From Baseball Prospectus...

"It might be a couple weeks since "Shark Week" on cable, but two of the
steely-teethed sharks in the baseball world--Walt Jocketty and John Schuerholz--are slowly closing in on deals. Multiple sources say that both teams have waited out the initial "feeding frenzy" and that their GMs will come in at
the last minute with "solid deals."'

Braves 9, Pirates 6

The Braves scored 7 times in the 6th inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-6.

Kyle Davies (5-3) started, and had a rough 1st inning. He walked 2 then gave up a 3 run homer to Jason Bay. After that he was terrific, going 6 innings, giving up the 3 runs on just 2 hits, 3 walks, and struck out a season-high 8 batters.

Blaine Boyer came in and overpowered the Pirates in the 7th. He hurt himself though in the 8th, leaving the game with a strained lower back. He is day-to-day. I think it was already affecting him as he gave up a hit and a walk in the 8th. Kolb came on to give up the rookie's runs and give up another run, and to narrow it down to a save situation for Reitsma. Reitsma pitched a 1-2-3 9th against the bottom of the order for his 13th save.

Jeff Francoeur is in a hot streak of almost Andruw Proportions. He homered in the 4th to cut a 3-0 lead to 3-2, and doubled in 2 runs in the 6th to take the lead. He was robbed of yet another double late in the game.

Andruw led off the bottom of the 6th with a routine groundball that suddenly took the most bizarre hop I've ever seen in my 10 and a half years of watching baseball. It bounced over shortstop Jack Wilson's head for a leadoff single. The rest of the inning then progressed as follows: Walk. Double. Double. Double. Single. Sac fly. Triple. Sac fly. The Braves had a 9-3 lead, and hung on from there.

Offensive contributors: Francoeur was 2-4 with his 6th big league homer, his 19th overall on the season, doubled, had 4 RBIs, and scored twice. Julio Franco was 2-3 with a double, a walk, and scored. Rafael Furcal was 2-4 with an RBI. Marcus Giles was 2-5 with an RBI and scored. Andruw Jones was 1-3 with a walk and scored twice. Kelly Johnson was 1-3 with a walk, an RBI, and scored.

Does anyone else think that Ryan Langerhans coming in to play center field and Wilson Betemit coming in to play 3rd base late in the game was a showcase for a possible trade?

Julio Franco had his 2,500th career hit in the 2nd inning and got a long standing ovation from the sell-out crowd.

John Smoltz against Josh Fogg tomorrow.

John Thomson

John Thomson threw 4 scoreless innings in his 2nd rehab start; this time at Rome. He allowed 2 hits, 1 walk, and struck out one. He threw 45 pitches; 29 for strikes.

His next start will be at Richmond, where his pitch limit will be 60 pitches. After that, he may be ready to return to Atlanta's rotation.

Braves 2, Pirates 1

The Braves avoided a 9th inning comeback from the Pirates, but lost Jay Powell.

Horacio Ramirez (9-6) pitched 8 great innings. He allowed just 1 run on 6 hits, a walk, and 3 strikeouts.

Attempting to give Chris Reitsma the night off, Jay Powell came in to try for the save. He hurt himself on the 2nd pitch. John Foster came in and walked the batter. Jim Brower came in and gave up a double, but then struck out the next batter, then intentionally walked a batter to load the bases. With 1 out, the obvious choice to pitch was Dan Kolb, hoping for a ground-ball double-play. However, Bobby made a brilliant move, and brought in left-hander Macay McBride. This kept left-handed hitting Daryle Ward on the bench. The Pirates' catcher, Humberto Cota, was due up but was pinch-hit for by Ryan Doumit. He struck out, and McBride got the next guy to ground out, to get the save.

For the first 5 innings, Ramirez and Dave Williams traded zeroes. The Pirates broke through with a run in the 6th.

But the Braves got 2 runs in the 7th, as Rafael Furcal led off with a single, Marcus Giles doubled, and Chipper singled them both in.

The Pirates didn't have a serious scoring chance again until the 9th.

Offensive contributors: Chipper Jones was 2-3 with 2 RBIs and a walk. Kelly Johnson was 2-3 with a walk. Andruw Jones walked twice.

Kyle Davies will get the start tomorrow against Mark Redman.

You hate to see that...

Jay Powell just broke his arm on a pitch. This usually happens to left-handers; it happened to Tom Browning and Tony Saunders. I hate to say that neither of them had much of a career after this happened.

Let's hope for the best.

Future Hall-of-Famers?

Interesting article (that's unusual for ESPN these days). David Schoenfield ranks the top 20 players from today who will be in the HOF. (Story in the title link.)

Maddux and Glavine are numbers 3 and 4 on the list. John Smoltz is 5th, which I think is way high (and I'm a Braves fan!) but I do think he's a HOF'er as well.

Actually, the writer mentions a reason that Smoltz wouldn't make it: winning percentage. He states that because it's "only" .580, it would hurt his chances. Well, seeing as how Smoltz has a career ERA of 3.24 in 2,846 IP, and that some of the Atlanta offenses he's been supported by haven't exactly been the '27 Yankees, this is just plain wrong.

*****

Going off on a tangent, how can John Smoltz not make the HOF?

His career accomplishments (in no particular order):
1. Cy Young winner as a starter
2. Rolaids Relief award as a reliever
3. 20 game winner
4. 55 saves in 1 season
5. had a 3.27 career ERA coming into this season in 16 seasons
6. 174 career wins (a lock for 200 wins) in regular season
7. 154 career saves in regular season
8. All-time leader in postseason victories with 14 (14-4 record with a 2.70 ERA in postseason)
9. 2 time league strikeout champion
10. Led the league in innings pitched twice
11. 7 time All-Star
12. Has a W/L decision in the All-Star Game in 3 different decades
13. Led the league twice in winning percentage
14. Had a season in relief with a 1.12 ERA (different year than 55 save year) 15. Had a season in relief with 8 walks all year (different year than 55 save year)
16. Game 7 of the 1991 World Series
17. Game 5 of the 1996 World Series
18. On Bill James' Hall-of-Fame monitor, a probable HOF'er has a rating of 100+, with a 130 number being a shoo-in. Smoltz came into 2005 with a score of 128, and has passed 130 this season
19. Dominant Starter, turned to Dominant Closer, re-converted to a Dominant Starter at the age of 38
20. There are more accomplishments that I cannot think of or find right now. (For the fun of it, you could think of some and list it in comments.)

*****

Anyways, back to the article. I especially enjoy it when the writer rips Derek Jeter making it just because "he plays the game the right way" according to Tim McCarver. He does mention legitimate points about Jeter getting to the 3,000 hit mark though.

I don't agree with Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera being on his list so early, althoughthe writer admits that it's ridiculous. It's impossible to know how much they'll progress over their careers, regardless of how good they are right now.

Overall though, it's good stuff. You should read it.

The list of #21-40 will be posted there later today. I fully expect Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones to be on that list.