Apparently an inadvertant plane ride is worth 2 games

The ncaa has recently handed down a 2 game suspension to Univeristy of Alabama WR Brandon Gibson. While this story seems to be a "non-story" from the article posted below it is interesting to note the facts that are being white washed from the official story.

Below is the article which you can find here. Our editorial comments are posted in BOLD.

University of Alabama receiver Brandon Gibson suspended two games due to inadvertent NCAA violation
Posted by Gentry Estes August 28, 2008 8:46 PM
Categories: Sports
TUSCALOOSA -- Redshirt freshman receiver Brandon Gibson of Mobile won't be available to play in Alabama's first two games as a result of an inadvertent secondary NCAA rules violation. The university's compliance department discovered that Gibson, who signed with the Crimson Tide out of UMS-Wright in 2007, unknowingly committed a violation while still in high school by accepting transportation to an Alabama sporting event (this should say "accepted a flight in a private jet) from a friend whose father was a UA booster (read as U of A Board of Trustee member) and could be viewed as "a representative of the institution's athletic interest." ("Could be viewed? You don't say) "UA officials self-reported Gibson's trip last year to the NCAA.
"Our recommendation for a two-game suspension was approved by the NCAA," UA associate athletics director for compliance Mike Ward said in a statement to the Press-Register. "The student-athlete and his friend have been friends since the ninth grade and, despite having a pre-existing relationship, unintentionally committed this infraction." (How do you unintentionally accept a flight on a private jet?) Technically, the incident violated NCAA rules because Gibson's pre-existing relationship with the friend did not exist before his ninth-grade year. University officials did not impose Gibson's penalty last season, since it would have burned his redshirt year. (How convenient) Gibson is eligible to play Sept. 13 against Western Kentucky after missing opening dates against Clemson and Tulane. He was listed fourth on the depth chart at the primary "X" receiver position behind freshman Julio Jones, sophomore Earl Alexander and freshman Chris Jackson. "If he keeps working like he has," Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said last week, "I would think he'll make a contribution some time during the season."

The unfortunate part of this incident is that Gibson has to pay the price for the actions of adults. What 17 year old kid wouldn't accept the opportunity to fly in a private jet to a basketball game?

El Chupa Cabre in Auburn?

Miracle Braves

I found "Miracle Season," a book by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the 1991 season and made just after it, at a thrift store today for about .65 and bought it. I figured some select passages would be humorous in retrospect. Just flipping through the book, here are some:

"[John Schuerholz] promised to rebuild the Braves in the image of the Royals, who had won six American League West titles, two pennants and one World Series and had a gleaming stadium complete with a huge fountain, appetizing food and good treatment of the customers." Yeah, build in the image of the Royals...that's never been a good thing to do from my experience, but it was then.

"[T]he Royals[']...1990 record of 75-86 was the second-worst in franchise history." They've only had 6 seasons that good since then.

"But the money! Bream got $5.6 million over three years, and that paled against Pendleton's four-year, $10.2 million contract, the biggest in Braves history." Earlier, it talks about eating a $475,000 option on Ernie Whitt. That's barely an hors d'oeuvre now.

Never knew that before Schuerholz got there, Ernest P. Worrell was their main advertising frontman. That says a lot...

Question in spring training: "Could first baseman Nick Esasky overcome the vertigo symptoms that threatened a premature end to his career?"

"Shortstop Jeff Blauser wondered if Belliard's acquisition meant he was going to be traded." No, it means you hit in contract years only. Duh...

After driving in 5 against the Cardinals, Belliard on hitting: "They say I can't hit, but I showed them I'm more than a fielder, more than just a glove." In one game? Okay.

I had never heard of their original fifth starter, Paul Marak. That one's new.

In a game somewhere in the second half, it mentions Charlie Leibrandt giving up Darren Lewis's first major league home run. There would be only 26 more over the next 11 years. Just seems like a weird thing to mention.

An L.A. columnist wrote late in teh season: "The unwritten rule of sports continues to be that no professional team based in Atlanta ever wins anything, which is why the hockey team moved to Canada."

Same guy on David Justice: "He could give ego lessons to Rickey Henderson."

There's even an afterword by the Cox man himself. It's not remarkable for anything, but it's cool to have.

All in all, this was a cool buy for a few cents, one of those "after the event" books with tons of full page pictures and just a ton of fervor, not knowing that the next 14 years would be even better.

A bunch of bull...pen

Any Braves fan I've known has been patently scared when Cox sends for a reliever. (My best friend had to leave the room every time Chris Reitsma pitched because if he watched Reitsma would lose...) I decided to test whether the panic was justified in the Mazzone era off two main considerations: bullpen ERA relative to the league and bullpen W-L records. There's not a whole lot to say about the starters except that they led the NL in ERA from '92 to '02, which is utterly ridiculous. Sometimes it was by a full run over league average, which is utterlier ridiculous or utterly ridiculouser. Anyway, to the rankings (loss rankings are ordered fewest to most losses, so tied for second is good):

1991: 3.57 ERA v. NL's 3.60 (#6 best bullpen in league for ERA), 22-19 record (T6/T2)
1992: 3.68 v. 3.42 (#9), 26-22 (T5/T5)
1993: 3.15 v. 3.98 (#1), 26-16 (7/1)
1994: 4.44 v. 4.19 (#10), 16-13 (T8/1)
1995: 3.93 v. 4.15 (#6), 28-16 (2/1)
1996: 3.72 v. 4.06 (#6), 26-18 (T4/1)
1997: 3.56 v. 4.30 (#2), 26-24 (T6/T6)
1998: 3.83 v. 3.99 (#6), 16-16 (T15/1)
1999: 3.58 v. 4.39 (#2), 33-14 (1/1)
2000: 4.05 v. 4.56 (#4), 19-18 (T15/1)
2001: 3.73 v. 4.12 (#2), 24-23 (T7/T8)
2002: 2.60 v. 3.84 (#1), 30-14 (T4/1)
2003: 3.98 v. 4.06 (#6), 27-22 (T5/T8)
2004: 3.57 v. 4.09 (#3), 28-17 (T6/T2)
2005: 4.74 v. 4.23 (#12), 25-29 (T5/3)

You can see that most of the time, the bullpen wasn't actually that bad as a unit, and they certainly didn't do that much harm; that's 8 times in 10 years the bullpen had the fewest losses of any NL bullpen. Mind you, they were almost never as good as the starters, but that's because the starters were ridiculously good. Put up relative to other bullpens, though, they were above league average 11 times, and occasionally they were brilliant.

Random things I learned in researching this (I used baseball-reference.com's Splits function to find all this stuff out): In 1997, NL relievers were worse than NL starters, and there was a year that the Reds got more wins out of their relievers than their starters (36-33 or something like that). Yeech.

Mark Wohlers attacked the strike zone. Mark Wohlers missed!
John Rocker attacked the different people. It was a crushing blow. John Rocker dealt 250 HP damage!

P.S.

My Hardball Times article from yesterday (http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/candles-in-the-wind-part-1/) has a reference to Bob Horner towards the end. Did you know that Horner is only about 10 months older than Wade Boggs? That just seems weird...but that's kinda the point of the article.

And for the record, I don't like the Elton John song at all...it's just the best title my copy editor came up with by the deadline. I hadn't thought of a good title at all.

On strikeouts, graphics, and gratuitous Dragon Warrior references

A mixture of conventional reasons for the rise in strikeouts and my own thoughts:

A. Batters aren't taught as much to "just make contact" with two strikes - there' s much less going the other way, defensive hitting, etc. Hardly anyone chokes up to punch a ball over the infield on 0-2 anymore. Getting a strikeout in the old days was something like beating an enemy in RPG who's constantly guarding; you can do it, but it takes forever and you wish you could have just used some magic to finish them off. (Walter Johnson chanted the spell of HURTMORE. *flash of glorious NES light* The George Sisler took 50 damage. Thou hast done well in defeating the George Sisler. Thy experience increases by 40. Thy GOLD increases by 197.)

2. Strikeouts aren't the stigma they once were for batters - sort of the flipside of A.

III. Back in "the day," there was usually a batter not far removed from the pitcher in terms of offense. Eddie Perez was the norm, Javy Lopez the exception; Jeff Blauser most years was the norm, Jeff Blauser in contract years the exception. Normally, pitchers - who were trying to complete whatever they started, which of course took a lot of pitches - conserved their energy on the banjo hitters, just pitching to contact and not that hard to get an easy out. Nowadays, there aren't many lineups (other than the Astros') that afford such easy outs. Going through two more real, non-Ausmus hitters means they're actually dangerous when they hit, so you might aim for the strikeout there.

Quatre. Along with that change has come bullpens so starting pitchers don't have to conserve energy that much. Why bother turning into Kirk Rueter for the bottom of the order when you could strike 'em out and be done with 'em? There's no incentive not to try to strike out whoever's in front of you now.

Fifthly. Personal theory here, but Nolan Ryan made striking out batters a really awesome thing to do. Perhaps Ryan is to the K what Ruth is to the HR...? Probably not, but who knows.

Anyway, K's per game in the AL reached an league all-time high of 6.57/game (per team, so about 13 for both sides combined). The AL hit 4.5 for the first time in 1956, crossed the 5 line in 1961, and the 6 line in 1964, but when the strike zone shrank down in 1969, it took until 1994 to cross 6 again. It's been at 6 ever since. The story's similar in the NL, except that pitchers batting has upped the numbers. The NL hit 4.5 for the first time also in 1956, crossed 5 in 1958, and hit 6 in 1969 (shrunk strike zone, but the Expos and Padres for the first time to more than make up for that), hit 6 again in the mid-'80s, and then has been at 6 every year since 1994. The NL's current high is 6.98 from 2001 - over twice what it was in the '30s, and about 2.5 times what it was in the '20s.

It's not like whiffing people was the sign of a great pitcher back in the day either. http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/SOp9_leagues.shtml/ is the year-by-year league leaders in K/9. All the recent leaders are good pitchers (Randy Johnson/Clemens/Nolan Ryan/Smoltz in '96). Before 1922 or so, though, the list is Walter Johnson and the Randoms, and it wasn't necessarily even guys who were good that year - Doc Ayers, Eric Erickson, Hod Eller, Heinie Berger, Louis Drucke, Ben Tincup (who I presume has nothing to do with the Kevin Costner golf movie), and the immortal Buttons Briggs are just some of the illustrious strikeout artists of yesteryear. Just like doubles and triples and average were better indicators of a good year way back when than home runs, so the strikeout didn't say quite as much back then as it does now. Well, that's not quite true - the leaders in total strikeouts for a given year were usually good, although that was as much a function of pitching a gazillion innings than anything.

Extra K's of today are just a function of the style of the game changing. It's kinda like comparing an NES game (yes, I'm going there again) to a Wii game in terms of graphics and gameplay - the graphics are clearly better on the Wii, but the NES game might be as fun or more so, and might even have better graphics in context. Still, if you make a "games with best graphics" list, they're all going to be new.

(By the way, the best RPG ever is Earthbound. Feel free to disagree, as long as you know deep down in your heart that I'm right.)

Posted with minimal editorial content

Folks I would l like to apologize for the lack of posts of late. Finals seem to be drastically deterring the staff from their blogging assignments.

For now we will have to settle for this pic of Roger Clemens that is surely going to need to be updated as new names are added along the right side of the pic.

Operation Cent Sports

As most sports fans know it is now illegal to participate in online sports betting in the United States. The brilliant people at centsports.com have found a way to let sports fans get their fix WITHOUT violating the law or losing any of your own money.

I know you're wondering "What is centsports and how do I sign up?" Here is your answer.

Click here to sign up.


What is CentSports.com?


A: CentSports.com is just one of many places on the Internet where you can place bets on major sporting events.
What makes CentSports unique is that we're actually legal. Currently you can't run a gambling website from inside the U.S. This site is more like a fantasy-football game ... we give you a small amount of play-money to start out with ... you make bets with this, just like you could in Vegas ... but, again, you're just betting with 'play money'.
However, if you do well enough ... i.e., if you win enough of your play-money bets, we'll actually let you 'cash out' your play money for real money ... and maybe other stuff like t-shirts, CentSports gear, etc.

Q: Who developed / manages CentSports ... and why?


A: CentSports is being developed by a group of students and professionals based out of College Station, Texas. Given the location, most, though not all of us, are associated in some way or another with Texas A&M University.
The project started in response to last year's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (which, shamefully, was officially termed the "Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act of 2006" by congress ... look it up on Wikipedia). That bill made it illegal to use any online betting or gambling site that you could deposit money into, effectively shutting down all such sites which existed at that time.
For those of us who enjoyed sports betting, this was bad news. This project was our response to that. True, not as fun as real gambling, but it's still fun to play with free money, and hey, if you do well enough, we even reward you by paying out real money to our users.


Q: So how does it work?


A: It's simple ... when you first sign up for CentSports, we give you ten cents ($0.10) play money to bet with. You can use this to bet on almost any major college or professional sporting event (MLB, NBA and NFL games, etc.). Anything you win you keep and can use to place more bets, accumulating money as you go.
You can cash out whenever you want (as soon as you have a balance of over $20.00 play money) ... we're actually gracious enough to send you a check for your play-money account balance ... just straight up, dollar for dollar.
We've tried to replicate what you can do at real sports betting sites ... i.e., you can make standard line-type bets such as over/under, point-spread, and moneyline bets. In fact, we get our lines straight from Vegas ... any bet you make on CentSports could be made with any sports bookie in Vegas for the same odds if you were betting for real money.
Overall, the site makes more from advertising than people cash out ... though one of our goals in creating the site was to make sure that as much of the site's advertising revenue goes back to CentSports user as possible (after all, they're the ones who earned it by viewing ads in the first place!).

Smoltz goes for 3,000th Strikout

John Smoltz is just 4 strike outs away to becoming the 16th pitcher in MLB history with at least 3,000 K's.

One thing that makes Smoltz a unique member of the club is the years he spent as a closer. Smoltz has 154 saves in 241 career relief appearances. Smoltz will become the only member of the club with more than 35 career saves. Second on the list is Hall of Famer Walter Johnson who saved 34 games in his career.

Smoltzie also distinguishes himself by becoming the 6th fastest pitcher to reach 3,000K's assuming he does it sometime soon.

The only pitchers who have reached this milestone in fewer innings are Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Nolan Ryan, Curt Shilling and Roger Clemens. Maybe we can get Isleib to write a story on the phenomenon of the strikeout pitcher in an effort to examine why the top of this list is so heavily laden with pitchers from the past two decades.

You have to think the milestone will be on Smoltzie's mind tomorrow night as he goes for the K's early and often. I wouldn't be surprised to see him a little wilder tomorrow night than normal as he fights the jitters and overthrows early.

There's no reason to think he can't do it tomorrow. Smotlz struck out 10 Marlins in his last start and the Nats have a light hitting line up full of free swingers.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that his 3,000th K comes in the 4th inning with Lastings Milledge at the plate.

For a complete coverage of record chase check out the official website of the Atlanta Braves.

"We're Going Streaking"

"We won yesterday. If we win today, that’s two-in-a-row. If we win tomorrow, that’s called a winning streak; it has happened before." - These are the words of manager Lou Brown from the movie Major League.

Ol Lou had it right. It has happened before and we are now officially on a winning streak.

Thanks to great starting pitching and solid bullpen work the Braves have now one four in a row which includes a 3 game sweep over Joe Torre's Dodgers.

Jair Jurrjens looked impressive again today after he shut down LA over 7 innings. The Renteria trade is looking to be quite fruitful for the Bravos as Jurrjens appears to be even better than advertised . . . at least a few starts into his Brave career. Also of note during this 4 game stretch is Chucky James' five inning - one run- performance from Saturday.

The Braves are back to .500 and looking to keep it going when they take on divisional foes Washington and New York later this week. Here's what's currently on my mind -

5 positive signs shown over the weekend

1. Kelly Johnson has started to walk as of late. After only walking once in his first 52 plate appearances KJ has now walked 6 times in the last 5 games. This can only help the team as KJ MUST increase his OBP if he is going to stay in the leadoff position. It also helps that KJ is starting to hit the ball as well. This offense is going to go as Kelly goes.

2. Jorge Campillo continues his brilliance - I don't know what it is about the guy but he just keeps getting outs. We all know this won't last all season but we should enjoy the ride for what it is and appreciate Campillo's work of late. Campillo has only given up one hit so far in his 7 innings this season.

3. Gregor Blanco is seeing regular at bats. Blanco has started the past 3 games in LF and looks like he might be able to provide the 2nd half of the platoon that is needed to compensate for some of Matt Diaz's inabilities.

4. Tex goes the other way. Twice this weekend with runners in scoring position big Tex kept his weight back and shot a ball over the SS's head when earlier in the season he was pulling off of that pitch on the outside corner. Also, for all of the complaining about Tex's slow start, this is the 2nd BEST April of his young career. Tex has his avg up to .250 and he has hit 4 HR's with 12 RBI to date.

5. Chipper Jones is blazing hot. Chipper is clipping along at .458 with 18 RBI's in the first 18 games. Larry Wayne left the game early today with a slight quad injury. Early reports don't appear to be too serious.

5 things that still have me worried

1. Bobby refuses to treat Yunel like a #2 hitter. If he is not going to use him to move over the runner in front of him then flip Yunel and Kelly in the lineup. At least Kelly is starting to increase his OBP.

2. Tom Glavine hits the DL for the first time in his career. If Tommy can't get healthy and stay healthy then this could be quite a long year for the rotation.

3. Matty Diaz is not the full time guy most had hoped he would be. But, with the emergence of Blanco maybe Matt can once again get into a situation which increases his likelihood of success at the plate. Diaz is hitting .258 on the year but could easily raise his avg another 80 points by returning to the platoon. I guess this could fall into the above category as well.

4. Soriano's injury - Soriano will not be activated off of the DL on Tuesday as the Braves had previously planned. He is still experiencing discomfort and will not be activated until he is pain free. Let's hope this is sooner rather than later.

5. Mark Kotsay's death stare - After attending the game Saturday at Turner Field I now have a fear of Mark Kotsay. Kotday's photo on the giant HD screen is quite disturbing and haunts my dreams.

Analyzing the Closer Situation

T.S Elliot once said, "mediocre writers borrow, great writers steal." With that quote in mind we bring you Eric Karabell's blog post from ESPN.com. You can find the complete article here.

If there's any team that can seemingly overcome the loss of not only its closer, but also the fellow who was next in line, it has to be the Atlanta Braves. For years we've watched manager Bobby Cox trot out strange, unknown names to close, and he'd turn the guy into a pretty decent stopper who would end up pitching in October. It got annoying for Phillies fans, for example, as the team always seemed to overpay for someone to get saves or had to watch Mitch Williams' wildness. The Braves didn't even try to get a name closer, and it always worked out. I mean, look at this list of names who led the Braves in saves from 1991 through 2005:

Juan Berenguer was 36 when the Braves induced 17 saves from him in 1991, the first season of 15 straight division titles. He was out of baseball a year later. Fellow veteran Alejandro Pena had closed a bit in the bigs before Cox turned to him, but he wasn't Dennis Eckersley, either. Lefties and right-handers alike got their chance for Cox, from Mike Stanton to Greg McMichael to Kerry Ligtenberg. Honestly, other than the John Smoltz experiment, which worked out beautifully, no other team has turned to unknowns to close the way the Braves had, whether or not they had so-called "closer" ability -- whatever that is. I'd say Mark Wohlers had it, and once in a while John Rocker did.


Manny Acosta could be next in the long line of anonymous Braves closers.Does Manny Acosta have it? Does it matter?

In a chat last week, I surmised that Acosta and Peter Moylan were each in line for saves after Rafael Soriano was placed on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis. I would've mentioned it in the April 9 Relief Efforts, but the Soriano injury came from nowhere hours after it was posted, naturally.

The Braves' theory was Moylan had his 2007 stats on his side for future opportunities, and Acosta was the one who had that closer stuff. In fact, Acosta would've been in line for a save a few days earlier when Soriano was originally scratched and had Cox's confidence, much to the surprise of many.

However, the struggling Braves have had one actual save chance in the past week, and Moylan got it.

Now Moylan has joined Soriano on the shelf with a right elbow strain, and with a visit looming to meet Dr. James Andrews, I'd say you shouldn't expect the Aussie submariner back anytime soon, if at all this season. If there's any manager who wouldn't be worried about this, it would be Cox. Incredibly, a season ago this team had so many possibilities for closer who could have slid right into the role, but one by one, they all found their way somewhere else and not closing. It's all about the timing. Octavio Dotel sets up Bobby Jenks in Chicago. Joey Devine seems to have a future in Oakland. Tyler Yates, Oscar Villarreal and Chad Paronto would all probably be in line ahead of Acosta if they were still around. But they're not.

Don't laugh. While everyone and their plumber rushes to the waiver wire to sign Acosta, a move I agree with, it's hardly assured Acosta will thrive in the role or be Cox's fancy. At this point, let's discuss what options Cox does have at his disposal.

Manny Acosta: It's not like he's been lights-out, you know. If he were, that certainly would make his transition to closing look smarter. As colleague Will Harris pointed out in his If You're Hardcore article late last week, Acosta has had control problems in the past, and it kind of looks like he still has them. He also gives up home runs. This doesn't mean he can't be a good closer, just that the chances seem great that he'll lose the role quickly. The other thing that would worry me if I was trading something good to get Acosta is that he's pitched only once since April 8, and before that his last appearance was April 3. Sure, the Braves have trailed a lot, but c'mon, get the guy work. Or is he hurting as well?

Blaine Boyer: I won't laugh if you name anyone in the current Braves bullpen as a contender for saves, by the way. Boyer doesn't have a track record for closing, but he leads the Braves in strikeouts. He's a relief pitcher. In 7 2/3 innings, Boyer has fanned 13, and I took a chance on him Tuesday in our office's 18-team auction league, just to make sure. There are so few free agents there. Why not? Boyer didn't walk people this spring, a nice change from his 2007 numbers at Triple-A Richmond, when he issued 50 free passes and struck out 62. The case can be made he was still working his way back from missing all of 2006 with shoulder surgery. I'll buy it. I think if Soriano and Moylan are out awhile, he's going to get chances.

Matthew Berry and Nate Ravitz talk with Buster Olney about the Indians' and Braves' closer situations among other topics in today's Fantasy Focus podcast. Listen to the Fantasy

Chris Resop: Let's just say he's done a better job in left field than on the mound. OK, maybe that's not fair, as he was only in left field for one batter, as part of a nifty Cox switcheroo that resulted in Resop losing the extra-inning game anyway. On the other hand, Resop could, in theory, be the next Kevin Gregg, someone the Angels felt they had no use for, a seemingly ordinary right-handed innings eater with decent K rates. Oddly enough, Resop was traded to the Angels from the Marlins for Gregg. Resop has allowed 8 hits and 5 walks in 5 2/3 innings, so I'd think Boyer is safely ahead of him.

Jorge Campillo: Um, who? Now 29, Campillo once threw hard and was an undrafted free-agent find by the Braves in 1996. He toiled in the Mariners' system much of this decade as a starter, and missed 2006 after Tommy John surgery. You might remember this guy as the one who threw at Vladimir Guerrero's head last September, earning a four-game suspension. He'll probably end up back in Richmond within a few days.

John Smoltz: Don't even think it. The Braves' rotation depth is being tested, and there's no chance Cox does a Brett Myers with his aging Hall of Famer and moves him back to the closer's role, unless the pitcher asks for it or injury dictates it. I don't think the balky shoulder he's dealing with will force a role change.

Anyone else?: Buddy Carlyle was recalled from Triple-A Richmond Tuesday, but I think it's Tom Glavine insurance for the rotation. Jeff Bennett is there, too, so maybe he's Chuck James/Mike Hampton insurance. Either way, I think Cox keeps them as starters. As for the lefties in the bullpen, Will Ohman has had enough trouble getting lefties out, but he could be a situational ninth-inning guy. Royce Ring was once thought to be a closer candidate when the Mets acquired him years ago, but he's been inconsistent and lacking command ever since. If Mike Gonzalez was healthy, he'd be next in line, but he had Tommy John surgery last June. You'll see and hear his name mentioned for a return this June, but I'll take August as the over/under. It takes more than a year for pitchers to come back and pitch well from this surgery.

Ultimately, I think Acosta gets the first chance, Boyer is lurking, and for all we know Soriano could return in two weeks or two months and usurp them both. I still think Soriano ends up leading the Braves in saves, with around 25.

Moylan hits the DL - Frank Wren hangs new sign outside of Turner Field

Sometimes things just don't go your way. That's the story of the 2008 Brave bullpen and truthfully, the entire pitching staff. I'm really tired of writing the headline "X pitcher injured"or pen blows win for Huddy.

The Braves have now lost their best two relievers to the DL and have had two starts where the pen was forced into action before the starter could record an out. At least in the case of Glavine's start he was injured on the field as opposed to in the bullpen warming up.

Buddy Carlisle has been called up from AAA and could start for Glavine if he is unable to go against the Dodgers on Saturday. As for now he will just be used out of the bullpen.

Here's the story on the Moylan injury from MLB.com. It looks like he may be out for siginificantly longer than 15 days. Let's all hope for the best.

Can someone please forward the Jon Rauch article to Frank Wren? Thanks.

Braves light on arms - both starters and relievers

The Braves could stand to add a pitcher or two to both the rotation and the pen.

Tim Dierkes over at MLBTradeRumors.com has this entry about the situation

"With Tom Glavine ailing and the fifth starter spot an open audition, the Braves are facing a starting pitching shortage. The bullpen could use a hand as well, but one thing at a time.
Healthy, possibly available free agent starters include Roger Clemens, Russ Ortiz, Horacio Ramirez, Jeff Weaver, and David Wells. Obviously they all have warts - age, baggage, ineffectiveness. But if one of them can eat innings at a 4.50 ERA, it might make sense.
How about acquiring a starter via trade? Here are some names to ponder: Daniel Cabrera, Joe Blanton, Jason Marquis, Matt Morris, Dave Bush, Matt Belisle, Vicente Padilla, Robinson Tejeda, Jeremy Sowers, Kei Igawa, Kyle Snyder, and Kevin Correia. This list works for other clubs light on pitching, the Tigers for example."

I still think the Braves need to go after Jon Rauch.

Glavine injured - Braves fail to complete sweep

Hello loyal readers. Sorry for the delay in postings as both Lee and I were away from the internet for most of the weekend.

Let's get right to the weekend's events. The Braves took the series from the Nats 2-1 but were unable to complete the sweep on Sunday.

Sunday's loss, though disappointing, was not what one would consider a bad loss. If you're going to lose a nail biter it's better to lose one when your starting pitcher leaves the game without recording an out. Glavine was forced to leave Sunday's game after throwing only 16 pitches. He is listed as day to day. Even though the Glavine forced the pen into 8 innings of service, the Braves were one clutch hit away from completing the sweep.

The bullpen pitched admirably Sunday, going 8 innings while only giving up 3 runs. Of particular interest was the Braves' debut of Jorge Campillo. Campillo pitched 2 hitless innings and looked impressive throughout his appearance. Campillo does not throw hard enough to break a pane of glass but he is fun to watch none the less. His bugs bunny like change-up had all 6 Nats he faced looking foolish.

Many of you have asked questions about Campillo and we will have a profile on him later today.

The Braves get a much needed day off on Monday before taking on the Fish Tuesday night.

Catching up

Now that I know that people will continue to ask about these posts until I complete them :-), here we go. It's about the '82 Braves because all 5 players requested were on the team and they can be discussed somewhat together.

The 1982 Braves as a whole are an odd team. Pythogoras puts 'em at 85-77, but they overachieved/lucked out enough to eke out a division title, the only one in between '69 and '91. Their offense was precisely average - 100 OPS+ - but thanks to Fulton-County Stadium they led the league in runs scored. The pitching was actually about the same, but boy did it look bad. This was like a less extreme '95 Rockies - not bad at anything, but boy did they look lopsided.

Runs per game, home/road: 4.79 (2nd)/4.33 (6th)
Runs allowed per game, home/road: 4.78 (11th)/3.89 (4th)

Unsurprisingly, this gave them a tepid home record - 42-39 - but they were 47-34 on the road, best in the league. Maybe they were just in the wrong park.

This was also Joe Torre's first year on the job for the Braves, right after Bobby Cox went to Toronto. Torre didn't do a lot other than watch Dale Murphy blossom (OPS+ in 1981: 101; in 1982: 142) and get an actual rotation. In 1981 it was primarily Niekro, Gaylord Perry, and Tommy Boggs, with nobody else claiming the other spots; in 1982 it was Niekro, Rick Mahler, Bob Walk, and former closer Rick Camp, who was moved to the rotation in June with at least decent results. Other things of note: Rafael Ramirez learning to hit at the major league level (.218/.276/.303 in '81, .278/.319/.379 in '82) and a 24-year-old Bob Horner playing 140 games. Claudell Washington, 27, and Chris Chambliss, 33, were the only regulars over 26. There was a lot of promise for the future with a young productive lineup that was already helping to win divisions.

What happened? Horner is still one of the only third basemen to play a huge amount of games at 3B before 26 and play fewer than that after turning 26; he's only 5 years older than Roger Clemens, but that's kinda hard to remember. Ramirez sustained his level of hitting for another year but then started striking out quite a bit more; it seems he had enough speed that he benefited by making a lot of contact, but with worse plate discipline came less contact, and he faded pretty quickly. He lasted with the Astros until 1992, showing that the 'Stros have allowed awful hitters to play SS for quite some time (Adam Everett, I choose you.) In contrast to Ramirez, Bruce Benedict had great plate discipline, but that's about it, and his barely-enough-to-survive hitting stopped being barely enough. 2B Glenn Hubbard, born on an AFB in West Germany, was a souped-up version of Ramirez, with a better overall hitting profile and well-known defense; he didn't have the speed, but he could punch a double and take a walk, and with good defense at 2B, that's a winning player. He was done by 1989, but he was a useful player for sure, and the beard and the card with the python on it are just icing on the nostalgia cake.

Claudell Washington, one of the "oldies" at 27, was an odd free agent signing to begin with (at least for what was considered a big salary at the time), but he had been reasonably productive in the majors since 19, so it's not necessarily a bad gamble to take on a guy like him. He actually had his best years with Atlanta, a nice combination of speed and power, but he was pretty much a left-handed poor man's Reggie Sanders, and those players are only useful when you have some studs in your lineup. Those would have been Murphy and Horner had one of these not tanked early...it also didn't help that young CF Brett Butler was traded as part of the package for Len Barker. Butler was one of those players that people thought he wouldn't succeed, but he did, and he could have done it for the Braves for a long time.

As for the other two on the team of note/requested posting...Pascual Perez, the eldest of the Pascual/Melido/Carlos Perez trio, didn't have a year in 1982 that screamed "I'll be good" (he was a PTBNL for Larry McWilliams, after all...not a hearty endorsement), but he went 29-16 over the next two seasons. His control completely deserted him in '85, however (51 walks in '83 and '84, but 57 in '85 in half the innings); he went 1-13 and his flamboyant character (which was abundant; he was nothing like the professional clean image of the '90s Braves, Halle Berry and l'affairs Chipper aside) wasn't enough.

And now we come to a completely different player, one who didn't fade out early - Gene Garber. Garber had a somewhat quirky career path. He was in the 20th round of the first-ever amateur draft of 1965, came up for some cups of coffee with the team that drafted him (the Pirates), was traded straight-up to the Royals for Jim Rooker after the '72 season (highly lopsided for the Pirates; Rooker came out of almost nowhere to win 67 games over the next 5 years - couldn't have been anticipated), and went from a fringe reliever in Kansas City to a powerhouse in Philadelphia, part of a sterling bullpen trio of himself, Ron Reed, and Tug McGraw that each saved a fair amount of games. Traded to Atlanta for the immortal Dick Ruthven (who was at least reliable in '80 for the Phils, which is all anyone cares about looking back), Garber was the immediate closer in Atlanta, but with bizarre results. After a 2.53 ERA as closer in '78, he had a 4.33 in '79, saving 25 games but with a 6-16 record, second in the league in losses as a reliever, which I'm guessing never happened before or since. This got him removed from the closer spot for two years, but in 1982 there weren't that many good options, and Torre putting Garber back as the closer worked like a charm; he went 8-10 but saved 30 games off a 2.34 ERA. By this time, he was 34, and his aging plus the Bruce Sutter signing meant that his career was going to matter less, but it was a slick move by Torre. Think about it - when closers have the S on their cape, they're fine until they lose it, after which they have a hard time finding someone to give it back to them. This was not Garber's path, and it worked very well for him and the Braves.

According to Wikipedia, he now raises emus. I don't know what all the young flameouts are doing, but at least it's something. Can we make an emu the Braves' mascot? We could name it Gene...

Recent Schafer Photoshoot

Stuff like this bothers me

In ESPN's pregame writeup of the Yankees-Royals game (Ian Kennedy was a last-minute scratch), they were talking about the various Yankee injuries, including Jorge Posada's shoulder that forces backup Jose Molina into action. In that writeup, Joe Girardi said something entirely unnecessary and probably false:

"Jose is an accomplished catcher," Girardi said. "That's why he's here. You can live with Jose."

http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/molinjo01.shtml

Perhaps Joe is confusing Jose with his brothers. Jose has played 407 major league games, with a .243/.279/.346 line. His most similar batters are John Marzano, Wiki Gonzalez, and his brother Yadier, according to B-R, although by adjusted OPS Yadier is better than Jose. Yes, better. I'll say it again: Yadier Molina is a better hitter than his "accomplished" catcher-brother Jose. For all catchers currently in the bigs with at least 400 career games, Jose's adjusted OPS is 36th of 40, just ahead of Gary Bennett, Paul Bako, Chad Moeller, and Alberto Castillo.

I only say all this to say: I hate when managers overhype mediocre players because they're their players. I have no idea about living with Jose, but he's not accomplished by any stretch of the imagination. Optimism is a fine thing in a manager, but saying stupid stuff is just...stupid.

When I went to the MLB winter meetings, I passed by Joe Girardi, in a passageway; we were about a foot apart. Despite my Yankee hatred, I played the Christian and didn't say anything that was on my mind. Maybe I could at least have said, "hey, catchers with OPS+ of 64 aren't accomplished, buddy." Probably wouldn't have registered with him, though...

Then again, Girardi's career numbers aren't that much better. Maybe if he feels accomplished, he has to say it about Jose too. Managerial dishonesty when it's that stupid is just inexcusable.

Probably writing this many words about it is inexcusable, too. Thus will I close the e-mouth of the blogosphere.

:-x

Bullpen Watch - Soriano's Elbow a Concern?

The Atlanta bullpen has been a concern all season. It appears that this concern may not be relieved in the near future. Though the pen was sufficient on Tuesday night the latest concern revolves around the right elbow of Rafael Soriano.

While it was originally believed Soriano was slated to be held out of action on Monday night (with Acosta filling the closer's role) manager Bobby Cox now claims a gimpy elbow was the actual culprit.

Here's what Rotowire has to say about the situation

"Soriano had soreness in his elbow after pitching on Saturday and Sunday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. "I'm just not taking any chances," manager Bobby Cox said about not making him available for Monday's game.

Spin: It was previously reported that the Braves were giving him the day off, but the report of elbow soreness is new and a concern after he missed time in spring training due to the same problem. While the ailment is likely minor, it's something to watch closely."

If you're a fantasy leaguer it might not be a bad idea to take a flyer on Acosta as he is likely to pick up a few saves along the way even if Soriano does not actually hit the DL.

As for last night's game, if there is such a thing as a good loss last night was one. Jair Jurrjens was able to go 7 strong innings while giving up 4 runs. That's not a terrible start for Coors field, especially for the 4th man in the rotation.

Further, because it was a road game the bullpen was only required to pitch one inning. Of course you ALWAYS want to win the game but lack of pen innings will be a benefit as we progress through the week. This is the longest road trip of the season. The Braves are currently 0-2 on this trip with 2 more games at Coors and then 3 more in DC.

Avenging Southworth

If the Braves are 21 games over .500 at any point this year, the franchise will have achieved a milestone: it will have a .500 record over the course of history, the first time it would be true since June 3, 1923, with the 17-25 Braves charting their usual course in doom. This would be a stunning turnaround for a franchise that hasn't seen much glory outside our lifetimes.

From 1876, the Boston Red Stockings (later the Beaneaters, but tragically not the Gashavers) were one of the best organizations in baseball. Led by Harry Wright, the guy behind the Cincinnati Red Stockings (a theme, perhaps?) and professional baseball in general, they started off pretty well, tailed off, and roared back in the '80s and '90s, winning as much as the famed Hanlon/McGraw/Jennings law offices/Baltimore Orioles but not as loudly. Coming into the 20th century the franchise had a winning percentage of .585 - not shabby at all.

Then they stopped winning. The American League shook a lot of things up, but the American League entry in Boston (then the Pilgrims - the Sox wouldn't become the Sox until the NL club went under new ownership and ditched red to be the Doves after team owner John Dovey; the AL club took up the red immediately and never gave it back) didn't take a lot from their city rivals. What was more likely the problem was that Hall of Famer Frank Selee took his amazing scouting and managerial talent out of Boston and into Chicago, where he molded the Orphans/Cubs into winners and handed them over to Frank Chance for assembly-line pennant-winning. The Beaneaters won 102 in 1898 and lost 102 in 1906. Two of the merged teams of the era, the Giants who had inherited from the Orioles, and the Pirates pretty much buying the old Louisville team, combined with the Cubs to win every pennant in the NL from 1901 to 1913. It was a bad time to be a not-them fan.

When the Federal League came along and shook things up just like the American League had, things changed particularly in the NL, and so we get the Miracle Braves. Going into 1914, the franchise winning percentage was .506, a far cry from the .585 at the start of the century but still respectable. Three years of contention staved off the loser label, but the Braves couldn't keep up the winning and sank back into the muck.

On June 3, 1923, the Braves stood 3084-3084 as a franchise. They haven't seen .500 since.

It's hard to understand from our perspective, but the histories of the Braves and Phillies looked remarkably similar up until the '90s. From 1920 to 1950, the Braves finished next-to-last or last 14 times, the Phillies 22 times. Both changed their names in the FDR administration and changed them back in the mid-'40s. (Braves became Bees, Phillies became Blue Jays. No, really.) Both had their seasons of glory bunched with each other's for awhile - until Milwaukee, the Braves only showed up in the World Series in 1914 and 1948; the Phils were in 1915 and 1950. By 1990, the stats read:

Braves: 6 years in the playoffs, 4 World Series, 2 World Championships
Phillies: 8 years in the playoffs, 4 World Series, 1 World Championship

The Braves having won a lot in Milwaukee took a lot of Phillies-type phutility off the team image, but in terms of ultimate results the Braves hadn't done much better than the Phillies.

Until 1991.

Say what you will about only getting 1 Series ring from the Cox era, but more than anything the Braves were redefined as a team in history by winning with ridiculous consistency in the '90s. They could have continued to be in the Cubs/Phillies mold of losers (Cubs lovable, Phillies not so much) like they had been for most of their history, but two decades of winning can change a lot.

If the Braves can get to .500 for the first time in 85 years, that would just put a ! on it. Billy Southworth was an outfielder on that 1923 team and their best hitter; he would later guide the Braves to their 1948 pennant. A 92-70 record this year would say to history that brave Southworth shall not have been mortally wounded in vain.

We've done it. We have Rick Rolled the Mets

Thanks to over 5 million write in votes, Rick Astley's "never gonna give up" was selected as the song to be played during the 8th inning of every Met home game. However, there's a problem . . . here's the story from Metsblog.com

So, FARK and DIGG rallied their troops, and got 5 million people to vote for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up in the team’s eighth-inning sing-a-long contest.
Instead of declaring Astley the winner, the team will hold a live, run-off vote.
Tomorrow, during the eighth inning, they’ll play Never Gonna Give You Up, followed by Living on a Prayer on Wednesday, I’m a Believer on Thursday, Movin’ Out on Friday, Sweet Caroline on Saturday and Build Me Up Buttercup on Sunday.
…i actually like this solution…instead of just ignoring the FARK.com results, which are very real, Rick Astley and their efforts are recognized…however, as it was explained to me by the team, knowing full well that only a small, small percentage of those 5 million votes came from actual Mets fans, by playing the top six songs at Shea, the team can now gauge how their own, real fan base takes to each tune based on audience participation, which will ultimately determine the stadium’s new sing-a-long song…
…the funniest part about this entire thing is that, i never, in a million years, thought i would dedicate this much time and space to Rick Astley on MetsBlog.com…and i laugh every time i write his name…well played, FARK…well played, indeed…this may be one of the biggest Rickrolls ever…

Johnson's return to lineup pushes "El Matadore" Martin back to utility role

Thank Heavens for Kelly Johnson's return to the every day lineup. After missing a series of games with a knee injury it is safe to say Kelly has returned with little evidence that the knee is still bothering him. It may still be a trouble but at least it is not effecting his game. The best part of Kelly's return is that "the walking defensive liability" Martin Prado returns to his pinch hitting role. Prado's fielding percentage does not do his defensive ability justice. It is far too kind. While Prado was not committing egregious errors he was a severe downgrade from Kelly in the field.

Hey

Glad to be part of the coup, everybody. From what I understand, my job here is to go all historically nerdy with Braves stuff, which I hope to do with aplomb. I'm all right with stats (I managed to sneak some statistical analyses through to Baseball Prospectus - smoke and mirrors, all), but I have more fun with the history of the game, so the PECOTA you'll hear about is less the BP projection system as it is Bill the utility player of glory. My best friend being an obsessive Braves fan should also help out. (You know you've got a good friend when you can give them an autographed Rafael Belliard card for birthday and they like it...)

In the next few weeks, I'll be doing a series for THT on early flameouts in the big leagues, those who played a lot of games before they turned 26 and then less than that afterward. There are a few Braves on the list, like Bob Horner and Max West, so I'm likely to write about them soon. If there's any Brave of yore (or even better, from the short-lived Boston Bees) you want me to write about, just send me an e-mail and more likely than not you'll get a blog entry on him.

And just to start off the Holy Fountain of Puns that shall flow forth freely from these frenzied fingers:

I'll take the Wally Berger with extra cheese and a salad with Brutons.

Frank Wren to Jon Rauch - "Can you hear me now?"

These post game wrap ups are going to start writing themselves pretty soon. I am going to just copy and past the following into each one of the posts.

"The bullpen once again wasted a quality start from the starting pitcher."

Last night was no exception. Following a stellar effort by Glavine (you can't expect much more than 6 1/3 shutout innings from a 42 year old) the bullpen once again managed to serve up a fat pitch to the best hitter in the opponents line up.

This is becoming a disturbing trend. I know I urged everyone to step off of the ledge just a few days ago but since then Soriano tried to blow a save on Sunday before being rescued by a tremendous defensive play from Tex and Blaine Boyer failed to protect a 1-0 lead in the 8th last night. It is really not the fact the Boyer blew the lead that is most concerning but the way in which he did it. After giving up a well hit double to Troy Tulowitski Boyer grooved a low 90's fastball down the center of the plate. With Holliday being the "professional hitter of leisure" that he is he punished the ball over the CF wall. Hitters like Holliday ARE going to make you pay when you serve one up on a platter.

If the poor bullpen play continues over the course of the next 7-10 games it might still be too early to jump off of a ledge but it will be time to start taking the elevator to the top floor.

I know many Braves' fans are relying on the return of Mike Gonzalez to bolster the pen but it would be a mistake to solely rely on someone returning from TJ surgery to ensure the team is able to make a playoff run.

However, Jon Rauch of the Nats would be the perfect fit for this bullpen. Checking in a 6'11" tall and 260 lbs he could also play part time for the Hawks. All kidding aside, as seen below Rauch is available and his 98+ mph heater could do wonders for the 8th innings of the future.

Tim Dierkes, over at MLB Trade Rumors, informs us that Rauch is not the only reliever on the market. Just this past week Dierkes outlined a cacophany of "available" relievers who could step in and help the pen immediately. You can find the article here but I will provide Dierkes' list of available bodies below.


Jon Rauch and Luis Ayala of the Nationals. As I've written, Rauch is the one to chase. John Perrotto says the Tigers have "strong interest" in him. But with Chad Cordero in questionable health, will Jim Bowden weaken his pen in the short term?

Ron Mahay and Yasuhiko Yabuta of the Royals. Neither free agent signee will be traded anytime soon. But the Royals' pen might have the depth to overcome the loss of one of them in July, and desperate teams always overpay for relievers near the deadline. Something to monitor later in the season.

Kevin Gregg of the Marlins. Gregg had his ERA wrecked early by a bad appearance at the tail end of a blowout at the hands of the Mets. He's affordable, decent, and even comes with the closer tag.

Joaquin Benoit of the Rangers. He's signed through '09 and was quietly solid last year.

Mike Wuertz of the Cubs. It's been said that the Cubs would only include Wuertz in a major deal. Maybe so, but he's pretty far down on the depth chart given his abilities.

Brad Hennessey, Tyler Walker of the Giants. Hennessey is a pitch-to-contact type who's given up an astounding 12 hits in three innings so far. He's not exactly at peak value.

Alan Embree, Huston Street of the A's. Billy Beane is expected to extract a huge bounty for Street later this summer if he does trade him. Street's allowed runs in his first three appearances though.

Chad Bradford, Jamie Walker, George Sherrill of the Orioles. Right now the O's are just enjoying first place. In a couple of months they might have the best trove of available relievers.

Brian Fuentes of the Rockies. They can't spare him.

Damaso Marte, John Grabow of the Pirates. Marte's last appearance was encouraging; he'll have to continue building up value.

Jose Valverde, Doug Brocail of the Astros. Richard Justice wonders whether Drayton McLane could order a roster teardown if things are looking bleak a few months from now. Valverde could fetch a couple of quality prospects.

Please Welcome our Newest Contributor

Big news everyone, we would like to introduce to you our newest contributor and the biggest coup so far for S&S.

His name is Brandon Isleib and he is one of the finest baseball historians in the Southeast and dare I say the country. . . at least for his age demographic.

You can find his work on the Hard Ball Times as he is one of their feature columnists.

Of particular interest are the following articles from the Young Mr. Isleib

The Flukes that Flopped - The Agonizing Life of a Brief Contender

Sir Bert the Obscure - How a HOF case became a popularity contest

The B-Squad of the A-Team - Could the worst All Stars of a particular year beat that year's best team?

Peavy - "My Hands are Clean" - Baseball History "Meh . . .big deal"

Though this post is not directly Braves related it is tangentially related to both the Braves and the Auburn Tigers. 2007 Cy Young winner Jake Peavy is a product of Mobile, Alabama and was a 1999 signee of the Auburn Tigers. Being a typical kid growing up in Southern Alabama Peavy "grew up as a Braves fan." Peavy was ready to join the Tigers' rotation before being selected in the 15th round of the 1999 amateur draft by the San Diego Padres.

After pitching a complete game shut-out against the Dodgers on Saturday images appeared on the Internet of Peavy with a dark substance on his pitching hand. Peavy commented on the incident in an article from the San Diego Union Tribune which can be found here. We'll summarize his comments from the article as follows . . .

"I can't imagine my hands being that dirty. That being said, you're hand doesn't look clean when you're out there. Obviously I pick up rosin, pick up dirt, I do hit.
"There's no way you could have a foreign substance on your hand that's black. I don't know what you could put on your hand. My whole hand was covered, the picture I saw. Wouldn't that come off on a ball? How could you throw a ball with pine tar on your hand?"

Peavy said the Dodgers "are more than welcome" to look at any balls he throws, adding, "I hope that they're worried about my hand more than they're worried about (my pitches). I honestly hope that's a cause of concern. Anytime Joe wants to have anybody check me, I welcome that."

The best take the situation we have come across so far comes from GasLampBall.com

"See, to me... the spitter is like a lost dark art. It's against the rules to be sure, but if it were really such a terrible thing, they wouldn't have grandfathered in all of the guys who openly threw spitters after the pitch was banned. And even now, it lives on in the hearts of slightly evil pitchers. Jake Peavy harnessing the unholy powers of hell to do the holy work of defeating the Dodgers. He's like Ghostrider or Hellblazer or Spawn or something.
Carry on, young Jake! Work your dastardly magic!"

Of relevant note we bring you a bit of baseball history. Thanks to reader and tipster Ezell for the following link which is baseballreference.com's entry on the "spitball" . The "spitball" was banned in 1920 but it is interesting to not that 17 pitchers were grandfathered in and the rule was not applied to them for the rest of their careers.

The 17 spitball pitchers designated after the 1920 season were:

National League:
Bill Doak
Phil Douglas
Dana Fillingim
Ray Fisher
Marv Goodwin
Burleigh Grimes
Clarence Mitchell
Dick Rudolph

American League:
Doc Ayers
Ray Caldwell
Stan Coveleski
Red Faber
Dutch Leonard
Jack Quinn
Allan Russell
Urban Shocker
Allen Sothoron

Although Ray Fisher was designated as a legitimate spitballer, he was banned from baseball after the season, so he was unable to take advantage of the designation.

Smoltz outduels Johan, Tex saves the day - Braves win 3-1

John Smoltz made his first start of the 2008 season a successful one. Smoltz picked up the win after pitching 5 shutout innings. Smoltzie likely could have pitched longer but he tweaked his shoulder again while warming up before the 5th. Read a detailed article on the injury here. Smoltz needed just 78 pitches to get through the 5 innings of work. He claims that he will not miss a start and will pitch against the Nats on Friday. To read a complete wrap up of Sunday's game go here.

What I want to talk about now is the play of Mark Texeira. Big Tex made 3 huge plays on the day. First, Tex made an incredible stretch and pick on a throw from Kotsay to double up the ever fleet footed Carlos Delgado on a line drive to center. Second, Tex hit a CLUTCH HR in the bottom of the 8th that caromed off the top of the wall to give the Braves a 3-0 lead going into the 9th. The insurance runs turned out to be quite necessary as Raffy Soriano had a shaky start to the inning, giving up 1 ER, before retiring the Mets in the 9th. However, Tex's play to end the game was likely his biggest of the day and one of the biggest of the young season. Tex made a diving stop to prevent a game tying two run double which brought back memories of the Big Cat Andres Gallaraga.

"I was playing one step toward the line," Teixeira said. "I just didn't want a cheap ground ball getting down that line. Brian hit it good there. I just wanted to smother it and try to get the out."

The Braves were very fortunate to get a victory of Johan but they will obviously take it. The Braves and Mets will square off 16 more times this season with the Braves holding a 2-0 lead in the season series.

Tommy Glavine will take mound in Colorado tomorrow after switching with Smoltz. More on the series with Rox tomorrow.

Pen Rested, Offense Smoking, Braves Look to Steam Roll Mets - Again.

Friday night's rain out provided a much needed night off for Atlanta's bullpen. The pen received even more rest Saturday afternoon when everyone but Ring and Soriano got a second consecutive day of rest. The Braves were able to take advantage of the Mets bullpen in an 11-5 victory. Tim Hudson picked up his first win of the year and the Braves notched a win against the division leading Mets. For a complete wrap up of Saturday's game check out Mark Bowman's article. The Braves and Mets will face each other 17 more times this season.

The pen may be needed tomorrow as John Smoltz makes his season debut after being activated from the DL. Smoltzie may not want to push the shoulder past 5 innings tomorrow as he continues to work it back into shape so expect see at least 4 relievers used if the game's outcome is still in question once Smoltzie leaves. Smoltz will start in place of Tom Glavine who will be bumped one day and will start Monday in Colorado. Joking with the Fox broadcasters during today's telecast, Smoltz commented that pitching cooler weather would not be a problem for Tommy since he doesn't throw hard enough to make his shoulder tired. It's nice to see these guys have fallen right back in stride as if Tommy had been with the team over the past 5 years.

The Braves offense was explosive once again as they scored double digit runs for the third time in four games. That feat will be hard to replicate tomorrow as the Braves face Johan Santana. Kelly Johnson returned to the line up with a pinch hit Grand Slam in the 7th which put the game out of reach for good and turned what was shaping up to be a barn burner into a laugher.

Here is Sunday's pitching matchup and some tidbits from MLB.com

Pitching matchup

ATL: RHP John Smoltz (14-8, 3.11 ERA in 2007)Smoltz will be making his season debut with a right shoulder that he says has proven to be healthy over the past week. The tightness he'd had between his neck and right shoulder wasn't present when he completed five innings in a Minor League game on Sunday. The veteran hurler's only Spring Training start against a big league team occurred on March 15 against the Rays.

NYM: LHP Johan Santana (1-0, 2.57 ERA)Santana was in control throughout his Mets debut against the Marlins on Monday. If not for a two-run home run by Josh Willingham, he would have escaped unscathed. As it was, he allowed three hits and two walks and struck out eight in seven innings. But the Marlins' batting order and that of the Braves bear little resemblance. Santana threw 100 pitches and fatigue didn't appear to be an issue.

Tidbits

Jones and Francoeur, who both went 3-for-5 in Saturday's series-opening win, are the only Braves to record a hit in every game this season. ... According to the Eilas Sports Bureau, Royce Ring was at the center of history during this week's Pirates series. He became the first pitcher ever to appear in three straight games against only the same hitter (Adam LaRoche) and strike him out each time. ... Braves left fielder Matt Diaz has five hits, including a homer, in nine career at-bats against Santana. Mark Teixeira has four hits, including a homer and a double, in 17 career at-bats against the southpaw.

Help Rick Roll the Mets !!!

Kudos go out to multiple people on this post. First, thanks to avid reader and tipster Gaddy for sending us a link to this page. Second, big shout out to Brian Shaler who is the brain child behind the webpage here. If you're not entirely sure what "rick rolling" is then check out this link in this sentence.

How can you Rick Roll the Mets? Here's what you do - all of this comes from Shaler's site

Do you want to help?

The New York Mets are allowing people to vote for what sing-a-long song they will play during the eighth inning of their final season at Shea Stadium.

They did not include Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" as an option, but they included an "Other:" field for people to suggest a different song.

What to do
Go to the Fan Forum: 8th Inning Sing-A-Long Vote page and enter: Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley

Blessing in Disguise

The Braves' bullpen caught a break tonight and received some much needed rest as a result of severe thunderstorms in the Atlanta area. Atlanta is fresh off a three game series in which a club record for number of pitchers used was broken. Tonight's games has been rescheduled as a part of a doubleheader on May 20th. More on this here.

Braves solve Hampton's Injury Woes

For those of you worried about Hampton missing a significant amount of time from his latest pectoral injury we present to you a solution. In a feat of modern engineering,taken straight from Hollywood, Braves' trainers have outfitted Hampton with a "Robocop" type mechanical skin which should alleviate the previous and repetitive degenerative conditions Hampton has faced over the past decade. While this resolution may seem extreme it's important to note that Hampton has received over $65 million dollars in salary since his last Major League start.

Braves-Mets Preview

The Braves open an early and important series with the Mets tonight and are looking to bounce back from a rough 1-3 start with the losses coming against the Nationals and Pirates (that is just painful to type).

Projected Starters:

4/4 Tim Hudson (0-0) 2.57 era

4/5 Tom Glavine (0-0) 1.80 era

4/6 John Smoltz (0-0)

Projected Starters (Mets):

4/4 John Maine (0-0)
4/5 Mike Pelfrey (0-0)
4/6 Johan Santana (1-0)

The following are two stories regarding tonight's starters from mlb.com.

Hudson to take on Met's in opener
Maine tries to duplicate Spring Success

As well as an article outlining the importance of the series and the ramifications of the NL East standings that always follow when the Braves and Mets meet on the field.

NL East rivals early meeting will set tone

3 Deep Breaths - Rumors of the Braves' Demise Have Been Greatly Exagerated

The title of this post is taken from a famous quote by Mark Twain in a letter to the New York Sun. As the Braves have started the season 1-3 (with all 3 losses coming to the Nats and Bus . . . ouch) many fans have started clamoring that we are seeing a repeat performance from last year. Here's a list of reasons (in no particular order) why many fans need to step away from the ledge.

1. Texeira will not bat .105 all season. It's only been 4 games, cut the guy some slack. If he's still batting below .250 at the end of the month I will start to be concerned.


2. The Braves are 0-3 in one run games. This is another trend that will not continue for two reasons. First, we will not see 120+ 1 run games (current pace) and second, the bullpen though not spectacular has not been as bad as it seems.


3. The Bullpen - Right now the bullpen is exhausted. We have multiple pitchers who have pitched 3 days in a row. Once the pen gets on a regular schedule and gets consistent roles AND REST things will settle down.


4. Chuck James will likely join the rotation soon. While he is not a top tier pitcher he can provide the team with close to 200 innings which should help the bullpen significantly.


5. James has won 11 games each of the past 2 seasons. There's no reason to think that he can't do so again.

Now that I've reassured everyone here are a list of concerns that I have after the first 4 games

1. The SP's have to pitch more than 5 innings. Through the first 4 games only Huddy has made it out of the 6th inning. With Smoltzie and Tommy being 40+ and Jair a rookie one would have to think we are going to see a lot of 5/6 inning starts.


2. Why are we carrying 3 catchers? Either Corky or Pena needs to be sent down as Bobby needs an extra arm in the pen until the roles get settled and everyone is back on their regular pitching schedule


3. Kelly Johnson's knee- I'm concerned that this injury will linger all season and force him to change his game. KJ will likely be less aggressive on the base paths as he attempts to stay healthy and in the line up. It will not be surprising at all to see a platoon develop with KJ and Prado. Mark Bowman's latest article on MLB.com (found here) suggests than KJ would be willing to go on the DL now if it will prevent him from missing a significant amount of games throughout the season. Here's the problem - KJ's knee has been hurting for over a year. If an entire winter was not enough to make the pain go away how will a two week stint on the DL relieve the pain?

Hampton Injured - Least Shocking News of the Millenium

You just can't make something like this up because it just would not be believable given the past 3 + years of Hampton's medical history, so I will give you the news exactly as it was presented during the TV telecast. "Mike Hampton injured his left pectoral muscle while warming up just 10 minutes before the opening pitch." Seriously? What does this guy have to do to get the baseball gods to smile upon him? Hopefully the injury is as minor as the groin pull Hampton suffered during spring training. If that is the case then Hampton likely would not miss his next start. Let's be real honest though . . . does anyone expect the Hampton will pitch more than 30 or 40 innings before suffering yet another injury?

I almost posted around 3 this afternoon that Hampton had fallen out of the hot tub and injured his pitching hand but I held off as I thought I would wait and post a "feel good" story about Hampton's comeback from injury. I should have followed my first instinct.