Chipper Out For Season

In 1995 a rookie third baseman with an infectious grin and a hot bat helped the Braves win the World Series. Since then, Chipper has slowed up a bit but still loves the game, still kills the Mets every time he can, and is the lifeblood of the Atlanta Braves. Tuesday night we saw a brilliant defensive play at third base – and sadly that might be the last play we see from Chipper.

Various sources are reporting that Chipper is out for the season with a torn ACL. He was already thinking about retiring after this season, and he could very well decide not to come back. Who knows? I know I don’t, but I find myself reflecting on his career and realizing how rare of a player Chipper was.

How many other sluggers of his caliber have stayed in one city their entire life? How many stars have restructured their contracts to provide more flexibility to their team? How many great third basemen have moved to left field so the team could add offense where it was most easily found? How many stars have thought about retiring when their career starts to decline instead of denying it and trying to eek it out for a few more years?

Yes, he was a bit of an arrogant ass when he was younger. But that’s tempered with age and experience now, and his love for the game remains.

Chipper is a rare player – not just because he’s perhaps the best switch hitter that’s ever played or hits homers against the Mets even when he’s slumping against everyone else, but because he bent over backwards for a team that he made his. Chipper’s poured his heart out for us Atlanta Braves fans, and that’s something I’ll never forget.

Now get the surgery out of the way and go rehab that knee, Chipper. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Mr. Larry Wayne Jones, Jr.

Chipper Still Among OBP Leaders

Amidst all the retirement talk surrounding the Atlanta Braves and Chipper Jones of late, one thing stands out: Chipper is 6th in the National League in On-Base Percentage.

No, he’s not leading the league in batting. He’s only hitting .256, but he’s getting better – .230 in March and April, .265 in May, and .271 in June. No, he’s not slugging like he used to. Five home runs is not going to make Chipper Jones happy through three months of the season. He has stolen more bases already this year than any year dating back to 2006 (when he stole six overall).

But he still gets respect at the plate. His 45 walks make him tied for 4th in the NL, And that’s the secret to his .388 OBP. At least in one category (one that matters), Chipper’s still one of the leaders. No, he’s not the slugging third baseman that strikes fear into the hearts of pitchers, but he is the respected third baseman that – literally – walks his way to being a valuable part of the Braves’ very balanced lineup.

Chipper Jones Should Not-Retire More Often

In the few days after Chipper Jones sparked media rumors that he would be retiring, and followed that up by not-retiring, he has been a different player on the field.  In the four games he has played in since then (Chipper sat out during one of the games against the Rays) he has had at least a hit every game.

In 16 plate appearances across 4 games, Chipper has reached base safely 8 times for an OBP of .500.  Additionally, he’s batting .429 and slugging .714 with one home run and 4 RBI.

I’m not saying this is a surefire solution, but maybe we need to spark some Chipper Jones retirement rumors more often.  Say, a twice-a-month press conference?  It seems to be just the catalyst he needed…….now if only he can stay healthy enough to keep it up.

UPDATE (6/20): This theory has to be true.  After today’s outing (2-3, 2 BB, 3 RBI, 2 R), Chipper now is batting .471, slugging .824 and has an OBP of .571 since the media buzz started.

Chipper Jones Announces He Won’t Announce Anything

Chipper Jones held a brief press conference in front of his locker before tonight’s game, saying he wanted to “put the cork back” in the discussion about his possible retirement after the 2010 season. He won’t address retirement again until the offseason. He wants the focus to be on Bobby Cox and the first place Atlanta Braves.

Let me translate: Chipper’s a class act and wants Bobby to get the credit he’s due. He doesn’t want it to be a “Bobby and Chipper are both leaving, win it for them” line the rest of the season. He wants to win it for Bobby. And yes, Chipper is going to retire if he doesn’t bat .300+ the rest of the season. In all likelihood, this is his last year on the field wearing #10.

Chipper was young and inexperienced when he came to Atlanta. Some have accused him of being arrogant over the years, or fragile. Nobody can ever doubt his love for this team and this city though – this move should cement him as one of the most loyal and selfless players in the free agent era. Chipper’s not worried about the hype surrounding his retirement; he wants Bobby to be the focus. As it should be, frankly. Bobby’s an absolute legend retiring – there will never be another Bobby Cox.

And in all honesty, there is not likely to be another Chipper. Here’s to Larry.

Chipper Set To Retire

Many of us remember the first time the young third baseman was inserted into our starting lineup at the start of the historic 1995 season. Larry Wayne “Chipper” Jones has since been a fixture in Atlanta. He’s taken less money than he’d get elsewhere to stay with Atlanta and has been the backbone of our offense for 15 years. Chipper is the face of the Atlanta Braves.

Update: 12:16 PM – Chipper is reportedly leaning towards retirement if his performance doesn’t increase drastically to come up to his standards. He has mentioned to a couple of sources that he doesn’t want Bobby to feel like CJ should be starting when he’s performing like this. This is what all players should be like – selfless and able to recognize when they can’t contribute.

Chipper Jones, it is reported from two sources (and relayed by David O’Brien), is set to announce that he’ll be retiring from baseball at the end of the 2010 season. Chipper’s always wanted to retire when he feels that he can’t play up to his standards anymore, and now is the time. This year Chipper is hitting .228 with 3 HR and 22 RBI and has seen the bench for oblique issues and most recently a tweaked finger. He’s not playing up to his standards – a career .406 OBP and .306 BA. He also commented last week that the Braves could win without him and his replacements were filling in nicely.

We’ll update this today as we get more news. Check back often or follow us on Twitter if you’re the twittering type.

Life After Death

Since losing nine straight games at the back end of April, the Bravos have won eight of their past twelve ballgames and outscored their opponents 68 to 39 in the process. With a record of 16-18 the Braves now head back to Atlanta for three games with the struggling D-Backs, and two with the Mets and Reds each. Here are four brilliant thoughts to mull over in the meantime.

1) Heyward moved up in the order

Finally. As Colin and I have called for in recent weeks, Jason batted third in the final two games against the Brewers. In his two games in the three hole, J Hey reached base safely seven times in eleven plate appearances while stealing two bases and scoring six runs. He is good, and his placement in the top third of the lineup appears to be permanent as he is likely to bat second when Chipper returns. A top three of Prado, Heyward, and Jones is infinitely better than any order with Melky or McLouth in the top spot. This also shows that Bobby still has a pulse. My reoccurring nightmare of waking up in August with Heyward still batting 6th seems to have finally gone away.

2) Eric Hinske should start in left, but don’t get too excited.

It was nice to watch two consecutive games without Melky Cabrera in left. Hinske filled in beautifully and now boasts a triple slash of .333/.409/.538 in 44 plate appearances on the season. While this is obviously unsustainable, his career OPS against right-handers is a serviceable .806 and platooning him with Diaz seems to be the Braves’ best bet (also, for what it’s worth, he has a positive career UZR in leftfield). Meanwhile, Melky can fight over playing time in center with McLouth. Here’s to hoping Jordan Schafer can contribute at some point this season (LOL, ROTFL, and FML).

3) Tim Hudson is getting really lucky

His 2.64 ERA is simply a statistical anomaly. In 44 plus innings pitched Huddy has only managed 17 strikeouts while issuing 18 walks. What is helping him is a batting average against balls in play that currently sits at .234 compared to his career mark of .288. He has an unsustainable strand rate of 86% (compared to his 73% career avg) as well as a remarkably high ground ball rate of 66%. The bottom line is that his K/BB ratio has got to improve, because his BABIP will only get higher. And if the latter happens before he starts missing more bats, the runs are going to come in bunches.

4) Defending Chipper Jones

Maybe this is because my fantasy team really needs him to turn things around, but I feel the urge to defend CJ 10. Sure he looks like catcher Jake Taylor at the plate, but his OBP this season is an impressive .407 (his career mark is .406), and his slugging percentage is going to come around. I would be shocked if it ends up lower than last year’s mark of .430, a career low. All things considered, the only two hitters I would rather have up at the plate, in almost every situation, are McCann and Heyward. Yeah, my fantasy team is screwed.

Is Chipper Jones’ Left-Handed Swing Deteriorating?

Chipper Jones is naturally right-handed. A switch-hitter, he learned to bat from the left side because he loved to emulate the Dodgers lineup as a child, and learned to take swings from the other side of the plate.

Jones has stated in the past that his left-handed swing takes a lot more work to keep steady than his right-handed swing. He has many more moving parts from the left side, and despite having better career numbers as a lefty, his swing is starting to slow and deteriorate.

In 2009, Jones had one of his least productive seasons to date. He had a line of .264/.388/.430, with just 18 home runs and 71 runs batted in, both career lows.

However, his problems persisted mostly from the left side.

As a left-handed batter, Jones made 413 plate appearances to go .252/.395/.377, .772 OPS, 9 HR, and 38 RBI last season. From the right side, he made 183 plate appearances to bat .289/.372/.541, .912 OPS, 9 HR, and 33 RBI.

Those are pretty drastic splits. Jones did have a lower on-base percentage as a righty, but that was due to him being able to draw more walks.

Even late in his career and with diminishing power, Jones, a 17-year MLB veteran, is able to get walks from the left side at an incredible rate.

With his left-handed swing, however, his average went down .097 points, and his slugging dropped an astonishing .204 points. He also hit eight fewer home runs in 2009 from the left side, despite having 63 more plate appearances than the previous season.

Jones has been more effective from the right side again this season, while his struggles have continued from the left, where he is currently 3-for-21 with no extra base hits. Granted, it’s only two weeks into the season, but his left-handed swing is very worrisome, especially considering he is the team’s third hitter.

Meanwhile, from the right side of the plate Jones is batting .444 with three extra base hits, including two homers.

If the Braves’ offense is going to be successful, Jones needs to produce from the left side. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, as it’s clear that he is more consistent from his natural right-handed side.

Braves Answer Spring Training Lineup Questions

Every Major League Baseball team enters spring training with the goal of finding answers to a variety of questions. Some of the questions surrounding the 2010 Atlanta Braves were never considered points of concern at all by Braves officials, but these doubts and queries made their way around the blogosphere nonetheless. So with only a week or so remaining in the ’10 Grapefruit League season, let’s take a look at the questions raised in regard to these Braves and what answers pre-season play has provided. We’ll start with the Braves lineup today and will address the pitching Q&A’s later this week.

Q. Is Troy Glaus’ shoulder healthy and strong enough to allow him to return to ’08 form?

A. Glaus’ shoulder IS healthy and strong. The Braves were confident in his health long before now, or they never would have signed him to be their everyday First-Baseman in the first place. And the 33 year-old slugger’s spring has provided further confirmation of his health. He has hit close to .400 through in 37 spring at-bats, in addition to drawing 10 walks. Though he has hit the ball hard, he has yet to homer this spring, but Braves fans need not be alarmed. We’re talking about a guy who has never hit fewer than 27 homers in a full season of play… a HR total he reached as recently as 2008, before spending most of ’09 on the shelf. Now that he’s healthy and strong, there is no reason to doubt the power threat that he represents in the middle of the Braves’ order.

Bear in mind also that numerous sluggers, including perennial 40-homer threats like Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder and Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn, have yet to hit a pre-season homerun. So long as Glaus remains healthy, you can likely pencil him in for something close to 30 HR’s.

Q. What does Chipper have left in the tank?

A. This question cannot be fully answered in the pre-season; however, he has looked very good to this point with a spring average of over .300 and a mammoth homerun to his credit. Chipper spent a good bit of time in the weight room over the winter and reported to camp noticeably bigger and stronger, and it appears his hard work has already begun to pay off. Braves officials remain convinced that his poor second-half ’09 numbers were simply the result of a prolonged slump (it can happen to the best of them) and in no way an indication of deteriorating skills. That would be my guess as well. Only time will tell, but so far, so good.

Q. Is Jason Heyward ready for the Show?

A. Yes. Heyward’s raw talent and physical maturity put him on the big league radar sooner than most, but it was his personal maturity and advanced approach to the game that ultimately sold Braves’ officials on his readiness.

Many have argued that it would have been more prudent to hold Heyward at AAA for the early part of the season in order to avoid negative financial/contractual implications down the road. However, I would respond to that assertion with a question: “Could having Heyward in the lineup on April 5th – as opposed to weeks or months into the season – make the difference in even just 1 or 2 wins?” I believe the answer is YES. And in a division that could easily be decided by 1 or 2 games (as is always the case with the Wild Card), can the Braves really afford NOT to have their very best team on the field from day-1?

Working from the assumption that he’s ready to make a difference at the big league level, to hold Heyward out of the Atlanta lineup for any period of time is to risk missing the playoffs again THIS year… in order to have a better chance in 2016 or 2017. The Braves made the correct call.

Q. What’s wrong with Nate McLouth, and will he bounce back?

A. This is the one question that was born during this spring, after the Braves’ Center-Fielder was found buried in a rather ugly 1-for-35 slump. McLouth endured a lingering hamstring injury after his mid-season trade to Atlanta last season, but reported to camp healthy this year and with improved focus, thanks to a visit to the eye doc and new set of contact lenses. With healthy legs and enhanced vision, expectations were high for McLouth before his spring struggles began to deeply concern many observers, including me. Fortunately, he appears to returning to form. Over his last three Grapefruit League games, he is 4 for his last 9 with a homerun.

One More Wish: Bring Back Chipper!

To start things off, no, you didn’t miss some big, revolutionary news that the Braves got rid of Chipper Jones.  When I was sitting down to write our Christmas wish list the other day, I talked to Colin on the phone for awhile about what he wanted to see on the list and he mentioned Chipper Jones and….well, I just forgot to put it on the list.  So when I woke up at 3 in the morning today and realized that, I figured I would write about today.  So, no, Chipper hasn’t gone anywhere, we just want to see pre-2009 Chipper again!

So heading into the 2009 season, we made a wish that Chipper Jones would stay healthy for once and be a constant contributer to the team after playing in less than 135 games in the previous 4 seasons (with the lows being 109 and 110 games in 2005 and 2006).  Well Chipper played in more games in 2009 than he had since 2003 at 143.  But that’s about where the benefit to the team stopped in comparison to 2008.

Now, granted, comparing to 2008 may not be the most fair thing to do seen as how Chipper had a career year, batting .364 with a .470 OBP and slugging .574.  There was a decline in power with him only hitting 22 home runs, but he continued to prove that he is one of the best situational hitters in the game.

The 2009 season however provided few of the highlights that we saw in 2008 however.  By the time the season ended, Chipper, a career .307 hitter, managed only a .264 batting average and hit less than 20 home runs for the first time in his 15 full seasons in the big leagues.  On top of that, he had his fewest number of RBI in his career as well, with 71.  We have always said that we would rather see a semi-healthy Chipper Jones playing for the Braves than many other players, but one more wish for this season is to see a little bit of a rebound of his offensive potential.

Chipper’s under contract through 2012, but I’m still not convinced that he will continue to play after this season if he has another sub-par (by his standards) year.  He’s a key piece in our Christmas wish to give Bobby one more shot at the playoffs and we want to see Chipper Jones performance to bounce back a little closer to his career average numbers.  At the age of 38 just after the 2010 season begins, there aren’t many more seasons left for Chipper, so this is the year to give it one more run for Chipper and Bobby.

Braves Beat Mets In Opener

I hate to be the guy who says it, but we’re all thinking it: Finally, the Braves benefitted from every at-bat Jeff Francoeur had.

Don’t get me wrong – I like the guy – but I am glad he’s not hacking away for our team as we’re trying to take a crucial series from the Mets. This first few series after the All-Star Break are important. This one, particularly so. After a polite and well-deserved ovation, Francoeur hit into a double play on the first pitch – vintage Francoeur. There’s a microcosm of his career with the Braves – we love him, but he hacks and gets out. He went 0-4 on the night.

The real story is Chipper’s continued dominance of the Mets – he poked a go-ahead RBI single through the infield to give the Braves a lead they wouldn’t give back. Lowe pitched an excellent game, the bullpen was great, and the Braves took home the first game of the series.

Now it’s time to do it again – we need to take this series!

This Isn’t A Contending Team

Let’s be objective. The Braves, performing as they are now, are not a contending team.

A contending team’s offense can’t go from red-hot to ice-cold.

A contending team’s bullpen can’t blow leads more frequently than they use the restroom. Not to mention 8 run leads.

Sure, we’ve got a decent starting rotation. Sure, Kawakami, Lowe, Jurrjens and Vazquez have performed fairly well so far, but for heavens sake, we started Jo-Jo Reyes against Pittsburgh and expected to win the game?! Sure, our offense started off hot, but they’ve cooled to an exactly middle of the road .265 batting average.

There have been a few side stories that have contributed. Chipper missed some time on his hand (Chipper is always going to sit a little bit). McCann had some weird vision thing come up that has hopefully resolved itself. Tom Glavine busted his shoulder again (who are we kidding: we wanted him to be a reliable pitcher again?)

But a bullpen that blows a 7 run lead? An offense that can’t beat Pittsburgh given a good start? And a team that puts Jo-Jo Reyes on the mound? Seriously? It feels like this season is an extension of last season – where the baseball gods are laughing at us and poking us with sticks. We have to establish some good play before everyone gets in a funk and assumes we’re always going to blow leads – because that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are opportunities for us to get into the race. We have to stop blowing leads. The first step to that was getting rid of Blaine Boyer, which we have completed. Now the rest of the bullpen needs to live up to their potential. The offense needs to be more consistent – we win games when Chipper is in the lineup – and having BMac back will help. And people, write your senators and congressmen – it’s time to petition against Jo-Jo Reyes. If we get a law passed that he can’t pitch for the Braves, Frank Wren and Bobby Cox will have no choice but to send him packing. Sure – don’t bring Hanson up yet – let him season for a little bit – but enough with this Jo-Jo the No Show Blo-Blo bit. Let Escobar or Francoeur pitch if we have to.

We can still get into this year. We can become a contender. There are (most of) the pieces of the puzzle we need to contend this year, but the Braves have seriously got to step it up and start playing to expectations. I was emotionally battered enough last year and I don’t know if I can handle the pattern we appear to be getting ourselves into already this season. Buck up fans – let’s stick behind them and cheer for them louder than ever, because they need it. We can contend for the NL East, but a few little things have to change.

Chipper Returns To Try To Avoid Sweep

With Chipper Jones out of the lineup for the past 4 games, the Braves have been nothing short of abyssmal.  In those 4 games, the Braves have only managed 6 total runs, as well as being shut out by the Pirates the last two games.  After starting out the season 5-1, they have dropped 5 straight to fall below .500 on the season.

Chipper has been nursing a bruised left thumb for the entire season that he reaggravated during a home game against the Marlins last Tuesday.  Yunel Escobar, who has missed two games with a strained abdominal muscle, is a game-time decision today.  Hopefully one, or both, of the two can provide a much needed spark for the Braves’ offense today and avoid the sweep by the Pirates.

Javier Vazquez takes the mound for the Braves today with an 0-1 record and 4.50 ERA.  Vazquez has been dominant with the strikeout this season, but still has been giving up some runs.  Zach Duke will be on the hill for the Pirates with a 2-0 record this season and a non-existent 0.59 ERA.  Chipper however, has hit .500 on his career against the left-hander.

Stay with us for ongoing updates throughout the game.