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Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Do some Braves fans owe Kotsay an apology?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
These Braves sure are a streaky team. After winning five in a row in mid-April, they lost two, won two and then reeled off four consecutive losses before starting May off with four straight wins.
But I’m not complaining. They’re back over .500 and only 1.5 games out of first, so as long as that pendulum keeps swinging farther toward the wins than the losses, they’ll be fine.
In winning their fourth in a row last night, they got another solid performance out of Jair Jurrjens, who notched his fourth win in seven starts this year (he allowed only one run in six innings, scattering seven hits), and Chipper continued to prove he’s the hottest hitter in baseball, coming through with a two-run homer in the third and raising his league-leading average to .426.
Those two guys have been huge in keeping this team afloat through injuries and some hard luck, but the guy who has my attention today is Mark Kotsay.
Over the past 15 games, Kotsay has gone 22-for-57, increasing his average from .220 to .308, including a two-hit, two-RBI game last night — topped off by a stellar defensive play in center.
Chipper told Mark Bowman of MLB.com: “Not to take anything away from Andruw, he’s the best defensive center fielder I’ve seen, plain and simple. But there just haven’t been that many instances where Kots didn’t get to a ball and you said, ‘Well, Andruw would have had that.’”
It sounds to me like the Braves are getting more than they’d hoped for out of their “stop-gap” centerfielder, who may be fully healthy for the first time since 2004. I’ll admit that I hadn’t expected this much from him.
So, what do you think? Do some Braves fans owe Mark Kotsay an apology for rushing to judgment, or is he merely playing the way you thought he would? Maybe the jury is still out for you?
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