Braves do well, but….

On Friday I expressed my belief that if the Braves did well this weekend versus Florida, while the Mets and Phils played 4, that the result would be a very tight race come Monday. Well, the Braves took 2 of 3. Good job. And really, it should have been a sweep, but I’m not complaining. And yet, we find that the only team in the East to profit from weekend is the Mets. They picked up a half game on the Braves and 2 on Philly. Plus 1.5 on Florida- if that matters.

Very odd. But here’s to the Braves putting themselves back into 2nd. Now lets hope for a positive west coast trip. I’ll not feel bad about a 4-3 swing. We’ll see the top 2 teams in the west, while the Mets pitchers contend with throwing in Colorado and Houston. Lets just try to keep things where they are andf then regroup after the Celebrity All-Star break.

The Biggest Weekend of the 1st Half?

Hang on to your hats folks. This ride is either about to get real exciting. Today the Braves sit in 3rd place. One-half game back of Philly, 3.5 back of the Mets and 4 ahead of Miami. But by Monday, one week prior to the Popularity Contest Break, we will see a whole new landscape in the NL East.

 The Braves visit the Marlins for 3 scheduled games starting today. Of course, being summer in south Florida, odds are one will get rained out. Meanwhile, the Phillies host the Mets for 4 games, starting with the double-header today. If the Braves take care of business- and I believe they will- against a Marlins team who have dropped 2 of 3 to both Minnesota and Pittsburgh in the past week, then by Monday this race will be tighter than ever. If we fail, then we face the reality of a very long climb to get back in the race in the second half.

Me? I like the new-look line-ups with Willie Harris and Escobar setting up Chipper for rbis. I want to see O-fer Jones either on the bench or batting 7th, so as not to cost us any more opportunites.  But I’m thinking we’re coming out of the Nats series feeling really good. Lets see the Braves build on it now.

Man Bites Dog; Andruw Hits Homer

Love having those Nats in town. In fact, I’m just happy to see non-Selig (NL only) baseball finally. Salty, playing 1B, went deep twice. Escobar, hitting first and playing second (base), had a couple of hits and a stolen base. I like the non-Thorman line-up. I’m very comfortable with Escobar or Willie C. at lead-off instead of KJ.

Sure its just the Nats. But I like it so much that I’ll go to the ballpark tonight. Sadly, I was not able to go Monday night for “Andrew Jones Signature Bat Night”. Word is the giveaway was only 20% successful.

Braves Win!

Despite O-fer Jones batting 4th. He was 0-for-3. Now hitting .197. All scoring came through McCann, but our top 3 hitters were again the reliable trio, garnering 5 of the teams 7 hits. It amazes me that we went so long without scoring at all, given the proficiency of Willie, Edgar and Chipper, who are respectively hitting .383, .323 and .323.

The big shot of the night, a 3-run shot by McCann, was set up by the inexplicable decision to intentionally walk O-fer Jones. Amazing. An intentional pass to a guy with 2 singles in his past 10 games? The excuse from the Nats Manny Acta was, “Despite Andruw’s struggles, he still had twice as many RBIs as McCann.” Actually, after that 3-run shot, Andruw has exactly 3 more rbi’s, 42 to 39. And, Manny, Andruw has 51 more ab’s than McCann. What Andruw does have a double dose of is strikeouts. O-fer has 75 to McCann’s 31. Thanks for taking the bat out of his hands, Manny.

Like I said yesterday- Thank goodness the Nats have come to town.

The Woes Continue

So that makes four shutouts in five games. Every season has its ups and downs, but four shutouts in five games is plainly unacceptable on its face. We can grouse about Andruw all day long, and wonder whether Chipper is willing to play hurt, but the real problem with the ’07 Braves goes deeper than that.

Face it, we were lucky to be scoring as many runs as we did in April — we got a lot of hits with runners in scoring position, and were more than occasionally putting the ball over the fence. All of that is gone now. Aside from the Joneses, Francoeur has regressed to his old free-swinging ways, McCann isn’t hitting the ball with the authority that he always has, and Thorman is awful.

It’s been said that major league hitting coaches don’t make that much of a difference, especially compared to pitching coaches — that batters arrive to the majors with their approaches to hitting basically intact. I don’t know to what extent that’s true, but it’s time to admit that, whatever influence a hitting coach might have, Terry Pendleton is not helping. Maybe he’d be nothing more than a scapegoat, but this maybe this is a goat what needs some scaping.

Sunday Fun With Video

 The joy of Baseball

 And example of what constitutes fun for Braves on the road:

Implosion or Motivation?

Or Nothing?

What is one to think of the never-before-seen public feud that has erupted from the Braves clubhouse? Smoltz told the media Friday that “the guys on the field” are busting their butts. Thus implying that those not playing were less than adament about making the team a winner. Chipper Jones was indeed not playing Friday due to a strained groin. This coming just days after his return from the DL.

Chipper responds to the affront via the media, claiming that if Smoltz won’t deal with him man-to-man, then he would follow suit. Chipper tells the ajc that he’ll play every day, but “someone else” better not miss any more starts. Yeee-ow! Smolz reads this on the ajc’s blog (wonder if any Braves read the ‘Matic? Obviously 0-fer Jones doesn’t or he’d bench himself out of shame) and calls the paper to say he wasn’t alluding to Chipper specifically.

Wow. All very uncharacteristic of the team that prides itself on detached professionalism. Never showing too much excitement and NEVER publicly airing dissatisfaction. Well, things have changed now. I hope. I think that having the 2 primo veterans competing to prove how win-oriented they are could be a boost. This team is just an inch away from busting out. But also an inch away from busting up. A few key hits, like we saw in the first month of the season, and the Braves could leap to the front of the pack. Keep squandering those opportunities and we’ll be chasing the Marlins in a few weeks, while the Mets and Phillies move out of sight.

GAME NOTES & Failure Watch(aka Looking Up to MR. Mendoza):

• 0-Fer Jones continued his stultifying ways at the bat. Though he did manage not to flail helplessly at bad pitches enough to draw 2 walks in his 0-for-2 effort. Today’s number is 24 straight ab’s without a hit. And .198.
• Bobby Cox finally notched ejection number 131 to tie John McGraw. The next one will be for the record books.
• Tonight the Braves anemic offense will be featured nationwide on ESPN. What? No Yankees?
• Stat O’ the Day- Excepting his first 2 starts of the season, every Chuck James win is followed by a no-decision. Chuck got the win on June 18th. So tonight a no-decision. But the Braves score at least 3 in every James no-decision game. I’ll take that. 

This Can’t Be Good

Chipper will not be in the starting line-up for the opener tonight against Detriot. Recall that he left after 6 innings Wednesday with a possible pulled groin. No word on whether he is suiting up or not. 0-fer Jones, on the other hand, will be starting. And batting fourth. Guess he’s got that swing problem all worked out. We’ll see if he can handle Kenny “The Gambler” Rogers. Rogers will be making his 2007 debut tonight in a pitching match-up versus Detroit-native John Smoltz, in what promises to be a battle for the ages aged.

SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE: Yep. O-fer Jones notches an 0-for-3 performance. Expect more of the same tonight. Sunday’s column to be titled: Looking Up to Mr. Mendoza. Also- Tune in for the Birthday edition of Sunday Video Fun.

5th Starter Slot Still A Scramble

Buddy Carlyle got whipped six ways to Sunday on Wednesday night and once again opened up questions about who is our 5th starter. Its looking like Buddy may give way to Oscar Villareal.

Our starters are not looking nearly so good as they did a month ago. Only Smoltz and Hudson are still over .500. And Hudson’s noticeable slide threatens to cut that number down to one. Hudson puts his 6-5 mark on the line Saturday versus the Tigers. Looking at the era from 1 to 5 , the diminishing talent stands out. Here’s the numbers from Smoltz to Buddy: 2.84, 3.43, 4.11, 5.65, 6.11. Ouch. Joey Devine has been called up from AA-Mississippi, so he may also get a shot at #5.

“0-for-4” Jones sat yesterday,  in a game where his anti-bat would not have hurt us. Tonight is an off day. Sadly, I imagine Bobby will return “0-for-4” to the line-up on Friday. On Saturday I will again begin to demand his benching. The problem is that “0-for-4 and Bobby are both in denial. The benching was claimed to be “for rest”. But 0-for-4 wasn’t benched to rest him. He was benched because he wields an anti-bat. And that is why I will be forced to petition further, until either 0-for-4 learns to hit or Bobby admits that a major league club cannot compete with 2 pitcher-quality hitters in the line-up.

A Baffling Challenge Trade, and Andruw Sits

The AJC reports that the Braves have traded Macay McBride to the Tigers for fellow left-handed relief pitcher Wil Ledezma. Ledezma is 26, and thus far has shown slightly better control on the major league level, along with a greater propensity for serving up gopher balls. Their minor league numbers are essentially interchangeable — so much so that you wonder why we bothered, although maybe we’ve become a little too familiar with McBride’s act.

The clarion call for benching ‘Druw has been heard — Fast Willie is manning CF tonight.

They Call Me “0-For-4” Jones

Andruw does it again. 4 abs. 0 hits. Mercifully, no k’s last night. An anemic offense for a boring, damp game at the Ted. All 5 Braves hits come from the first 3 slots in the batting order. Another loss for the recently great Tim Hudson, who’s pitches now fool no one.

Luckily, the Mets also fell. But the Phillies moved back to just 1/2 game back of us.

Andruw has surrendered an 0-for-4 performance in 4 straight games. In fact, he’s done it in 7 of the past 9 games. In his 2 breakthrough nights he managed a whopping 1-for-5 and a 1-for-3. Bench time. Seriously. How long can we continue to drag down our offense under the weight of 2 no-hit slots? Kyle Davies and Chris Woodward are hitting better. Hudson is just .002 back of Andruw. Bench time.

Buddy Carlisle goes tonight in the rubber game versus the Red Sox. Do him a favor Bobby, and get that anchor out of the batting order. (John Smoltz says we should expect Andruw to be benched. And not expect it. Or unexpect it. Or something.)

One Step Closer to the Bench

Andruw had, by his new standards, a great night at the plate. Only once in this 0-for-4 appearance did he strike out. We applaud you, Andruw. And Bobby Cox moved A.J. to #6 in the batting order. We applaud you Bobby. Next stop #7. Then the pine.

Chipper continued to impress, going 3-for-5 to raise his aveage to .326. The Braves 2-3-4 slots now spot averages well over .300. This can keep us in the race. Just keep Andruw from getting in our way.

Still 1.5 games back. Hudson pitching tonight.

I’m Done Waiting for Andruw. Bench Him Now.

So close. Just 1.5 games out of first. If Andruw Jones could find a remedy for his amemic swing, that gap would be erased. Andruw continued to underwhelm again yesterday- going 0-for-4 for the second day in a row. Renteria joined him this time. Braves strand 16 runners. Renteria and Andruw account for 7 of those. And the Braves blow a game that was theirs for the taking.

Braves are living right, as the slump has seen no one really taking advantage of things. Sunday ends up with a Braves loss, a Mets loss, a Phillies loss and a Marlins loss. OK. Put Sunday behind us and lets focus on wins in this homestand. Fine to say. But when Andruw struggles to maintain the Mendoza line, we’re trying to run a race with a 50-lb weight on our back.  Sit Andruw? Yes! Time for him to be called out. Embarassed if that’s what it takes. He’s the greatest glove in baseball, but he’s killing our offense. Bench him. Let him spend gametime at the stadium batting cages. Its obvious he hasn’t found any time to work on his mechanics. Let him worry about his status and his contract and start showing some motivation to correct his swing. Diaz, Willie C. and Francouer can handle things while he’s gone.

Sunday Fun With Video

 Now on ESPN 5- Its Wii Baseball.

No. I don’t know who these people are. I’m just a fan of the game.

And here’s a classic Braves moment. Just to be ‘Matic.

Quote of the Week

It’s been too depressing to blog for the past few days. We were swept by Minnesota, watched the Phillies move past us into second and wondered when Smoltz would pitch again. But today we find that we can beat a division-leader on the road, the Braves are back in 2nd (just like Tiger), just 1.5 games behind the Mets and Smoltz is called our Ace for a reason.

A beautiful game on Saturday to take the 2nd straight from Cleveland. Smoltz struck out 7, including the 2nd through 6th batters he faced on the day. It would be criminal not to mention Edgar’s day at the plate, which went like this: Single, stolen base, single, rbi double, run scored, single, homer. Wow! Compare that to Andruw’s day: k, k, k, infield pop-up. Weak. Andruw makes me long for the NL to institute the DF (designated fielder) into the line-up. Lets hope Andruw spends the Popularity-Star Break at batting camp. His agent should insist on it.

 Quote of the Week, as teased at the start, is from Smoltzie, on the topic of being just 1.5 games back:

But I told people coming out of Spring Training- expect the unexpected, and vice versa.

Huh? Does that mean expect the unexpected and unexpect the expected? Or expect the unexpected and don’t expect it? I’m at a loss. Anybody got a clue what that means? At any rate, I expect to see it on T-shirts at the Braves games next week. And yet I unexpect it.

Bonus stat: Chipper goes for hit #2,000 today and Cox is still one shy of the all-time ejection record. Can we hit both marks today?