WASHINGTON -- The Braves haven't made it official, but all signs point to putting Jair Jurrjens on the 15-day disabled list, rather than making his first scheduled start Wednesday in Milwaukee.
Even still, Jurrjens could pitch as soon as April 9 against the Phillies, and at this point, that’s his top priority.
“It would be really exciting to face them, especially having all the hype they have, especially at home, too,” Jurrjens said. “That’s a game I don’t want to miss. I don’t care about Milwaukee; the Phillies I really don’t want to miss them.”
Jurrjens is scheduled to throw a second bullpen Sunday before the Braves announce their plans. They'll likely call up Mike Minor to start Wednesday against the Brewers.
General manager Frank Wren has said the Braves want Jurrjens to get into a competitive game before he returns to the mound for major league action. He hasn't pitched in a game since March 24 against the Blue Jays in spring training, when he came out after one inning with what he described as a cramp in his right side.
If all goes well with his bullpen session Sunday, Jurrjens likely will pitch in a minor league game at the Braves' complex in Orlando on Tuesday. Depending on how it goes there, he could start Saturday against the Phillies or if he needs more time, with an off day April 11, his spot wouldn’t come up again until April 16 against the Mets.
"In a perfect world we may give him a minor league rehab start, see how that goes," manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Let him go down and start, make sure he's OK, make sure he's confident. He's a big part of this rotation. We don't want to run him out there [after 12 days out]."
Jurrjens missed nearly three months in all last season with hamstring and knee injuries. This was not how he wanted to start 2011.
“This is a list I really didn’t want to see this year,” Jurrjens said.
Uggla’s first home run
Dan Uggla is typically a slow starter in spring training, and April for that matter, too, but he needed only two games to hit his first home run as a Brave.
Uggla sent a first-pitch offering from Nationals reliever Chad Gaudin to left field to lead off the sixth inning for his first hit, first RBI and first home run since being traded to the Braves from Florida.
Uggla has averaged 31 home runs in each of his five seasons with the Marlins. Consistency is not an issue, but he was happy to hit his first one.
“It’s always good to get that first one out of the way, and that first hit, the first everything,” said Uggla, who signed a five-year, $62 million extension in January. “It takes a little bit of the pressure off.”
Kimbrel emerging as primary closer
Nevermind all the discussion of Braves “co-closers.” At least not in a conventional sense.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez came as close as possible Saturday to saying Craig Kimbrel is the closer and Jonny Venters is the backup, without actually saying it.
He made it clear there isn’t a true “co-closer” arrangement where Gonzalez would go with Venters if the opponent had a left-heavy group of hitters coming to bat in the ninth.
That much became evident Thursday when Gonzalez used left-hander Venters to face right-handed hitters in the eighth, and Kimbrel in the ninth with two lefty hitters coming to bat.
"Talking to [pitching coach] Roger [McDowell] on the way to the game [Thursday], he said, 'Let's just go with Kimbrel,'" Gonzalez said. "We decided, let's give the kid a chance. For me, they both have good stuff and can get guys out from both sides."
Gonzalez said during spring training that he planned to use both to close. He still plans to, but Venters will continue primarily in the setup role where he thrived as a rookie in 2010.
Venters likely will be used as a closer only when Kimbrel has closed consecutive games. Gonzalez wants to be careful not to overuse either.
“If we get in a situation where we’ve used Kimbrel a couple of games in a row, I don’t foresee using either of those guys more than two days in a row first thing in April,” he said, adding that it was different to use veteran closers more than two days in a row.
When McCann's in, he'll bat cleanup
After previously saying that Brian McCann and Dan Uggla likely would flip-flop in the fourth and fifth spots in the order according to the opposing pitcher, manager Fredi Gonzalez said Saturday that, for now, McCann would bat cleanup when he's in the lineup.
McCann hit fourth and Uggla fifth Thursday against Nationals right-hander Livan Hernandez, and stayed in that order Saturday against left-hander John Lannan.
"The only time we'll make a switch, I think, is when Chipper [Jones] needs a day off or somebody else needs a day off. But if everybody's good, we'll run that same lineup out, see how it develops."
He noted that the Braves don't have two players platooning at any position, as they have in most recent years, and he wants rookie first baseman Freddie Freeman to have a chance to play almost every day early on.
“We really don’t have a platoon guy,” he said. “You’re not going to sit one of your lefty [hitters] this early in the year. You’ve got to give Freddie a chance, let him get his feet under him and see what he can do. Historically, in the minor leagues he hits lefties pretty good.”
The Braves had planned for Joe Mather to be a backup first baseman and face some particularly tough lefties, but Mather had a bad spring and didn't make the team. Backup Eric Hinske bats left-handed, like Freeman.
Utility man Brooks Conrad played first base a few times late in spring training, after it became apparent Mather might not make the team.
“That’s why we were throwing Conrad out there a little bit,” Gonzalez said. “I think he played three partial games, a whole ‘B’ game and then some innings here and there. He looks fine [at first base]. And his numbers are not that skewed batting right-handed, facing a left-hander."
Change-up works for Moylan
Braves reliever Peter Moylan has been tinkering with a change-up ever since he came back from elbow reconstruction surgery two years ago, but not until this spring did he get enough of a feel for his third pitch to use it with confidence.
It showed Thursday against the Nationals.
Facing left-handed pinch-hitter Laynce Nix in the seventh inning, with a runner on third, the right-handed Moylan struck him out on a change-up for a key out in a 2-0 win.
“That was the biggest at-bat of the game,” Gonzalez said.
Moylan threw three change-ups in four pitches in the at-bat. Nix swung through three of them. That’s exactly the kind of result Moylan wants in order to keep lefties from sitting on his fastball away.
“I’ve been around long enough where guys are just going to sit back and try to hit the ball the other way,” Moylan said. “With the change-up, they’re thinking it’s a fastball. They get out in front of it; they’re going to roll over it. And it’s something in the back of their mind, too. Just opens up a whole new genre for me.”
Moylan said he finally got comfortable with it by throwing it more than any other pitch in spring training, on the side and in games.
“That’s allowed me to come out and have enough confidence to throw it to lefties and righties,” Moylan said. “You don’t want to be labeled as a guy who can only get a right-handed hitter out. I think that’s going to change.”
For his career, lefties have hit .269 off Moylan compared to .211 by right-handers.
About the Author
