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Tuesday, August 15, 2006
McCann has long career ahead
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
It wasn’t easy to look past Jeff Francoeur after he was whisked up from the bush leagues last season. Local kid. Natural athlete with a rifle for an arm. Rarely ever saw a pitch he didn’t like. Bubbly personality, even when he struck out, which came with unnerving frequency, triggering hope that he wouldn’t become the next Rob Deer, whose trademark had been frequent home runs, more frequent strikeouts and a depressed batting average.
Surely a candidate for Rookie of the Year, though I felt it my duty to move in another direction as the season aged. What about Brian McCann? McCann had moved into the mind of Atlanta baseball without flourish. He, too, had been called up from the Mississippi farm club, but in an emergency. Johnny Estrada had been bulldozed in a play at the plate by Darin Erstad, an Angel only by affiliation.
“I thought I’d be here maybe two or three days, until Johnny was OK again,” Brian said, “so I didn’t pack heavy.”
Well, about 14 months later, Brian McCann is not only still here, he is an All-Star catcher leading the league in hitting, which will become official once he has had a few more at-bats. By mid-September, McCann was my Rookie of the Year, with all due respect to Francoeur. While Estrada’s body was in recovery, here was McCann, a 21-year-old kid handling a bunch of pitchers, mostly veterans, day in and day out. His second game as a starter he was paired with John Smoltz, 38 years old, crusty and tough. An April-September battery.
“Did he shake you off a lot?”
“Oh, no. Before the game we had sat and talked over what pitches he’d be throwing to the hitters he’d be facing. I called the pitches because we’d talked it over, uh, for about 15 minutes, I guess,” he said.
For most of the rest of the season, McCann was the catcher. Estrada was traded for two low-rent pitchers, the widely-traveled Todd Pratt was brought in as a backup, and until further notice, catching for the Braves will be Brian McCann, still only 22, with a long career in the offing.
There is a certain solidness in his bearded face and makeup, with a 210-pound body constructed for the daily wear and tear that comes with catching in the big leagues. While last season it was a more orderly group, this year it has been a collection of guys routinely migrating between the farm and the big club. Some just reaching for a star, some who’ll never be back again. Pitching to a 22-year-old who’s aging before his time. If he has one flaw in his game, it’s handling the pitches low and wide, of which there have been many.
He started off in the game playing second base. “But I realized I’d never be a second baseman in high school or college, so I just put on the gear and started catching, and here I am.” And it must be said that he runs with catcher speed. Hitting runs in the family. His father, Howard, once coached baseball at Marshall University, now he’s a hitting coach. So Brian gets plenty of home-grown instruction. “He keeps on me, showing me what I do wrong and stuff like that.”
While he might have thought he was preparing his game for college, that never came to pass. “The Braves made certain I got college out of my thinking,” referring to his rather generous signing bonus. “I have no idea what I’d have majored in. Maybe some time later I’ll think about it, but right now I’m concentrating of being a major league catcher.”
Two years ago, playing on the Myrtle Beach farm club in the Carolina League, he was listed as the Braves’ eighth best prospect. Whatever became of the seven in front of him, I can’t say, but I suspect that one of them is his housemate. That would be Francoeur. Brian bought a house in Duluth and he and Jeff share it. Brian’s the landlord. The way it should be. Catcher runs the game, catcher runs the house.
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Falcons less fearsome than T-Rac
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: News: Fights break out in Falcons training camp. Views: Glad to see somebody on the Falcons’ defense was hitting somebody Monday. Then again, I’m not sure a Falcons defender mixing it up with a Falcons offensive lineman counts for much.
9: Seriously, and coach Jim Mora will not view this as some great revelation: This team needs to be more physical. It needs to be nastier. The acquisitions of Ed Hartwell last year and Lawyer Milloy this year were as much about changing the attitude as upgrading the talent. The offensive line is still lagging behind in that area.
8: I’m not sure how many NFL teams actually fear playing the Falcons. Actually, I am sure. None. They fear Michael Vick breaking free for a big play. But they don’t fear getting their heads knocked off. That has to change.
7: The Saints’ Adrian McPherson will have a second MRI on his knee after being run over by a golf cart - driven by the Tennessee Titans’ moronic looking mascot. See, now THAT’S what I’m talking about. Teams fear T-Rac.
6: Chipper Jones says he’s fed up with 4-3 road trips one day, then hits three home runs the next. Where was this attitude-production double-header in June?
5: Joe Tereshinski will start the opener. Matthew Stafford will take over by week three or four. Is there any reason Mark Richt is delaying the obvious?
4: Funny how nobody started paying attention to USA Basketball exhibitions until we stunk.
3: From the Raiders’ Randy Moss, on his feelings about being pulled from a pre-season game in Minnesota: “Really, I’m going to keep that in-house because it kind of [ticked] me off for me to be taken out during a series.” Nobody can keep it in-house quite like Randy.
2: Lance Armstrong retired. A blur of competitors were thrown out of the Tour de France before it even started. Winner Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone. And now Landis’ team, Phonak, announced it is folding. Well. I guess this means we can all stop paying attention to cycling again.
1: While we’re at it, any chance of a breaking drug scandal and the end of televised poker?
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
