Braves bullpen best of Bobby Cox era?

Tim Hudson says it’s easily the best bullpen he’s ever had behind him, and with each passing week the case is strengthened for this Braves ‘pen as the best of the Bobby Cox era.

The John Smoltz-led bullpen of 2002 was the only Braves 'pen in recent memory comparable to the current unit.

The one in recent memory that was comparable — and perhaps better — was the ‘02 unit, which featured John Smoltz (55 saves, 85 strikeouts in 80-1/3 innings), Chris Hammond (0.95 ERA in 63 appearances), Mike Remlinger (1.99 ERA in 73 apps) and Darren Holmes (1.81 ERA in 55 apps).

But this current bullpen, which would have the NL’s best ERA were it not for one Jo-Jo Reyes injury-related meltdown appearance in San Diego, might have a more dominant back-end tandem in Billy Wagner and rookie sensation Jonny Venters, along with lefty Eric O’Flaherty, the resurgent sidearmer Peter Moylan and, when he’s fully healthy, another strikeout machine in Takashi Saito.

Still, they’ve got some work to do to top that ‘02 pen.

Let’s focus on Wagner and Venters, and the recent return to form by Moylan.

Wagner (1.17) and Venters (1.28) rank second and third in the NL in lowest ERA among relievers. Wagner’s .153 opponents’ average is the league leader, and Venters’ .172 ranks fifth among relievers.

Chipper's solo homer Thursday continued a surge that began the night he addressed retirement rumors. (Curis Compton/AJC photo)

In his past 24 appearances, Wagner has a 0.39 ERA and .115 opponents’ average, with nine hits, one run, six walks and 34 strikeouts in 23-1/3 innings. He’s converted 17 of 18 saves in that stretch, and in his past four outings he’s allowed nothing — no hits, walks or runs in four innings.

The 38-year-old lefty continues to works regularly in the 96-98 mph range with his fastball, and lefty hitters are a near-helpless 2-for-29 (.069) with three walks and 12 strikeouts against him (righties are batting .176 with 46 strikeouts in 102 at-bats against Wagner).

With no one one base, he’s allowed a .212 average. But put a runner on and that shrinks to .043. That’s right – with a runner or runners on base, hitters are 2-for-46 with six walks and 28 strikeouts against him.

With runners in scoring position, hitters are 2-for-20 with 15 strikeouts.

I asked O’Flaherty about Wagner’s overall impact on the ‘pen.

“It’s been awesome,” O’Flaherty said. “He’s a great personality, and everything he says has a lot of merit to it. When he talks, you listen. And also, just knowing that if we find a way to get him a lead in the ninth inning, it’s pretty much over.”

Wagner is unwavering in his intention to retire after the season, says there’s no chance he’ll be talked out of it. He’s going home to the Virginia farm to be with the family, coach his kids’ teams, etc.

I asked O’Flaherty if he could even imagine walking away from the game after having a year like Wagner is having.

With Jurrjens pitching like he has in past two starts since DL stint, Braves' rotation is significantly strengthened in front of formidable bullpen.

“No,” O’Flaherty said. “Moylan tries every day [to talk him into changing his mind]. I don’t even bother. You can tell that he’s done [after the season].

“It’d be hard to walk away from the game; it’s got to be fun pitching like that.”

Then I asked if maybe it said something about how good Wagner’s been his whole career, that he could still walk away despite the season he’s having.

“Yeah, he’s not in uncharted territory at all,” O’Flaherty said. “I think it’s just business as usual for him. For us, all seeing it personally for the first time, we’re like, ‘How can you walk away from the game now?’ But I think he’s had enough of the travel and everything like that.”

Brian McCann said he believes Wagner will go through with it and retire after the season.

“He’s a family man,” McCann said. “He loves his family, says he wants to spend more time with his wife and kids, that it’s time.

“We all want him back. There’s been times when we’ve chanted it on the bus. But they’re more to life than baseball, and he wants to see his kids play baseball and spend more time with his family.”

His replacement might well be the young lefty Venters, who has surpassed expectations and moved into a key role, trusted by Cox in pressure-filled situations.

Venters has been equally effective against lefties and righties, limiting lefties to a .167 average, .298 OBP and .208 slugging percentage in 48 at-bats, and righties to a .175 average, .286 OBP and .196 slugging percentage in 97 at-bats.

With runners on base, he’s allowed a puny .155 average (11-for-71). In the late innings of close games, hitters are 9-for-51 (.176) with one extra-base hit and 18 strikeouts against him.

In his past 13 appearances, Venters has a 0.68 ERA and .136 opponents’ average, with six hits, one earned run, four walks and 11 strikeouts in 13-1/3 innings. The Braves are 12-1 in those games.

In his past five appearances, he’s been perfect – no hits, no walks, no runs.

Moylan has been sharp lately, picking up the slack from Saito’s DL stint and some subsequent shaky outings.

Moylan’s past 16 outings: 0.96 ERA, .194 opponents’ average, 9-1/3 innings, six hits, one run, three walks, seven strikeouts

Friday night Braves lineup:

1. Prado 2B
2. Heyward RF
   

   The newest Brave, shortstop Alex Gonzalez

3. Chipper 3B
4. Glaus 1B
5. McCann C
6. Diaz LF
7. Gonzalez SS
8. Cabrera CF
9. Hanson RH

♣ Glaus power outage: After spearheading the Braves’ offense with a stunning power surge from May 1 through mid-June, Troy Glaus has hit just one homer in his past 22 games.

Glaus wasn’t kidding when he told us in spring training, and again during his April slump, and again after he heated up in May, that he’s a streaky hitter who goes through periods where he hits a lot of doubles, stretches where he hits lots of homers, and other periods where nothing falls.

His two-hit game Thursday night was his first multi-hit game since his four-hit, two-homer game at Minnesota on June 13.

From June 14 until the All-Star break, Glaus went 10-for-71 (.141) in 21 games with four doubles, one homer, nine RBIs, a .299 OPB and a .239 slugging percentage.

From May 1 through June 13, he hit .336 with eight doubles, 11 homers, 40 RBIs, and a .416 OBP and .605 slugging percentage.

♣ Heyward’s return: He helped win a game with his glove and throwing arm Thursday, but it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for Jason Heyward to get back in a groove at the plate after his DL stint for a thumb injury.

He went 0-for-4 in his return to the lineup last night, not surprising considering the guy hadn’t hit in a game since June 25 and didn’t have a minor-league rehab assignment. Taking cuts in three batting-practice sessions over a four-day span is one thing; facing live pitching is something quite different.

Will anyone be surprised if he has a big hit or a home run tonight or a big weekend against the Brewers? Probably not. We’ve all seen enough of Heyward to know the kid’s special and has a penchant for rising to the occasion.

But for now, it must be noted that the rookie star is 3-for-30 with one RBI in his past nine games, and has hit .165 in his past 26 games with four extra-base hits (one homer), seven RBIs, 34 strikeouts and a .265 OBP and .223 slugging percentage.

This after batting .301 with 23 extra-base hits (10 homers) and 38 RBIs in his first 46 games through May 30, with 35 strikeouts, a .421 OBP and .596 slugging percentage. For most of that slump, the thumb affected him to varying degrees.

♣ Rising Braves executive: Saw this item on Fanhouse that gave a top-10 list of baseball GM candidates, and what got my attention was the inclusion of John Coppolella, the Braves’ director of baseball administration. At 31, he’s the youngest on the Fanhouse list, which included the likes of Tigers asst. GM Al Avila (who once worked with Frank Wren under Dave Dombrowski in Florida, and followed Dombrowski to Detroit), Padres asst. GM Jason McLeod, and Dodgers VP Kim Ng, who some believe could be the first female GM in the not-too-distant future.

Coppolella is one of those behind-the-scene guys that fans don’t hear about until they move into a more prominent role. He’s the main numbers-cruncher in the Braves’ front office, the guy who many of you’d love to talk to because he knows every stat, including all the seamhead, esoteric ones that you don’t hear many baseball executives referring to publicly. The stuff many of you love.

He’s real sharp, and Wren keeps him in the tight circle of advisors and info guys who help him make decisions. If you see Wren walking through a lobby at the Winter Meetings or GM meetings, there’s a good chance Coppolella will be close behind, along with asst. GM Bruce Manno. Those two and Wren’s special assistants including top scout Jim Fregosi, they’re all usually there in the inner circle.

Anyway, it was good to see Coppolella get some recognition from a national writer. Frankly, I was kind of surprised, but only because he’s not one of those more obvious and typical assistant-GM names you usually see on such lists.

In the Coppolella entry, it gave his age, his alma mater (Notre Dame), experience (Yankees 2000-2006, Braves since) and this:

“Coppolella currently leads the Braves’ statistical and arbitration efforts, but he shouldn’t be viewed just as an office number-cruncher-type. He has experience in pro scouting from his time with the Yankees and has played a significant role in numerous trades and free agent signings. Coppolella is noted for his work ethic, encyclopedic memory and networking ability. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s toiled under two of the top general managers of this era, John Schuerholz and Brian Cashman. Even as one of this list’s younger candidates, few out there can boast that type of experience in those high-profile environments, and in such an impressive variety of roles.”

Here’s a link to the story: http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/07/05/baseballs-top-10-gm-candidates/#cntnt.

♣ Prado’s power up, average down (OK, relatively speaking): Martin Prado fell from the batting lead after going 1-for-16 in his past four games, the hit a homer on Thursday night.

Prado has four homers in his past six hits. Here he greets new middle-infield partner Alex Gonzalez after Thursday win.

He’s at .324, two points behind NL leader Andre Ethier of the Dodgers. Four of Prado’s past six hits have been home runs, accounting for all his RBIs in that six-game stretch since July 5.

In his previous 45 games, Prado hit .338 (66-for-195) with three homers. That’s right, he has more homers in his past six games than he had in his previous 45.

Against the Brewers, the All-Star second baseman has hit .313 with three homers and 11 RBIs in his past 11 games, inclding six multi-hit games. He has three homers in his past seven games against them.

♣ Things I’ve seen/heard/done in past week and really liked: Cyrus (movie with John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei). New (or relatively new) CDs by Paul Weller, the Constellations (young Atlanta band that reminds me at times of Soul Coughing and namedrops ATL places like Clermont Lounge and Drunken Unicorn), and Big Boi (another ATLien, of course, and this CD follows terrific new one by The Roots that makes it two strong hip-hop albums I’ve bought in past few weeks. First four episodes of Louie, hilarious new FX show with Louis C.K. Return of Rescue Me, also on FX. Friday Night Lights; did anyone think this show would stay this good, this long. Bought tix for upcoming Pixies concert at the Fox, in which they’re going to play the Doolittle album in its entirety, plus b-sides and other cuts from that period. And listened repeatedly to most-recent CDs by Alejandro Escovedo, Black Keys, Tom Petty, Mumford & Sons, and Phospherescent (he’s a stellar alt-country artist you gotta hear if you haven’t already).

Anyone seen Inception or Winter’s Bone? Those two movies are next on our list.

All right, gotta get to the ballpark.

Let’s close with some Jimmy Cliff from the movie The Harder They Come. Couldn’t find a video of him, but here’s the song with some pictures of nice scenery somewhere.

“SITTING IN LIMBO” by Jimmy Cliff

Sitting here in limbo, but I know it won’t be long

Sitting here in limbo, like a bird without a song

Well they’re putting up resistance

But I know that my faith will lead me on

♦

Sitting here in limbo, waiting for the dice to roll

Sitting here in limbo, got some time to search my soul

Well they’re putting up resistance

But I know that my faith will lead me on

♦

I don’t know where life will lead me

But I know where I’ve been

I can’t say what life will show me

But I know what I’ve seen

Tried my hand at love and friendship

But all that is passed and gone

This little boy is moving on

♦

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the tide to flow

Sitting here in limbo knowing that I have to go

Well they’re putting up resistance

But I know that my faith will lead me on

♦

I don’t know where life will lead me

But I know where I’ve been

I can’t say what life will show me

But I know what I’ve seen

Tried my hand at love and friendship

But all that is passed and gone

This little boy is moving on

♦

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the tide to flow

Sitting here in limbo knowing that I have to go

Well they’re putting up resistance

But I know that my faith will lead me on

♦

Sitting in limbo, sitting in limbo

Sitting in limbo, sitting in limbo

Sitting in limbo, sitting in limbo

Sitting in limbo limbo limbo ….