AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > September > 21
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Here’s a quarter…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Call someone who cares? OK, OK, that’s no way to start a blog. Just paying tribute to our postgame performer, Mr. Tritt. I hear he sounds awfully good live. Will have to keep my ears open while I’m typing up the game story.
If you ask me, it’s a fitting tribute for the last home game of the season. Hasn’t this season been like one long country song? Strife (pitchers falling left and right), heartache (losing our friend Skip Caray), a little case of the blues (Jeff Francoeur’s return trip to the minors) and in the end, all that’s really left is a country boy making a stand (Chipper Jones).
Yes, OK, feeling a little punchy, and I’m not the only one. Just came up from the clubhouse where everybody’s acting a little wacky. It’s like the last day of the school year or something.
Will Ohman was running around with a SportSouth camera trying to interview his teammates. Mike Hampton and Jeff Francoeur were going at it in some sort of FSU vs. Clemson discussion. And there’s lots of packing and organizing and doing things like making out checks to the clubhouse attendants for their year-end bonuses.
Chipper suggested in my next life I should be a clubhouse attendant. Guess the check was pretty good.
When he wasn’t giving me a hard time, we checked in on the shoulder, which is still bothering him pretty good. He said the dose pack usually starts kicking in by the third day. Today is Day 3. As of the morning, he wasn’t feeling that great. He was holding out hope by the end of the day that could change.
“I’m almost scared to throw,” Jones said. “I just don’t know. I get to right here and there’s something that’s not right.”
He got his arm up about even with his ear, when he said that.
For proof that he was hurting the team by playing, he pointed to the error he made on Jayson Werth Thursday night, when his throw pulled Casey Kotchman off the bag before Pat Burrell’s homer put the Phillies up 4-2. Friday night, he pulled Kotchman off the bag on a ball from David Wright.
“I can’t get my arm in the position to make that throw with anything on it,” Jones said. “(On the Werth throw) I tried to get rid of it quick, got a two-seam grip on it, and the ball just sailed on me. (With Wright) I was in front of that ball, got my feet under me, it still killed to throw it over there.”
Given that there’s only a week to go and there’s a batting title on the line, I asked him if he had any fears of how this looks, to be sitting out at this stage in the game with the batting title on the line. (He’s already qualified and could probably win it if he sits the rest of the way, which he surely won’t.)
“I’m not worried about that to be honest with you,” Jones said. “I want to be out there and playing, but I’m not healthy. I can’t do what I’m supposed to be able to do out on the field right now. If Martin Prado can make a better throw or get the bat head where it needs to be gotten to, then it’s better that he be out there, especially when these games mean something for one side.”
LINEUP WATCH: Just for kicks, folks, I took a look back at the lineup from the home opener at Turner Field on March 31 vs. Pittsburgh. Here goes:
1. Kelly Johnson 2B
2. Yunel Escobar SS
3. Chipper Jones 3B
4. Mark Teixeira 1B
5. Brian McCann C
6. Jeff Francoeur RF
7. Mark Kotsay CF
8. Matt Diaz LF
9. Tom Glavine P
And now, we have today’s lineup.
- Josh Anderson CF
- Martin Prado 3B
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Brian McCann C
- Omar Infante SS
- Casey Kotchman 1B
- Jeff Francoeur RF
- Gregor Blanco LF
James Parr P
One-third of it is the same (Kelly Johnson, Jeff Francoeur, and Brian McCann). That’s it. Two of the guys are ailing - Chipper and Yunel Escobar, who can still hit but not move near well enough to play shortstop.
I know things get scrambled come September with call-ups et al, but I thought that was fairly telling.
MCCANN AND THROWING: McCann has put up another solid, All-Star season, as our McFann can happily attest, but there is one area he’ll head into the offseason knowing he needs to work on: throwing out base-stealers.
Base-runners have run basically amok on him (and yes, the Braves pitching staff). Out of eight NL catchers with at least 70 stolen base attempts on them (0.4 per scheduled game), McCann ranks last, having throwing out only 18.0 percent (20-of-111).
Here are the eight:
- Jason Kendall MIL 40.2 percent (35-of-87)
- Bengie Molina SF 30.4 percent (28-of-92)
- Paul Bako CIN 26.4 percent (19-of-72)
- Geovany Soto CHI 20.7 percent (18-of-87)
- Ryan Doumit PIT 18.8 percent (15-of-80)
- Carlos Ruiz PHI 18.2 percent (14-of-77)
- Russell Martin LA 18.1 percent (15-of-83)
Brian McCann ATL 18 percent (20-of-111)
“I say this every year but I don’t want people to think of me as just an offensive catcher who we’ll stick behind the plate,” McCann said. “I hope to improve my all-around game behind the plate.”
McCann said he would make it a point of emphasis this off-season and heading into next year.
“I want to work on footwork, jump rope, do a lot of cardio, try to be more of an athlete,” McCann said. “I need to start getting the ball out quicker. I need to start getting throws more on the bag. I need to find a way to do it. I don’t know if it’s focusing on footwork. Whatever it is, I’ve got to find it and I’ve got to find it soon. I’ve got it in me. I had it all the way through the minor leagues and the first couple years I was up here.”
Also, McCann was hitting .298 entering play Sunday, and that was something he was shooting for too: ending the season at .300 or better.
A SHOUT-OUT: DOB is taking the last road trip to finish out the season, so this might be my last blog for a while. Between helping out with Falcons, Hawks and Thrashers in the winter, I might make an occasional cameo, but in the meantime, I just wanted to say thanks for your patronage, your interest and for putting up with me for another baseball season. Much obliged! CR
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