante is going to open the season on the disabled list.
They know what Martin Prado can do, but it sounds to me like the Braves are going to give Lillibridge a legit chance to win the super-utility job out of camp. Unlike Prado, Lillibridge can play center field.
The final bench decisions are all connected. For instance, the Braves have to have someone who can back up CF Mark Kotsay, and Brandon Jones doesn’t fit that bill. Josh Anderson has impressed everyone so far, and I’d say he’d be the clearly favorite for the fourth outfield job if the season started tomorrow.
Lillibridge told me he’s taken “random” ground balls at 3B, but hadn’t played there in a game since the Cape Cod League four years ago. When he entered the clubhouse today and looked on the lineup/reserves board posted on the inside of the door, he was surprised.
He looked at the reserves at the bottom and didn’t see his name. “Then I saw it up top [in the lineup] and said, ‘Here we go.’”
He doesn’t have a hit yet this spring, but Lillibridge has been pleased with his swings and how he’s felt at the plate in batting practice and the games.
“I’m really excited to see what I can do [at 3B],” he said. “If I’m gonna make the team, it’s going to be as a utility guy, at least for now.”
The baby-faced prospect wants to play badly, to help the Braves win the division this season, and would prefer a utility role in the majors over playing every day in the minors. But he’s not one to complain or bitch, privately or otherwise, about anything. He loves to play, period.
(By the way, he sees himself as a starting shortstop someday, here or elsewhere. But for now, he’s more than happy to play wherever Cox and the Braves ask him to play. He said Escobar absolutely earned the SS job and belongs in the lineup after what he did last season filling in for Renteria.)
Golf with Tiger: Smoltz, Glavine and Francoeur played 18 holes with Tiger Woods at the PGA megastar’s home course, Isleworth, near Orlando. It’s an annual rite of spring for Smoltz and whoever he picks to join him and his pal Woods (Francoeur has made the cut the last couple years).
I’m writing something now for the paper, should be posted shortly. Suffice to say, Francoeur got too geeked up and tried to outdrive Tiger on the first few holes.
Smoltz had three birdies, a strong round from the scratch golfer. And Tiger? “I think he had eight birdies,” Smoltz said. “No, I know he had eight birdies.”
“Unbelievable,” Francoeur said of the PGA legend. “I think he birdied five out of six holes in one stretch.”
The lineup: 1. Lillibridge 3B: 2. Kotsay, CF; 3. Francoeur, RF; 4. Tex, 1B; 5. McCann, C; 6. B. Jones, LF; 7. Prado, 2B; 8. Guzman, SS; 9. Hudson, RH.
Relievers: Carlyle, Stockman, Ohman, Yates, and RH Jorge Campillo. For Phillies, Kyle Kendrick is starting and their top four is loaded: Rollins, Victorino, Utley and Howard.
Music is good: Brought a stack of mostly just-released CDs to spring training with me, so while I was home I listened to some from a year or two ago. Forgot just how brilliant the most recent Graham Parker album (“Don’t Tell Columbus”)was/is, as well as Built To Spill’s CD from a couple years ago, “You in Reverse.” If you don’t know Built To Spill, you should. Great band from Idaho, criminally underappreciated.
They’re at the other end of the alt-rock spectrum from Boston band Guster’s CD from a couple years ago, “Ganging Up on the Sun,” a good-enough album was a terrific single, “One Man Wrecking Machine.” Guster has some radio-friendly songs, which is usually not such a good thing, in my view. But there’s are not cheesy.
Then there was the drive in from the rental house this morning, enhanced by a Cohiba, a large travel mug of great coffee, and The Voice — George Jones’ The Grand Tour, remastered and never better… “Pass me by if you’re only passing through.”
”DANCING WITH THE WOMEN AT THE BAR” by Ryan Adams
When I see the moon, I hear the sound of the strip
Just calling my name
Just calling my name
When I see the moon, I hear the sound of the strip
Just calling my name
Yeah it’s calling my name
Man I love the feeling
When I go out
Dancing with the women at the bar
Man I love the feeling
When I go out
I always know my woman’s close somewhere
My daddy saw the moon, heard the sound of the strip
It called out his name
It called out his name
My daddy saw the moon, and heard the sound of the strip
Yeah it called out his name
And it called his son’s name too
Man I love the feeling
When I go out
Dancing with the women at the bar
Man I love the feeling
When I go out
I always know my woman’s close somewhere
Close somewhere
When you see the moon, hear the sound of the strip
Yeah call out my name
Yeah call out my name
And if you see the moon, hear the sound of the strip
Yeah call out my name
Yeah call my friend’s names too
Man I love the feeling
When I go out
Dancing with the women at the bar
Man I love the feeling
When I go out
I always know my woman’s close somewhere
Close somewhere
