Assessment after 70 games: What's gone right, and what hasn't

What's gone right:



-The Bullpen.
The bullpen is the best it has been since Smoltz was the closer. Rafael Soriano has been automatic. Mike Gonzalez was as well before his injury. Tyler Yates and Peter Moylan have been outstanding in middle relief. Bob Wickman has been pretty solid when healthy, putting up numbers about what I expected from him. Other than a DL stint in May when he had back pain, he's been good. Oddly enough, the Braves didn't even miss him when he was gone because Soriano and Gonzalez were so good. The depth of the 'pen is great.



-The front of the rotation.
John Smoltz and Tim Hudson have done all you can ask. Both have been horses and eating plenty of quality innings. Smoltz's strikeout to walk ratio is as good as ever. Hudson has only given up 3 homers in about 100 innings and kept his walk rate down, and has gotten lots of ground balls. There is a concern with both of them fighting some minor shoulder injuries, and hopefully it doesn't limit their effectiveness in the 2nd half.



-The Kelly Johnson experiment/middle infield situation.
Kelly Johnson has been great, keeping his batting average close to .300 all year with lots of walks and some power. He has been adequate defensively, even occasionally drawing good reviews. Edgar Renteria is having one of his best years offensively, among the league leaders in batting average and on pace for a career high in homers. His defense has been much improved as of late, as it seems he's getting to a lot more ground balls for some reason plus making great throws.



-Left Field Platoon
Matt Diaz is hitting even better then he did last year, and Willie Harris has been a life saver. The Braves are getting elite production from 2 role players in left field.



-Rookie Production
Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Yunel Escobar have done a great job picking up the slack during some injuries. Saltalamacchia figures to stick around and play first base, but when Chipper gets back in the field, Escobar won't have a place to play. Look for Escobar to be traded for some pitching help.



-Jeff Francoeur's plate discipline.
Jeff Francoeur has been much better waiting on pitches to hit. He's no longer a drag on the team, and has been roughly league average in right field. That's very good considering he's a 23 year old making close to the minimum. The power is a little down, but I figure as the summer goes along that will turn out fine.


-Jon Sciambi is a good announcer.
He makes the SportsSouth games bearable. I still miss the TBS productions, though (not Chip so much, but Pete and Skip). The camerawork, audio, etc. suck.



What has gone wrong


-Mike Gonzalez and Mike Hampton's arms.
Hampton was gone before the season started with yet another surgery, and I wonder if he'll ever pitch again. Mike Gonzalez was outstanding before unfortunately going under the knife. He is projected to return for the 2nd half of 2008.



-What the blank is wrong with Andruw?
Andruw Jones' year reminds me of Mike Lowell's last year with the Marlins. He's just not hitting anything. He is on a pace for a career high in walks, and has stepped it up defensively range-wise, but rarely has anything good happened when he's swung the bat. He's now fighting to keep the average over .200.



-Chipper not staying on the field.
Chipper has been as good as ever with the bat. Too bad he missed a month with severely bruised thumbs he suffered in a collision with Pittsburgh's Jose Baustista. Hopefully he can get himself healthy and stay that way, because without him in the lineup the offense is pretty anemic.



-Brian McCann fighting nagging injuries.
McCann has been a disappointment. After hurting a finger during a bunt attempt, he hasn't been the same. A bad ankle has hampered him as well. McCann's power has been non-existant, and he's basically been a singles hitter this year who can't run. Brian's been a league average offensive player in 2007, and he has been worth what he's been paid, but he hasn't been the middle of the order producer the Braves need.



-Scott Thorman flops.
I don't have much nice to say here. At least Saltalamacchia will be taking his at-bats soon.



-Ryan Langerhans
Langerhans was so horrible that he was released before April ended. Willie Harris has taken his job and ran.



-Pete Orr
He's been on the team a year longer than he should have been. The only thing he does well is run, and he isn't used much to do that. He has options and is a waste of a 25 man roster spot. At least Woodward can bunt and play several positions.



-Back of the rotation
Mark Redman and Lance Cormier threw some spectacular BP. Anthony Lerew came up, sucked, and pissed off the organization lying about his ailing elbow. Kyle Davies has been extremely inconsistent and only remains in the rotation because the Braves have no better options. However, kudos to Buddy Carlyle for doing a very nice job since being called up. I still think the Braves need to give Oscar Villarreal a shot while giving Davies some time at Richmond.


The Bottom Line: The Braves need Chipper and Andruw to do what they're supposed to in the 2nd half for the Braves to remain in contention going into September.

Back here

I am no longer writing for MVN and will be returning to this site for my blogging. Expect the amount of entries to pick up during the summer.

News for tonight: Mark Redman has been chosen to start the home-opener. John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, and Chuck James will get the starts in Philadelphia. Lance Cormier will start the 5th day.

Braves opening day is 2 days away!

Braves 5, Nationals 3

For the first time in June, the Braves won a game.

Horacio Ramirez (2-1, 3.24) pitched 8 solid innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits, a walk, and struck out 5. I thought that actually Bobby should have pinch-hit for him in the 6th, to get a shot to sort out bullpen roles, but it worked out okay. Horacio threw 117 pitches.

Ray got the save, pitching a perfect 9th with 2 strikeouts.

After Horacio gave up a first inning run, the Braves scored 2 in the 2nd. Giles hit a 2 out 2 run single, on which 1 of the runs turned out unearned because the ball got under Alfonso Soriano's glove, allowing Pena to score all the way from 1st.

LaRoche homered in the 3rd to make it 3-1, and the Braves added another in the 4th.

Soriano hit a 2 run homer in the 5th and that score remained until the 9th, when Andruw homered for an insurance run.

Offensive contributors: Andruw Jones was 2-4 with his 15th homer. Ryan Langerhans was 2-3 with a triple, a walk, and scored twice. Brayan Pena was 2-4 with an RBI and scored. Adam LaRoche was 1-4 with his 10th homer.

Smoltz will go on 3 days rest tomorrow against Ramon Ortiz.

Phillies 4, Braves 1

The Braves were shut down by rookie Eude Brito as the Phillies won the first game of a 4 game set, 4-1.

Tim Hudson (12-8) wasn't sharp. He went 6 innings, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits, 2 walks, hit a batter, and struck out 2. McBride pitched a scoreless 7th and Lerew pitched a scoreless 8th.

The Phillies got 2 runs in the 3rd and 2 in the 5th. The Braves got their only run on a Todd Hollandsworth pinch-hit homer.

Offensive contributor: Todd Hollandsworth hit a pinch-hit homer in the 8th inning, his 6th homer of the season and his 1st as a Brave.

Chipper Jones left the game with a strained left quad, he is day-to-day.

Brian Jordan started in left field and had a hit in 4 ABs and threw a runner out.

The Marlins are winning comfortably over the Astros late. They would pass them for the Wild Card lead. It doesn't look like there will be a reduction in the Magic Number tonight, and it remains at 13.

John Thomson will pitch against Gavin Floyd tomorrow night.

VORP for Braves' hitters as of 8/3/05

And for the Brave hitters...

Andruw Jones 43.0
Marcus Giles 34.5
Rafael Furcal 28.5
Chipper Jones 22.4
Wilson Betemit 12.9
Adam LaRoche 12.2
Julio Franco 12.1
Jeff Francoeur 11.7
Johnny Estrada 8.0
Brian McCann 5.7
Pete Orr 5.6
Mike Hampton 4.8
Horacio Ramirez 4.5
Ryan Langerhans 3.7
John Thomson 2.7
Tim Hudson 1.1
John Smoltz 0.6
Eddie Perez 0.4
Kelly Johnson 0
Dan Kolb -0.1
Jorge Vasquez -0.1
Seth Greisinger -0.3
Kyle Davies -0.4
Roman Colon -1.0
Brayan Pena -3.1
Andy Marte -3.6
Brian Jordan -3.7
Raul Mondesi -5.2
Adam Bernero -10.9

VORP for Braves Pitchers as of 8/3/05

Update on VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) for Braves' pitchers...who thought that on August 3 that Jorge Sosa would have been the 2nd best Braves' pitcher this year?

John Smoltz 50.6
Jorge Sosa 23.5
Tim Hudson 23.2
Mike Hampton 20.6
Horacio Ramirez 19.4
Chris Reitsma 14.0
John Thomson 11.6
Kyle Davies 9.7
Blaine Boyer 5.8
Jim Brower 4.2
John Foster 4.1
Kevin Gryboski 3.3
Jay Powell 2.1
Macay McBride 1.7
Jorge Vasquez 1.6
Dan Kolb 1.2
Seth Greisinger 1.2
Kyle Farnsworth 0.6
Matt Childers 0.5
Frank Brooks 0.2
Roman Colon -0.2
Tom Martin -3.5
Adam Bernero -5.7

Reds 8, Braves 5

Horacio Ramirez got nailed for 8 runs as the Reds took the 2nd game of the series, 8-5.

Ramirez (9-7) went 5 plus innings, giving up a 3 run homer to Adam Dunn in the 4th then got lit up in the 6th for 4 more runs. Jim Brower relieved him and allowed 2 of those inherited runners to score. Foster and Kolb had scoreless outings.

Julio Franco hit a home run in the top of the 4th to give the Braves a brief 2-1 lead before the Reds’ offensive explosion. The Braves had a 3 run 7th after a string of hits.

Offensive contributors: Jeff Francoeur was 3-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Julio Franco hit the 2 run homer in the 4th, but was 1-4. Marcus Giles was 2-5 with an RBI and a run. Rafael Furcal was 2-5 with a run. Andruw Jones was 1-2 with an RBI and was hit by a pitch.

Washington won to move back within 4.5 games. The other games are close and not finished.

Kyle Davies will face Reds’ ace Aaron Harang tomorrow as the Braves try for 2 out of 3.

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.