Schafer living the (noisy) dream

  Happy Easter, folks. Were gonna keep this one short, because we’ve got a day game and a beautiful afternoon here, and hey, I didn’t have much time to get up and crunch numbers and all that goes into a typical blog.
  Was talking to Jordan Schafer this morning about his new apartment in the hip Midtown area of Atlanta. Asked him if, given his blazing start, anybody had hung up one of those “Home of Jordan Schafer” banners in the lobby, the way they do for high-school football players in small towns and football-intensive suburbs.
  I was joking, of course.

Schafer

  Schafer said no, there were no banners. However, when he went to the lobby this morning, the concierge at his building had coffee waiting for him. He was thankful, but said it really wasn’t necessary, that he could get his own coffee.

Schafer's story so far

  Hey, I guess when you’re a 22-year-old kid hitting .421 with two doubles and two home runs in your first five games in the major leagues, folks want to make you feel at home. Must be nice, right?
  Anyway, he likes the new pad, but when he got home last night and went to bed, Schafer quickly learned that Midtown has a thriving nightlife. He could hear the bass from music pumping late into the night at a nightclub across the street, which has a rooftop bar.
  Schafer, by the way, enters today’s game with the fourth-best slugging percentage (.842) in the NL, trailing only Troy Tulowitzki, Albert Pujols and Kosuke Fukudome. He’s seventh in OPS (1.342).
  Among rookies, his .421 average leads the majors, and he’s the only rookie in either league with two homers before today. By the way, ex-Braves prospect Elvis Andrus, the Rangers shortstop, was tied for the AL rookie lead in both average (.286) and homers (one).

  ♦ Speaking of league leaders…. Yunel Escobar has quietly hit .429 (if it’s possible to quietly hit .429) in the first week to rank among the league leaders in average, and the aggressive Braves shortstop has swung at more first pitches (12) than anyone in the NL.
  His percentage of first-pitch swings (52.2) trailed only Cincy’s Brandon Phillips (52.9), who’s swung at nine of 17 before today. Yunel had swung at 12 of 23 first pitches.
  Hey, aggressive works for a lot of hitters. It does for Escobar, who’s also second in the NL with a .750 average with runners in scoring position (6-for-8).
  The Braves, by the way, are batting a whopping .414 (12-for-29) when they put the first pitch in play. They’re hitting .176 (13-for-74) with two strikes.

Escobar at work

  In a span of two batters Saturday night in the fifth inning, there was a microcosm of Escobar’s dynamic defense. On a Cristian Guzman grounder, Escobar ranged to his right and made a play near the outfield fringe, then a laser of a throw to first base to nail the runner.
 The next batter, Ryan Zimmerman, hit a routine grounder that Escobar fielded in front of him. He had plenty of time, but looked like he wanted to show off that cannon disguised as his right arm. He threw a one-hop missile to first base that Casey Kotchman somehow scooped, saving a would-be E6.
  I asked Kotchman (Gold Glove-caliber first baseman, no doubt) about that stop and about Escobar’s arm strength.
  ”You better scoop it, or it might break your wrist,” Kotchman said, smiling. He added that Escobar is the player you want to play catch with if you’re breaking in a new glove.
   I’ve said this before: Escobar and Rafael Furcal have two of the three strongest infield arms I’ve seen in 15 years covering baseball. The other belonged to Shawon Dunston.

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 ♦ Kelly gets day off: Both Kelly Johnson and Kotchman have the day off today. Bobby Cox said it was planned before yesterday, that he was going to give each of them the day off, which will effectively give them back-to-back days off because the Braves don’t play Monday.
  Cox wanted to give Martin Prado some at-bats, and he has him at first base and hitting seventh in front of Schafer today.
  Omar Infante is leading off and playing second in place of Johnson, whose three hits last night (including a two-run double and home run) raised his season average to .364, his OBP to .440 and his slugging percentage to .727 (1.167 OPS).
  Someone on the blog mentioned that Schafer has to move to leadoff soon. I disagreed. Why would you move Schafer, a kid who’s thriving in the relatively pressure-free eighth spot in the lineup, to leadoff right away, or anytime soon as long as Kelly Johnson is doing so well in that spot?
  Why fix what ain’t broke? The lineup is working.
  Johnson, by the way, has the third-best leadoff OPB (.500) in the NL. He’s reached base in 10 of 20 plate appearances while leading off in four of five games so far (he’s led off in each of the Braves’ four wins before today).
  Infante went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk in his only game leading off before today, the 12-11 loss at Philly when the bullpen coughed up a seven-run lead.

♦ Etc.
Backup catcher David Ross (groin strain) is expected to go on rehab Tuesday and Wednesday, then be activated for Thursday’s game against Florida, the first day he’s eligible. Brian McCann has caught every game and probably will until Ross returns. Hasn’t been difficult for McCann because of the off days in the schedule…. McCann, by the way, is 6-for-9 with three doubles and two homers against righties, and 0-for-10 against lefties entering today’s game against Nats lefty starter Scott Olsen…. Olsen is 1-8 with a 5.81 ERA in his past 13 starts. In 10 starts against the Braves, he’s 2-4 with a 6.52 ERA. Chipper Jones is 12-for-21 with two homers against him, Matt Diaz is 8-for-18 with three homers, and McCann is 5-for-18 with two homers…. LF Garret Anderson (calf) will probably be back Tuesday after missing the entire Nationals series. If he plays, of course, then Matt Diaz is probably going to be on the bench. The Marlins would like that, I’m guessing, as Diaz has a .425 career average against them with 16 extra-base hits (seven homers), 21 RBI and a .708 slugging percentage in 36 games. That’s amazing, isn’t it?

“THAT’S JUST MY HEART TALKING” by Ron Sexsmith

My eyes are telling me leave well enough alone
My feet are telling me keep walking
Another voice is saying please don’t go
That’s just my heart talking

It’s always leading me where I do not belong
To doorways where I shouldn’t be knockin’
Trying to pass itself off for a song
That’s just my heart talking

It’s talking
Sometimes I don’t know what to say
I turn to look the other way
Are you talking, talking to me?

Some people tell me eyes are windows to the soul
But eyes can be like empty sockets
Maybe you’d be better off alone
But that’s just my heart talking

It’s talking
Sometimes I don’t know what to say
I turn to look the other way
Are you talking, you talking to me?

My eyes are telling me leave well enough alone
These boots are telling me start walking
Another voice is saying please don’t go
But that’s just my heart talking
That’s just my heart talking