brewhavingaball

Gone are the days of Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine.  And gone are the days of assumed Braves supremacy in the NL East.  That doesn’t mean that the Braves are out of the picture, or that their success won’t fall on pitchers.  The difference is that this year I can’t figure out how they are doing it.

Any piece on the Braves’ success thus far would be remiss in omitting that Chipper Jones is hitting .418, with 74 hits in 47 games played.  Consider this the obligatory, “WOW” paragraph. 

 There is a bigger “WOW” though.

Chipper and the other bats need to be overlooked because the Braves are 2nd in team ERA in the NL, just behind the Arizona Diamondbacks who have a rotation of Brandon Webb (currently the best pitcher on the planet), Dan Haren (the ace of the A’s last year), Micah Owings (whose pitching gets overlooked because of his tremendous bat), Randy Johnson (yes, he is the 4th starter), Doug Davis (returning from cancer), and Max Scherzer (who is just embarking on a career many think will be stellar).  To be in the same sentence with the D-backs pitching is a compliment to any staff, it even would have been for any of those great Braves teams.

One would think that the Braves must really have gotten everything to break well for them to be pitching so well.  Not even close.  Mike Hampton has not seen the mound yet, John Smoltz has only made half the starts he should have, projected closer Rafeal Soriano has missed 6 weeks, replacement closer Pete Moylan was shut down for the season the week after Soriano’s injury, and Mike Gonzalez, who was the Pirates closer, is not back yet.  So how are they doing it?

Obviously Tim Hudson (7-3, 2.97) has been huge.  Much less obviously, and much less expected has been the contribution from Jair Jurrgens (5-3, 2.86), who was acquired from the Tigers in the Edgar Renteria deal in the off-season.  After that, manager Bobby Cox deserves as much credit as anybody.  Look at the other starters numbers:  Tom Glavine (2-2, 4.76) and is averaging 5 innings a start.  Jo-Jo Reyes (2-2 5.84) and Chuck James (2-3, 8.22) are averaging fewer than 5 innings per start.  That is where Cox comes in.

Cox has mixed and matched a bullpen of Manny Acosta, Will Ohman, Jorge Campillo (might be moved to the rotation), Royce Ring, Chris Resop, Blaine Boyer, Jeff Bennett, and Buddy Carlyle (he has been on the DL most of this month).  None of those names are household names outside of Atlanta.  Sure, Ohman was a workhorse for the Cubs, but nothing spectacular, and he is the best known, healthy, reliever Cox has.  Yet, he quietly has them 2 games in back of the Marlins, tied with the Phillies, in front of the Mets, and very much in the thick of things 1/3 of the way into the season.

I am not sure Atlanta can win the division, or even make the playoffs with the way the injuries are going, but if they can stay close Cox deserves consideration for manager of the year.  He might want to get pitching coach, Roger McDowell, a raise.

If they can get even a little healthy, not even all of the guys - Soriano, Smoltz, Hampton, Carlyle, Gonzalez - and avoid any more pitching injuries, they might just be back in the playoffs.  That is as big a “WOW” as Chipper’s numbers.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS