As I post, Boyer is heading in from the bullpen to come on in relief of Carlyle. Top of the seventh and a 5-1 Braves lead. That’s the first run given up in 15 innings.
So I usually do this before a new series starts but the first game is still in progress so I’d say it’s not too late for…
What We’ve Got
Red Hot, Hot, Hot (Not Just Smoking) Chipper- He gave me 18 points for my fantasy team by racking up 2 HRs, 3 R’s, 3 RBI last night and is currently hitting .438 BA if you can believe that.
NL MVP ‘08.
Tonight Chipper is 1-3 with a dinger and….
funny I should be writing about Chipper right now because he just went deep for the second time tonight.
I love you, Chipper.
McCann-Can-Can- The second hottest hitter in the lineup is B-Mac. He’s got a pair of hits tonight and bringing his avg. up to .296. McCann added a HR and a 2B last night. I’d say he’s got his act together.
Mr. 3000 -10 K’s, shutout pitching, last night, and now 5 away from 3000, plus a 3-0 start. Staying healthy, my man John Smoltz will become one of 16 pitchers w/ 3000 K’s. He won’t pitch this weekend but we need him to carry this banged up staff right now.
DL Woes-Moylan, Soriano, Hampton, Gonzalez, Infante, and now Glavine.
But the Pitching- Carlyle, Boyer, Ohman, Bennett, have been filling in alright last two nights.
They’ve Got
Welcome Back- I’ve said it before, I’m not an Andruw Hater… but there’s 15 million overpaid reasons why I’m not sad to see AJ in Dodger Blue. He brings his 16k’s, .151 BA, 2 RBI’s, and goose egg for HR’s back to Atlanta. We love you Andruw but this looks like it’s going to be a long encore performance of 2007- The Hollywood Version.
Speaking of Ex-Bravos- Raffy brings a .286 BA w/ 2 HRs (that’s 200% more than the “slugger” Andruw Jones is hitting), 7 RBI’s and a pair of SB’s.
The Threat in Blue- The guys we need to look out for, Jeff Kent (.296, 3 HRs, 10 RBI’s) Russell Martin (.283, 1 HR, 5 RBI), Andre Ethier (.286, 2 HR, 11 RBI) make up the real threat in LA Lineup.
Lowe’s Woes- Gave up 5 R’s, 3 ER’s, 4 K’s, and now 4.91 ERA. Not all that impressive. We’ll likely get to see Chad Billingsley (0-2, 5.59 ERA, 6/11 BB’s/K’s) and Kuroda (1-1, 2.89 ERA 2/10 BB/K’s), the 3 and 4 starters over the weekend and miss Penny altogether.
Hey Joe- Undoubtedly one of the best managers in baseball is in LA Blues now. Lucky for us we have the #1 best in the home dugout this weekend.
How We Match Up Through Sat and Sun
It looks like this one is in the bag tonight. Chipper has upped his avg with another hit in the 8th to .455.
Starting Pitching- Advantage: Dodgers. Jair Jurrjens and Chuck James will take the hill this weekend against Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda. Although I think Jurrjens can get us a QS, I really don’t feel too good about Glavine on the DL and James coming up to fill in. Kuroda has been good for LA so far and though Billingsley hasn’t been a superstar (sorry to be the pessimist) but I don’t have a lot of confidence in Chuck James’ start. He’s already made 2 trips to Richmond and is only called up because of a late scratch on Glavine.
Lineup- Advantage: Braves. Chipper Surging and Andruw Slumping characterizes how these two lineups matchup. Kent is better than Kelly at 2B but we’ve got McCann and Tex also getting hotter bats lately.
Bench- Slight Advantage: Braves. We’ve got Blanco, Gotay, Pena, Prado off the bench. And although really Gotay is the only one getting on base consistently in pinch hit situations it’s still better than the Dodger’s bench to date. They’ve got Nomar (only 2 AB’s in 2008), Mark Sweeney (.095), Chin-lung Hu (.200), Delwyn Young (.250)
Bullpen- Advantage: Dodgers. Although I don’t think we have a terrible bullpen, but missing Moylan and Soriano makes us a little iffy. Boyer, Carlyle, Ohman and even Campillo, Resop , Acosta have been good as of late. But without the normal go-to guys, I’m not gonna put a lot of stock in our pen yet. Park, Broxton Saito have been standouts for the Dodgers bullpen.
As I wrap this one up, Manny gets us through the 9th and the Braves get a second win in a row. A series win would be nice for the weekend. Unless Chuck James has an amazing performance, I don’t think we can get the sweep but after tonight’s win we stand a chance to get 2 of 3 from the Boys in Blue.
Keep Choppin’
JB in ATL
4 Comments
April 19, 2008 at 11:23 am
I’ve been joking that Chipper’s been playing for two, carrying around Tex’s dead weight so far, but seriously, if he handed over .100 points of BA and a couple of dingers to Tex, he’d still be on fire. He’s going to wrap up the batting title, home run crown, and MVP all in April at this rate.
April 19, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Don’t be too hard on Tex. He’s just doing his best Andruw Jones impression. Apparently if you really suck it up before free agency, Scott Boras can get you $30 mill for 2 years.
The beauty is you can even acquire 16K’s in 16 games and hit .167 w/ 0 HR’s after you land said contract.
April 19, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Nice all around game today. It’s nice to get a couple of quality wins. Don’t look now but the pitching staff has only given up 2 runs in the last 27 innings.
KJ looks pretty timid up there. I hope TP can get him to attack the ball a little.
BH in LA
April 19, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Was that Chuck James who started? I’m impressed.
Jair will take the hill tomorrow and hopefully get us a sweep.