AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > June > 16
Monday, June 16, 2008
On rocky trip to the Rockies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Talk about re-emergence. A couple of days ago I had my toes in the sand at Holden Beach, N.C. At the moment, my toes are probably swelling, as I’m flying at an altitude of 34,000 feet cross-country, still trying to shake the cobwebs from a 5:30 a.m. wakeup call.
What’s that you say? Should have flown out to Denver yesterday? And cut my vacation short by a day? Pshaw! It’s back to the beat, punchy style. And how else should you cover a one-game snow makeup anyway?
I’ll blame the altitude.
We’re off to Denver, where a lot has happened since the Braves last journeyed out here in early April, lost three in a row, planted the seed that the road was going to be trouble this season, and made some snow angels.
Yes, Chipper Jones’ quad is still sore — more on that in a second — but at least Jones is in the lineup. Troy Tulowitzki has been on the disabled list since May 3 with a left quad tendon tear. He’s on a rehab assignment now, but it hasn’t been pretty for the Rockies since he left. They fell to 18 games under .500 by losing eight games in a row through June 2. They sunk to the bottom of the NL West and at 28-41 (.406) have only two teams with a worse record — Kansas City is 28-42 (.400) and Seattle is 24-45 (.348).
That might be a little deceiving though. The Rockies have won seven of their last 10. So who knows which team has the edge tonight. It’s a one-gamer. Stuff won’t have time to even out.
And yes, this road trip is so long that we’re switching beat writers in the middle. I’m here to chase down ballplayers for the final four games, tonight in Denver and three games in Texas.
So the Braves are 2-4 so far on this trip but coming off a series win over the Angels. Looking for silver linings ahead, there’s always Seattle. If you include next weekend’s home series against the Mariners, the Braves play four of their next seven games against teams with two of the worst records in baseball.
As promised, more on Chipper and the quad. Not that it seems to be bothering him much at the plate, but now it looks like his sitting those two games with a sore quad seems to be a bench mark of sorts. He’s 2-for-15 since then and has watched his batting average “plummet” from .420 to .402.
When you think about it, he’s had two hits in his last five games (four starts) and he’s still above .400. That’s something.
But after 10 weeks of rarified air, is Chipper about to see that .400 average drift off into thin air? Is today the day?
If he goes hitless in his first two at-bats, he drops to .398. Even if he goes 1-for-4, he’s at .399. He’s 1-for-6 for his career against tonight’s starter Ubaldo Jimenez.
Of course, it’s a hitter-friendly park. That should help. For his career at Coors Field, Chipper has hit .324 (68-for-210) with 12 homers and 51 RBIs.
He brought a .423 batting average with him the last time the Braves came to Denver on April 7. After going 4-for-13 (.308) with three RBIs in the three losses, he left with his average at .385. He used a three-hit game in Washington at the end of that trip to get his average back up over .400, and he hasn’t looked back since.
But he’s hanging on for dear life now.
As for pitching, Jair Jurrjens returns to the mound tonight against the Rockies after missing his last start after he tripped on the dugout steps in Wrigley. As much as that hurt that Braves that night — Jeff Bennett got beat around pretty good in a spot start — maybe it helps a bit in the long run.
You’d like to think that extra time off helped Jurrjens’ blister heal some. Plus it gave him a few days to catch his breath.
DOB had some great numbers in his on-deck today about Jurrjens. In his first 10 starts this year, Jurrjens was 5-3 with a 2.64 ERA and .219 opponents’ batting average. In his last three, he’s 1-0 with an 8.40 ERA and a .406 opponents batting average. .406!
Jurrjens has allowed four homers in his last three starts, after giving up only one in his first 10.
Jurrjens won’t do it - but you have to attribute some of that to the effects of the blister and the movement he’s given up on his sinker.
In other pitching news, looks like there will be no Kevin Millwood match-up in the upcoming Texas series, by the way. Actually, he’s known in my family as Millweed (after some — sorry — rednecks sitting behind us at one of his first major league starts said “Who the heck is Millweed?”). He pitched in Sunday’s doubleheader against the Mets and won to move to 5-3 with a 4.75 ERA. So his rotation spot won’t come up again until Friday.
After watching Jorge Campillo give up two runs in an eight-inning complete game last night, and deserving better than a loss, I decided to dig up some quotes I’d gotten from Corky Miller a couple of weeks ago about what makes Campillo so effective. Those of you who’d rather bash Corky can skip it, but I found it insightful. Here’s a little of what he had to say about catching Campillo.
“He doesn’t really throw the same pitch too many times to the same guy — whether it be, same location or different speeds,” Miller said. “And he knows how to get guys out. He’s been around. And he goes with what works for him, not necessarily the hitters and what they’re trying to do. He pitches to what he wants to throw and what he can best locate.”
What makes him able to do that, Miller points out, is how well he locates.
“When you can’t spot the ball, you’ve got to go with what’s the hitters weakness against your strength,” Miller said. “He just always goes with his strength because he can put the ball pretty much where he wants to. It makes it easier for me when I’ve got to catch him. I don’t really have to worry about the tendencies of the hitters or what they like because he’s going to pitch where his strengths are and 90 percent of the time hit his spots.”
And this, from the Notes Group last week, when Greg Maddux was asked about Tom Glavine’s sore elbow, which landed him on the DL for the second time this year and only second time of his career.
“Knowing him, he probably should have gone on the DL two weeks ago,” Maddux said. “He’s tough, and no one knows how to pitch better when he’s hurt than that guy.”
Off to hoof it to Coors Field. Gotta love LoDo. Wouldn’t it be great to have something like that in Atlanta? Oh to dream.
