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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
On lefties, Thorman, Maddux, Schafer….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — After taking advantage of the first opportunity to sleep in during spring training (first night game is tonight), I thought it’d be a good day to clear out some stuff from notebooks that are beginning to stack up on the kitchen table here in the rental house.
So let’s fire it up while the sounds of Uncle Tupelo fill this otherwise bland living space….
Lefty relievers: I asked Bobby Cox a week or so ago about the importance of having more than one lefty reliever, since the Braves have a veteran lefty (Will Ohman) in their ‘pen and a few other options to choose from, including out-of-options Royce Ring and hard-throwing but unproven Jeff Ridgway. They also have Mike Gonzalez expected back from the DL in June.
“It just depends on how many right-handers you have that are good against lefties,” Cox said of the multi-lefty question. “It kind of makes the other manager think some if you do [have more than one]. La Russa always likes to take three…. I’ve got a bunch [to choose from].”
Dews, an American original: Couple of the most memorable moments of spring involved Bobby Dews, the venerable former bullpen coach and now special advisor, who still suits up for pregame work. This week he got behind the plate to catch a few pitches from Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, who put on full uniform and tossed some strikes from the mound before batting practice.
Then there was the vintage “Dewsy” moment a couple weeks ago, before the Grapefruit League opener at Dodgertown. I’m standing with Terry Pendleton at the batting cage during B.P., and Dews is hitting fungoes to fielders. A big black bird flies overhead, pretty low over Holman Stadium. Dews ducks and laughs.
“Got to watch them buzzards, at my age,” Dews shouted. “He might know something I don’t know.”
I asked Dews about his first visit to Dodgertown, and he said he came here when he was too young to remember, just after the place opened and saw his dad, Bobby Sr., then a Dodgers minor leaguer.
“He always loved the Dodgers organization because they mixed the minor leaguers with the major leaguers” in spring training], Dews told me. “They were one of the first to do that.”
Thorman’s potential: The Braves would like to upgrade their backup first base situation, perhaps with a slugger like Juan Rivera, an Angels outfielder who’s been working out at first base and is on the trade block.
But if they don’t trade Scott Thorman, who’s out of options, the Braves might have least one reason to believe the big Canadian will improve. Call it his second-year trend.
During his minor league career, Thorman showed marked improvement in his second season at Class A Myrtle Beach (.243 with 12 homers and 79 strikeouts in 445 at-bats in ’03, then .299 with 4 homers and 19 strikeouts in 154 at-bats games in ’04) and at Triple-A Richmond (.276 with 6 homers and 42 strikeouts in ’05, then .298 with 15 homers and 48 strikeouts in 309 at-bats in ’06)
I had a scout point this out to me last summer, in the middle of a season that saw Thorman hit .216 with 11 homers and 70 strikeouts in 270 at-bats, and lose the starting job that was handed him after Craig Wilson’s early season flameout.
When I mentioned the second-year thing to Cox, the manager said: “That’s what I’ve been told, too. Could be true. He’s swinging the bat better — not trying to it hit it 700 feet.” Bobby’s emphasis was on “700” when he said that, as if to say, the violent-swinging Thorman’s only tried to hit it about 500 feet this spring.
The Great Maddux: You guys wouldn’t believe how many times the name Greg Maddux still comes up in conversations with Braves and with Cox. His legendary control, his pitching-savant genius, his desk-job physique, his genuine decency, his dry sense of humor, and his notorious pranks (can’t say what he once did with a pair of sanitary hose, the white socks that old-school players wear under stirrups, other than to say there was nothing sanitary about them afterward).
Recently ESPN Jayson Stark stopped by camp and asked Cox if he could believe it when Maddux threw a pitchout on a 2-2 count, something almost unheard-of among the mere-mortal pitching population. Cox said Maddux didn’t surprise him with the move; to the contrary, the manager actually called for it.
“We did that all the time, because we knew he was going to throw a strike on 3-2 if we didn’t get the runner at second. That’s why it’s a great count to run on — nobody picks off.”
Pitchers hitting eighth: Someone mentioned to Cox that his former third-base coach, Brewers manager Ned Yost, was talking about batting a good-hitting pitcher eighth in the order, like the Cards’ La Russa has done on occasion.
“[Bleeping] Ned, he got into the stats - look out,” said Cox, who loves Yost, but isn’t quite on the same page as the younger manager when it comes to innovative use of stats.
Don’t expect Cox to bat a pitcher eighth anytime soon. “Might cost you more games than it helps,” he said.
Hampton facing long odds: Speaking of Stark, he had a great note in a recent blog about the last time a pitcher, age 35 or older, won more than 10 games after being out more than two years (Mike Hampton fits this description).
Stark had Elias Sports Bureau research it, and they had to go back to 1946 to find one: Schoolboy Rowe went 11-4 for the 1946 Phillies after missing all of 1944 and ’45, while seriving in the Navy during World War II.
Hampton’s 2-1/2-year absence has resulted from two elbow surgeries, so I’d think he faces an even more difficult assignment than ol’ Schoolboy.
OK, he gets it. He looks young: Just about everyone who sees Brent Lillibridge for the first time is shocked by how young the 24-year-old shortstop looks. So I asked him if it’s a blessing or curse to look so young.
“Well, I don’t think it’s a curse, at all. When I’m 33, 34 and they’re saying I look 26 — better than the other way around,” he said, smiling. “It’s a joke. I get kidded all the time.”
He really doesn’t seem to mind the kidding. It hasn’t exactly scarred him.
“I play baseball, and I’ve done well,” he said. “Fact is, it’s not going to be a determining factor in whether I make it. It’s cool. I’ve heard that I’m a batboy. I get carded a lot. I get carded with my wife.”
Schafer and the Hummer: Had to share this story about Jordan Schafer, the 21-year-old top-rated Braves prospect who’s still, well, 21. He drives a huge Hummer, but laments it’s a gas-guzzler.
He’s from nearby Haines City, only about 15 miles from the Braves complex. Yet Schafer is staying at the Marriott a couple of miles from camp during spring training, not at home. Why, besides the fact the team pays for it?
“All that gas,” he said. “I can’t do it.”
And now, a tune while I enjoy a cigar before heading to the ballpark:
”WHISKEY BOTTLE” by Uncle Tupelo
Persuaded, paraded, inebriated, and down
Still aware of everything life carries on without
‘Cause there’s one too many faces with dollar sign smiles
Got to find the shortest path to the bar for a while
A long way from happiness
In a three-hour-away town
Whiskey bottle over Jesus
Not forever, just for now
Not forever, just for now
There’s a trouble around, it’s never far away
The same trouble’s been around for a life and a day
I can’t forget the sound, ‘cause it’s here to stay
The sound of people chasing money and money getting away
A long way from happiness
In a three-hour-away town
Whiskey bottle over Jesus
Not forever, just for now
Not forever, just for now
In between the dirt and disgust there must be
Some air to breathe and something to believe
Liquor and guns the sign says quite plain
Somehow life goes on in a place so insane
A long way from happiness
In a three-hour-away town
Whiskey bottle over Jesus
Not forever, just for now
Not forever, just for now
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