Post by John on Jun 19, 2006 11:39:39 GMT -4
Weekend Buzz: June 18, 2006 -- and the Braves are done
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
The Weekend Buzz while you were shopping for that new flat-screen television on Father's Day ...
1. It takes a brave man to be a Braves fan: This spring, I wrote a column stating that after 14 consecutive division titles, I'm not picking against the Braves -- they'll let us know when their NL East run is finished.
I'd like to thank the Braves for acting with the courtesy I predicted all along and ... letting us know.
Reading tea leaves can be difficult -- especially if you're a coffee drinker -- but the Braves couldn't make it more obvious if they suited up Dale Murphy, Zane Smith and held a reunion tribute to the 1988 club that went 54-106.
It's all over now except general manager John Schuerholz's concession phone call to his counterparts, the New York Mets' Omar Minaya and Philadelphia's Pat Gillick, and that might come as we move closer to the July 31 trade deadline.
Sinking in the muck of what could produce their worst month since moving to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves are 2-15 after a loss to Boston and have lost 12 of their past 14 home games.
Their bullpen is in the intensive care unit, the starting pitching is in the emergency room and the situational hitting is en route to the morgue.
And call all-everything John Smoltz the soothsayer.
"I'm not patronizing anybody," he told me this spring. "I just feel like the Mets are the team to beat, and the Phillies are right there with us."
Of course, we now know Smoltz wasn't 100 percent on the money, and all those who have accused the Braves of institutional arrogance over the years now have another point: It's the Washington Nationals and the Florida Freaking Marlins who are right there with the Braves -- the Phillies are ahead of them.
It has been a classic case of whatever could go wrong has gone wrong for Bobby Cox's club. The 14-year run was predicated on pitching, but Atlanta's staff ranks 15th in the 16-team National League with a 4.75 ERA. Only Milwaukee's pitchers, at 5.07, have been worse.
Broken down -- both figuratively and literally -- the rotation ranks 11th at 4.61 (its overall record is a woeful 17-31) and the bullpen ranks 15th at 5.01. Only Milwaukee's bullpen -- 5.14 -- has had a more difficult time.
Where the Braves were able to massage through the difficulties of closer Dan Kolb a year ago -- they demoted him quickly and used Kyle Farnsworth and Chris Reitsma -- they have not been able to solve the ninth inning in 2006.
Reitsma, who has blown four saves in 12 opportunities, landed on the disabled list Tuesday with nerve irritation in his right arm. It's his 9.11 ERA that has given irritation to others. So Kenny Ray supplanted him as closer late last month, Mike Remlinger has gotten a crack, and it has all added up to an excruciating 13 blown saves overall.
Meantime, Schuerholz was forced to add starter John Thomson (blister on his finger) to the DL, and Horacio Ramirez narrowly averted serious injury when he was drilled in the head by a Lance Berkman line drive last Sunday. Still, Ramirez wasn't able to start Saturday, and journeyman Lance Cormier immediately dug a hole in his place, surrendering four runs in the first four innings to help send Atlanta to its 16th loss in 19 games.
Then there's Jorge Sosa, 1-9.
The virus hasn't just slammed Cox's pitching staff. Atlanta hitters recently rode a stretch in which they were batting .135 (10-for-74) with runners in scoring position. Part of the problem is this club's frequency of fanning -- heading into Sunday night's game, Atlanta hitters ranked 15th in the NL with 526 strikeouts. Only Milwaukee batters, at 533, had whiffed more.
Oh, and there's this: Defensively, the Braves have yielded 36 unearned runs, the third-highest total in the majors behind the Los Angeles Angels (49) and Cincinnati (39).
At 14 games behind the New York Mets, the Braves are the furthest they have been out of first place since the last day of the 1990 season, when they were 26 games behind Lou Piniella's Cincinnati Reds in the NL West.
Until now, the Braves' worst overall month since moving to Atlanta in '66 came in July 1986, when they went 7-19.
The way things look now, their 15-5 run in early May of this season might have marked the last gasps of the glory days.
2. While you were sleeping: In a game that didn't even make most West Coast papers, let alone the dailies in the east, Oakland stayed up late to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 in a five-hour, 17-inning marathon on Saturday -- then followed it up with another win Sunday, the surging Athletics' 10th in a row, 13th in 14 games and 15th in 17.
So the moral of the story is, here they go again: The A's sleep through April and May, then wake up with the birds in June. This is the seventh consecutive season Oakland has compiled a winning streak of eight or more games. While we just reviewed Atlanta compiling a major-league worst month of June, Oakland's 14-2 June is the best in the majors.
Oakland's staff has pitched shutouts in three of its past 17 games, and if you saw Barry Zito's curve dance in Friday night's series-opening win over the Dodgers (three earned runs, 11 strikeouts, no walks in eight innings), it was flat-out unhittable. Nothing has moved like that since Baby in Dirty Dancing.
"They probably haven't seen a curve like that since they played Wiffle ball in the backyard, to tell you the truth," Dodgers manager Grady Little observed.
Added Eric Chavez: "It looked like he was throwing Wiffle balls up there."
Hey -- did those guys consult each other on those quotes?
3. Bud Selig's open letter: The Commish's effort to assure fans that he will smoke out the evil-doers using HGH was unveiled on Friday. But there still isn't enough body armor to go around.
4. The Baby Marlins: Quick, somebody build these guys a stadium. Joe Girardi's club swept Toronto to amp its winning streak up to eight games. The Marlins are 18-6 over their past 24, and second baseman Dan Uggla, in on every highlight, is streaking toward the NL Rookie of the Year award. Being that Florida grabbed him from Arizona last December in the Rule 5 draft, Uggla joins Russ Ortiz as a couple of embarrassing Diamondbacks misses.
5. Mark Prior is back: And now there's a new controversy at Wrigley Field. The neighborhood group who fought so hard against night baseball because it didn't want the noise? Now they want day baseball canceled, too, after the first-inning ruckus Sunday afternoon against Detroit when Prior was hammered for three home runs (Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen and Chris Shelton) during the Tigers' six-run inning. It took Prior 39 pitches to make it through the inning, but the good news is, if the Cubs need another batting practice pitcher ...
6. Interleague play: It has resumed again, and it remains the best reason why St. Louis will hold on in the NL Central this season. If your beer-drinking, softball-swatting Tuesday night rec league club got six games against Kansas City, it would win the NL Central, too.
7. Roger and out: Roger Clemens finished up a three-lap victory tour through the minors to prepare for his 2006 debut against Minnesota on Thursday. Everything is set except for the fact that the Astros forgot the annual tradition of scheduling a lapdog for homecoming, and the Twins are on track to bring stud rookie Francisco Liriano.
8. It's not a dream, Weaver: The Angels really did ship Jered Weaver out to Triple-A Salt Lake over the weekend despite his 4-0 record and sparkling 1.37 ERA. Sorry, kid, it's what happens when the ballclub is in first place and is lapping the field. Wait. The Angels are in last place in the AL West? And they can't use him?
9. Yankees blow 9-2 lead and lose to Nationals 11-9: And Alfonso Soriano stole both second and third to spark the winning rally? It's ... really ... hard ... not ... to ... chuckle ... here ... unless ... you're ... the ... most ... diehard ... of ... Yankees ... fans.
10. Padres fire hitting coach: Dave Magadan is out, Merv Rettenmund is in. And shortstop Khalil Greene, in the throes of an 0-for-23 slump, immediately busted out of it with a double Friday night. Whoo-hoo!
By Scott Miller
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
The Weekend Buzz while you were shopping for that new flat-screen television on Father's Day ...
1. It takes a brave man to be a Braves fan: This spring, I wrote a column stating that after 14 consecutive division titles, I'm not picking against the Braves -- they'll let us know when their NL East run is finished.
I'd like to thank the Braves for acting with the courtesy I predicted all along and ... letting us know.
Reading tea leaves can be difficult -- especially if you're a coffee drinker -- but the Braves couldn't make it more obvious if they suited up Dale Murphy, Zane Smith and held a reunion tribute to the 1988 club that went 54-106.
It's all over now except general manager John Schuerholz's concession phone call to his counterparts, the New York Mets' Omar Minaya and Philadelphia's Pat Gillick, and that might come as we move closer to the July 31 trade deadline.
Sinking in the muck of what could produce their worst month since moving to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves are 2-15 after a loss to Boston and have lost 12 of their past 14 home games.
Their bullpen is in the intensive care unit, the starting pitching is in the emergency room and the situational hitting is en route to the morgue.
And call all-everything John Smoltz the soothsayer.
"I'm not patronizing anybody," he told me this spring. "I just feel like the Mets are the team to beat, and the Phillies are right there with us."
Of course, we now know Smoltz wasn't 100 percent on the money, and all those who have accused the Braves of institutional arrogance over the years now have another point: It's the Washington Nationals and the Florida Freaking Marlins who are right there with the Braves -- the Phillies are ahead of them.
It has been a classic case of whatever could go wrong has gone wrong for Bobby Cox's club. The 14-year run was predicated on pitching, but Atlanta's staff ranks 15th in the 16-team National League with a 4.75 ERA. Only Milwaukee's pitchers, at 5.07, have been worse.
Broken down -- both figuratively and literally -- the rotation ranks 11th at 4.61 (its overall record is a woeful 17-31) and the bullpen ranks 15th at 5.01. Only Milwaukee's bullpen -- 5.14 -- has had a more difficult time.
Where the Braves were able to massage through the difficulties of closer Dan Kolb a year ago -- they demoted him quickly and used Kyle Farnsworth and Chris Reitsma -- they have not been able to solve the ninth inning in 2006.
Reitsma, who has blown four saves in 12 opportunities, landed on the disabled list Tuesday with nerve irritation in his right arm. It's his 9.11 ERA that has given irritation to others. So Kenny Ray supplanted him as closer late last month, Mike Remlinger has gotten a crack, and it has all added up to an excruciating 13 blown saves overall.
Meantime, Schuerholz was forced to add starter John Thomson (blister on his finger) to the DL, and Horacio Ramirez narrowly averted serious injury when he was drilled in the head by a Lance Berkman line drive last Sunday. Still, Ramirez wasn't able to start Saturday, and journeyman Lance Cormier immediately dug a hole in his place, surrendering four runs in the first four innings to help send Atlanta to its 16th loss in 19 games.
Then there's Jorge Sosa, 1-9.
The virus hasn't just slammed Cox's pitching staff. Atlanta hitters recently rode a stretch in which they were batting .135 (10-for-74) with runners in scoring position. Part of the problem is this club's frequency of fanning -- heading into Sunday night's game, Atlanta hitters ranked 15th in the NL with 526 strikeouts. Only Milwaukee batters, at 533, had whiffed more.
Oh, and there's this: Defensively, the Braves have yielded 36 unearned runs, the third-highest total in the majors behind the Los Angeles Angels (49) and Cincinnati (39).
At 14 games behind the New York Mets, the Braves are the furthest they have been out of first place since the last day of the 1990 season, when they were 26 games behind Lou Piniella's Cincinnati Reds in the NL West.
Until now, the Braves' worst overall month since moving to Atlanta in '66 came in July 1986, when they went 7-19.
The way things look now, their 15-5 run in early May of this season might have marked the last gasps of the glory days.
2. While you were sleeping: In a game that didn't even make most West Coast papers, let alone the dailies in the east, Oakland stayed up late to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 in a five-hour, 17-inning marathon on Saturday -- then followed it up with another win Sunday, the surging Athletics' 10th in a row, 13th in 14 games and 15th in 17.
So the moral of the story is, here they go again: The A's sleep through April and May, then wake up with the birds in June. This is the seventh consecutive season Oakland has compiled a winning streak of eight or more games. While we just reviewed Atlanta compiling a major-league worst month of June, Oakland's 14-2 June is the best in the majors.
Oakland's staff has pitched shutouts in three of its past 17 games, and if you saw Barry Zito's curve dance in Friday night's series-opening win over the Dodgers (three earned runs, 11 strikeouts, no walks in eight innings), it was flat-out unhittable. Nothing has moved like that since Baby in Dirty Dancing.
"They probably haven't seen a curve like that since they played Wiffle ball in the backyard, to tell you the truth," Dodgers manager Grady Little observed.
Added Eric Chavez: "It looked like he was throwing Wiffle balls up there."
Hey -- did those guys consult each other on those quotes?
3. Bud Selig's open letter: The Commish's effort to assure fans that he will smoke out the evil-doers using HGH was unveiled on Friday. But there still isn't enough body armor to go around.
4. The Baby Marlins: Quick, somebody build these guys a stadium. Joe Girardi's club swept Toronto to amp its winning streak up to eight games. The Marlins are 18-6 over their past 24, and second baseman Dan Uggla, in on every highlight, is streaking toward the NL Rookie of the Year award. Being that Florida grabbed him from Arizona last December in the Rule 5 draft, Uggla joins Russ Ortiz as a couple of embarrassing Diamondbacks misses.
5. Mark Prior is back: And now there's a new controversy at Wrigley Field. The neighborhood group who fought so hard against night baseball because it didn't want the noise? Now they want day baseball canceled, too, after the first-inning ruckus Sunday afternoon against Detroit when Prior was hammered for three home runs (Curtis Granderson, Carlos Guillen and Chris Shelton) during the Tigers' six-run inning. It took Prior 39 pitches to make it through the inning, but the good news is, if the Cubs need another batting practice pitcher ...
6. Interleague play: It has resumed again, and it remains the best reason why St. Louis will hold on in the NL Central this season. If your beer-drinking, softball-swatting Tuesday night rec league club got six games against Kansas City, it would win the NL Central, too.
7. Roger and out: Roger Clemens finished up a three-lap victory tour through the minors to prepare for his 2006 debut against Minnesota on Thursday. Everything is set except for the fact that the Astros forgot the annual tradition of scheduling a lapdog for homecoming, and the Twins are on track to bring stud rookie Francisco Liriano.
8. It's not a dream, Weaver: The Angels really did ship Jered Weaver out to Triple-A Salt Lake over the weekend despite his 4-0 record and sparkling 1.37 ERA. Sorry, kid, it's what happens when the ballclub is in first place and is lapping the field. Wait. The Angels are in last place in the AL West? And they can't use him?
9. Yankees blow 9-2 lead and lose to Nationals 11-9: And Alfonso Soriano stole both second and third to spark the winning rally? It's ... really ... hard ... not ... to ... chuckle ... here ... unless ... you're ... the ... most ... diehard ... of ... Yankees ... fans.
10. Padres fire hitting coach: Dave Magadan is out, Merv Rettenmund is in. And shortstop Khalil Greene, in the throes of an 0-for-23 slump, immediately busted out of it with a double Friday night. Whoo-hoo!