Braves' News Tidbits

[General]

The Braves could drop a reliever since the bullpen is rested after consecutive complete games by Kyle Davies and Tim Hudson and an off day Thursday. Right-hander Peter Moylan hasn't pitched since his April 12 major league debut.

They could disable shortstop Edgar Renteria, though that seems less likely since his strained side has improved and he might be ready to play by Sunday.
"I don't know what we're going to do yet," Cox said Thursday in Washington, where the Braves rested and some went sightseeing before their weekend series against the Nationals beginning Friday at RFK Stadium.

The Braves recalled infield prospect Martin Prado from Class AA Mississippi, where the
22-year-old Venezuelan was batting .302 with three doubles, four RBIs and a .373 on-base percentage in 14 games.

He is strong on defense at second and third base and can also play shortstop. Atlanta must make a move today to open a spot for Prado on the 25-man roster.

Three-fourths of Atlanta's infield is hurt, but only one is on the DL: third baseman Chipper Jones (sprained knee, sprained foot), who is expected back Tuesday at Milwaukee, the first day he's eligible to be activated.
Jones wore a bulky brace on his right knee when he took batting practice Wednesday at Shea Stadium, the first time he'd hit left-handed since being hurt April 9. He had no problems and drove several balls out of the park.


John Smoltz is 10-0 with a 1.97 ERA in his past 17 starts against the Nationals/Expos. He starts Friday night's series opener. . . . Andruw Jones has hit .303 with 22 homers and 54 RBIs in 41 road games (155 at-bats) since July 8, 2005. . . . Ryan Langerhans has hit .407 with two homers and eight RBIs in nine road games.

[General]

John Smoltz surrendered three runs in five innings versus the Nationals on Friday but was not involved in the decision.
Smoltz gave up seven hits, including a pair of solo homers by Alfonso Soriano. The three strikeouts Smoltz recorded tonight gave him 2,581 for his career and tied him with Bob Feller for 23rd on the all-time list. If he stays healthy, Smoltz should pass Feller, Warren Spahn, Chuck Finley, and David Cone this season.

Brian McCann went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles in the Braves' 7-3 loss to the Nationals on Friday.
McCann is hitting .292 with three homers. He has a chance to hit 20 home runs this season, but batting seventh or eighth in the Braves' lineup will limit his potential in other counting stats. He has just seven runs scored and six RBI in 15 games so far

[General]

By DAVID O'BRIEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/22/06 Washington — After the Braves staged an improbable eighth-inning comeback Friday night, the bullpen acted as if it were too distracted from the drama.
Atlanta's three-run rally in the eighth was wasted when the Washington Nationals scored four in the bottom of the inning, capped by Alfonso Soriano's third home run of the night.
Soriano's three-run, two-out blast to center field off Oscar Villarreal put the finishing touches on a 7-3 Nationals victory in the rain-soaked series opener at RFK Stadium.
Soriano, the Nationals' leadoff man, hit home runs off John Smoltz in the first and third innings and has a staggering six homers and 13 RBIs in his past four games against Atlanta. That included a two-homer game last June off Atlanta's other ace, Tim Hudson, when Soriano was still a Texas Rangers second baseman.
?He?s getting paid $12 million because he can hit,? Braves manager Bobby Cox said of the converted left fielder.
Smoltz said, ?It?s not too often you see a leadoff hitter beat you, and a leadoff hitter beat us tonight.?
Veteran left-hander Mike Remlinger threw a wild pitch that allowed the tie-breaking run to score in the eighth, then walked Matthew LeCroy to put the second run on board for Soriano.
Cox said Remlinger couldn?t grip the ball in the rain, but Remlinger said, ?I?m not going to make an excuse. If you play the game, you do the job. If you don?t, you lose, period.?
The Nationals got their four-run inning started with a Ryan Church triple off Lance Cormier (0-1), who then intentionally walked Daryle Ward before being replaced by Villarreal.
The late-innings activity overshadowed a dominant performance by Nationals starter John Patterson, who took a two-hit shutout and a three-run lead into the eighth inning.
That's when the Braves awakened with three runs on three hits, including Pete Orr's triple and Brian McCann's double.
That spoiled another strong performance against Atlanta by Patterson, who is 0-2 in seven career starts against the Braves, including no-decisions in the last four despite a 1.90 ERA.
?We made a great comeback off Patterson, who was really on top of his game,? Cox said. ?It looked like he wasn?t going to give up anything. Patterson was really dominant for seven innings.?
McCann started the rally with a one-out double, his third hit of the game off Patterson. To that point, he was the only Brave to even reach base against the right-hander.
Rookie shortstop Tony Pena then hustled to beat out a chop single — his first major league hit — before a sacrifice fly by Matt Diaz cut the lead to 3-1.
Orr reached down for a pitch and drove it to the gap for a triple that chased Patterson from the game, and Wilson Betemit greeted former Braves reliever Mike Stanton with a single to bring in the tying run.
Smoltz allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings, but avoided what would have been his first loss against the Nationals in 18 starts since 1994. His only loss to them in the interim came as a closer in 2002.
Cox said he took Smoltz out because he saw no reason to leave him out any longer, given the conditions, his grip problems in the rain, and the 3-0 deficit against Patterson.
McCann had a single in the third, two-out bloop double in the fifth and double off the center-field wall in the eighth.
No other Brave reached base against Patterson until Pena single, which advanced McCann to third.
Patterson entered with a .188 opponents? average and piled up a career-high 13 strikeouts with one walk and three hits in eight innings at Florida on Saturday. He has 21 strikeouts and one walk in his past two starts.

From AJC. That about sums up our usual early season struggles, as the pen blew it.

[General]

Marcus Giles (finger) played catch and fielded ground balls Friday.
Giles said that he expects to be in the lineup by Monday and isn't ruling out returning this weekend.

Edgar Renteria (ribs) fielded grounders without any problems Friday.
Renteria might return this weekend and by Tuesday Atlanta's infield should be completely healthy again

Braves manager Bobby Cox will push everyone in his rotation back a day after Saturday's game was rained out.
John Thomson will start on Sunday night.

Edgar Renteria would like to play on Sunday night after missing the last week with a rib-cage strain.
"I'm debating whether to do that or not," manager Bobby Cox said.

[General]

Horacio Ramirez (hamstring) had a very positive bullpen session on Friday.
The Braves have set no timetable for his return. He will likely make at least one minor league rehab appearance prior to being activated.

[General]

Martin Prado tripled and walked twice Sunday against the Nationals in his major league debut.
Prado may get another start on Monday, but he's likely to be optioned back to Double-A when Chipper Jones comes off the DL on Tuesday.

Chris Reitsma was removed from his save opportunity after pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings against the Nationals on Sunday night.
On his 39th pitch of the outing, Reitsma gave up a hard single to Jose Vidro to put runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and manager Bobby Cox made the decision to turn to Mike Remlinger to face Nick Johnson. The move worked, as Johnson grounded out to give Remlinger his first save in 2004. Reitsma remains the Braves' closer, but he hasn't had a save in nine days.

John Thomson, who had his start pushed back a day by Saturday's rainout, allowed one run over six innings in a no-decision against the Nationals.
Thomson wasn't as impressive tonight as he was in his previous two starts, giving up seven hits and five walks in the six innings. Still, he now has a 0.53 ERA in three starts this season. Maybe the Atlanta offense and bullpen will combine to get him a win someday if he keeps it up.

Wilson Betemit hit a three-run homer off Gary Majewski in the eighth inning to lead the Braves to a win over the Nationals on Sunday night.
The Braves won 3-1 despite being outhit 11-5. Betemit is batting .292/.370/.500 with 10 RBI in 48 at-bats, but it still looks like he'll head back to the bench soon. Chipper Jones, Edgar Renteria and Marcus Giles could all return during the early portion of the week.

Chipper Jones (sprained ankle and knee) is expected to be in the starting lineup on Tuesday.
Tuesday is the first day Jones is eligible to come off the DL. He has been taking batting practice for several days and should be safe to insert into your lineup.

Edgar Renteria (ribs) could be in the lineup on Monday.
Renteria felt a little sore during batting practice on Saturday so manager Bobby Cox held him out of the lineup on Sunday. The Braves are hoping the Renteria, Marcus Giles, and Chipper Jones will be in the starting lineup on Tuesday.

Marcus Giles (finger) took batting practice on Sunday.
Giles had his finger heavily taped. There is a decent chance he could start Monday's game against the Brewers.

Due to Saturday's rainout John Smoltz will decide if he wants to pitch Wednesday on regular rest or Friday with a couple extra days between his starts.
If he decides to go on Wednesday, Jorge Sosa will have his turn in the rotation skipped. Smoltz will make his decision by Monday

[General]

Marcus Giles, who missed five days with a sprained ligament in his left middle finger, is starting at second base tonight.
He's batting leadoff in front of Wilson Betemit, who is filling in for Edgar Renteria once again.

[General]

Braves activated third baseman Chipper Jones from the 15-day disabled list.
Jones is starting at third base and batting third against the Brewers tonight. Ryan Langerhans, who had been batting third, is in the second spot with Edgar Renteria still out of the lineup. Wilson Betemit is playing short and batting eighth.

Braves optioned second baseman Martin Prado to Double-A Mississippi.
Prado had a triple and two walks in five at-bats while filling in for Marcus Giles.

Macay McBride, still rehabbing from a strained forearm, pitched scoreless innings Sunday and Monday for Triple-A Richmond.
McBride was supposed to rejoin the Braves last week, but then he had a bad outing for Double-A Mississippi and the team didn't want to make room for him with both Marcus Giles and Edgar Renteria injured. It seems like he's not far away now.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia finished 3-for-3 with a homer and a double for Double-A Mississippi on Monday.
Since opening the season 2-for-24, Salty is 13-for-33 with three homers

Jorge Sosa will start on Wednesday against the Brewers.
The Braves considered having John Smoltz switch places with Sosa, but Smoltz decided that a few extra days rest would be beneficial. Smoltz will start Friday against the Mets.

Edgar Renteria (ribs) took batting practice on Sunday and Monday and could be in the lineup Tuesday.
Braves manager Bobby Cox is considering having Renteria return to the lineup either on Tuesday or waiting until Friday when the Braves return to Atlanta. He hasn't played in a game since April 15.


Jeff Francoeur went hitless for a third straight game on Monday, knocking his average back down to .184.
Francoeur's hot streak certainly didn't last as long as hoped, and his inclination to chase anything and everything -- he hasn't walked once in 76 at-bats -- is likely to keep leading to problems. Just a little selectivity would go a long way.

[love_that_reefer]

Chipper hit his first homer of the year tonight. Chipper is one of those guys you can't hate, unless you are a Mets fan.

[General]

Jorge Sosa yielded four unearned runs in 5 1/3 innings versus the Brewers on Wednesday.
Sosa pitched pretty well by striking out four and walking just one, but a pair of errors by Adam LaRoche and Chipper Jones were costly. Sosa hadn't completed more than four innings in any of this three starts prior to today, so this still qualifies as an improvement. He may get one more start before Horacio Ramirez returns, but Sosa is likely headed for the bullpen

Brian McCann went 3-for-3 with a sacrifice fly against the Brewers on Wednesday.
The sac fly didn't miss being a game-tying homer off Derrick Turnbow by much. McCann, who hadn't driven in a run in 13 days, is batting .308 with three homers and seven RBI.





Tim Hudson fell to 1-2 after yielding four runs in seven innings versus the Brewers on Tuesday.
Hudson didn't walk a batter and struck out four. He did yield nine hits, four of which went for extra-bases. That he posted a 14/3 GB/FB ratio is encouraging and Hudson did look excellent last time out, so he should be on his way to improving his 5.87 ERA.

Chipper Jones, who hadn't played since he twisted his ankle and knee on April 9, returned to the lineup on Tuesday and went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer.
Jones had been taking batting practice for several days, so that he got back into the swing of things quickly isn't a surprise. Hopefully, you already had him active.

[redsfan28]

Jeff Francoeur went hitless for a third straight game on Monday, knocking his average back down to .184.
Francoeur's hot streak certainly didn't last as long as hoped, and his inclination to chase anything and everything -- he hasn't walked once in 76 at-bats -- is likely to keep leading to problems. Just a little selectivity would go a long way.

Heard that Francouer might get demoted to AAA soon.

[General]

With Bobby, I doubt he sees AAA until mid-May.

[General]

...or until Kelly Johnson is ready to come back.

[General]

Kelly Johnson, on the DL since the start of the year with elbow soreness, is worried that he may need season-ending surgery.
Johnson still has soreness when he throws. If it doesn't go away within the next couple of weeks, surgery could be a possibility.

Horacio Ramirez, who thought he aggravated his hamstring injury earlier this week, didn't have and additional problems in a bullpen session on Friday.
The Braves still haven't decided when Ramirez will begin a rehab assignment. It looks like he's at least two weeks away from being activated.

[General]

Edgar Renteria is starting at shortstop and batting second versus the Mets on Friday night.
Renteria had been out since Saturday with a rib-cage strain.