AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 23
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
This isn’t funny-like-a-clown funny
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Miami — So I’m listening to this recording of an interview I did yesterday with Will Ohman, and in the background you can here a great scene — “Am I funny like a clown? Do I amuse you? — from the movie Goodfellas, which they were showing on DVD in the visitor’s clubhouse yesterday.
Anyway, it seemed appropriate for some strange reason. Maybe I’m just tired.
As for the interview, I was doing it for the WSB thing I do, the 45-second bites that air during drive-time in early mornings in Atlanta. And I asked Ohman about the mood in the clubhouse during this difficult time when it seems the season is dying on the vine.
“The mood in the clubhouse is one of purpose,” he said before last night’s game. “Obviously we understand there’s a truncated timetable for us to turn things around and start playing better baseball. So I think everyone’s aware of that, but we’re not letting it be something that’s consuming us.”
(Yes, he really said “truncated.” Hey, he went to Pepperdine.)
Any more games like last night’s 4-0 shutout, in which the Braves mustered just one hit, and you can bet it’s going to tougher to keep it from consuming them. Because when the Braves get home from this trip, they’re going to still have two months left in the season, and it could be two months like this organization hasn’t spent in a long, long time.
Even last season, the Braves had legitimate hope until the last couple of weeks of the season. And the year before, 2006, when their 14-division-title run ended, they had optimism in the clubhouse because the young Braves talked of being fired up to begin a new streak the following year and all that.
Well, that hasn’t panned out, and now the Braves are headed for a third consecutive postseason without them involved, unless Mark Teixeira or Will Ohman or perhaps Mark Kotsay is playing for another playoff-bound team after the July 31 trade deadline.
They’re all eligible for free agency after the season, and the Braves aren’t likely to bring back any of them. If Kotsay’s back had held up all season, I’d guess they might try to re-sign him given the uncertainty now surrounding CF prospect Jordan Schafer since Schafer’s 50-game HGH suspension and his lackluster play in Double-A since he got back from that suspension.
But Kotsay’s back is a problem, and I can’t see the Braves going into next season with him penciled in as their CF, as much as everyone including manager Bobby Cox loves having the guy in the lineup and in the clubhouse.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, Ohman.
I asked him a question with you denizens in mind, or at least some of you. The ones who keep asking why Cox isn’t “held accountable” for the team’s performance this season.
I asked Ohman if he agreed with those who sugges that much blame should be placed at the feet of Cox. Keep in mind, this isn’t a player who’s spent 10 years playing for Cox, not one who’s enjoyed winning seasons under him.
It’s Ohman, who came here from the Cubs and who knows, because of a likely big raise he’s going to get as a free agent, that he’s not going to be here beyond this season, and that there’s a good chance he won’t be here beyond July 31.
“I don’t think you can place any blame on Bobby for what’s gone on,” he said. “It’s been an unfortunate scenario where we’ve lost some really high-profile guys who we came out of spring training counting on their presence on this team, and that’s always difficult to come back from.
“But you look at the way guys — obviously I’m in the bullpen — you look at what those [relievers] have done down there when thrust into roles that maybe they weren’t fully prepared for, and how we’ve succeeded, and I think that’s a good test of character.”
Coming back to the Cox question, Ohman continued:
“I think that blame is placed at the feet of the manager far too many times. He’s writing out the lineup card, but we’re the ones playing the game. So if we lose, unfortunately, it’s something that reflects on him but it’s not necessarily losing the game. I don’t think that would be correct to even suppose that would be the case.”
When someone suggested that Cox isn’t managing any differently than he did all those years the Braves enjoyed so much success and he won multiple Manager of the Year awards, Ohman agreed.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “we haven’t gotten the timely hit, or the timely out, made the pitch — whatever the case may be, you can generally go to one play per game that really turns the tide, and unfortunately we just haven’t been able to put that together.”
Mets meltdown: A few hours after I told someone yesterday that I thought the Mets might just be ready to pull away from the pack, they had a devastating ninth-inning meltdown last night.
This after manager Jerry Manuel decided to pull a very effective Johan Santana after he’d thrown 105 pitches in eight innings.
Don’t know if that says more about the state of the game today - the highest paid pitcher in the game can’t go for a complete game when he’s only thrown 105 pitches? - or about Manuel’s instincts or what, but given that sore-shouldered closer Billy Wagner was unavailable to pitch, you gotta wonder what Jerry was thinking. Seriously.
Anyway, we’ll see if there’s any carry-over from that loss at Shea Stadium. We were watching on a clubhouse television at Dolphin Stadium, while waiting for Francoeur to come out after last night’s Braves loss, when the Phillies put together their huge ninth inning.
I was out in a hallway (there’s TVs all over the place in there) and I heard Bobby Cox shout, “What happened?” from his office. I looked in and he had the remote in his hand; he’d just clicked back to the Phils-Mets game and the score had changed dramatically since he’d turned the channel a few minutes earlier.
Anyway, hey, it’s gonna be an interesting NL East race, without or without the Braves.
By the way, the Jose Reyes defensive gaffe in last night’s game on a would-be double play, his poor decision to try to do it all himself, was a perfect example of why I didn’t have him on that list of 10 guys I’d build a team around in the NL when someone asked me yesterday.
Tonight’s game: Odds wouldn’t certainly seem to be in the Braves’ favor for tonight’s rubber game with the fledgling Fish. But of course, we’ve said that plenty of times before and it didn’t necessarily work out.
But really, tonight’s pitching matchup … it’s Tim Hudson vs. Ricky Nolasco. Hudson, who is 6-2 with a 2.84 ERA in 12 career starts against the Marlins, including 4-1 with a 2.95 ERA in seven at Miami. Against Nolasco, who’s 0-3 in his past four starts against the Braves, including two losses this season in which he’s been rolled for 21 hits, 13 runs and seven homers in 10-1/3 innings.
Chipper Jones is 9-for-14 with three homers against Nolasco, including 6-for-7 with three homers this season.
On the other hand, Hudson is 0-4 with a 4.74 ERA in his past seven road starts. And Nolasco was 9-1 with a 2.84 ERA in a span of 13 starts before giving up four runs and seven hits in seven innings of a loss Friday against Philadephia.
That loss snapped a four-start home winning streak in which Nolasco had posted a 1.29 ERA and .160 opponents’ average. So we’ll see. Could be a good one tonight.
Speaking of Ohman… He’s 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and .130 opponents’ average in his past 23 appearances, and all of the five earned runs he’s allowed in that span came in one two-out appearance against Seattle on June 20.
In his other 22 games in that stretch, he’s allowed one unearned run, six hits and five walks with 19 strikeouts in 19-1/3 innings.
It’s too bad the Braves probably couldn’t find a way to squeeze a $3-plus mill salary for him into next year’s payroll along with the combined $9-10 mill they’re going to probably be paying relievers Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano.
Francoeur with bases juiced: I’ve gotten more than a dozen e-mails from people since his at-bat last night, The At-Bat, when Francoeur struck out swinging at four straight bad pitches after Florida’s VandenHurk had walked the bases loaded with three consecutive walks to start the inning.
Many called it the worst at-bat they’ve seen all season. Some said the worst they’ve seen in their lifetimes.
I would have a hard time disagreeing.
Anyway, for those who think the Braves absolutely stink with bases loaded, actually they don’t. Not as a team, overall.
They rank third in the NL with a .282 average (29-for-103) with bases loaded, and fourth with a .307 OBP in those situations.
But Francoeur is just 3-for-22 with no walks and seven strikeouts in those situations, and that’s twice as many at-bats as any other Brave has had with bases loaded (so yeah, his work in those spots does come to mind, understandably).
Without Francoeur’s 3-for-22, the rest of the Braves have a combined .321 average (26-for-81), including Chipper’s 3-for-4 with one walk, Mark Teixeira’s 5-for-10 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch (.538 OBP), and Brian McCann’s 5-for-11 with two doubles.
Tune for a daughter: The late, great Townes Van Zandt wrote this song for his daughter Katie Belle. You gotta hear him sing it in his distinct, whiskey-ravaged Texas twang to get a full apprecation, but the words alone are gorgeous.
”KATIE BELLE BLUE” by Townes Van Zandt
There is no deeper blue
in the ocean that lies
as deep as the blue
of your laughing eyes
no sweeter sound
than your gentle sigh
no heart was ever so pure
Dream pretty dreams
touch beautiful things
let all the skies surround you
swim with the swans
and believe that upon
some glorious dawn
love will find you
Come some day
I’m bound away
wind and wings on the water
whatever may
you must stay
and remain my beautiful daughter
There is no deeper blue
in the ocean that lies
as deep as the blue
of your laughing eyes
no sweeter sound
than your gentle sigh
no heart was ever so pure
Good night Katie Belle, good night
Services »
