AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 07
Monday, July 7, 2008
Braves (and Frenchy) start big week in SoCal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Los Angeles — Good day from the City of Angels, denizens. And it appears there’s a couple of them by the pool 20 floors below (hey, it’s L.A., couldn’t resist a bad line….)
OK, let’s get to work.
I’m well rested, unlike Carroll, who happened to cover a home series when it all hit the fan, beginning with her early morning wakeup call about Francoeur and finishing 60-some hours later with a 17-innning, rain-delayed epic.
Then as I’m writing this out here this morning, she gets a call and breaks the news that Jeff Francoeur has already been recalled and will join the Braves here in L.A.
It’ll be Francoeur, Brent Lillibridge and my old buddy Vladimir Nunez (knew the Cuban reliever when he was with the Marlins) joining the Braves in place of the DL’d trio of Omar Infante, Jeff Bennett and Manny Acosta (with only six games until the break, Braves obviously believe they can get through with one less pitcher than they were carrying).
A tip of the cap (like the Braves, who’ve done a lot of proverbial cap-tipping lately) to Ms. Rogers, and to former Braves beat man and noted wordsmith Tom Stinson for his contributions to the Francoeur Chronicles. Well done, both of you.
(Frankly, I wasn’t even missed, which is never a good feeling; with the state of the economy, you want to always feel missed when you’re away, know what I mean?)
Anyway, let’s get to it. Oh, and can you imagine how the Braves would’ve felt flying cross-country last night had they lost that game yesterday? Potentially very big win going forward towards the All-Star break.
I say potentially, because if they don’t build on that win during this six-game trip, if they come out and fall on their faces againt the Dodgers and Padres this week, then that 17-inning win will quickly be forgotten.
But if the Braves can put a good trip before the break, they might look back at that Sunday marathon as a game when their fortunes changed. We’ll see. Obviously a lot must happen for them to accomplish that.
Fact of the matter is, however, that the Braves are still “just” six games back despite everything. I mean, it hardly seems possible given the disappointments, injuries, etc., but the Braves are are a game closer to their division leader than Detroit is to its own division leader.
And here’s the really hard-to-believe one: Braves are only one game further back than the Boston Red Sox are behind AL East leader Tampa Bay (and how ‘bout the Yankees, who are nine games out of first and only two games ahead of Baltimore. That’s a whole lot of cash spent for third or fourth place.)
Of course, the Red Sox would have the AL wild card lead, while the Braves are behind four other NL teams if you were to put together NL wild-card standings today. But it’s nonetheless a reminder that so much of your own team’s fate is tied to its division opponents, which can be such a fickle thing year to year.
Recent case in point: The Cardinals wouldn’t have won the World Series in 2006 if they’d played in a tougher division, because they wouldn’t have made the playoffs with an 83-78 record.
But back to these Braves, who truly must be a maddening, frustrating teams for you folks to watch. Again and again they go through a stretch or a series where they look dead in the water, where fans must be thinking, “OK, at least now we can think about next year and be sellers at the deadline.”
Then they win a series and the Phillies lose a series, and we’re right back at 5-7 games back and not even to the All-Star break yet.
But the Braves haven’t had as much as a three-game winning streak since May 22, and only once in that stretch have they won back-to-back road games, in the Angels series down I-5 from where we are now.
The Braves went 21-12 with a .295 average and .305 ERA from April 17 to May 22, including a five-game winning streak to end that run. Since then they are 16-26 with a .245 average and 4.15 ERA.
And in their past 20 road games, they are 6-14 with a .237 average and only 74 runs scored.
So it’s time. This is it. The most important road trip to date (and we’ve only said that, what, four times this season?)
Oh, well, at least we’ll only be able to say “We’re not even at the All-Star break yet” for one more week, right?
I think the Braves still have a chance - not saying a good one, but a legitimate chance - to win the division only because it’s such a parity-ridden division, and a parity league, for that matter.
Just look at the NL standings today, for example. There are only two teams, the Dodgers and Reds, who are better than 6-4 in their last 10 games, and both of them are 7-3.
The only three NL teams with as high as a .550 winning percentage are all in the NL Central. Every team in the West has a losing record, and six teams in the other two divisions are below .500.
In the AL, there are two teams that are 8-2 in their past 10 games, and Tampa Bay is 9-1 in its past 10. There are five teams with .550 winning percentages or higher, three at .580 or higher, and two above .600, the Rays (55-32) and Angels (53-35).
All that being said, for the Braves to make a run at the division title they’re going to have to start putting together more than two wins here and one there. This is a team that can’t put together a sustained run, the kind that might make you feel good about their chances and believe they actually have some hope other than the rest of the division turning over and handing it to them.
Charlie is inexperienced: Those of you who believed Charlie Morton was a salve who’d fill in for a veteran starter without any slippage, really must not have given much credence to his minor league career at all.
As was pointed out here several times, this is a young kid who only started figuring things out last August, who hasn’t even had a solid half-season in his professional baseball career yet, much less a full season.
So to anticipate that he wouldn’t get lit up occasionally, maybe even frequently, in his first tour of the big leagues wasn’t realistic. It’s the rule, not the exception - top young pitching prospects are going to struggle in their first year in the big leagues.
Jurrjens, he’s the exception, not the rule.
The important thing is, Charlie is very talented, and now he believes it.
If they’d called him up earlier, say after his first few great minor league starts this season, then getting knocked around in the majors might have been hard on his psyche. But from talking to him, I think Charlie’s past that point of doubting himself now, of questioning whether he’s worthy of all the praise.
Dodgers on a roll: Not the best time to be getting the the Dodgers, who’ve won five of six in July, all on the road. They started the month with wins in the last three games of a four-game series at Houston, then took two of three at San Francisco.
It’s worth noting that the Braves have won five straight games against the Dodgers since July 4, 2007, including their last two at Dodger Stadium in that series and a three-game sweep this April in Atlanta. The Braves posted a 2.20 ERA in that April 18-20 series.
The Dodgers are playing much better now and getting good pitching despite the absence of injured Brad Penny.
Andruw not on a roll: The same can’t be said for Andruw Jones, whose first year away from Atlanta has been pretty much a complete nightmare.
He’s hitting .161 with two homers, eight RBI and 50 strikeouts in 143 at-bats, and just got back from a six-week stint on the DL for arthroscopic knee surgery for torn cartilage. He has a .262 OBP and .259 slugging percentage.
With runners on base, the ex-Braves CF has hit .062 (4-for-65) with 27 strikeouts and an .062 slugging percentage.
With runners in scoring position, he’s a majors-worst 1-for-38 (.026).
He had a homer and two walks in a April 19 game at Turner Field. Since then, Jones is 13-for-88 (.148) with one homer and 32 strikeouts. He’s 1-for-10 with five strikeouts since getting back from the DL.
His next homer at Dodger Stadium will be his first as a Dodger, which might partly explain why he’s booed at home, according to observers, louder than any athlete for any Los Angeles pro team in recent memory.
By the way, since the beginning of the 2007 season, Andruw has played exactly 200 games and hit .210 (150-for-715) with 33 doubles, 28 homers, 102 RBI and 188 strikeouts, with a .301 OBP and .382 slugging percentage.
Things really started to go south for him in mid-August 2006. He’s hit .214 in 245 games since Aug. 12, 2006, with 41 doubles, 40 homers, 132 RBI and 219 strikeouts in 866 at-bats, and a .317 OBP and .406 slugging percentage.
Andruw and Frenchy: In 2006, Andruw and Francoeur hit a combined .261 with 70 homers and 232 RBIs in 318 games. This season, they’ve hit a combined .170 with 10 homers and 49 RBIs in 131 games.
Chipper and the batting title: I’m gonna make a bold prediction that Matt Holliday will be the only hitter to seriously challenge Chipper Jones for the NL batting title this season.
Holliday has hit .380 (46-for-121) with seven homers and 27 RBIs in his past 31 games, raising his azverage to .343, fourth in the league behind Hoss (.388), Pujols (.350) and Berkman (.349). No other qualifier is hitting as high as .325.
Chipper, by the way, is still hitting a jaw-droping .437 at home, a 64-point lead over the Cubs’ Kosuke Fukudome (.373). Holliday is next with his .368 at Coors Field and Berkman at .362 in Houston.
Should be noted, Turner Field’s the only pitcher-friendly park in that group.
Chipper’s also back leading the league in OPS at 1.125, ahead of Berkman (1.103) and Pujols (1.094).
And we haven’t updated the Chipper-since-June 2006 numbers recently, so let’s do it now:
He’s hit .361 with 72 doubles, seven triples, 66 homers and 203 RBI in 262 games since June 24, 2006, with a .449 OBP and .651 slugging percentag (yes, that’s a 1.100 OPS over 262 games).
And since returning from his last DL stint on June 13, 2007, he’s hit .369 (233-for-631) with 42 doubles, four triples, 35 homers, 125 RBI, 110 walks, 82 strikeouts and a .460 OBP in 169 games.
The Braves are 87-82 in that stretch when Chipper plays, and 4-13 when he doesn’t.
OK a diversion or two: The Tom Waits show at the Fox on Saturday was even greater than his performance at Tabernacle a couple years ago. The man is simply one of the most entertaining performers in the world today, and his band was top-notch across the board. Just sublime stuff, seeing him play. Tix ain’t cheap, but he’s one who’s worth every penny of whatever it costs to see him….
Saw two good movies this week. Well, one terrific one (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and one very entertaining big summer movie, Hancock. I was surprised how much I liked the latter. And though I figured I’d like the Thompson documentary, I had no idea it’d be as great as it was. It’s by the same director who did the doc No End In Sight last year.
Any fan of Hunter must see it. Run, don’t walk. Better yet, drive.
And finlly, I’ve got to recommend this relatively unknown singer-songwriter, Chuck Brodsky. If you can find his CDs, do yourself a favor and buy one or more. This guy’s a rootsy, no-B.S. songwriter who also happens to be a big baseball fan and has written several tunes that are about as good as you’ll ever hear about the subject.
Here’s one I love, about a famous (or infamous) no-hitter that Doc Ellis threw for the Pittsburgh Pirates in San Diego, on a day that began with him in L.A. believing that it was an off day and doing something he would’ve never, ever done on a day he thought he was pitching (if you’re not familiar with the story, Google it; this really happened).
”DOC ELLIS’ NO-NO” by Chuck Brodsky
It was a lovely summer’s morning
An off-day in LA
So thought one Doc Ellis
As he would later say
His girlfriend read the paper
She said, “Doc, this can’t be right…
It says here that you’re pitching
In San Diego tonight”
“Got to get you to the airport”
And so off Doc Ellis flew
His legs were a little bit wobbly
And the rest of him was too
Took a taxi to the ballpark
An hour before the game
Gave some half-assed explanation
Found the locker with his name
Time came to go on out there
Down the corridor
The walls were a little bit wavy
There were ripples in the floor
He went out to the bullpen
To do a bunch of stretches
Loosen up a little
Throw his warm-up pitches
All rose for the national anthem
People took off their hats
Fireworks were exploding
The cokes were already going flat
Doc was back there in the dugout
So many things to watch
Some players spit tobacco juice
Others grabbed their crotch
The umpire hollered, “Play Ball!”
And so it came to be
Doc’s Pirates batted first
And when they went down 1-2-3
Doc’s catcher put his mask on
And he handed Doc the ball
It was 327 feet
To the right & left field walls
The Pirates took the field then
And Doc stood on the rubber
He bounced a couple of pitches
And then he bounced a couple others
You might say about that day
He looked a little wild
The leadoff batter trembled
Nobody knew why Doc Ellis smiled
You walk eight and you hit a guy
The things that people shout…
Especially your manager
But he didn’t take Doc out
Doc found himself a rythym
And a crazy little spin
Amazing things would happen
When Doc Ellis zeroed in
Sometimes he saw the catcher
Sometimes he did not
Sometimes he held a beach ball
Other times it was a dot
Dock was tossing comets
That were leaving trails of glitter
At the 7th inning stretch
He still had a no-hitter
So he turned to Cash, his buddy
Said, “I got a no-no going”
Speaking the unspeakable
He went back out there throwing
Bottom of the ninth
And he stood high upon the mound
Three more outs to go
He’d have his name in Cooperstown
First up was Cannizzaro
Who flied out to Alou
Kelly grounded out for Dean
The shortstop yelled, “That’s two”
It must’ve been a mad house
The fans up on their feet
The littler ones among them
Standing on their seats
Next up would’ve been Herbel
But Spezio pinch-hit
He took a 3rd strike looking
And officially, that was it
It was a lovely summer’s morning
An off-day in LA
So thought one Doc Ellis
As he would later say
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