Looks Like The Braves Won’t Have Home Field Advantage In The World Series This Year

That’s right folks, you heard it here first: looks like the Braves won’t have home field advantage in the World Series this year.

The main flaw from last night’s All-Star game is that Brian McCann only got one at-bat. Let’s be honest: He’s way better than this Yadier Molina character. It’s just that, well, St. Louis fans apparently voted a lot this year because the All-Star game was in their city. So Yadier started, McCann only got one at-bat, and didn’t really get a chance to win the game for the NL. Obviously, it’s Charlie Manuel’s fault.

Our worst fears are confirmed: When the Braves make a run and outright win the NL East this year (and it will happen, mark my words), and when we sweep the Division Championship against the Cubs, and after we win the NL Championship 4-2 against the Phillies, we won’t have home field advantage in the World Series.

What are the ramifications of this, you ask? I’ll tell you:

• If you want to go to all the games, you’ll have to buy 1 (one) additional round trip plane ticket per person, as well as additional away game tickets.
• Charlie Manuel will laugh at us because he’ll think it serves us right for beating them.
• Brian McCann has a brooding hate for all things Phillies. Which is the way it should be.
• The Mets don’t care, because they’re so old they can’t contend.

In an attempt to soften the blow of the Braves not having home field advantage in the World Series and in a futile attempt to change that to “The Phillies won’t have home field advantage in the World Series,” the Phillies have signed the old and decrepid Pedro Martinez. They immediately put him on the DL. And I’m not making that up – that’s just funny.

Oh, and Yunel Escobar is apparently being shopped around. Maybe we can land a big bat after all. Maybe? Please, baseball gods, please?

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.

Campillo to DL, Injury Updates

The Braves have struggled in the past couple of seasons keeping people healthy and playing and the 2009 season looks like it’s not getting off to much different of a start.  There has been a good bit of injury-related news for the Braves in the last 24 hours so we figured a quick update was in store:

Jorge Campillo is the first of the Braves pitching staff (a pitching staff that is all too familiar with the DL, mind you) to make a trip to the disabled list since the start of the season.  After yesterday’s game against the Marlins, it was announced that Campillo will be placed on the DL with right shoulder fatigue.  He has complained of having a “dead arm” since pitching for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic and playing winter ball.  The outlook for Campillo is a little vague right now and he will be evaluated over the next couple of days.  James Parr will be called up from Gwinnett to replace Campillo on the roster.

Yunel Escobar came up lame in yesterday’s game while running out a grounder to first base.  The injury however, a strained abdominal muscle, happened while he was warming up in the on-deck circle.  Braves fans are accustomed to seeing Yunel jumping up and down in the on-deck circle before heading to the plate, which apparently was the cause of the injury.  I’m sure he won’t stop doing it however.  The Braves think it may be three or four games before Yunel is back in the lineup, despite Escobar’s confidence that he could play tonight against Pittsburgh.

Chipper Jones continues to battle the bruised left thumb that has kept him out of the last two games.  He reaggravated the injury while getting jammed against the Marlins on Tuesday.  He is expected to miss tonight’s game against the Pirates, but could be back in the lineup Saturday.  The thumb only bothers him on his left-handed swing.  His play on Sunday will be dependent on how he feels as the Pirates will be sending right-handed Zach Duke to the mound.

David Ross was activated from the disabled list before yesterday’s game and took the start in place of Brian McCann behind the plate.  Don’t worry though, Braves fans, it was just a regularly scheduled off-day for Mac.  Clint Sammons was optioned to AAA to make room on the roster for Ross.  He had been on the DL since straining a groin muscle in a March 31st preseason game.  Ross gives the Braves a little bit of power in the backup catcher role and he should be a good fill-in for the days when McCann needs to be rested.

So the left side of the infield is a little battered and bruised aready, with Chipper and Yunel both missing time, but the Braves aren’t expected to call up another infielder. Infante and Prado are quite capable and handling the load and we should see the starters back in the lineup soon.  Let’s just hope this is nothing serious for Campillo and that he recovers quickly.  I don’t want the pitching staff to start getting too familiar with being injured yet again.

Yunel Escobar: Predicting 2009

Yunel Escobar had his first full season starting last year and it’s time to guess what he’s going to do in 2009. Now in case you missed it, Escobar was drafted in the 2nd round of the amateur draft in 2005. He played in 2007 behind Edgar Renteria and once Renteria was traded to the Tigers, he started at shortstop last year. In his first full season he batted .288 with 10 HRs and 60 RBIs, and walked more than in 2007. He batted second 57% of the time, first 30% of the time, and batted most of the rest of the time in the third spot.

What does Escobar do in 2009? I think he bats second. We’ll throw Josh Anderson / Gregor Blanco in the leadoff slot and let Escobar hit second. Chipper is third, and it’ll go on from there. Escobar’s average jumped up .40 points batting third last year, but that’s Chipper’s spot as long as he wants it. Escobar will continue to mature as a player and hopefully we’ll see an improvement over last year – which wasn’t really a sophomore slump – but it wasn’t as phenomenal as his first year. Bobby Cox deemed Escobar a future all-star last offseason, and we hope he turns into that player in the coming couple of years.

So now the time comes to pull numbers out of my keister. Once again, don’t bet on this. I’m not qualified to be doing this, but neither is anybody else. My prediction for Yunel Escobar in 2009 is as follows:

.298 BA, 16 HRs, 73 RBIs, 55 strikeouts, 65 walks, 30 doubles, and… oh I dunno, 80 runs scored.

Go ahead, tell me how you disagree. Then pull numbers out of thin air and we’ll argue. I’m looking forward to see Escobar this coming year – I hope to see him improve as he matures. Give him another few years and we’ll see the All Star player we hope to see.

Source: Furcal Coming Back To Braves

Fox Sports reports that Rafael Furcal is close to signing with the Braves and that a contract agreement will be announced today. The contract is believed to be for three years with a vesting option for a fourth. Assuming this report is true (you all remember how Furcal played for Atlanta – the only thing you need know is he had back issues in 2008 but was quite productive after he returned), what are we supposed to think?

Option 1

We have the most awesome double-play combo in the history of baseball. Watching Furcal and Yunel up the middle will be wicked-sick. Imagine the range and speed you’ll see displayed this season. That’d be ridiculous-awesome. Don’t know where Kelly Johnson would go, though.

Option 2

Yunel Escobar is now trade bait. He was the cornerstone of the Jake Peavy discussions and could potentially be used if the Braves made another offer to the Padres for Peavy. Furcal would play up the middle with Kelly Johnson, and maybe we’d see a pitcher come to Atlanta via trade. Escobar has quite a future in front of him, and many teams would love to see him on their roster.

Either way, I’m not sure how I feel about Furcal signing. If we’d already traded Escobar for someone else, I’d feel a lot better, but it feels like we’re signing Furcal with nowhere to put him. I’m sure Frank Wren and his genius staff have a plan, so I can trust them on this, but I want to know what they’re going to do to make our pitching staff not suck. This sure doesn’t fill the role of the power bat we need either.

What do you think? What are your thoughts?

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?

Braves News Bits

There are a lot of little stories going on about the Braves recently, but nothing that really warrants a full article, so I’m just going to throw them together and make an article out of it:

Smoltz, Soriano, Gonzalez – Bobby Cox believes that all three of these guys could be off the disabled list and in the bullpen in the next two weeks.  Smoltz has been rather quiet about the condition of his shoulder.  Soriano has made the first of two planned rehab assignments in AA Mississippi.  Gonzalez has been throwing in extended spring training and is expected to be evaluated in Atlanta next week in preparation for rehab assignments.  These three will change the face of our bullpen a lot; the question at this point is, who will be moved to make room on the roster?

Yunel Escobar – Yunel missed last night’s game against the Mets after a collision with Ryan Church on the last out of the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader.  Escobar still has some pain and swelling below his knee and is questionable for tonight’s game.  He’s currently planning on being back for the wrap-around series against the Diamondbacks this weekend.

Chipper Jones – After taking a pitch of the shin in last night’s game, Chipper is experiencing a bit of soreness but says that it feels a lot better today than it did as he left the game yesterday, hardly able to put any weight on it.  He’s questionable tonight, but we need him in the game.  We all know how the offense performs when he’s out of the lineup.  Losing Chipper and Escobar against the Mets seems common this season.

Turner Field Death – As we talked about through the night, Justin Hayes has died from the injuries suffered in his 150-foot fall from the stairwell in Turner Field last night.  As part of the Braves community, we are saddened by this news and offer our condolences to his family and friends.  This is the first non-medical death at Turner Field since it was constructed for the 1996 Olympic Games.

Hank Aaron Is Awesome -  Just to reiterate the fact that I think Hank Aaron is one of the greatest baseball players ever, I’ve decided to close this article with a recent Aaron quote.  “But seriously, I think Bonds has done wonderfully. I think he had a marvelous career. I had it for a long time. Seven-fifty-five was there for a long time.” Hank went on to say what we all already know is true, “I still consider myself the home-run king”.

Braves Injury Updates

It has been a tough season on the injury-front for the Braves already this season, especially when we take a look at our pitching staff.  I figured we could use today’s off-day to do a quick review of where we stand with a lot of the injuries that are plaguing the team on both sides of the ball thus far.  We need most (and preferably all) of these guys healthy if we want to have a hope at returning to the playoffs this season:

Chipper Jones – Chipper missed the last two games with spasms in his lower back.  This is a tricky injury that could be gone in a minute or stick around for a couple of weeks.  Chipper’s tough though and if there’s any chance of him playing, he’s not going to miss a game.  He’s still having some trouble rotating his body though, so we may see him miss another game or two.  He should hopefully be back by the time the Braves return to Turner Field this weekend.

Yunel Escobar – Yunel cracked his fingernail trying to lay down a bunt in Friday night’s game and missed the games on Saturday and Sunday as a result.  Bobby Cox said there’s an outside chance that we’ll see Yunel play Tuesday night.  The swelling in his finger is going down but he’s still unable to really grip a bat and I’m sure he’ll be severely crippled by the injury in the field as well.  I look for him to be back in the lineup by the time the Braves head back to Atlanta as well.

John Smoltz – Smoltz has been bothered off and on by soreness between his neck and shoulder.  He was strong in his two previous starts before coming out of the game after only 3 innings yesterday.  In his postgame interviews, Smoltz gave a less than positive impression of how he was feeling, saying that he doesn’t know if this is more than just muscle tightness.  Losing Smoltz would be a huge blow to our already crippled pitching staff, but if a month on the DL would keep him healthier through the rest of the season, it’s for the best.  I’m sure we’ll hear more on this soon as Smoltz may head back to Atlanta for medical evaluation.

Tom Glavine – Glavine’s expected to return from the disabled list to make his start this Tuesday.  Tommy has been out for a couple of weeks after leaving a game in the first inning with tightness in his hamstring.  His stint on the DL has gone smoothly however and the Braves are confident that he’ll be ready to go against the Nationals tomorrow night.

Mike Hampton – How can there be an injury report without a man by the name of Mike Hampton.  Hampton’s still looking to make his first start in the majors since 2005 after a slew of injuries.  The latest was straining a pectoral muscle while warming up for a start at Turner Field earlier this season.  Hampton made a start with AAA Richmond this past week and went three innings.  I’d look for at least one more rehab start in Richmond before he heads back to Atlanta to make another attempt at starting.  He joined up with the team in New York this past weekend however and spent some time playing catch pregame.

Peter Moylan – Losing Moylan for the remainder of the season is a scary prospect, but is highly likely at this point in time.  Moylan is currently on the 15-day disabled list with a bone spur in his elbow that has compromised his UCL.  Later this week, he will be reevaluated to make a determination as to whether or not he will need to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair the ligament.  I say that if this is the determination that is made, they shouldn’t waste any time in getting the surgery done to give Moylan as much time to recover as possible.  Tommy John usually requires a year at the minimum for recovery and rehab.

Mike Gonzalez – Gonzalez made an appearance in extended spring training last week throwing 12 pitches.  He still has a ways to go to be ready to pitch in the majors, but hopefully after a month or so more of rehab, we’ll be able to look to him to take a spot in the bullpen.

Rafael Soriano – Soriano’s elbow troubles continue to plague him.  When his stint on the 15-day disabled list was over, he was definitely not ready to come back to pitch.  We need Soriano healthy to take his spot as the closer, especially with Moylan down and out as well.  We’ll have to rely on Acosta for now until we get Soriano back.  Soriano threw a bullpen session last week and experienced some lingering discomfort in the elbow, but will continue to try throwing over the next week.

So there are the current injuries that are hampering the team.  On the offensive side, we desperately need Chipper and Yunel back in the lineup as they are great producers on that side of the ball.  Most of our problems lie in pitching however; 3 of our 5 starters are on this list as well as a number of key bullpen members.  Without pitching, we’re not going to go very far this season.

Smoltz Tries To Snag Series Win

After falling in another one-run loss yesterday to the Mets (12-11), the Braves (12-12) look to John Smoltz (3-1, 0.78) to capture the series win against the division rivals.  Smoltz is hot right now, striking out a total of 20 in his last two outings combined.   He also leads all of MLB with an average of 7.75 strikeouts per game. With the 3000K milestone behind him now, he can just focus on getting the wins.

The Braves are still lacking the offensive and defensive prowess of Yunel Escobar and Chipper Jones today, which was visibly a problem in yesterday’s game.  The lineup today as a result is a little strange, with Francouer moving up into the three-spot ahead of Teixeira.  We’ll see how this pans out compared to yesterday’s offense, which struggled to put runs together.

A win today would move the Braves to 4-1 against the Mets this season and back above .500 (and the Mets in the division standings).  Of all pitchers to have on the mound, Smoltz is the one you want to have to close out a rivalry series.  The Mets are bringing Nelson Figueroa(1-1, 4.05) to face Smoltz.  Figueroa has struggled at times this season, giving up 9 earned runs in 20 innings of work.

Braves Look To Stay Perfect Against Mets

The Braves (12-11) are a perfect 3-0 against the Mets (11-11) so far this season and they look to stay on this course today. Tim Hudson (3-1, 2.93) has looked sharp thus far this season as the front end of our great 1-2 punch in the rotation.  Today he’ll face off against John Maine (1-2, 3.57) who has been streaky this season but is very capable of putting together a good outing.

The Braves’ll be missing a few key players today however.  Yunel Escobar is out with his injured hand from a bunt-gone-bad in last night’s game.  He’ll be replaced by Brent Lillibridge who was called up from Richmond last night.  Chipper Jones has also been scratched with back spasms.  He will be replaced by Martin Prado.  These could be key offensive and defensive injuries for the Braves.  We’ll see the effect it has.

The Mets are struggling right now so hopefully we can keep on them.  It’s time for Saturday afternoon baseball!

Marlins Beat Braves 6-5

At this point, one has to ask – will the Braves ever win a one-run game?  After the loss to the Marlins, the Braves are 0-7 in one-run games.  That’s right, 7 out of our 9 losses were lost by one run.

Tim Hudson, normally the stopper when we’re on a losing streak, did not look good after giving up four runs in just three innings of work.  His fastball was topping out just over 85 mph, and his control was not there.  Cox pulled him after just three innings because, “His arm was kind of dead.”

The Braves plated a run in the first, and then Yunel Escobar hit a two run home run in the fifth inning to bring the game to 4-3, but even a two-run rally in the eighth couldn’t help the Braves get out of the hole they dug early.  On the bright side, Jorge Campillo pitched three hitless innings and he’s looking good.  Not a bad guy to have in the ‘pen – and if he can keep it up, he’ll be one of the go-to long relievers.

Of course the worst part of all this is the loss.  The Braves are now 5-9 and in fourth place in the NL East.  They’re 0-7 in one-run games.  And something has to turn around soon.

It’ll happen, but one has to wonder how long we wait before the Braves look the way they should in our minds.

Jurrjens Impresses, Braves Win 10-2

It’s not often you hear Bobby Cox call someone “sensational” – especially a young pitcher after their first start.  But Bobby didn’t hesitate to pull it out when talking about the 22 year old starter Jair Jurrjens, who made his first big league start for the Braves tonight.  Jurrjens went 5.1 innings, struck out five, and gave up two earned runs on seven scattered hits and one walk.  He notched not only his, but the Braves’ first win this season.

I was really impressed by Jurrjens.  In the post-game interview, he kept beating himself up for the one walk.  He didn’t seem happy or self-absorbed with the win or the five strikeouts.  He didn’t mention the nasty changeup he throws without hesitation.  He was upset with himself for the one walk and kept saying how he needs to limit the walks this season.  Jurrjens didn’t even get in trouble until the sixth inning.  And his fastball was around 93-94 all night long.

The bats weren’t silent either.  Martin Prado started the evening at second in place of the injured Kelly Johnson (knee, day-to-day), and kicked the game off with a triple.  Chipper knocked him in.  Prado would go on to reach base 3 out of 5 times to the plate, scoring each of those times.  Matt Diaz added a homer in the fourth.

Going into the 8th, the Braves led 3-2, before the floodgates opened.  Both Yunel Escobar and Mark Teixeira broke out the long ball – Tex launching a two-run homer and Yunel going yard to put a three spot on the board.  Add a few singles here and there, and the Braves ended up putting seven runs on the board in the eighth.  Will Ohman came in and closed out the game in the ninth.

Great to see the Braves get their first win on the board – especially with the offense really clicking in the eighth.  Jurrjens is going to be something special.  He’s soft-spoken and modest, and has nasty stuff to back it up.  He is willing to learn from the older guys and will really benefit from that throughout the season.  Hopefully we’ll continue to have Teixeira break out the bat, as he had a slow spring.  Also good to see our bullpen pitch 3.2 innings of scoreless relief.  We’ll take that.

Braves are 1-2 and showing signs of life.  Hampton on the mound tomorrow for Atlanta.  Here’s praying he can stay alive through it.