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Friday, March 28, 2008
Braves return and summer’s not far behind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top of the morning to you, and happy first day of summer — hey, just going along with Jill Vejnoska’s very fine and enthusiastic story about getting baseball back at Turner Field tonight.
Really, these two games are kind of weird, exhibition games but at the home stadium. Not as many fans around and the final score still doesn’t matter.
But it’s still a cool time. The stadium is back in business. No more driving past Turner Field and thinking how sad the place seems with nothing going on inside, no reason to turn the lights on. Also interested to see what the new seats look like behind home plate. And to see if pitchers are aghast at the foul territory they just lost.
And besides, this weekend brings back one of my funniest, most embarrassing moments, that I still have to laugh at.
Ten years ago or so, the AJC bosses sent me out to cover these games to give the beat writer a rest, and I suppose, to see if I could handle the rigors of covering the team for the AJC (had done so for the Macon Telegraph, but a different deal.) What did I do with that opportunity? I referred to Curtis Pride as Charlie Pride. In print. I did…. And my only consolation was that it was in small print in one of our old game report boxes.
Oh, and that they gave me the beat job anyway. Amazing, ain’t it?!
So here we go again, this time giving DOB a chance to decompress. What a nice job he did with spring training, eh? And to add to the accolades he’s won for this here blog, he just racked up a newsroom award yesterday for his work here. Maybe the check he gets will help offset some of those CDs he loaded up on in spring training. Well done.
So me? I’ll just be dotting the i’s and t’s for him these next two days. I’d expect the final cuts to be announced after the game tonight and one more trade to be announced any time now. I will keep you posted, of course.
If they trade for a bench player, I’d say Brent Lillibridge would likely be the guy sent back to Richmond. Martin Prado is pretty well assured of making the team as a backup infielder, at least until Omar Infante returns to health.
Unless he’s part of a deal, or unless the Braves trade for a backup first baseman, Scott Thorman would be there. An interesting call will be as a fourth outfielder between Gregor Blanco and Josh Anderson, and backup catcher, where it would seem Corky Miller has the edge over Brayan Pena and Clint Sammons. And is there a chance Joe Borchard makes this team?
The bullpen figures to be Rafael Soriano, Peter Moylan, Manny Acosta, Will Ohman and now Chris Resop, Blaine Boyer, and Royce Ring. Then you could have Jeff Bennett with a roster spot as long relief/spot starter with John Smoltz opening the season on the DL.
All of this will be sorted out shortly. It’s time. As for who might be available to join the bench on short notice? I just saw where the Diamondbacks were sending Trot Nixon down. Not sure if Nixon, 33, is exactly what the Braves would have in mind — and he hit .222 this spring — but he did spend most of spring playing first base.
DOB reminded me yesterday that Jair Jurrjens will be pitching tonight against his beloved Indians, the team he faced in his major league debut (August 15, four runs allowed in seven innings of a loss) and got his first major league win against August 21 when he held them to one run on one hit in 6 2/3 innings. Both those outings were against ace Fausto Carmona, against whom Jurrjens held his own, and here he’ll go against Carmona tonight.
Jurrjens got his first major league win by beating Carmona 2-1 in a game Carmona went all eight innings for the Indians.
Jurrjens also beat the Indians with three perfect innings in a spring training game March 5. So what a perfect way for him to get a feel for pitching at Turner Field, against an old nemesis.
I know you guys can’t help but have noticed what happened to so many former Braves this week. Get a load of what it looks like to list them all together: former Braves who got released or sent down to the minors this week: Marcus Giles, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Kyle Davies, Pete Orr, Ryan Langerhans, Chris Reitsma, Rudy Seanez - and not too long ago were Horacio Ramirez, and from our camp Javy Lopez. Am I missing anybody?
Does that mean John Schuerholz and Frank Wren knew exactly what they were doing by letting those guys walk?
Speaking of former Braves, and this time it’s actually complimentary. It’s official. The pitcher the Braves will face in their season-opener in DC in Odalis Perez. This is a guy who went 8-11 with a 5.57 ERA for the Royals last year, giving him the highest ERA of a year ago of any projected Opening Day starter.
He had visa problems getting to Nats camp from the Dominican this spring and didn’t pitch his first game until March 15. He went 0-2 with a 4.96 ERA in three Grapefruit League starts but manager Manny Acta says he deserves it.
“He won more games than any one of our starters last year in the big leagues,” Acta told reporters. “He’s the only one of our staff who has won 15 games before and he has pitched well in spring training.”
If you have to justify the move, perhaps it’s not a great one. And this says quite a bit about what’s going on with their rotation - John Patterson was released and Shawn Hill is still having arm problems, for starters.
I do recall, from back in the day, that Perez has a thing for dramatic moments, remember how well he used to pitch coming on in relief when he first came up? Maybe there’s still some of that in him. We shall see. Very soon!
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