Welcoming Another Aussie; Home Cookin’ is Sweet

Stockman Brought Up

The 6′ 8″ Aussie is up for the pen and the Braves Nation rejoices. He’s been lights out at Richmond and it will be good to have a guy coming in to give Boyer’s arm a rest. Phil’s only given up 2 ERs in 24 innings down on the farm and throws in the mid-nineties, so it’ll be nice to have a strikeout middle reliever to go to.

Just a note: we’re currently sporting nearly the entire Richmond bullpen from last season, with Boyer, Stockman and Acosta sure to see major innings in the coming weeks. But get ready, because if we can get Smoltz, Soriano and Gonzalez back before June, we’re looking at switching out the most inexperienced pen around with a monster. I predict June is going to be a very good month for the Braves.

I have a feeling the Chuck James Era with the big club is over, unless the entire rotation goes on the DL. I can’t help but see Kyle Davies in him. Thanks for the good starts, Chuck. We’ll try to forget all the bad ones.

Waiting for a Bat Awakening

We continue to be on fire at home, winning our 8th straight at Turner last night against the surprising A’s. I’m not sure what to make of this, except this first six weeks of the season has been weird. It’s feast or famine by nearly every measure and the strengths we thought we had coming into the season look nothing like we thought they would.

The offense is to blame for the majority of the 1 run losses (11 and counting, 9 of which have been on the road), though Kotsay made sure we didn’t falter last night (Andruw who?). I was predicting we would sniff 900 runs this season and we still might, but as now we’re going to struggle to score 800. It’s not season-defining, but the scoring hasn’t been what we’d have hoped.

Like JB said the other day, Tex needs to start producing. The early season is over and we’re getting close to June, so he needs to overcome these early woes and stop hitting into double plays. He’s got 6 so far and his hitting just .205 with RISP in 44 ABs.

Tonight’s Game

A dynamic pitching matchup of the A’s Past and Future. Huddy gets his first crack at his home team in a Braves uniform against Rich Harden, the future of the A’s resurgent young club. The A’s are an interesting team, always there at the fringe with a low payroll and lots of young talent that goes elsewhere when they have any success. Last night’s close win was satisfying, and if Huddy keeps pitching the way he has the last three starts (he’s 3-0 and has only given up 3 runs, 11 hits and 5 walks combined) we’ll have another home win to celebrate. Harden hasn’t pitched more than 6 innings so far in his first three starts of the year and he gave up 5 runs to the Rangers in 3 and 2/3rds.

My prediction: Huddy pitches 8 and gives up 2 runs, Braves win it 6-2, with a couple of doubles from Francoeur and a Teixeira homer (Somebody’s gotta have some faith in them.)

~BH in LA

What Went Right Last Night; You Can Shave The Beard Now, Matt

Turner Field 

Playing at home and that helps. In fact we’ve just won our 8th home game in a row and we look like a good team on Turner Field turf. 

Perhaps the visiting Celtics passed their road curse onto us when they were visiting the Hawks during the first round. Because 4-14 just ain’t right.

RBI’s vs LOB’s

With runners in scoring position the Braves got three crucial RBI’s thanks to McCann, Frenchy, and a very timely late inning knock by Kotsay. Seeing the guys in the heart of the lineup get simple, pertinent hits when needed, instead of swinging for the fences is the way to win ball games. Chipper scored one of those runs because… well he’s always on base! (Make that .423 mid way through May, Mr. MVP). 

Bullpen

Despite it being one of Jurrjens less impressive starts, he only gave up 2 ER’s and went 5 mostly strong innings. Even his off night is amazing by comparison to Chuck James’ best appearance in 2008. He wasn’t in line to get the win but the bullpen came through in a big way.

These guys act like they don’t care if our three best relievers are absent and if they never come back again. Ohman, Bennett, and Acosta combined for 4 scoreless innnings, 4 K’s, 2 BB’s, and only 1 hit. Manny is pitching like a completely different reliever since that embarrassment at Nationals Park. He’s only allowed 2 ER’s since that loss and he got his second win with a 1-2-3 ninth last night. 

Matt Diaz

You can shave the beard now, Matt. He broke his 0-11 slump with a hit in his only at bat. I don’t know if that was a rally beard or not but it’s nice to see him make a step in the right direction. Now if only Teixeira can get on track. 

Now,

Let’s make it 9 in a row at home and get the series win and go for the sweep on Sunday. 

 

Keep Choppin’,

JB in ATL

 

Time To Rally Against the Elephants

So at least we’ve battled back to get the game tied up with the Athletics in the bottom of the seventh.

Devine is pitching against his old teammates and Kotsay has made it into the game.

I know it’s a little late in the game but I’ll be threading through the bottom three innings.

What Needs To Change- At Least We Don’t Play Pittsburgh Again

Let’s not be too pessimistic. 

In fact none of us were during the perfect home stand we just had. Although, that was just before getting embarrassingly bludgeoned by the Bucs and dropping the opener to the Phils.

Now that we plated 8 in last night’s contest against the Phillies and got the win (the 6 runs given up after an 8-0 lead is a little discouraging but this has been a rare hiccup in the bullpen lately) we have a chance to win the series tonight and go back home with our heads not hanging quite so low.

But what could we be doing differently? What could turn us around from being a 20-19 team keeping our heads above water and somehow behind the Marlins in the standings? Granted, we’re only 2.5 games behind and in May that doesn’t mean much. But it gets late early out there as Yogi used to say. 

With that said we need to see…

Kelly pick it up at leadoff- He’s not abysmal. He’s just not quite above average in the leadoff spot yet. Hitting .278, 4 HR’s (added one last night), 16 RBI’s, and even 4 SB’s. But the OBP is not too impressive at .345. What can Kelly do? Get more walks and strike out a little less to put it simply. He’s got 14 BB to 23 K’s so far. The 9 doubles are a good start but that number needs to go up too for him to be a true leadoff hitter. I’m knocking KJ but having a spark at the top will be a big boost to an offense that needs to get it together on a consistent basis. 

Tex be a cleanup hitter- In all likelihood this is the only full season Mark will be around. Personally I’d like to get our money’s worth before Boras ships him off to some big spender. Everyone likes to talk about Tex’s slow springs but it’s halfway through May at this point and .254, 5 HR’s, and 21 RBI’s is not pathetic but it’s not what your cleanup guy should be producing. Let’s just say it now, at least he’s not hitting .179 1 HR, 6 RBI’s (ahem). 

Diaz to get hot- Only 5 for his last 24. Although he’s been sharing some time with Blanco, who is hitting .309 and making a case for the return of the platoon, Matt’s 0-5′er against Pittsburgh is making his stock go down. While I’m talking about corner infielders, Frenchy needs to get the stick working again too. Last year he led the club with RBI’s and while .275 w/ 24 RBI’s is good enough for a lot of clubs… we all know Jeff’s potential. 

Braves start bringing ‘em all home- Although the Braves benefited from some timely hitting yesterday; during the first half of the twin bill on Monday the Braves left 15 runners on base. Now to be fair, 4 of them came at the cost of  Jurrjens’ whimpy pitcher’s bat, but that still leaves 11 men that the regulars need to bring home. Not to be too mean to Matt again but his 0-5 day was also responsible for 5 LOB’s. 

Hit the Road, Chuck…-I know we don’t have Mike Hampton or John Smoltz in the starting rotation but even Jo-Jo Reyes has been better than the guy who managed to go 11-4 in 2006. James has a 7.58 ERA out of 19 IP’s and is making more of a case to pitch in Kansas City by the All Star Break than to stay with the Braves through 2008. He’s at 11 BB’s to 17 K’s with a 1.58 WHIP and he hasn’t lasted more than 6 innings. In fact, the one time he did go six it was while giving up 5 runs to the Pirates. 

Other than that, it’s the same ol’ story. Win on the road and win one run games. I’m not gonna harp on this one because we get to hear Joe Simpson and everyone else with a microphone talk about it plenty. But look at the numbers; 5-15 on the road and 1-11 in one run games. Change both of those records to at least .500 and you’re looking at 16 more wins. There was actually a part of me that wanted to Phillies to score one more run last night just so we could win another one-run game. But that’s stupid. 

Let’s beat the Phillies tonight whaddya say?

 

Keep Choppin’

JB in ATL

 

 

 

Double Dip and Road Woes

Double Dip

Great baseball day today. I’m fortunate enough to be able to listen to the game from the desk while I’m working, so it’s pretty great to have Braves baseball on for an entire shift. But the beautiful homestead has given way to a very dark start to the road trip.

Today, JJ and Huddy get a chance to shut down a streaking Pirates team we’re 1-5 against so far this year. KJ is sitting again today (he’s been terrible leading off the last two weeks so this is probably a good move) and Infante getting a chance to lead off and play 2nd. I’m predicting a sweep of the double dip. We score a lot of runs today.

Road Woes

This team sucks on the road, and unless they start scoring some important runs in other people’s ballparks, they’re going to win 83 games. At home they’re hitting .316 and slugging .477. On the road, they’re hitting .248 and slugging 80 points lower. They’ve scored 110 runs at home, only 63 on the road. The pitching has been fairly consistent (though the ERA is much higher on the road, the run differential is only +4 at home) so this disparity falls almost entirely on the offense. What is it? I don’t know, but it’s got me really worried.

Here are our biggest offenders with the wimpy road bat: Diaz hitting .192 (with 16 Ks in 52 ABs), KJ hitting .213, and Frenchy leading the lightweights at .224. These guys have got to get themselves together if we’re going to rebalance this Road-Away disaster.

**That Sucked

Game 1 = microcosm of why we now have the diametrically opposite record on the road that we have a home. 4-14. FIFTEEN MEN LEFT ON! Makes you want to skip game 2. Get it together guys!

~BH in LA