Kelly Johnson Avoids Arbitration

Kelly Johnson and the Braves avoided arbitration this morning by coming to an agreement on a one-year, $2.825 million contract.  The amount does not include some other performance bonuses that were not disclosed as a part of the contract agreement.  KJ had originally requested $3.3 million and the Braves returned with a $2.35 million figure.  The final contract is a the halfway point between the two.

I’m looking for good numbers out of Kelly this season.  He’s coming off of a career-high season last year, so hopefully he can maintain a similar pace once the season gets underway.  I’d be happy if he maintained last year’s production in most categories.

This leaves Jeff Francoeur as the only unsigned player heading towards arbitration.  Jeff’s figure of $3.95 million was a bit greater than the $2.8 million put out there by the Braves and there has been little progress in coming to an agreement.  Francoeur’s arbitration hearing is set for this Friday and it’s not likely a contract will be decided before then.  It’s a shame that it’s going to get to that point, but let’s hope that things don’t get too ugly.  Coming off of the rough season Francoeur had last year, it’s the last thing the team really needs at this point.

Casey and Kelly on the Right

The right side of the infield hasn’t been this good for the Braves in quite a while – not exactly the sentence you were expecting…but let’s look a little more into the “numbers,” which so many fans and “pundits” love to dissect. Casey Kotchman and Kelly Johnson are not exactly household names in the world of baseball. After all, it’s been a while since we’ve had the scrappy second baseman Marcus Giles and gold-glove caliber Adam LaRoche on that side of the field. Instead, Kotchman and Johnson will take the reins. Johnson, who took over for Giles after he left in free agency to San Diego, and Kotchman, who will be the first baseman after a mixture of Scott Thorman and Craig Wilson didn’t work and Mark Teixeira did not do much to add victories to the Braves.

Let’s take more of an in-depth look at the guy who a lot of fans may have blamed for our horrifically bad record against the Phillies last year. Johnson’s dropped pop up in the ninth inning of a game last season allowed the Phillies to score the tying run and later the winning run in extra innings. That error haunted the second baseman, but he did not suffer at the plate. Johnson hit .287 in his second full season in the majors; however his OBP and slugging went down from the previous season. He had 13 more doubles, four fewer home runs, fewer walks and fewer strikeouts than the previous season. While Johnson’s performance at the plate has barely been consistent, many players begin to flourish in their third year in the majors. I took a look at a player who has been in the sports news a little bit because of his selfishness lately – Michael Young. Young hit .249 and .262 in his first one and a half seasons in the majors. Young’s OBP and slugging were a lot worse than Johnson’s, but if that is an indication, the Braves will certainly have what will be an all-star second baseman in the field. Defensively, Johnson made 14 errors each of the past two seasons, but his fielding percentage did go up slightly in more changes than 2007.

At first base, Kotchman leaves a lot to be desired when we compare him to the 180 million dollar man. Kotchman made his major league debut in 2004 with the Anaheim Angels and went back and forth between the majors and minors over the next three seasons. 2007 was Kotchman’s first chance to play every day and he didn’t disappoint. He hit .297 with 11 home runs and 68 RBI. He also drew 53 walks and struck out—get this—ONLY 43 times in 443 at-bats, roughly once every ten at bats. Those numbers are more in the mold of Chipper Jones in that aspect as opposed to Andruw Jones or Johnson or Jeff Francoeur. Kotchman started off last season hitting .287 for the Angels and hit 12 home runs and had 54 RBI in the two thirds of the season he was with them. Unfortunately, his production significantly tailed off to a .237 average with the Braves and just two home runs over the last two months of the season and only 20 RBI. He walked a total of 36 times and struck out 39 times last year in more at-bats than 2007.

Despite only two months of service with the Braves, Kotchman’s production has left many fans restless. Think about it this way though, if you were playing for the best team in the league and you get to the stadium one day and found out you were traded to a team that wasn’t going to the post-season, how motivated would you be to put on your best effort? As professional as Kotchman is, he is still human and there’s always an element of disappointment in getting traded out of the playoff race. The guy is a gold glove caliber first baseman (that seems to be the norm these days in Atlanta) and I predict we will see more of the production he showed with Anaheim than the last two months of this past season with the Braves.

Moves The Braves Won’t Make

We’ve gotten a lot of comments and suggestions over the past few days on the Braves’ next move(s). Here’s a few that have been suggested that I don’t see happening. I could always be wrong, but I don’t see these moves fitting into the Braves’ plans.

Sign Ben Sheets / Jon Garland

Why? Why do we need another pitcher? We have Lowe, Kawakami, Jurrjens, Vazquez, Campillo, Morton, and Reyes. Yes, Buddy Carlyle is still on the 40 man roster. Sheets and Garland would be great, but we need to promote some youth within the organization. That means Morton and prospect Tommy Hanson need somewhere to pitch and need to eventually get into the rotation. If we sign Sheets or Garland, where are the young guys going to pitch?

Sign Manny Ramirez

This would be fun (I suggested it originally), but there’s NO WAY the Braves sign a self-centered personality like Ramirez to a long-term contract with the kind of outfield prospects we’ve got lined up. That’s Jordan Schafer, Matt Diaz, Josh Anderson, Brandon Jones, Gregor Blanco, Gorkeys Hernandez, and Jason Heyward. Why sign Manny?

Sign Barry Bonds

I floated this last year just to get a reaction. It got a reaction, all right. Still, NO WAY IN HELL.

Move Kelly Johnson to LF

I don’t see this happening. They’ve spent a lot of time and money training KJ at second. He’s coming along. He’s not as horrible defensively as people think. We’ve actually got our chief KJ fan, Akshay, working on a post about him as we speak (or sometime soon). I think KJ stays at second because the Braves need a power bat. They’re not going to sign a power hitting second baseman. Plus the Braves don’t need more outfielders.

Those are the moves I think the Braves won’t make. We’ll see what happens with regards to Andruw Jones, other outfield bats, and Tom Glavine. What do you think? Am I way off base?

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Braves Atop Peavy Heap

The New York Post is reporting that the Braves are atop the Peavy pile and that currently many expect we’ll have Peavy pitching for us next season.

“The Jake Peavy sweepstakes will proceed concurrently with the World Series, and the expectation of major league executives polled over the past two days is that the Braves are going to end up with the Padre right-hander… The Braves…have the base from which to make a deal and a history of packaging youngsters to get veterans they crave such as Mark Teixeira and Tim Hudson. They also are willing to move quickly, as exhibited by the Oct. 29 deal made last year in which they obtained Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez from Detroit for Edgar Renteria, the first major trade of the past offseason. And the Braves appear more motivated than the Cardinals, Cubs or Dodgers to jump out for Peavy.”

That’s what I like to hear. Only question now is how many prospects we have to get rid of to land Peavy for four years.  Yunel Escobar or Kelly Johnson (or both) will likely have to go.  Other names mentioned include Jo-Jo Reyes, Charlie Morton, possibly Tommy Hanson, and even Jordan Schafer.  Who knows what the Braves will be willing to part with, but there are hints they are going to try and keep the carnage as insignificant as possible.  The bottom line with any of the pitching prospects is that we hope they turn into someone like Peavy, and getting Peavy for four years is a pretty good return on a prospect that may not be that good for that long.

Chipper Jones has described Peavy as the “perfect fit” according to the AJC, and also would love to see the Braves go after A.J. Burnet, who will be a free agent.

How you like us now, NL East?

The TJ Club

With Peter Moylan on the brink of season ending reconstructive surgery, we here at BravesBlast thought it would be a good idea to profile the surgery itself as well as some of the Braves that have had the surgery: the list isn’t short.
The surgery itself was developed in 1974 when the now infamous Tommy John developed a pain in his elbow as well as a noticeable drop in velocity. After tests, Dr. Frank Jobe diagnosed John with a torn UCL, ulnar collateral ligament. The UCL is the ligament in the elbow that connects the upper arm bone (humerus) to the ulna and radius of the forearm.

At the time, there was no reconstruction and recovery procedure for the injury and pitchers that suffered from a torn or “compromised” (like Moylan) ligament were doomed to sit out the rest of their days. Dr. Frank Jobe decided to try a new, unheard of procedure on John. He hypothesized that if he could use a tendon from another part of the body (most likely the arm or leg) and attach it to the elbow, it would grow into a ligament. Jobe tried the procedure but had to wait an entire year to witness the results of the surgery.

Jobe was delighted to see that the surgery was a success. John went on to a 10-10 record in his first season back, 1976. John went on to pitch 13 more seasons in the bigs and compiled a 288-231 record and had a 3.34 career ERA.

With John being the first to successfully complete a rehab from the UCL surgery, the reconstructive procedure took on his name and to this day is considered a pitcher’s best friend.

Now as far as its ties to the Braves go, several pitchers on our staff have had the surgery already:

John Smoltz – In 1999 Smoltzie started throwing with a side-arm and three quarters-arm delivery. I don’t know if this is what caused the UCL tear or if he pitched that way because of arm troubles, but it was fairly effective. Smoltz went 11-8 with a 3.19 ERA. Smoltz pretty much lost all or part of five years with the surgery as a starter. It’s probably that he would be a 300 game winner, or at least within reach of the milestone. But there’s another one he can get to at this point: 200 saves.

Mike Hampton – Wow…what more is there to say about Hampton. He was off to what looked like a career year for the Braves before having fore-arm soreness in May on 2005. He made one more start that year towards the end, before electing to have the procedure. He sat out all of 2006 rehabbing from the injury, but unfortunately tore another ligament in the same elbow.

Rafael Soriano – Soriano was supposed to be a great relief pitcher for the Mariners. He struck out 68 in 53 innings in 2004 with a 1.53 ERA, but had to have the surgery late in 2004. He pitched well in 2006, but had to sit out the last month with a severe concussion after getting hit with a line drive in the head. The Braves then traded for him and he has had mixed success in his time with the Braves. Luckily the MRI on Soriano’s elbow came back negative for anything serious.

Jorge Campillo – Campillo also pitched for the Mariners (what is with us and getting players from AL west teams, a few from the A’s and a couple from the Mariners and one big one from the Rangers). He debuted in 2005, but quickly required the surgery after just two appearances. He was released after rehabbing because the team was not pleased with his progress. He signed with the Braves this past offseason and has been a great addition to the roster.

Jeff Bennett – Bennett pitched one season with the Brewers going 1-5 in 60 appearances. Bennett required the surgery in 2006 after spending 2005-06 in the minors. Bennett signed with the Braves after the 2006 season and spent much of 2007 in the minors. During the September call-ups, Bennett proved he could pitch in the majors and won a spot as the long-reliever/spot starter in spring training.

Among other pitchers in the Braves organization, Anthony Lerew underwent the surgery after two starts last season and is currently rehabbing.

Kelly Johnson also underwent the surgery after a tear on a throw from the outfield during the 2005 season. Braves personnel decided to shift him to second base (he was originally drafted as a short stop) to avoid any further injuries to his arm. He sat out the entire 2006 season, but has returned the Braves lineup as an asset as the leadoff man.

With more and more pitchers electing to get this surgery on a regular basis, it poses the question, “what’s the best way to pitch?” Pitchers get hurt pitching overhand, side arm, whatever. Is there really a perfect way to pitch to avoid injuries? So far Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux may be the best examples of two pitchers that have avoided pitching-related injuries for as long as they have.

Home Dominance: Reds Swept

The Braves are 11-4 at home so far this season (now if only we weren’t 4-11 on the road) and it was a much needed 3-game sweep of the Reds after we had dropped 4 straight on the road.  We’ve been pretty lax about getting game recaps up lately, so I’m going to do my best to give a quick recap of the Reds series:

Game 1 – Friday – Braves 2, Reds 0
Friday night’s game was an absolute gem for Tim Hudson.  We’ve been a bit worried about Hud lately with his visible lack of speed and inability to get deep into a game.  But Friday night, he looked like the Tim Hudson we expect to see on the mound.  He threw a complete game, 3-hit shutout of the Reds, while striking out 10 and not issuing a walk.  The offense didn’t really provide much support outside of a two-run home run for Brian McCann in the bottom of the 4th, but who needs it when you have a pitching outing like that.  Hudson only seems to be doing well in every other start however, so we’ll see how he looks next time out.

Game 2 – Saturday – Braves 9, Reds 1
I’m not going to lie.  I was worried going into the game on Saturday with Jo-Jo Reyes making his first big league start for the Braves this season.  Jo-Jo has tended to pitch amazingly well in the minors and then not been up to snuff when he made his appearances in the bigs.  For 5 innings on Saturday, however, he looked decent.  His control fell apart in the top of the 6th and Bobby Cox wisely got him out of the game.  This was definitely the right decision for the team as a whole and for Jo-Jo’s confidence in his ability to pitch.  Through 5 1/3 innings, Reyes issued 4 hits and only gave up 1 run while striking out 5.  He gave up three walks as well, all in the top of the 6th.  The offense helped seal up the win for Jo-Jo with a 6-run bottom of the 7th.  The Braves had 7 doubles on the day.

Game 3 – Sunday – Braves 14, Reds 7
Yesterday’s game can best be described as a slug-fest with the teams putting up a combined 30 hits and 21 runs.  Tom Glavine didn’t have his best stuff for the game, going only 4 2/3 innings and giving up 6 runs.  Royce Ring came in to finish off the 5th inning, and, by throwing one pitch, gained the win on the day.  The offense looked stellar yesterday however, bolstered by 3 doubles from Kelly Johnson (which gave him 5 doubles in two games) and home runs from Chipper Jones and Mark Kotsay.  Chipper had a total of 5 RBIs on the day.

Overall, I know the Reds aren’t really a great team in the league this season, but the sweep was just what the Braves needed at this point.  They’re back to .500 baseball again with a record of 15-15 and have an off-day today before a three-game set at home against the Padres.

Braves Dominated By Marlins

I’d like to consider myself a good sport.  Sure, I can trash-talk with the best of them. Especially if it’s about giving the Mets a hard time.  But generally, I am good about recognizing excellence, even when it comes in the guise of a non-Braves uniform.

And I’d like to be able to tip my hat, in a gentlemanly manner, to Marlins starter Scott Olsen. Sure, he went seven innings without walking a guy or giving up a run. I’d like to say our team just knuckled under to his superior talents and couldn’t score on his pitching wizardry.

But I can’t. Because he stinks.

Not as a person, maybe, but as a pitcher. Every number he had last year was considerably worse than the year before. In fact, the fish, as a team, had one of the worst ERA’s in baseball headed into tonight.

So what happened? Simply put: the Braves stunk worse.

At every turn, we (and yes, I will continue to say “we” when the team loses) gave up opportunities, failed to wake up the offense, and above all, really let down Jair Jurrjens’ solid showing. To be honest, Jurrjens has not pitched a bad game this season.

The Braves went down to Florida hoping to compensate for the recent spat of pitching injuries by busting out some offense on one of the WORST pitching staffs in baseball.  Alas, it was not to be so.

Want to know how bad? You sure? Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Six hits-with two apiece coming from two different players.  Never mind that Jurrjens went six and gave up only two earned runs.  And the two that Ohman walked in didn’t improve matters any. But say he hadn’t walked in two. That would leave us still with a big fresh goose egg in the offensive column.

Yes, I am a “homer.” I drink from the Braves Koolaid^TM 24/7. But I also pride myself on calling a black cat black. And the Braves just stunk tonight.  We’ve got to find that one thing that can turn this around. Any suggestions?

Well, on the bright side, Kelly Johnson’s hitting streak was extended to 11 games.

Braves Crush Mets, 11-5

In a rainy matchup, the Braves’ offense took it to the Mets’ pitching in yesterday’s matchup that pitted John Maine against Tim Hudson.  Maine never really settled into a groove of looking comfortable, walking three and giving up eight hits and four runs in only four innings of work.  Hudson looked decently strong in his outing, issuing six hits, striking out four, throwing no walks, and giving up three earned runs through six innings.  The Braves provided the needed run support to give Hudson his first win of the season.  I still think Maine will have a solid season for the Mets, he just struggled to find the needed consistency in yesterday’s game.

The Braves got on the board early by scoring in the first inning and continued to do so throughout the game.  Kelly Johnson sealed the victory in the 7th while pinch hitting for Peter Moylan with the bases loaded.  Johnson drove one deep over the right field wall for a grand slam, putting the Braves up 9-3 at the time.  The Mets and Braves both scored 2 in the 8th to bring the final score to 11-5.  Hopefully the Braves saved some offense for today’s game that surely will be a pitcher’s duel.

The strange point in the game came in the Mets’ half of the 5th inning.  The bases were loaded with 1 out for Jose Reyes, who drove a sharp line drive to center.  Mark Kotsay made a diving stab at the ball, but apparently was a trap instead of a catch.  I had to confirm with JB from BravesBlog.net as he was enjoying the game in the dry warmth of his home instead of sitting out in the cold rain with the rest of us.  Kotsay relayed the ball back to the infield into what was originally scored a 8-2-4 double play.  In one of the stranger moments I’ve seen in baseball, the call was actually reversed, the runners were sent back to the bases and the Braves were sent back out in to the field.  In the end, it proved irrelevant.

Today’s matchup is the much awaited meeting of John Smoltz and Johan Santana.  Two aces of their respective staffs, facing off against one another.  This is what baseball is really all about.

Jurrjens Takes The Mound vs. Pirates

Jair Jurrjens takes the mound tonight in his first start for the Atlanta Braves.  He’ll take the mound opposite Tom Gorzelanny, who is coming off a 14 win season with the Pirates.  This should be a good game, and I hope Jair gets past the jitters to pitch well in his Braves debut.

Kelly Johnson may play – let’s hope the strained knee he ran into Monday isn’t a factor tonight.  Jurrjens has shown some nerves as of late – he’s publically admitted to being nervous about being in the same starting rotation as Smoltz, Hudson, and Glavine.  His dad has been a Braves fan for years so it’ll be good to see the first big league start from a guy who’s been a Braves fan his entire life.

Will Jurrjens settle and pitch a solid game?  Will Kelly Johnson have more issues with his knee?  And will errors from the infielders or crazy outings by the bullpen throw the game away again?

I’ll be commenting while I watch, so drop on by and hang out, post a few comments.

KJ Day-To-Day With Knee Strain

Second baseman, Kelly Johnson, left the game after the third inning last night due to a mile strain in his right knee.  This isn’t really anything new for Johnson, as it’s something that he played through for most of last season, but apparently the pain was a little too much last night.

KJ aggravated the injury in the bottom of the third while scoring from first on Yunel Escobar’s triple.  Bobby Cox pulled him from the game, replacing him with Martin Prado, as a precaution to make sure that it didn’t get worse.  We’re at the early point in the season where it just doesn’t make sense to make injuries worse by staying in the game.

Johnson’s currently listed as day-to-day so today’s offday will hopefully be enough to get him back out on the field on Wednesday when we face off against the Pirates in the second game of the series.  More updates as we hear them.

Braves Drop Exhibition To Tribe

It was great to go back to Turner Field and watch baseball.  Though the crowd was light, the evening was perfect – the sunset and great weather combined with seeing the Braves made it a great evening.  Unfortunately, the Braves dropped the game 7-1 to the Indians behind a bad fourth inning outing by Blaine Boyer.

Jair Jurrjens got the start, giving up two runs in over three innings of work.  However, one of those runs should be charged to Boyer, who did not look good at all in the fourth after he came in.  Some other quick observations:

• Yunel made some great plays defensively, including a nice leaping catch.  I’m excited to see him play a full season.
• Kotsay made a diving grab in the outfield that scared me a little bit – he seemed to catch his arm a little bit but he came up fine.
• I was impressed by Kotsay on the basepaths.  He stayed alert and stole second when the catcher simply dropped the ball.  Caught everyone off guard.  It resulted in Atlanta’s only run of the day.
• We had a “Andruw would have gotten that” moment tonight – but it was later in the game and I think Gregor Blanco was in center, not Kotsay.  So we won’t pop that counter yet.  At least not until the regular season.
• Chipper still won’t run out infield ground balls.
• Fernando Nunez looked good today.  Never heard of him before today, but he looked good.
• Acosta looks good – he’ll be an important part of our bullpen this season.
• The Kelly Johnson / Yunel Escobar double play duo this season will be fun to watch.  They’re getting in the groove and should be really smooth here soon.

Next up, Hampton starts against the Indians at 1:10 tomorrow.  The Braves will have their 25-man roster done tomorrow at some point too.  They have to have it set before Sunday’s game against the Nationals.