Bobby Cox has seen the entire career of John Smoltz up close and personal, and he has seen very many great outings by Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Let's not discount some of the starts that Steve Avery had back in the day either, when we compute just how many amazing pitching performances he has seen over the years.
So when he throws a compliment to a young pitcher -- or any pitcher for that matter - then you would think that compliment has a lot of merit to it. If that's the case, Jair Jurrjens should be beeming after his eight inning win tonight, because Cox dropped all kinds of hyperbole on him.
"I don't think you can pitch better than that," Cox said. "That was one of the best games I've seen pitched, ever."
This success didn't exactly come as a total surprise. Since turning his ankle while leaving Wrigley Field on June 10 and missing his start the next night, Jurrjens has made three starts and worked 21 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run.
I mean, dang. Ever? That is a stout compliment to the youngster. Of course, he's in the zone right now, as evidenced by above, and he certainly has the pedigree to be a great pitcher.
Fantasy Spin: It's tough to make Jurrjens any sort of sell high/buy low right now, because he's a legit talent. Still, it's hard to see him keeping this up for the rest of the season; if I was in a single season league, I would be looking to move him assuming I got good value back. Keeper league? Hold, please.
Heading into Sunday's game against the Mariners, Mark Teixeira was on pace for a not-so-blistering 21 home runs this year. It was especially auspicious considering the Braves poor start to the season and all their injuries. Oh, and the fact that he'll be a free agent after this year.
But, as we all know, Big Tex likes to turn it on when the weather gets warm, and he did just that Sunday, helping the Braves finish off Seattle.
Note, to your right, that he went three for four against the M's, with all three of those hits being taterjacks. (The ouch thing is just making fun of the respective in game ERAs of Mike Gonzalez and Will Ohman.) In doing so, Tex became the first Brave to hit three bombs in one game at Turner Field.
And it's not shocking that it happened the day after the solstice, when Teix usually begins to heat up.
Now, one would have to imagine that this morning, either Tex saw figured out "Holy Crap! It's Summer!" or Scott Boras called him up and mentioned how many millions he was going to lose for each homer under 40 he hit this year.
Fantasy Spin: Your buy low chance on Teix? Adios, amigo. He should, now that the heat of summer is upon us and the Braves have nearly been eliminated solely through injuries, have a huge rest of the year. But three home run games get you noticed and you can bet his owner is holding tight. Just thought I'd let you know.
When you are adding Jorge "Gasoline Soaked Matchbook" Julio to your bullpen, then things have not gone "well" for your team over the course of whatever season it is. At least with regard to the bullpen. And the Braves find themselves in the unenviable spot of having Julio on the roster.
Julio, 29, had a 5.60 ERA in 15 appearances for Cleveland before he was released at the end of May. He has a 13-33 career record and a 4.40 ERA with 99 saves in 131 opportunities, including 83 saves in a three-season span with Baltimore in 2002-04.
'He's got great stuff,' Braves general manager Frank Wren said. 'If a guy like that's a free agent, just makes sense for us to give him a chance. We signed him to give us some additional depth.'
Say what you want about Wren's inability to grasp that the Braves desperately need to trade for another starter, but the guy can flat out spin a boring, lifeless free agent addition/trade to make it sound good.
See, I would say ... well, actually what I would say probably isn't appropriate, so let's just stink with what Wren said.
Fantasy Spin: Yes, there is one. If you're in a deeper league and have a bench spot, taking a flier on Julio isn't that absurd; he could conceivably get save opps for the Braves and that would make him a nice add. High risk, etc.
This will be only the second time in his 22 year career that Tom Glavine goes on the DL. It will also be the second time this year. At this point, I could mention "curses" and "demons" inside the Atlanta mound, but obviously, those are fictional. Besides, Tommy Glavine is old as mess.
Braves officials will meet Wednesday to discuss their options regarding who will take his spot on the roster and in the starting rotation.
Glavine, 42, lasted three innings and was charged with six hits, four runs and four walks. Glavine has won twice in his past 15 starts dating to Sept. 20, when he was with the New York Mets. He has a 4.85 ERA in 12 starts this season.
It's not "good" by any means, but it's not horrible either. If anything, it puts the pressure on Frank Wren to make a move for a starter. Assuming he can do so without giving up an integral young player (like a Greg Norton-type) or any other pitchers, then whatever he pulls off is probably a good deal.
And, that, sadly is the state of affair right now. An already too heavy reliance on the minor leagues has the Braves thinking trade early, instead of actually promoting someone. (Note they could promote someone, but making a deal for Greg Maddux makes much more sense.)
Fantasy Spin: Glavine should be DL'd (deep leagues) or dropped (most leagues) if he was owned. His K/9 is way down this season from an already low number and he represents a risky fantasy start/investment.
Last night a deal passed through in one of my leagues: Lance Berkman for Johan Santana. At first glance, I thought I loved the sell-high on Berk and buy-quasi-low on Johan. Then I started thinking more about what we've seen from Johan in the past season and a half or so as compared to what he was before that. In case you didn't know, here it is. He started to absolutely deal during an outing on August 3rd of 2003. From that point until the end of 2006 (111 starts), his numbers were sick:
63-19, 2.75 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 4.94 K/BB, and 9.7 K/9. He allowed 76 HR in 756 1/3 innings.
Every inch of those stats is incredibly elite. Keeping that up over the long haul would be easy hall-of-fame status and in the discussion for the best pitcher of all-time. What we've seen since then in 46 starts (hardly a small sample):
22-17, 3.26 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 4.26 K/BB, and 9.1 K/9. He has allowed 45 HR in the past 306 2/3 innings.
So his winning percentage has plummeted, ERA has risen a half run, and he's giving up more hits, home runs, and runs.
Well that didn't take long. John Smoltz, after only a few rehab starts, has been activated by the Braves and could close as early as tonight.
Smoltz, who had been on the disabled list since April 28 with a severely inflamed right biceps tendon and inflammation in his right rotator cuff, made three Minor League rehab appearances. He made his final appearance on Saturday, and pitched a scoreless inning for Class A Rome.
It's a testament to his durability that Smoltz was able to come back so quickly. He could close tonight, and although it seems like Bobby Cox would want to warm up him before tossing him to the ninth inning wolves, it's hard to imagine that the veteran gets butterflies in his stomach all too often these days.
Fantasy Spin: Get Smoltz active in all leagues. The Braves have had horrible luck in one run games, but if you just backdoored a closer after thinking you were losing a starter, this could actually work out well for you. He's had some success, I believe, in that role.
In with the old and out with the new. And all that business. Pedro Martinez, making a rehab start in Single A, squared off against number one draft pick and uber-prospect David Price today, and Price got the better of him. Pedro went six innings, giving up four hits and two earned while striking out six. Price, meanwhile, gave up only two hits over six shutout innings while striking out nine. Pedro was impressed.
'He's amazing, that kid. He's amazing,' Martinez said. 'That kid is very mature for his time in [the pros], and very talented.
'Oh my God.'
Pedro went on to say that Price was "superior" to the Cy Young winner at that age, which isn't that surprising when you compare their development throughout their careers, talent aside.
But Petey is still going to beat him to the majors, at least this year. Martinez could be back as soon as next week (this being his final rehab outing) while Price won't be in the bigs until later this year, at the earliest.
Fantasy Spin: Pedro is probably a free agent in your league and even at his age, pitching for the [would-be] contending Mets makes him a viable starter. If he's unowned, make a move. Price, for seasonal leagues, shouldn't be owned right now, unless you have a really deep bench. But keeper leagues should be all over him already, in anticipation of a call up should the Rays stay in the hunt.
It is May. May 19th in fact. I really wish that people would remember that when the talk of Chipper Jones hitting .400 for the entire season begins to heat up.
Sure, it's fun to imagine the possibility of him hitting that magic number, but it's also fun to imagine that Chris Shelton can launch 89 home runs in one season. And not to dog Chipper (which is what a Chris Shelton comparison basically is) because he's a great player, a standup guy and he's absolutely mashing the ball right now. But he knows as well as anyone that it's probably not happening.
'[Hitting] .400 is not a concern for me,' Jones said. 'You're going to run into enough Rich Hardens andJohan Santanas to keep that from happening. If I had hit .390 before in my career, then maybe. But I haven't. When you're a .310 career hitter, you usually hit .310.'
Okay, besides the fact that he lobbed Rich Harden out there like the A's gunner is going to start more than 12 games all season is kind of funny. But still, his point is that when you average .310 for your career, you are not likely to suddenly up and hit .400.
If you've ever followed Mark Teixeira's career path, you know that he stinks in April. The rest of the year, the guy is generally an absolute masher who may or may not have been compared to Lou Gherig following his ridiculous 43 homer, 144 RBI season of 2005. But in April, he's not great.
Whether or not those comparisons are actually valid or not, of course, remains to be seen. But remember, that was only two years ago. Teixeira has struggled somewhat so far in April, but as the AJC reports, he's starting to heat up (and yes, he's obviously always a buy low at this point in the season).
"Big Tex" has very quietly hit safely in 18 of his past 22 games. The streak raised his batting average from an invisible .156 to a very noticeable .267. And he's still climbing.
'I just try to go out there and get hits every day, be consistent,' said Teixeira, a career .286 hitter, but only a .251 hitter in the season's first month. 'Hopefully during a full year, the numbers will be there at the end of the season.'
Okay, so he actually hit .290 in April, which is actually better than his career average, but the power numbers haven't even really begun to climb. He's on pace for 21 home runs and 97 RBI. The latter isn't so much in his control, but the former is just not going to stay that low. He's only hitting 11.9% of his fly balls for home runs right now, which is nearly eight percentage points below his career average.
Fantasy Spin: Please note that his is your final chance to buy low. Do what it takes to get him. He's about to go off.
Just because Jo-Jo Reyes doesn't have a great "baseball name", doesn't mean he won't be successful in the bigs, especially his second time around. Reyes struggled badly last year, but was dominant in the minor leagues in 2008, prompting the Braves to call him and start him on Saturday.
Sample Size Alert time, but Reyes dominates left handed batter. He hasn't allowed a hit to one in the majors (admittedly 2.2 innings) and only allowed two hits to lefties throughout his run in Triple-A this year (again, only 7.2 innings). Although in fairness, he was pretty impressive against righties this year as well, holding them to a .228 BAA while posting a 1.76 ERA at Richmond.
'We moved last year to the third base side at the end of the year,' recalled Reyes, who began the season with a 20-inning scoreless streak. 'It was a big part of it. Just keeping my leg lift smooth and not so violent and that's helped a lot.'
Clearly, Reyes made a significant change in his physical approach to pitching. That should make a difference in your thoughts on rostering him as well. He pitched against Cincy on Sunday, going five and a third with five K's, while allowing four hits and walking three. The walk totals need to stay down, but the 3:1 ground to air out ratio is certainly a positive sign.
Long and short of it is that you can expect much better numbers than the 6.27 ERA and 1.69 WHIP he posted last year. You can also expect him, because of injuries to stick; and with the Braves bullpen quietly dealing and the offense being quite potent, he should have some nice fantasy value for owners as a back-end of the rotation guy.
Bobby Cox has seen the entire career of John Smoltz up close and personal, and he has seen very many great outings by Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Let's not discount some of the starts that Steve Avery had back in the day either, when we compute just how many amazing pitching performances he has seen over the years.
Heading into Sunday's game against the Mariners, 
When you are adding 
This will be only the second time in his 22 year career that 
Last night a deal passed through in one of my leagues: 
In with the old and out with the new. And all that business. 
It is May. May 19th in fact. I really wish that people would remember that when the talk of 
If you've ever followed 
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