Davies to Foster to Reitsma

Kyle Davies may infact be this years Charles Thomas or Nick Green. He's looked phenominal in his first 4 major league starts. Davies' ERA is a microscopic 0.77 and has shown that he can minimize damage in situations where he has men on base. Tonight's game, Davies at one point had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs and Pittsburgh slugger and 2004 NL ROY Jason Bay at the plate. He enduces Bay to pop up, intentionally walks the next batter and gets Daryle Ward to ground into the pitcher friendly 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Davies would pitch 7.2 scoreless inning but would leave after 119 pitches and 2 men on the bags for the lone Braves southpaw in the bullpen John Foster. Foster has been a perfectionist this year, atleast according to his flawless 0.00 ERA. He's also recorded 12 of 15 first batters he'd faced. But not tonight, he walks the first batter which loaded the bases for Daryle Ward who once again had a chance to give the Pirates the first score of the game. Ward would end up grounding out 6-3, ending the inning without a run and the PIrates threat. Needless to say it wasn't Ward's best night..0-4 with a K and 8 LOB.
It's now the top of the 9th and Marcus Giles is on 1st with 1 out. Brian Jordan hits a double play ball but Marcus Giles makes a GREAT slide into 2nd taking out the 2B Freddy Sanchez to prevent the twin killing. Next batter 47 year old JULIOOOOOOOO FRANCO delivers a double to deep right center, plating Jordan and the Braves take a 1-0 lead.
Chris Reitsma is call upon in the ninth and he pitches a flawless inning to record his 3rd save.
Foster gets his first win of the year and the Braves regain control of the NL east by half a game.
A preview of tomorrow's series finale in Pittsburgh will see Seth Greisenger (former Detroit scrub) makes his Atlanta debut and will take on young phenom Oliver Perez. Greisenger was called up after Mike Hampton was placed back on the 15 day DL with tightness in his forearm and elbow. Greisenger however does have decent stats in Richmond (3 wins 3+ ERA) and will be working on his regular rest. Let's hope the bats wake up.

Searching for Offense

The Braves failed miserably with the bats again tonight, losing in Pittsburgh 3-1. The Pirates are currently the worst home team in the National League which makes the loss even tougher to handle. Oh yeah, not to mention team ace Tim Hudson was on the mound.
Chipper Jones continues to slump going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts. He's 1 for his last 19 and is playing with a "sore foot". With the way Wilson Betemit has been hitting (the ONLY one who has been hitting) why not give Chipper few days off? He hurt this foot about a month ago and obviously came back too early after taking a week off. Betemit is FINALLY showing Braves fans why he was considered the #1 prospect of the organization since 1999. He's hitting .340 and has 4 consecutive multi-hit games. Rafael Furcal should be back in the lineup tomorrow so place Betemit at third. If not, Pete Orr who had the only RBI for the Braves tonight could fill it at SS.
Andruw Jones is once again baffling experts with his inconsistant play. Now in his 8th season as a full time major leaguer, you'd think he's actually got an idea how to hit. Well he does, sometimes. He goes through streaks where he'll fucking murder the ball to every part of the park and then he goes through shit like this, chasing balls a foot outside in the dirt. What goes through his head?
I guess that's like asking "Why is the sky blue?" or "How many women has Hugh Hefner actually banged?" The world may never know.
Nevertheless, Atlanta is now on a 2 game losing streak and Mike Hampton is scheduled to pitch against Mark Redman tomorrow. Hopefully Hampton can go longer than the 4 innings he went last start against Washington and that his elbow is fine. Chances are Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone won't let him go longer than 5.
Bullpen get ready, we are gonna need ya'

Kolb does it again..

Yep. It happened yet again. Danny Kolb cost the Atlanta Braves yet another win. When is Bobby Cox ever going to figure out that you can't trust this guy to get ANYONE out? The Braves had been trailing the entire game until a big 4 run breakout in the top of the 8th to give them a 6-3 lead. With Chris Reitsma having pitching 2 innings the night before, it would be unwise to have him pitch 2 more again on back to back nights. This is where the guy you traded a Baseball America top 100 prospect (Jose Capellean) is SUPPOSED to come in a get THREE OUTS.
He's got a three run lead, the Braves have total control of the game and all the momentum and what does Kolb do? Walk the first batter. He's allowed the first runner to get on base something like 14 out of 20 times. That would be easier to handle if the guy was actually putting the ball in play, but he isn't, Kolb is giving it to them usually on 4 straight. The next batter comes up and I immediately notice Kolb has given up on every pitch except his fastball. I'm not the only one who recognizes this, so does the entire Washington Nationals lineup. After a fielder's choice by Carroll, Kolb gives up a single to Jose Guillen, an RBI Double to CARLOS BAERGA followed by ANOTHER RBI double to Vinny Castilla before Bobby Cox pulls his sorry ass out of the game. Gryboski comes in and intentionally walks the bases full in hopes to get a DP with the catcher coming up and proceeds to give up a 3 run double of his own putting the game out of reach for the slumping Atlanta offense 8-6.
Atlanta with the loss moves back into a tie of 1st place in the division with the Marlins and the whole division is only a 2 1/2 games spread from top to bottom.
Kolb moves to 1-5 on the year, and has now cost Atlanta EIGHT games in the standings, including 3 against NL East opponents.
The way I see it there are two choices the Braves can make:

1. Get rid of Danny Kolb. Whether that be release him, trade him, assassinate him... whatever, just get him off the fucking mound forever.

2. Choice 2 is the same as choice 1. GET RID OF DANNY KOLB. NOW! BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!

Game Recap vs. Mets

The Atlanta Braves complete the sweep of the New York Mets in Atlanta Wednesday night with a 3-0 victory. The loss for the Mets moves them to 7-24 in the last 31 games played at Turner Field.
Kyle Davies made his home debut for the Braves and pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings to move his career record to 2-0 and move his scoreless innings streak to 10 1/3. He left the game in the 6th after taking a line drive off his chest. Davies recorded 6 strikeouts in his 5+ innings, including a wicked changeup to Mike Piazza and great curveball to former Philadelphia scrub Marlon Anderson to get him out of a jam in the 4th.
John Foster, the Braves lone southpaw in the bullpen picked up for Davies in the 6th, getting Cliff Floyd swinging on strikes and enducing a 4-3 groundout of Mike Piazza. Foster has yet to allow a run this season as well.
Chris Reitsma pitched two perfect innings to record his first save for the Braves this season, including 2 strikeouts. I must say thanks to Raul Mondesi for striking out as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 8th or else Reitsma would have been pinch hit for and Dan Kolb would have pitched the ninth.
The Braves offense looked sluggish even with Chipper Jones back in the lineup after missing the last 4 games with a strained oblique muscle. The offensive highlight of the night was a 2 on 1 out situation with Pete Orr at the plate, when he hit a comebacker to the mound Mets starter Victor Zambrano attempted to force Johnny Estrada at 3rd and threw the ball into left field (eeriely similar to when Kolb did the same thing against Philly on ESPN) and allowed not only Estrada to score but Ryan Langerhans as well. After a sacrifice bunt by Davies, Rafael Furcal singled in Orr and gave the Braves the only 3 runs of the night.
The win gives the Braves a 3 game winning streak heading into an off day and then a home series against Philly. With Philly beating Florida 8-5 tonight as well, it moves Atlanta back within a half a game of the NL East lead.
I'm going to attempt to go to the Saturday afternoon game which will be on FOX's national broadcast so I'll have some interaction with other fans and give you their thoughts on the current Braves situation.

Season in review

Ok, so the Atlanta Braves are once again in the midst of another heated battle in the NL East. But this year, not like many previous years, there are so many question marks to as if the Braves can climb the mountain and prevail for an unpresedented 14th straight divisional title.

Question 1: Who the hell is going to close out games?

Danny Kolb is awful. Downright pathetic, even. He's allowed about 90% of first batters to reach base on him, he's averaging about a walk per inning, not to mention a hit as well. His ERA is hovering around 7, and he's cost Atlanta 5-6 games minimum in the standings thus far.
Let's not forget the game on ESPN in Philly where Kolb allows 2 bases runners and proceeds to throw a comebacker into left field and allow the winning run to score after a walk to the next batter.
Leo Mazzone's got a ton of work on his hands, this guy has no command on any of his pitches. He's got no confidence in his breaking stuff. He tries to heave fastball after fastball past hitters and it's getting him pounded. It's quite obvious the guy isn't capable of closing out games in a city where games actually matter. He's actually got a good power-sinker when he's on, but it seems like he's always off.

Without Kolb being reliable, the Braves next best option in my eyes is set-up man Chris Reitsma. Reitsma has some experience as a closer in Cincinnati and can actually throw strikes. His numbers this year are quite inflated (4.57 ERA) but aside from two poor outings, he's been extremely consistant. Reitsma's only problem is late in the season he starts to breakdown because of the incredibly large amount of games he pitches in, so a move to the closer role would save his arm some innings and may make him even better.

Question 2: Will the corner outfielders produce anything?

Very unlikely. Raul Mondesi shows signs of life at the dish on occasion but always falls right back into his "I must pull everything" mentality. Whoever taught him how to hit should be blugened in the head with a stone. The guy can't go the opposite way, he doesn't even try. He swings at 2-0 curveballs away from him and grounds out to third base. I think Mondesi should be sat down and shown footage of J.D. Drew at-bats. TAKE A WALK, IT'S OK! Hell, just take a pitch. Stop swinging at the first one, fool. Mondesi's been fornicating with the Mendoza line all year and hasn't hit a HR since mid-April. Atleast Raul is enjoyable to watch in the outfield, his arm is hella good.

Brian Jordan on the other hand is no fun to watch, period. He like Mondesi loves going after the first pitch. Jordan tends to swing and miss at it. Then when behind in the count, Brian likes to extend his strike zone to the middle in to inner half of the plate very similar to Mendesi and not even consider going the other way. Jordan's average is teering around .230, although he has shown signs of patience on occasion. Jordan's "football player mentality" has him diving all over the place and has me hoping he'll dive face first into a wall and be out for the season.

Ryan Langerhans a long time product in the Braves farm system is finally getting a chance this year to show what he's got. He usually fills in for one of the two losers afore mentioned when a right hander is on the mound. Langerhans places exeptional defense and has good speed. The only problem is, he's very rarely on base, just like the other two. His batting average is below .200 although he does have power with 5 HR's in limited playing time. If he could learn to stop swinging for the fences and just put the ball in play, he'd be a valuable asset to the offense. He's still young and Brave fans are going to have to be patient with him.

Question 3: What do you think Atlanta needs to do to make the best possible team?

With Rafael Furcal being in the last year of his contract and with him being the top free agent shortstop after this year, trade him. Pete Orr would be a nice fit at SS, or they could even bring up Tony Pena Jr. and try him out for size. Furcal's value is pretty high, being he is a switch hitting leadoff man with incredible speed, and a fucking rifle as an arm. His defense has really improved over the last 3 years, so Atlanta could get something really worthwhile in return.
Maybe try to strike a deal with the White Sox and get some bullpen help, (Damaso Marte) and an outfielder (Aaron Rowand). Cincinnati is another team that likes to make trades, Austin Kearns wouldn't be a bad fit in Atlanta and he'd bring some power to the lineup. Whatever it is, trade Furcal now and get something for him before he walks at the end of the season.

Take Chipper Jones and move him back into left field. I know he hates it out there but Chipper, you've got to do what's in the best interest of the team. Andy Marte is MLB ready and tearing up the minor leagues. He's a top 25 prospect in all of baseball, you've got to stop holding him back and let him play. Even if Marte doesn't get called up, Wilson Betemit has been a prospect for years and years, let him be the everyday 3B. He's got incredible potential. We don't need you at third Chipper, go back to the outfield, you're only at 3rd so you can make the all-star team anyways and get that extra incentive in your contract for doing it. Stop being greedy.

Question 4: How will the rotation hold up?

Smoltz's arm is a huge question mark. Then again, it has been for 4 years. Just don't overwork him, keep his pitch count around 100. It seems like John is altering his delivery in some ways to keep the pressure off that arm and it's caused him to strain his back. Just perfect...

Tim Hudson, no problem there, that guy is great.

Hampton and Ramirez are going to need a little more run support than Huddy and Smoltzy but that's typical for left-handed pitchers. Get them the runs, they'll be fine. But if Hampton's curve isn't working, we're in for a long outing. Both guys are inconsistant, the only difference is, Hampton is inconsistant start to start and Ramirez inning to inning.

With John Thomson having that freak finger injury (lol), the Braves decided to call up 21 year old right-hander Kyle Davies from AAA Richmond. In his first start, he proved he's worth that #1 overall pitching prospect in the organization and one of Baseball America's top 100 overall prospects with 5 strong inning on the road in legendary Fenway Park against a sold out crowd against the defending World Champions of Boston, in which he made Manny Ramirez his personal bitch striking him out twice.
Davies isn't overpowering his fastball hits the low-90's but he's a master of changing speeds. His changeup is just vile and it's about a 9-12 MPH difference between it and his fastball.
He should fill in just fine for Thomson, who will be back in late July- mid August.

Question 5: Will the Braves win the division....again?

Of course they will :)

Never doubt the skill of Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone.