The Swinging Door of the Braves DL
In case you haven’t already heard, it sounds like Chipper is headed for the DL. Although we’d all hoped to see him as the DH in Toronto this past weekend, he has continued to struggle with his right quadricep muscle. He is now conceding that he should have gone on the DL from the start: “We probably should have DL’d me right when it happened. I knew that it was worse than the previous time. But the competitive side of me wanted to help the club, and I’ve always been a fairly quick healer. So I figured in five or six days, it would be OK, or at least good enough to get back in there. It just hasn’t gotten good enough, fast enough.” Now Jones will miss around nine games if he goes on the 15-day DL because of two pinch hitting performances that will make the retroactive date for listing him June 26th. This would put him back in the lineup just before the All-Star game.
As Chipper goes on the DL, several others will be coming off. As I’ve mentioned recently, Mark Kotsay and Martin Prado are both down at AA Mississippi on a rehab stint. The Braves expect that both could be activated in time for Tuesday’s game against the Phillies. Kotsay is 6-for-18 in Mississippi, while Prado is 2-for-11. The reports I’ve heard don’t put Prado quite ready to return yet, but with the recent injury to Infante the Braves may have to take a chance. Meanwhile, Escobar seems set to return from his left shoulder injury in time for Tuesday’s game.
The most interesting scenario to play out will be in the outfield. With Kotsay back, Blanco will no longer have a home in centerfield. As good as he’s been playing though, you’ve got to put him somewhere. The only real choice is left field, but Brandon Jones has looked pretty good as well. Suddenly we’re overrun with outfield talent - I won’t complain. Should be interesting to watch over the next few days though and see who is sent back down.
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17 Responses to “The Swinging Door of the Braves DL”
June 30th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I’d expect a Brandon Jones-Gregor Blanco platoon.
The thing about Prado is, he’s a bad defender, but at least he can hit a little bit. I’d much, much rather see him in the lineup than Greg Norton. We really need to get Escobar back, though. Lillibridge is making Francoeur look like a good hitter.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Heard on the radio this morning that Frenchy is batting .301 in day games and .206 in night games. They said he’s being (or has been) fitted with a contact for one eye that’s supposed to help him see better at night. We’ll see if that helps as the season progresses. He seems to swing at the worst pitches and just watches good ones go by.
June 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Is it me, or do ya’ll also have doubts that Lilibridge will ever be able to hit in the Bigs……….he seems so overmatched. I know he’s a rookie w/ little experience and all, but gosh darn, he just seems to have no clue and not a shred of confidence @ bat. Poor guy………he’s worse than Frenchy !!!!
June 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Brandon Jones has more strikeouts (16) than hits (15) at the major league level, balanced out by just two walks. He has just five hits in his last 11 games (33 AB) and at least one K in each of his last six games, so it’s getting worse.
Meanwhile, Blanco’s still struggling with the strikeouts, but he’s had 8 multi-hit games in the last 16 against only 11 K and 5 walks. His defense is also clearly superior. Just saying…
June 30th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I definitely agree that Blanco looks better than B. Jones right now.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Lilibridge is all hype–he should choke on the bat and just poke the ball to rightfield, needless to say we should have swept this past weekend
June 30th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Uh, Kristi, we’re overrun with outfield talent? We may be overrun with guys that can play outfield but I don’t know about talent. Remember, we have the black hole in right field.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
If I were B/C, I would bench Frenchy and use Brandon Jones in right, Kotsay in cf and Blanco in left. Frenchy is just a terrible head case right now. He really needs to go back to Triple a and figure things out. Oh, I forgot, he never played in Richmond.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
gary, I wouldn’t judge lillibridge based on just a few weeks in the majors when he still needs quite a bit of seasoning in the minors. This has been a really down year for him at richmond, so bringing him up to atlanta just magnifies that. Jojo looked terrible last year, but this year he’s been a valuable part of our rotation.
June 30th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Yes, but Reyes had flashes of potential last yr. Lilibridge just hasn’t shown anything @ the plate this yr. that even resembles potential. I know he’s as green as they come, but I would think that @ some point you would see some flashes of future ability. All I’ve seen so far is a lost and overmatched kid.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
The situation with Chipper and all the leg injuries he has endured reminds me so much of Mickey Mantle.
The parallels are striking, both were/are switch hitters, both are Hall of Fame players, both were/have been hampered by severe leg injuries in their late 30’s, Mantle ended his career with more walks than strike outs, Chipper will do the same. Mantle’s career BA is .298, Chippers is .310, Mantle played eighteen seasons, Chipper is in his fifteenth year and could possibly close in on the Mick’s 536 HR’s by the end of his career. Both played LF at one time or another. Both do/did hit/bat primarily in the three hole. Both played their entire career with one team. Etc.etc.etc.
And it’s really crazy when you think about the fact that Chipper’s old man turned him into a switch hitter due to the inspiration of none other than the Commerce Comet himself, Mickey Mantle !
June 30th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
And both saw blazing speed erased by a catastrophic leg injury in their rookie season.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:26 am
Alex, I’m gonna give you an unvarnished, non-opinionated stat based look at the 2008 braves and you can draw your own conclusions.
The Braves are 14-20 against winning teams.
They are 12-29 on the road.
4 and 21 in one run games.
They just set a major league record with 23 one run road losses in a row.
40 quality starts, 40 wins. read between the lines.
Atlanta has draw 320 walks versus 519 strike outs with 28 stolen bases (ranked 13th of 16 teams), they have hit into 78 double plays, the Nationals are the only other N.L team with more (85).
The Braves have hit 80 HR’s, which is ranked tenth out of 16 N.L.teams while scoring 4.5 runs per game.
They are 12-17 against left handed starting pitching.
38 of the remaining 79 games are against teams with winning records. Leaving the Braves on pace to finish 78-84 .481
July 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
Coach, I know what your conclusions are, because you’ve posted each of these stats before. I think you overvalue stolen bases, but otherwise I think you’re basically right: we’re a mediocre team with a fairly poor offense, and our good pitching isn’t enough to make the difference. However, there’s an entire half-season to go.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Actually, I haven’t posted half of those stats before. But, your right, I have seen this song and dance before. I know how it ends.
When it comes to stolen bases, I worship at the feet of Whitey Herzog. I absolutely loved those great Cardinal teams of the eighties. Word to the wise, SPEED never slumps, it never takes a day off and it never lets up.
At any rate, I hope your watching ESPN. Those Tampa Bay Rays are something special. Best record in baseball with the toughest schedule in what is arguably the most dominant division.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:07 am
Speed slumps when it doesn’t pick its spots, when it gets thrown out at second and kills a rally, when it bunts and gives up outs instead of playing for a big inning.
You can take Herzog and I’ll take Earl Weaver. Do you really think the stolen base is a necessary component of a winning team now that they’ve taken away the players’ greenies?
July 1st, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I strongly disagree, Alex. This is one subject where I know my p’s and q’s.
From 1981 to 1989 the Cardinal teams managed by Whitey Herzog won an amazing 246 one run games out of 450 played. That’s a winning percentage of .546 . There is something to be said for the running game and speed, as in Whitey had it down to a science. Speed never slumps, speed kills, it drives opposing managers crazy. Hell, Rickey Henderson even proved that when executed properly, nobody could stop him from stealing second base.
I don’t agree with you at all that teams have to pick their spots. Stealing a base is pure execution and when done properly, the runner cannot be thrown out.
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