Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Braves’ Kelly Johnson reacts to benching

offered as a break from the upcoming holiday Jeff Francoeur Marathon:

What’s good for Martin Prado is not so good for Kelly Johnson, after manager Bobby Cox said Tuesday night that it was time to give Prado a shot at the everyday second base job.

But the numbers stacked up against Johnson, who has hit only .168 with no home runs and five RBIs in his past 28 games. His season average was down to .216 entering Wednesday night’s game.

...

“It’s just been a tough year,” Johnson said. “It’s certainly uncharacteristic to hit so poorly for two months. It’s just the way the game goes. It can humble everybody.”

Johnson hit .203 in April, .297 in May and .125 in June, but he’s hopeful he can turn himself around the last three months of the season.

two months, three month… who’s counting?

Bisher Unleashed: A No. 1 Prospect Worth Pitching

And not since Bisher used to take in every Sig Ruman flick...has he seen such a “repulsive grimace”

Hanson kept delivering the goods. Never a change in motion or demeanor. I’ve seen a lot of young pitchers come and go, but I can’t ever remember being this impressed. First, the Yankees and all their big guns, now the Red Sox. Meantime, Brad Penny, a big-time old-timer was lumbering along and sweating like a farmhand. He’s heavy and bulky, more of him to get tired than Hanson.

The Braves came close to letting it get away when Bobby Cox went to his “second closer,” Mike Gonzales. Gonzales bothers me, with that rocking, weaving motion of his, and his repulsive grimace. And in the middle of all this, some idiot dashed out onto the field. Thankfully, he had his clothes on. Made me a little nervous when Cox sent Gonzales out to face two right-handed batters, then Ortiz and Jason Varitek, who switches, and singled.

It was a beautiful day to hear “God Bless America,” and the biting exchanges between the “Let’s Go Red Sox” fans and the tomahawkin’ Braves, who, sad to say, were out-shouted.

Houston Chronicle/Justice: Luck changes with scenery for Hawkins

When the Yankees released him last July, LaTroy Hawkins didn’t waste time feeling sorry for himself.

Instead, he went to work trying to put his career back together. Instead of going home to Dallas to catch his breath or reflect on what had happened, he flew to Fort Wayne, Ind .

That’s where he hooked up with his agent, Matt Kinzer. Actually, Kinzer is more than an agent. He’s a former major league pitcher and scout, and through the years has become the person who knows Hawkins as well as anyone.

“Matt watches me like a hawk,” Hawkins said. “He knows everything I do. Even when I have a good outing, he’ll call or text me if he saw something. His mentality for pitching and the way he can explain it is unbelievable.”

...

Along the way, two interesting things happened. One is that Hawkins gradually regained the ability to locate his fastball.

The other is that Astros general manager Ed Wade telephoned and said he’d acquired Hawkins in a trade.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Hawkins said. “At first, I’m thinking, ‘Why would they do that when they can get me in a few more days for little or nothing?’ ”

plus, As luck would have it, Francoeur without ‘turkey underwear’

Crashburn Alley: Talkin’ Braves with Craig Calcaterra

Woo-eeee! There’s more plugging going on here than a Visconti Triplets filmfest!

If you live under a rock, you probably haven’t read Craig’s work at Shysterball and NBC Sports. At Baseball Think Factory, I called him the AC Slater of the blogosphere. He’s super cool, popular, and gets stalked (note: I have no idea if Mario Lopez has ever been stalked, but I’d imagine he has). He can probably dance, too.

You might not know it from his overall coverage of Major League Baseball, but Craig is a die-hard Atlanta Braves fan. Yeah, I know — he loses major cool points for that. However, the way the Phillies have been playing, they may want to listen to what a keen observer thinks about the series.

3. There are currently very few statistical methods that even come close to measuring the effectiveness of a manager. Being a Braves fan and having watched Bobby Cox-managed teams for a while, do you think he is really as good as everyone claims?

Actually, Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times has a book coming out this fall that goes a long way towards quantifying managerial effectiveness and he spends many pages on Cox in particular. I won’t even pretend to explain it (mostly because I don’t understand a lot of it) but Cox fares very well among the all-time greats in getting the most out of what he has.  That aside, I think Cox is a very good manager, mostly because he tends to (a) create a drama-free environment that allows his players to relax; and (b) otherwise gets the hell out of the way.  It’s amazing how many managers can’t accomplish even one of those things.  All in all, if you look at the failures of any given Braves team over the past 20 years, you have to point at five other things before you can identify anything that was of Bobby Cox’s doing, and to me, that’s the definition of being a successful manager.

AJC: Francoeur breaks out lucky ‘turkey underwear’

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur said he’ll wear the same underwear to Turner Field Tuesday that he wore on Sunday. He claimed the Braves are 7-0 when he wears his Thanksgiving-themed “turkey underwear” to the ballpark.

For a team that has a disappointing 35-40 overall record, that 7-0 mark is no small feat. The Braves open a three-game series against NL East leader Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Francoeur said he had not worn the turkey briefs for back-to-back games all season, but will Tuesday (the Braves were off Monday, and he planned to ask his wife, Catie, to wash the underwear).

Deep Left Field: Lyricism is just another four letter word

Sam...last of a breed dying over something or another.

Last Thursday night John Smoltz stepped onto the field wearing his new team’s colors, toed the rubber of Nationals Park and threw a pitch in anger. It was his first start without a tomahawk on his chest in twenty-plus years. He was amped up, wild and very hittable in his first inning of work, but then settled down and turned in a useful performance. In all honesty it looked quite a bit like his first start upon returning to the rotation in Atlanta, after his closer years. No matter how hard I grimaced and whispered vile curses under my breath, his shoulder did not fall off. Sometimes Little Baby Jesus is just plain worthless.

Prior to the start the Washington Times ran a piece by Thom Leverro headlined “Smoltz is the last of a dying breed.” Ignoring for the moment that Smoltz is not in any way shape or form the last of a dying breed; hurlers across baseball, from Smoltz’ new teammate Josh Beckett to his old team’s newest phenom Tommy Hanson are proof positive that smoke-throwing righties with wicked breaking balls are far from joining the dodo and long relief specialist on the extinction rolls; I must protest.

Generally I avoid the “a sportswriter wrote something wrong” meme. There just doesn’t seem to be much sport in shooting those poor barrelled up fish. Rather than venting about something less than insightful someone else said, I’d rather spend my time saying something insightful. Or in the absence of that, blindly yelling rage into the void until some god of some heathen realm brings me a second bloody World Series banner. But in this case, I must protest.

A Look at Centerfield Camera Placement

Slate dives into the unique and possibly illogical placement of centerfield cameras.

Fangraphs: One Win Curveballs

So far this year Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright and Javier Vazquez have each provided a win’s worth of value with their curveballs alone. They have saved over ten runs with their curveballs. On the other end of the spectrum is Brad Penny, whose curveball has cost the Red Sox about a win (9.4 runs).

An awesome piece of work using PitchF/X data on curveballs.  The comments section includes further elaboration of the methods and assumptions.

AJC: Braves reliever breaks hand punching door

Braves reliever Jeff Bennett broke a bone in his non-pitching hand when he punched a door near the dugout out of frustration during Wednesday night’s loss against the New York Yankees.

The right-hander, who has struggled for much of the season, was placed on the 15-day disabled list and left-hander Boone Logan was recalled from Class AAA Gwinnett to take his roster spot.

Bennett will have surgery to insert a pin in the break in his fifth metacarpal below the base of the pinky finger.

“I’m ashamed of myself,” he said after seeing the Braves’ hand specialist Thursday. “This is a professional sport; you handle yourself in a professional manner. I didn’t do that. … I’m just hopeful that [manager] Bobby [Cox] and [general manager] Frank [Wren] will give me another chance.

“A lot of things boiled up, and I didn’t handle the release of those very well.”

plus, the KC Star says Exam confirms Farnsworth has partial tear of right groin

AJC: O’Brien: Braves need win tonight — no, really

Jeff Bennett taketh away, Jeff Bennett giveth… The latest from DaveO.

I had just hit “publish” on this blog when a Braves PR person informed us that Jeff Bennett was going on the DL and would meet with the writers in 3 minutes. Didn’t even have time to put it on here before racing downstairs to talk to him. He broke a bone his non-pitching hand last night when he punched a door after giving up the A-Rod hit in the fifth inning, then didn’t tell anyone until after he pitched the sixth inning. Dude pushed the bone back down and set it himself, albeit crudely, before he went back out and pitched another inning. It was broke right in half, the fifth metacarpal, similar to the Omar Infante injury. Bennett’s got to have surgery to have a pin inserted. He hopes to be back in a few weeks. Wouldn’t count on that, though, for various reasons. Lefty Boone Logan was recalled to fill his roster spot

jefffrancoeur.com: June 23, 2009

Father’s Day, a lot like Mother’s Day, is really cool around the MLB. If you watched any of the ball games on Sunday, I’m sure you saw the players, coaches, umpires, trainers and groundskeepers wearing blue wristbands and blue ribbon uniform decals. We also used special “Baseball Blue Ribbon Father’s Day” lineup cards. A lot of those items (wristbands, decals and cards) were auctioned off soon to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. In 2008, the Father’s Day promotions raised nearly $2.5 million for the Foundation. The whole day is great. For Mother’s Day they taped a bunch of us sending a Happy Mother’s Day message to our moms, which was nice because we were out of town in Philadelphia. They did the same for Father’s Day so we all got to send our best on TV to our dads.

Unfortunately I was not able to do a Father’s Day trip, but I know a lot of people do that. If I was home and had an off-day, I’d probably take my dad to play golf and then we’d meet the whole family for dinner somewhere like Stoney River. Anyone take a special father/daughter or father/son trip somewhere? I do have a big trip planned with my dad and a bunch of the guys in our family for this offseason though. We’ll hop on a flight and head off, just the boys, for a long golf trip. It’ll be a delayed Father’s Day celebration I guess.

Happy belated Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Hope everyone had a great day and I hope to see a lot of you out for Delta Day at Turner Field tomorrow, June 24th vs. the Yankees.

Deep Left Field: You know what would be weird?

The Stabbin’ Neckbreakers should be a cover band…

Now, if you’re that guy, you’ve probably got some pent up frustrations from the 90’s as well. There’s that Puckett thing, of course. There’s the Dave Windfield thing. The Eric Gregg thing. And of course the J*m F*cking L*yr*tz thing. You could even track across the years until you get to the C*rl*s F*cking B*ltr*n thing, but that would be going too far.

That L*yr*tz thing would quite obviously open doors onto the whole of “Yankees of the mid-to-late ‘90s” thing, and that would be a sea of seething potential most anyone would be well advised not to swim. Visions blurred red, stabbings of necks, etc. Yeah, you don’t want to go into the deep end of the Yankee thing at all. So you still with me? You thinking about maybe being that guy? Yeah. Okay. Now throw in for good measure that you’re a total comic book dork from the old days and you literally grew up on The Transformers.

Now, if you’re that guy, and you take a long lunch one afternoon to go see the new Transformers sequel, and you’re a little late so you sit in the back row to avoid the walking through other folks in the dark, and you sit there all two and a half hours chuckling along with some vaguely familiar guy sitting two seats over, and it’s clear he too is a total Transformers dork, and then the lights come up and you’re grabbing your headgear for the ride back and you suddenly realize, dude, that’s Mariano Rivera, and ####, now I TOTALLY CAN’T HATE THAT GUY ANYMORE!

Yeah. That would be totally weird. It would be like losing a part of your soul.

MacPherson: Talking hitting with Chipper Jones

“There are certain times when teams are absolutely not going to let me beat them,” Jones said from the visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway Park. “I have to be quick to realize when those situations arise and when I just have to take my walk and let the guy behind me do the damage.

“But you’re talking about a guy who, this is my 16th year in the big leagues. It’s hard enough for me to do it, much less a guy who’s been in the league two or three years. It’s almost impossible for them to stay patient.”

Jones and Atlanta hitting coach Terry Pendleton, former batting champions both, were shooting the breeze in the Fenway Park batting cage on Friday. When conversation came around to the Red Sox lineup. Jones brought up a guy who had taken him by surprise during the World Baseball Classic: Youkilis.

“This is a guy who throws quality at-bats up,” Jones said. “He’s the one guy in their lineup you don’t want to see up at the plate in the crucial at-bat of the game. You know he’s very rarely going to make an out on the first pitch. You know he’s going to work counts, foul balls off, and he’s going to work the pitcher until he gets a pitch he can put in play hard.

“That was something I never really realized about him, but he’s fast perfecting the art of hitting in his own way.”

Perfecting the art of hitting? (tosses Lau’s Laws in dumpster)

Deep Left Field: La vida SABR

This is the funniest thing I ever heard Chris Dial say. “I am not a stat geek.”

This was back in the late nineties, sometime during the storied Braves-Mets clashes of that era. Maybe opening weekend. Maybe 1999. Sitting in the covered boxes of the Lexus Level at Turner Field, day game, long delay, waiting out the thunderstorms blowing through. Post-Piazza. Pre-Rocker. Right dab in the middle of Rey Ordonez.

What you have to understand about Dial is this. It’s all about Rey Ordonez. Ordonez is the Rubicon. Ordonez is the great white whale. Ordonez is his raison d’etre, his existential meaning, the very soundtrack of his life. Without Rey Ordonez, Chris Dial would not exist.

AJC: Pricey pinstripes best fit for Teixeira

(Mark) Teixeira returns to Atlanta on Tuesday for the first time since being traded to the Angels last season for first baseman Casey Kotchman and right-handed pitcher Steve Marek. In 157 games spanning the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Teixeira hit .295 with 37 homers, 134 RBIs, 92 walks and 101 runs scored. Despite his statistical brilliance, the Braves finished third in the National League East in 2007 and were on their way to a fourth-place finish last year before he was dealt.

...

Able to parlay his status as the premier position player available in free agency, Teixeira signed an eight-year, $180 million deal with the Yankees two days before Christmas. It was widely panned as an example of fiscal irresponsibility. Along with Teixeira, the Yankees signed starting pitchers CC Sabathia ($161 million for seven years) and A.J. Burnett ($82.5 million for five) for the collective sum of $423.5 million.

Teixeira scoffs at the criticism.

“I was completely up front with everybody. I was totally honest with everybody. This is a business, guys. Everyone knows the Yankees paid the most,” Teixeira said. “If somebody had a problem with the decision I made, because it was a family decision and a business decision, they can have their opinion. That’s fine. I made the best decision for me, and it’s worked out great.”

Deep Left Field: The worst days are here

Filling the air with pure thuribulum goodness...the latest from Sam.

We follow that septic sludge with Bud Selig’s most joyous #### you to Atlanta fans, our yearly parade of soul-grindingly annoying fans from the NEC. Three games of transplanted Yankee fans soiling the seats of our fair grounds, followed immediately by an equal dose of their paternal twins from Boston. Oh, joyous day. How can we, the unworthy denizens of Atlanta ever thank you Mr. Selig? If not for your ever-brilliant notion of making the World Series essentially meaningless by playing the leagues against one another in the middle of the summer we’d never have the chance to see all of the loud, obnoxious sprawl-eating invaders gathered together in one place like this! You’re the best.

I hate interleague play. I hate people who think a baseball stadium full of families is the proper place to get drunk and moan “Yoooouuuuuuk” like a water buffalo in heat. I hate anyone who thinks Derek Jeter deserves anything more than a good garroting. All of which pales as shadow compared to the burning summer sun that is my hatred for the man who unleashed this unholy calvacade upon us.

[sigh]

At least we get a “break” with Philly in town before the Mets faithful storm in from the upper ‘burbs and add a layer of self-loathing and little brother syndrone on top of the class and gentility we’d otherwise expect this week.

MLB.com: Bowman: Francoeur sits out series finale

Braves manager Bobby Cox decided to give Francoeur yet another chance to rest.

“It’s his decision,” Francoeur said. “I’ve been swinging the bat good lately. I had some of my best at-bats of the season [Saturday night].”

[...]

With a 2-0 count against Beckett in the eighth inning, Francoeur had thoughts about drilling a game-tying three-run homer. But after getting out in front of a changeup and drilling it to the left side of the left-field pole, Atlanta’s right fielder grounded into an inning-ending double play.

WEEI: Petraglia: Jones, Cox not-so chipper about umpiring

Petraglia: Caroliering missed strikes on the Braves.

Afterward, Chipper Jones ripped home plate ump Bill Hohn, who ejected all three. “I don’t know why umpires have to be confrontational,” Jones said. ”When he goes back and looks at the replay of the pitch, hopefully he can admit he missed the call.”

Jones stepped in to try and protect Eric O’Flaherty, who was being relieved by Cox when he asked about the pitch to Drew.

“I know this, I hope Major League Baseball take a close look at how this game was officiated today. And it wasn’t just aimed at us. I saw a ton of Red Sox with some puzzled looks on their faces, too. We’ve got to do a little better than that,” Jones said.

Cox had this to say about the non-strike three call on Drew.

“It was a ball that was right down the middle for strike three,” Cox said. “It was obvious. He blew the call and it upsets guys when it costs you games and it costs us the ballgame.”

AJC/Schultz:  Jeff Schultz Braves return home to a crowd (but whose?)

Fortunately, they will be checking tickets and not allegiances this week at Turner Field.

Revenue isn’t the worst fallback. You take what you can get if you’re the Braves, particularly when three of the visiting teams on a home stand — the Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox – come with overstuffed caravans and the term “meaningful games” locally appears to have a decreasing shelf life.

But if the Braves want to excite somebody other than Bob in accounting, this would be a good time to start. June is melting into July, and a .500 record is starting to resemble some lofty objective. Hammering home the reality of it all, the home team ranks 19th in attendance, creating ample room in the parking lot for incoming convoys from Chicago, New York and Boston.

“We picked up a couple of games on the Phillies in the last three days and we’ve just got to keep grinding,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said Sunday before the Braves finished a series in Boston. “That’s what you’re looking for – a team that will grind and won’t quit. But we know that at some point you can’t just grind, you have to win games. We’re getting close to that point where we have to start winning series.”

try some bumpin’ with all that grindin’, Frank…

JeffFrancoeur.com: June 17, 2009

Happy Birthday Delta! 80 years. Wow, you guys are getting up there!

I just wanted to wish you a very happy 80th birthday and thank you for not only everything that you’ve done for me and my family, but also for what you guys continue to do for all of your customers.

It’s crazy to think how far everything has come…I mean, now we have mobile boarding passes, Wi-Fi on the plane, online booking, TV screens on the back of headrests, movies, music…I could go on and on. One of the first things I do when I sit down is to flip to the back of the in-flight magazine to see what movie will be playing on my flight! Delta never ceases to amaze me and you guys continue to make flying more and more enjoyable. And considering how much flying I do over the course of a year, I love all of the little extras that Delta provide.

Other guys on the team spend their time playing cards, sleeping, going out to eat, reading magazines, getting some extra batting practice and hitting the gym in the hotel. If any of you have seen the old movies like Rookie of the Year and Little Big League, there are definitely some pranks pulled on teammates while on the road. But I won’t get too specific on those.

I’m excited to play in Boston this week, and then even more excited to get back to Atlanta to host the Yankees and Red Sox at Turner Field. Don’t forget about Delta Day at Turner Field on June 24th!

http://blog.delta.com/category/sponsorships/

AJC: Bisher: Brace yourselves, but Braves should put Chipper on the market

Brace yourself, Furman...The Adventures of Leonidas Witherall is off the air!

OK, now it’s the Braves’ turn. After all those seasons of shoring up their roster with blockbuster trades in mid-season, at the expense of raiding the farm system, consider this: (Are you sitting down?) Tell the world they’re putting Chipper Jones on the open market. Anybody out there in need of a third baseman, or, on the American League side, a designated hitter?

I can hear all the gulps, and the screeches, and calls for my scalp. First place, forget where you saw this. This is not my choice at all, but considering the direction the Braves have taken the past four years, the lock is running low on sentimentality. Sure, Chipper is the face of the Braves. And the voice. He speaks for the team when anyone is looking for an opinion, or reaction to a news event. All of us seek him out, and he responds in his even baritone voice. He never lets you down. So to offer him for trade, hang him out there like a piece of meat for swap. A dreadful thought.

...By bartering Chipper, what the Braves might be able to do is re-stock its own roster with fresh talent. True, Chipper is 37 years old, but so is Raul Ibanez, the fresh personality who has brought so much to the Phillies’ lineup. And Chipper is a young 37, keeps himself young hunting and ranching on his acreage in Texas. He was the leading hitter in the National League last season, so the years haven’t been weighing heavily on him.

Glavine doesn’t plan to pitch in 2009

Tom Glavine isn’t ready to announce his retirement. But the 43-year-old left-hander has stopped contemplating the idea of pitching somewhere this season.

Via a text message, Glavine told Atlanta television station WAGA: “I’m not going to pitch or do anything in baseball until at least next year.”

When the Braves released Glavine on June 3, the 300-game winner indicated that he would at least explore opportunities to pitch outside of Atlanta. But at the same time, Glavine indicated that if the opportunity didn’t arise, he was looking forward to the chance to spend more time with his wife and their five children.

“I enjoy going to my kids’ hockey games and ballgames and all that other stuff,” Glavine said. “On the one hand, I’m kind of looking forward to having a summer for the first time in 25 years. It’s just not the way I envisioned doing it.”

Insert joke about Professor Frink saying “GLAV-INE!” here.

Bisher Unleashed: So Who Failed Whom?

Frenchy: Beautiful Mess.

Well, I’ve said this before, that it’s not my habit to recommend the hiring or firing or trading or buying or selling of people in sports. Or any other business, for that matter. However, I can take a dim view of moving players about in trades, and have, numerous times. But now it’s about the unstable status of Jeff Francoeur, once the golden child of the Braves, home-grown and adored. “Frenchy,” as they call him, for obvious reason.

He suddenly fell on hard times, when his offensive production went into a slump. But not his defensive skill. He is still the Braves’ best outfielder, with the truest arm, base runner beware when the ball is hit in his territory. At the end of the season last fall, Jeff took action on his own, to get to the bottom of his batting stress. He’d heard encouraging reports about the hitting coach of the Texas Rangers, Rudy Jaramillo, born and raised in Beeville, TX. On his own—and it was privately done—he made arrangements to spend a few days with Jaramillo after the season. And he confided in me. I promised to keep it private, though I did write of it without including Jaramillo’s name. So he spent a few days in Texas and came home feeling as if he had been cleansed.

...Needless to say, any suggestion that Francoeur might be put up for trade represents just another possible blemish on the present Braves regime. At least they have a home talent to attract the locals. The deal for Nate McLouth doesn’t have the turnstiles whirling. In the long run, I think it will work out as a plus, though his arm isn’t a threat to base runners. But whose idea it might be to trade Francoeur, I can’t say—if there is one. Such local gate attractions aren’t easily come by. Brian McCann is an exception. Francoeur could be, should be, and unloading him at this stage of a skid would strike me as being another admission of the failure of present management.

Hartford Courant: Red Sox Richer Yet For Having Penny

Maybe the old saying is wrong. Maybe you can have too much pitching. The Red Sox seem intent on testing it.

“We come to the ballpark every day feeling like we have a great chance to win,” shortstop Nick Green said after the Red Sox beat the Marlins 6-1 Wednesday night at Fenway Park, the crowd of 38,196 extending the MLB record for consecutive sellouts to 500 games. “We don’t have just one or two guys where we have to win for them. We feel like we’re going to get great pitching every night. From top to bottom, they did a great job assembling this pitching staff.”

To this point, the back end of the rotation has been even more productive than the front, with Brad Penny (6-2, 4.94 ERA), who gritted through five innings Wednesday to get his 100th career win, and Tim Wakefield combining to go 15-5.

And it gets even deeper with John Smoltz, who made his last rehab start, ready to tack onto the conga line. The Red Sox are toying with the idea of a six-man rotation rather than rushing into trading Penny or giving up on Daisuke Matsuzaka.

plus, the Boston Herald says John Smoltz set to make ’09 debut next week and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution claims Chipper, Francoeur didn’t want to face Smoltz in Atlanta

Bisher Unleashed: Loose Ends

I never thought Furman would make it while Chlorophyll Kid and Stone Boy failed. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Talk about suing for non-support, how about Javier Vasquez? You don’t see better games pitched than the beauty he laid on the Pirates Thursday, and then was told after eight innings he was coming out. He had plenty left, but he became victim of the most incomprehensible mode that has inflicted big league managers, one of the most flagrant, Bobby Cox. Whoever started counting pitches, and deciding that 100 is the killer number should be sentenced to forever in purgatory. Poor Valdez, he came out after 113 pitches—the number given to me—and his fate was left to Rafael Soriano, tall, lean, hairy and inconsistent, and who immediately blew the game. Come on, Bobby, when a pitcher paints a beauty like Vasquez, at least let him finish his work of art. OUT WITH PITCH COUNTING!

—

Pitch around Chipper and you’ve just about solved the Braves offense. Stick around. Jeff Francoeur ain’t through yet.

AJC: Former Brave Farnsworth bitten by his bulldog

wrong hand, though…

Kansas City Royals right-handed reliever Kyle Farnsworth had his left index finger bandaged Tuesday after being bitten by one of his two bulldogs.

Farnsworth received four stitches from the bite after breaking up a fight between the two bulldogs on Tuesday morning.

The wound was in Farnsworth’s non-pitching hand.

“He’s got stitches in his left hand,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said. “He didn’t get hurt playing ball. He got hurt at home Monday.”

Kovacevic: Dude singing on that video

Even Carsickness just threw up.

Dejan,

It took me a while, but I just noticed that you included my Nate McLouth video in your blog. That’s amazing! I’m a big fan of yours, and it feels pretty wild to have done a thing that found its way into your reporting. Thanks so much!

I’ll note in passing that the irony of the video is that I actually thought (and still think) that the McLouth trade was a smart move. It was really just the fact that Nate’s teammates were upset about it, not to mention Nate himself, that made me feel justified in writing a sappy melodramatic song (and also, of course, Nate being one of my favorite Pirates).

Do you have any idea of whether Nate himself knows this video is out there?

Anyway, thanks again for linking, hope your back is doing better, and huge props to you, Chuck, and the rest of the PG team for your consistently awesome reporting.

Jesse

Deadspin: Craggs: It Wasn’t So, Joe (Morgan)

He’s gainin’ on you so you better look alive.

Go Speed Tracer
Go Speed Tracer
Go Speed Tracer, Go!

Top of the eighth. Cliff Lee has just given up his first hit of the game to the Cardinals, a double to right. Up in the booth, Joe Morgan decides to tell a story. You know where this is going.

From Sunday’s game, here he is, verbatim:

“I guess I can tell this story now, one of my great experiences when I was a young player. Don Wilson was pitching a no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves. They had Orlando Cepeda, Rico Carty, Felipe Alou and Hank Aaron, of course. And they got to the ninth inning, he got two outs, no one on base, and Hank Aaron was the hitter. And in my infinite wisdom, I ran in to the mound. I said, “You know, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Hank Aaron walked right here. He said, “Get back to second base.” I proceeded to go back to second base. He threw three fastballs right by Hank Aaron. No-hitter.”

Charming, right? And, alas, very likely an utter crock. This would’ve been June 18, 1967, Joe’s third full season in the bigs. That Braves team did indeed feature Hank Aaron, Felipe Alou and Rico Carty — though not Cepeda, who was in St. Louis that year. And Wilson did indeed throw a no-hitter, striking out Aaron to end the game. None of that’s the problem. The problem, as a tipster points out, is that Joe Morgan wasn’t playing that day. Look at the box score. The Astros’ second baseman was Julio Gotay. Morgan, who was probably hurt, hadn’t played since June 3. He would pinch-hit the next two games, then return to the lineup June 21.

Now, Joe may well have said something to Don Wilson in the dugout, in which case he was merely indulging in a little poetic license last night. But given baseball’s time-honored superstition about talking to pitchers during a no-hitter, not to mention the fact that Joe has told some stretchers before, I’m loath to give him the benefit of the doubt.

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Some of you have wondered why Francoeur seems to always be the one getting bashed while Kelly Johnson gets a free pass.  Other than saying it’s a product of him being the higher-profile player, there isn’t a valid line of reasoning.

Dating back to the beginning of the 2007 season, Johnson and Francoeur have played more games than any other Braves players.

During this span, Johnson has hit .274 with 33 homers and a .795 OPS.  Francoeur has hit .264 with 34 homers and a .705 OPS.

The primary difference in their production began last year.  Since the beginning of the 2008 season, Johnson has hit .274 with 17 homers and a .769 OPS.  Francoeur’s stats during this span include a .242 batting average, 15 homers and a .646 OPS.

Because Johnson is a second baseman and Francoeur is a right fielder, some of you have also said you can’t compare apples to oranges.  But let’s not forget that the Braves essentially made Johnson a second baseman to simply find a spot to have his bat in the lineup on a regular basis.

Of course with his current .238 batting average and .699 OPS (third-worst among qualified NL second basemen), Johnson should just feel fortunate that he’s maintained a spot in the Braves lineup.

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For Jeff, this is the second time in a few weeks his name has surfaced in trade rumors – the last one when reports indicated the Red Sox might have interest in Francoeur.

For his part, Francoeur is trying not to let that get to him.

“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” Francoeur said. “I can’t control that. I don’t have a long-term deal here. Even if I’m here next year, that stuff will keep popping up all the time because of it. That’s just part of the game. It’s a business. They have to mix and match what they want to do financially. I’m not sure if I’m in those plans or not. I’m just going to keep playing and keep doing what I do.”

Francoeur said with time, he’s gotten thicker skin about hearing his name mentioned in trade possibilities.

“After what I went through last year, it does not phase me now,” Francoeur said. “Something like that I’m sure would have bothered me last year. Now it’s like ‘Hey, what are you going to do?’ Look at Nate. Who would ever thought he was going somewhere.”