5/15 Game Thread: Chuck James Returns to the Rotation, Unthinkingly
Despite our best efforts to give that game back last night, the Phillies just wouldn’t let us lose, so we’re even in the series approaching tonight’s rubber match. Chuck James comes back from AAA, where he’s been trying to figure out how to return to his 2006 form. He’s actually pitched quite well at Richmond, and is coming off a terrific 7-inning, 6-hit, 1-run performance. But he’s got a 7.58 ERA in the majors this year, and some pitchers might get nervous as they tried to make a good impression. Fortunately, Chuck’s working hard to avoid such a problem, saying: “I don’t like to think too much, and I’ve definitely been doing too much thinking lately.”
Chuck will be pitching in one of the more extreme hitters’ parks in the majors, Citizens Bank Park, where he had a 5.52 ERA in 3 starts last year (only 14 2/3 IP). He had a very nice 16-3 K/BB ratio, but was sunk by 4 homers, as you might expect when a flyball pitcher like him goes to a bandbox like that. Career, he’s 2-0 against the Phillies in 6 starts, with a 4.08 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, a 35/6 K/BB ratio, and 8 homers. Other than the homer bug, he’s been terrific against them.
His opposite number is Cole Hamels, who outpitched Steve Carlton before he was born. Cole also outdueled Chuck in their only meeting, last August 10, one of the Braves’ patented one-run losses. Chuck got no decision after giving up 4 runs in 6 innings (Cole gave up 4 in 7), as the Braves defense hung the loss on Moylan, who gave up the winning run on a single, sac bunt, and a Yunel throwing error on a grounder to short. Hamels is having another terrific year this year, 4-3 with a 3.36 ERA in 8 starts. Against us, though, he’s got a 4.42 ERA, 42-10 K/BB in 38 2/3 innings, and he’s given up 8 homers of his own.
So we have a chance tonight, if we bring out the whupping sticks. Let’s go get ‘em.
Update: Crap, Chipper’s been scratched.
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44 Responses to “5/15 Game Thread: Chuck James Returns to the Rotation, Unthinkingly”
May 15th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Chipper Jones is going to sit out this game. Bad news for the Braves inconsistent offense. We need to learn how to play baseball without Chipper. He isn’t going to be hear forever. It seems like when he isn’t in the lineup we suck. Like we went on that horrible stretch last year during interleague play. Lets just hope the Braves hitters work the count against Hamels and gets some good swings off of him. We’re probably going to need some more homerun balls tonight.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Chuck James vs. Cole Hamels wasn’t in the Braves favor to being with. Now with no Chipper that makes life much harder. One offensive player should never make that much difference, at least for one game. Granted one offensive players usually doesn’t hit. .420. I’m not excited about today’s prospects.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
And it turns out that Kelly isn’t in the game either. Instead, we have Francoeur as our #3 hitter.
This has a very low probability of ending well.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Francoeur is about the worst choice on the team for the #3 hitter but Bobby loves to do it when he gets a chance.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Oh wow, If only Chuck James knew how to get a ground ball (it is still the first inning, bases loaded, 1 out.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
As for Chipper being injured, he really shouldn’t be that important, but he is. I keep hoping that Jeff Francoeur will actually be that guy, but I am really losing hope. McCann seems like the better player so far. I think Escobar and McCann are the players to build around for the future. Until Frenchy genuinely shows that he has put it together, I really don’t have any confidence in him becoming anything special anymore. I know its early this season, and he is still young, but he isn’t showing a lot of improvement.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
And there it goes…
(inning two no outs. Ouch)
May 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
OH MY GOD HE CAUSED A DOUBLE PLAY!!!! VICTORY!!!!
May 15th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
5-0 in the 5th just about what I expected.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
In all fairness to Chuck James, that Shane Victorino HR was 100% due to Philly playing at a little league field.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
The braves biggest problem sometimes is that they take themselves out of the game. They swing too early in the count and just don’t make the opposing pitcher work at all.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Chuck James, folks…is WORTHLESS…he doesnt deserve a spot in a ML Roster..not even in AAA…SELL him to a Mexico team or send him to Japan or Korea.MAYBE if we throw some cash we could convice them….i havent seen a WORST pitcher in the MLB than James….…he doesnt have ANY pitching IQ,Confidence,Control or ANYTHING..dumb as hell…doesnt know hitters,sequence on his pitches and only has TWO PITCHES..With all that and in a bandbox stadium like Citizens Bank…A DISASTER..thats the outcome…HEY, we all knew what was going to happen when they announced Chuck was going to start in Philly…apparently Bobby was the one that was dreaming that Chuck was going to pitch AT LEAST 5 innings and have a decent start…Cmon Wake up Cox!!…things in the Rotation are getting Really UGLY…all this Jo Jo Reyes and Chuck James experiments arent working…maybe Bennett for No.5 but even with him… Mr.Wren has to start working on those phones..Trade in the works somewhere!!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I don’t want to rush into a trade, I would rather see Morton than that. And I think James is much better than he showed tonight, in part because of a bandbox stadium, and in part because his fastball looked rather flat.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Well this game went how I expected it to go. It will really help the Braves if they can sweep the Oakland A’s this weekend. We have a really tough 10 game homestand. It’s going to be even tougher without John Smoltz starting for us. The big 3 are schedule to go on rehab assignments next week. So that is great news for our banged up pen. I wonder what pitching changes is Bobby Cox is going to make when they come back. My pen will look like this…
CL. John Smoltz
SU. Mike Gonzalez
SU. Rafael Soriano
LRP. Jeff Bennett
Lefty Specialist. Royce Ring
MR. Blaine Boyer
MR. Manny Acosta
I will DFA Chris Resop and Will Ohman ( He hasn’t pitch as well as his stats indicate). Plus, Ring is better against left handed hitters. I will send down Jorge Campillo even though he has been great. It’s really a toss up between Ring and Campillo. I figure that we might need a LHP to face a left handed hitter in the 6th or 7th inning.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Andrew…heres a quote from Chuck:
“I’ve just got learn how to pitch again”
Until Chuck gives a damn..hes not going to be more than what you saw today…
Chuck can’t fix his mechanics with a little bit of time in Triple-A…Chuck shouldn’t be in the majors, but it’s not because he needs to go work on his mechanics in the minors, it’s because he sucks and shouldn’t be playing baseball anymore here..
His mechanics haven’t changed since they brought him to the majors the first time…In the past offseasons he hasnt done ANYTHING to help his mechanics or add a 2 or 3 pitches..no..he spent time installing Windows for Lowe’s in 05 and 06 and in 07 did absolutely nothing and didnt rehab his torn rotator cuff..
if he doesn’t care anymore than that, he doesn’t deserve to be mentioned with the Braves. His rotator cuff problem was an injury brought on by these mechanics flaws that should have been corrected in at least one of the off-seasons he spent installing windows.Send HIM OUT!!
May 15th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
dude JoJo has looked pretty good so far. James is an above average number 5 starter in this game. Listen everybody knew that James was gonna get lit up in this game, that was no secret. I believe we need one more starter if we are gonna be serious playoff contenders. Maybe a Maddux type as long as we dont have to give up too much.
I dont actually know what Maddux would be worth. I would give up Lillibridge straight up for him or get Maddux and a decent prospect. Yes Lilli might be a little too much but who knows what Lilli will end up doin at this point. He has been a huge dissappointment. First I would try for a deal with Oakland to get Blanton or Toronto to get Burnett and if those dont happen try to get Maddux. But with Oakland having a great season and Toronto still in it I doubt we get a deal done until late July.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
D’andre, that is actually a good lookin pen. Wow if only we still had Moylan on our team. Then our bullpen would be unstoppable but oh well. Its hard to send Campillo back down though but really who to take off of your list? I dont know its lookin like a good bullpen.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Chuck James also missed all of spring training, so he missed an entire month of meaningless games where he can work on every aspect of his game. Trotting him out there every fifth day in the major leagues after coming back from a long injury with very little time to iron out his problems is like throwing him to the wolves. He really just has no shot. He may give up a lot of home runs, but in spite of that he has managed in the past to be fairly successful, so I wouldn’t call him worthless by any means.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Erod, how can you blame chuck for this offseason? He was injured. I’m not sure if you know how injuries work…but when you get injured, you have to heal first, before you rehab.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Let me start by saying this, I’m not here to toot my own horn. But, this is what I posted in the AJC Braves blog two days ago and here in this blog yesterday:
Putting Chuck(HOMERUN)James on the mound this coming Thursday night in the Phillies bandbox home park against their lineup is a recipe made in H-E-L-L.
I’m anticipating fireworks and we are talking about baseball’s flying over the fence. Chuck(HOMERUN)James has given up at least one HR in 14 of his last 15 starts. In fact, his last two starts in Philadelphia have resulted in four HR’s in just over nine innings of work.
Again, not here to toot my own horn. I coach little league. If anybody thinks for one second that I know more about how to run a MLB team than Bobby Cox, think again.
The answer to that question has two letters in it.
An idiot savant could have seen and predicted last nights debacle by Chuck James. His line: 4 innings, 6 hits(three home runs), 5 earned runs, 5 walks and an ERA of 8.22.
So, why in the name of all that is holy did Bobby Cox put James on the mound last night?
The answer lies somewhere in the legendary patience and quarter century of experience running MLB teams by Cox. Unfortunately, Bobby’s patience and stubborness run together like blood and water. The man is old, set in his ways and he won’t change. The same can be said for many of us, myself included.
The blame for last nights loss falls squarly on the shoulders of Bobby Cox, it was his decision to keep Chuck James in the rotation far to long.
The only remaining question is, will Cox finally put Jeff Bennett in the rotation or will the Braves call up Charlie Morton. We will just have to wait and see.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:29 am
telemakhos.. he never had his arm in form again after the injury…see..he doesnt have what you call…DEDICATION…dude…the guy even wonders HOW he won 11 games the past two season..want more than that…he doesnt have the brains to be a successful ML pitcher.
above average number five…Braves#1, i checked the No.5 Starters in the NL EAST…NOT ONE HAS an ERA over 7.00,K/BB or HR per 9 Chuck has…HE HAS A 8.22 ERA and his averaging 4.2 IP per game… even Redman has a ERA better than him….Give me a break…Chuck is bound for AAA…and if he doesn’t do anything about his mechanics and his head..hes going to be out of a job soon..weve seen the best out of Chuck…. Don’t give me his “career” mark. We all saw what that did for Andruw last year….NOTHING
Coach im with ya…i saw this coming out of Chcuk too,a complete disaster……Jeff Bennett has been almost TWICE as effective (half the ERA) in only 2 less starts than Chuck..why not try him…or Morton..who has Six years in the minors and is pretty darn good right now down there..
May 16th, 2008 at 3:21 am
cheer for Joey Devine
May 16th, 2008 at 9:30 am
It used to be that managers would switch the rotation around to have certain pitchers avoid certain teams or parks. There is a lot less flexibility these days, especially for the Braves. Nevertheless, I can’t understand why Bobby didn’t make some effort to avoid having James pitch in the park that was absolutely worst for him.
On the other hand, Chucky’s problems notwithstanding, the pitching really hasn’t been the problem. I don’t think the Braves would have scored last night if it had been 0-0 for 18 innings. This offense simply isn’t that good, at least on the road. This is four shutouts in 40 games, which translates to 16 over the season. Hamels is a very good pitcher but he hadn’t thrown a shutout. I didn’t see the game last night but Tex looked awful on Wednesday. Everyone talks about this potent offense but where is it? The whole point of putting this lineup together was that the team would score enough runs to overcome some pitching deficiencies but that hasn’t happened either this year or last year and I am skeptical that it is going to. In fact, the pitching has really carried the team.
As for Maddux, I don’t understand why people are in such a hurry to bring in another 42 year old soft tosser who is struggling in San Diego. He isn’t the old Greg Maddux and I would rather give the young guys a shot. I’m not sure, first, that Maddux would even consent to coming to Atlanta, and, second, that he would really be much help. I understand the team is built to win this year, but how many 40 year olds do you want on one pitching staff?
I’m indifferent to Chucky. To me, he’s just another guy that you run in and out of the rotation. At times he is effective, but if your biggest problem is the number five starter,you are in pretty good shape. Obviously, that’s not the Braves only problem.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:59 am
It’s not that I think Maddux is an ace anymore, but he is a good pitcher that can eat more innings than Glavine. Once the new look bullpen comes of the DL, the starters only really have to go 5-6 innings anyway. It would just be a stabilizer and from what I have been reading he would come at a significantly lower cost than a Joe Blanton. In other words, the Braves wouldn’t have to give up top tier prospects to get him. If that is indeed the case, I’m all for it.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
How can you say he has no dedication? He got injured so bad that it knocked him out from august to april, but he worked through it to come back and play for his team. Obviously, you’ve never been injured badly enough to know how much dedication that takes.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! They demoted Chuck!…Leave Bennett in there for 2 or 3 starts and see how it goes..OR Call up Charlie….
May 16th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Telemakhos….FIRST of all….what caused HIS INJURY?????…was it all of a sudden he was injured or anything else.. NO…it was because of his STUPID mechanics …and even AFTER the injury he doesnt even change ONE BIT of his mechanics to avoid another injury…that just tells you all about Chuck…like i said before…he has no dedication and it wasnt about injury…it was about BASEBALL….yeah..the rotator cuff “healed”..He has has two pitches…no control…lack of confience then he goes to AAA and doesnt do ANYTHING to change that….just stays the same old Chuck..if he keeps up with his mechacnics and the lack of pitching IQ….hes going to be injured again(caused by his mechanics) and will be out of a job….i dont want to see him again this year in a Braves uniform..
May 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
I really don’t think his mechanics caused his injury. They certainly limit his velocity and fastball movement, but they don’t put a lot of stress on his shoulder either. I think you’re a little unfair to Chuck James. I think it was reasonable to give him a shot this year… after all, he put up good numbers last year. But at the same time, he didn’t seem ready and his control was certainly very off from last year. He needs to be in AAA right now, gaining back confidence and knocking the rust off. Also, I think people give him way too much garbage for having two pitches. Realize that both Jair Jurrjens and Tom Glavine also use their fastball and changeup almost exclusively.
I’d love to see Charlie Morton at least get a shot. Bennett is valuable as an innings eater in the pen and Morton has good stuff but has also put up pretty strong peripherals this year. He’s got a good groundball rate, good K/BB, good command, and a decent strikeout rate. Give him a start or two and lets see what he can do.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
It’s not exactly fair or accurate to call Glavine a two pitch pitcher. His incredible control, in both velocity and location, with both his fastball and changeup make them each more than just one pitch.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
That’s exactly my point. It is possible to succeed with a fastball and very good changeup so I get a little annoyed when people use Chuck James’ two pitches as a knock against him when he has already succeeded. I was merely pointing out that though people bash Chuck James with that, we have two pitchers in Jurrjens and Glavine who pretty much use the same two pitches.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Actually, Glavine uses his curve a fair amount, and Jurrjens’ slider is more than a show-me pitch. Both use a breaking pitch to a greater extent than James.
The thing is, Chuck did succeed as a two-pitch pitcher in 2005-2006. You could say that was because the league hadn’t seen him before, and maybe that’s true. But the biggest difference seems to be velocity and command of those two pitches, which he had then and seems to have lost recently. I like the guy, but he needs some serious work.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Will, comparing Chuck James to Tom Glavine is farcical at best.
The real problem isn’t how many pitches that Chuck James can throw, it’s the fact everything he brings to the plate is straight. His two seam, four seam and change up are similar pitches thrown at different velocity with the same arm motion.
It’s hard enough to fool big league hitters as it is, James puts himself at a disadvantage because he doesn’t have a breaking ball that can be thrown for strikes.
Basically, James has the fastball and the change up, but not the breaking ball. When he falls behind hitters, Chuck can’t throw the change up. Opposing batters are sitting on his 88-90 m.p.h. fastball and knocking it out of the park.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I think AAA won’t be a vacation for James. If he can produce results down there it will mean something (and I would keep him there until September). Doesn’t matter how he does it.
Meanwhile I am looking at the win/ win trade for Oakland and Atlanta. Joey is doing well and so is Kotsay. Lets cheer for both of these guys.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
James will never succeed with his repertoire without command…he is a flyball pitcher.. and the difference between him and Jurrjens…is that JJ has at least an out picth…JJ…4-Seam Fastball,2-seam FB,Changeup and Slurve….see Chuck…Flat fastball and a changeup..nothing else…if he could command his FB,add more velocity to it and his Change..he would succeed..but he doesnt…and if he didnt change that in all this years(05,06,07 and now 08) i doubt he ever will…he has an uphill battle with his pitching, a lot of work to do ….he should’ve learned something from Glavine..but hey…that’s Chuck were talking about…
May 16th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
All of you are looking way too far into this comparison. My point is that you can’t say James can’t succeed with only two pitches for two reasons.
1.) He already has succeeded
2.) We have two other pitchers on this staff who have the ability to succeed with pretty much two pitches. Glavine and Jurrjens do also have breaking pitches, however neither is very good and neither is used more than a couple times a game.
I think James’ control has been way off since his injury and he needs to be in AAA, but the fact is that he can succeed with his repertoire and he has… period.
May 16th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Well Jurrjens and the Braves aren’t looking so good so far. We have to learn how to hit lefties better.
May 16th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Braves tendencies will not change regarding success against lefties. There is something more fundamental involved than a piece of advice whispered in the on deck circle. Don’t know what it is, because I don’t play ball.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
What is up with Teixeira? He should be batting behind Francoeur and McCann with the way he is hitting. One of our top two or three hitters is McCann and he should be slotted accordingly in the lineup, bump him up to fourth or at least fifth in the lineup.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
The problem is we don’t really have any right-handed power.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Kotsay vs. Devine round 1!!!
Joey Devine strikes out Kotsay. I still will like to have Joey Devine on our team. Even though he struggle at times, he still was one of my favorite players on the Braves.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Don’t look now but Scott Thorman is on a tear. The guy is hitting .419 with two homers and four doubles in his last ten games. I don’t expect to see him in Atlanta but good performance in Richmond could give him a bit of trade value if the Braves need to go out and get something in July.
May 17th, 2008 at 3:03 am
has thorman changed anything that would make him improve or is he just seeing the ball well right now?
May 17th, 2008 at 5:06 am
to answer Telemakhos,
Wait until the all star break.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:12 am
no idea.
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