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Friday, April 25, 2008
Chipper, chop shops, and Shea
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New York — So here we are, back at Shea Stadium for the first of our three visits in the swan-song season of the multi-purpose relic located across the streeet from many of Flushing’s finest automobile chop shops.
Far as I know, they haven’t planned any beer dousing or other special presentation for Chipper Jones, the man that iron-lunged Shea fans love to hate most (well, except for that brief period when he was supplanted by John Rocker).
Chipper comes to town on one of his best surges in years, and the Braves are on a good run themselves. Or had some of you forgotten? I know, those back-to-back mid-week losses against Washington and Florida took some of the oomph out of it for many of you, particularly the disappointing loss on the night John Smoltz got his 3,000th strikeout.
But the fact remains, the Braves are 6-2 with a .313 team batting average and 2.13 ERA in their past eight games. They have the best record, batting average and ERA in the NL East in that span, better even than the Phillies, who’ve crushed 18 homers in their last eight games (5-3).
The other three teams in the division have a .500 or below record in their past eight games, including the Mets, who’ve hit .242 with a 4.07 ERA while splitting their last eight games.
Speaking of Chipper, as good as he’s been lately, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be the NL Player of the Month (he was already passed over for the weekly honor despite back-to-back two-homer games).
Because while Chipper is batting a majors-leading (by a wide margin) .442 with four doubles, seven homers, 20 RBI and a 1.217 on base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS), Philly’s Chase Utley is hitting .385 with more extra-base hits (20), more homers (10), more RBI (21) and a higher OPS (1.288, best in the majors).
The American League has been known as the superior offensive league for years, but right now, this month, senior-circuit stars are putting up far superior numbers.
In fact, the top seven OPS totals in the majors are by National League players, led by Utley and teammate Pat Burrell (1.224). Chipper (1.217) is third and Albert Pujols (1.135) is fourth.
The NL’s seventh-highest OPS belongs to Lance Berkman (1.102), while the AL leader is Manny Ramirez (1.101).
But enough statistical overload…. I saw the latest Judd Apatow comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, yesterday. Loved it. But I have to disagree with one of our denizens who said it was funnier than Superbad or Knocked Up.
Funniest movie I’ve seen since Juno, yes. But not funnier than Superbad, in my opinion. But I’d put all of Apatow’s recent movies, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall on my all-time list of comedies, a top 25 or 30 or whatever.
Hey, I’m not offended by raunchy comedy, not when it’s as clever as what Apatow and his crew put out. This stuff is laugh-out-loud brilliant. And they showed previews for yet another one that’s coming out this summer.
Don’t know how long he can keep his golden touch going, but it’s been an impressive run, for sure.
OK, back to statistical overload…. To underscore how much more depth the Braves have in their rotation now compared to a year ago at this time, consider this: Atlanta starters rank second in the NL with a 3.05 ERA, just behind Arizona (3.04).
This despite the fact that John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Mike Hampton and Chuck James have all spent time on the disabled list.
Think about that — Smoltz, Glavine, Hampton and James have all been on the DL, or are still on it, and we’re only 21 games into the season. And still, Braves starters rank second in the NL with a 3.05 ERA.
The Braves have managed to use only six different starters, despite all the health woes. The only one of the six who has an ERA over 3.20 is Chuck James (2-1, 7.62), whom the Braves probably didn’t plan to have in the majors this early, after he rested his shoulder all winter to heal a partial rotator-cuff tear.
James (three) and Bennett (two) have also given up five of the seven homers yielded by Braves starters. The other four starte4rs have given up a total of two homers in 90-1/3 innings.
In overall staff ERA, the Braves’ 3.50 also ranks second in the NL, behind Arizona’s 3.09.
The largely inexperienced and injury-depleted bullpen has been shaky some nights and ranks ninth in the league with a 4.17 ERA. But given that they’ve been without their best two relievers, Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano, for much of April, I’m frankly surprised the Braves don’t rank below ninth in ERA.
And by the way, for those who keep saying you’re not sold on Acosta, what does the guy have to do exactly? What’s it gonna take to convince some of you?
The guy was tagged for four runs in his first appearance March 31. But since then he’s pitched 10-1/3 scoreless innings in nine appearances, with a miniscule .147 opponets’ average in that stretch, no more than one hit or one walk in any appearance until he walked two in two hitless innings last night.
Seriously, that’s enough stat talk…. There are a few good bands this weekend in New York, now we’ll just have to see if we can avoid rain delays Saturday and Sunday and try to make it out to see some music after a day game.
American Music Club is playing at the Music Hall I Williamsburg (Brooklyn) Saturday and the Mercury Lounge on the Lower East Side on Sunday. That would be cool to see. Definite possibility. Fiery Furnaces are playing Saturday, but they’re a bit too odd for my tastes.
Paul Simon is also playing a sort of American music retrospective with the great Gillian Welch and Grizzly Bear at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but all nights are sold out Friday through Sunday.
Several great shows — Crowded House, Feist, Was (Not Was), Van Hunt, etc. — here next week, but I leave for D.C. on Monday morning.
Hey, while I’m thinking about it. Just saw footage of Wesley Snipes leaving court after his sentencing yesterday on tax-evasion charges (three years; yikes). Someone should’ve told Wesley that the glasses and Nipsey Russell haircut made him look sort of peculiar for a courtroom appearance in 2008.
OK, just one more stat flurry: David Wright strikes me as sort of the Mets’ version of a young Chipper Jones. But you’ll have to excuse the Braves if perhaps they don’t fear Wright as much as some other teams do, or at least if they’re not quite as mindful of Wright as the Mets are of Chipper.
Because against the Braves, The World’s Most Interesting Man (I’m aping the Dos Equis commercials, which, by the way, seem to me like a total ripoff of the SNL Bill Brasky skit) hasn’t exactly cut great swaths with his bat.
Or maybe it’s because they have been mindful of him in the past couple of seasons, after Wright hit a bunch of homers against them earlier.
Anyway, Wright has a .262 career average and .346 on-base percentage against the Braves, compared to .311 overall career average and .390 OBP. He had six homers against the Braves as a rookie in 2005, and a two-homer game against them in ’06.
But in his last 27 games against the Braves, Wright has hit .198 (20-for-101) with 26 strikeouts, a .287 OBP and more errors (five) than home runs (four).
Chipper hasn’t shredded the Mets in recent years anywhere near like he did in 1999 and a few other seasons. But since the beginning of the ’05 season, he’s still hit .285 with six homers, 20 RBI and a .375 OBP in 35 games against them.
By the way, Chipper has more homers (38) against the Mets than against any other team, but he’s hit for a higher average against three NL teams than his .328 vs. the Mets (.334 vs. Philly, .331 vs. Houston, .330 vs. Arizona).
And his best overall numbers against an NL opponent are actually against Philly. He’s hit .334 with 37 homers, 116 RBI and a 1.060 OPS in 178 games against the Phillies, and hit .328 with 38 homers, 118 RBI and a .988 OPS in 179 games against the Mets.
But he named one of his sons Shea for a reason: Chipper’s hit .310 in 83 games at Shea with more homers (19) and RBI (53) than at any ballpark outside Atlanta.
He’s got higher slugging percentages at several other NL parks than he does at Shea (.565), including the current parks at San Diego (.813, are you kidding me?), Houston, Cincinnati and Colorado.
But even if he were to have another child, I don’t think there’s any chance he’d name him or her PETCO, Minute Maid (or Enron), Great America, or Coors.
At least I hope not.
Oh, and in case you were wondering: Hoss is 1-for-4 with a homer against tonight’s Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, and 4-for-7 with a homer against Saturday starter John Maine.
Since we’re at Shea…. Let’s go out with a tune by the coolest four guys who ever played at Shea — the Clash (and don’t argue the Beatles were cooler, please. Bigger, yes; cooler, no.) This one was written by bass player Paul Simonon, not Joe Strummer.
“GUNS OF BRIXTON” by The Clash
When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun
When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting in death row
You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
Ohh, Guns of Brixton
The money feels good
And your life you like it well
But surely your time will come
As in heaven, as in hell
You see, he feels like Ivan
Born under the Brixton sun
His game is called survivin’
At the end of the harder they come
You know it means no mercy
They caught him with a gun
No need for the Black Maria
Goodbye to the Brixton sun
You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
Ohh, the guns of Brixton
When they kick out your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun
You can crush us
You can bruise us
And even shoot us
But ohh, the guns of Brixton
Shot down on the pavement
Waiting in death row
His game was survivin’
As in heaven as in hell
You can crush us
You can bruise us
But you’ll have to answer to
Ohh, the guns of Brixton
Ohh, the guns of Brixton
Ohh, the guns of Brixton
Ohh, the guns of Brixton
Ohh, the guns of Brixton
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