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Friday, May 16, 2008
Coming home at the perfect time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So, where is the longest home stand of the season when you need one? Ah, right here. Eleven games at Turner Field, including one extra with the doubleheader Tuesday vs. the Mets. Haven from the 2-5 road trip, the 6-16 road record and whatever plane food, hotel beds and uncomfortable suits seems to be doing to the Braves.
They get to come home to the best winning percentage at home in the majors 14-4 (.778), where they have won their last seven in a row, including a perfect 6-0 homestand. But then again, this is not the Padres and Reds.
This is the Oakland A’s for three games, the Mets for four and the Diamondbacks for four, the team with the best record in baseball. Yes the A’s come in pretty cold, in the midst of a 1-5 road trip to Texas and Cleveland, losing three of those by shutout. But they also have the second-best overall ERA in the American League at 3.32.
And a random perusal of the stats page tells me Braves pitchers should watch out for Emil Brown. He is hitting .468 with runners in scoring position, which leads the American League and came in with 33 RBIs, third in the American League.
INTERLEAGUE PLAY: Today starts the first wave of interleague play, and it feels like it kind of sneaked up on us, doesn’t it? You remember last year? When Chipper Jones got a little up-in-arms about the unfairness of the interleague schedule?
The Braves probably had the toughest interleague schedule last year with six games against eventual World Series champion Boston, and three-game series against Detroit, Minnesota and Cleveland, another playoff team. Only Minnesota was sub-.500 at the time. The Braves went 4-11. Yowza.
Chipper should be a little happier with things this year, with the Braves and the rest of the NL East playing mostly AL West opponents, with some natural rivalries mixed in. Only the Braves have no Boston this year, however natural or unnatural that rivalry was.
For only the second time in 12 years of interleague play, the Braves won’t face the Red Sox. Bummer for Boston fans in the area, but something tells me the Braves won’t miss it.
The Braves have three games each vs. Oakland, the Angels (Los Angeles of Anaheim, yeah, yeah), Texas, Seattle and Toronto. That’s one first-place team (right now the Angels). Toronto is fourth in the AL East (Tampa is first now? Yankees last? Work that one through. I’m still trying.)
Let’s have a look around the rest of the NL East, shall we?
Mets go Yankees for six games, Texas, Angels, Seattle.
Phillies go Toronto, Boston, Angels, Oakland, Texas.
Marlins go six games with Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Seattle, Oakland.
Nats are the team that’s got 18 games this year. They go six with Baltimore, Minnesota, Seattle, Texas, Angels.
So I gotta go advantage Braves here, especially if this Tampa pitching staff is for real. That used to be a big advantage for Florida to play the (not-Devil) Rays. We’ll see how it plays out.
Not sure how many purists we have out there, but I don’t mind interleague play so much. Gives us cool things to write about from time-to-time like Huddy facing his former team tomorrow night. But by all means, stir it up, if you need to vent on the subject for a few.
WHEN IN ROME: And lastly, from the farm. I went up to Rome on Wednesday to take in the young Jason Heyward for a story I’m doing for Sunday. And wouldn’t you know a 13-inning game broke out? Good thing it started at 10:30 a.m. Yes, 10:30 a.m.
It was some a school-kids special, and they brought them by the bus load. It all worked well and good, with a crowd screaming like it was the Jonas Brothers (Isn’t that right? Hey, I’d never heard of them until the NHL All-Star game stuff here.) Right up until they had to leave before the game ended, presumably because they had to get back to school and be picked up by their parents. So then it went to dead quiet. Weird. But a very nice ballpark.
Ashamed to say it’s taken me so long to get up there, and good to see some ol’ pals from the Macon Braves.
Oh and a shout-out to the PA guy Eddie Brock, who told me he was a blog reader. We get around, don’t we, denizens?
But the whole point was to tell you a little about what I learned about Heyward. At least the stuff I didn’t put in my story for Sunday (see more teasing).
Heading into the weekend, he was leading the Rome Braves with .365 average, had four home runs, 19 RBIs and eight stolen bases.
The batting average is exactly what the Braves want to see, and for all the talk about the Henry County kid’s raw power, they don’t mind seeing no more than four home runs yet.
“His power is going to come,” said Frank Wren, who was up there watching the Rome Braves a good bit this week. “I don’t see him as a power hitter today. That’s not to say he doesn’t have power. I think he’s a good balanced hitter, and hopefully he’ll continue to have that approach. I think too many times kids want to be a power hitter. If he keeps a good solid approach, he’s strong enough that his home runs are going to come when he makes good contact, not when he tries to hit home runs.”
What’s impressive is what Jason had to say on the subject. Listen in:
“That’s never been me, all power,” he said. “I’ve always put average first and everything else comes with it. If it goes out, it goes out. I always try to do what the situation calls for.”
As for any impending plans to move him to first base, they’re not in the works. He’s playing right field every day in Rome, though he actually played center the day I was there because C.J. Lee has a broken orbital bone.
“I think he’s too good of an athlete and does too many things well out there to take him away from that,” Wren said. “Being a big strong power corner outfielder that can run and throw like he does, that’s tough to find as well. You can find first basemen. You can’t find athletes that can do all the things he does.”
Jason, being the young man he is, wouldn’t buck a move. I gather he played a little first base as a kid, a little in high school and some in East Cobb.
“If they call me up tomorrow - I’m saying for example, in general - and they tell me to play first base or left field, I’m going to go to either one,” Heyward said. “Me being left-handed, those are the only positions I can play- three outfield positions and first base. Wherever they need me I’m going.”
The Rome Braves lost 8-7 that day - they seem to have caught a little of their parent club’s one-run bugaboo - and Jason was 1-for-6 at the plate with an RBI. Hit a couple balls hard, but didn’t have the best day to show for it. And he was surely tired after the game. But he was a good sport to sit down and chat for a while. Sure you’ll be hearing more from him as we go.
Other tidbits, I don’t believe 17-year-old Colombian sensation Julio Teheran, a RHP, is there yet. Not that I saw or was told or now see on the roster. I asked Jose Martinez (assistant director of international scouting) about him and he said he was doing well in extended spring.
Former first-round pick Cody Johnson is back to having some strikeout issues. Through Thursday he had 65 strikeouts in 139 at-bats. He was also leading the team with five home runs.
In rookie ball in 2006 in the Gulf Coast League, Johnson had 49 strikeouts in 114 at-bats, while hitting .184. He rebounded to have a great year last year in Danville, hitting .305 with 17 homers and 57 RBIs in 63 games, while holding the strikeouts to 72 in 243 at-bats.
Meantime, back to the big league boys in a couple of hours. I would expect Chipper Jones back in the lineup. Will keep you posted on that and more.
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