We do know Chipper can still knock the cover off a ball

There’s a good chance that the condition of the baseball contributed as much to its cover being knocked off as did the force of Chipper Jones‘ swing on Tuesday morning.

This is what remained of a baseball that Chipper Jones punished during a Tuesday morning hitting session. No, seriously. I saw it with my own eyes.

But there was no denying that Jones’ cuts looked impressive from both sides of the plate during his hitting session in the indoor cage at Turner Field.

The repeated “thwack” of the ball off his bat got people’s attention on the second day of the Braves’ pre-spring training pitching camp, aka Camp Roger.

Also commanding attention was the auspicious pop of the catcher’s mitt minutes earlier, when young flamethrower Craig Kimbrel was bringing serious heat from the mound on the other side of the netting (more on that in a moment).

But let’s get back to Chipper, whose recovery from knee surgery is going to be one of the most anticipated and closely monitored stories of spring training — not just of Braves spring training, but all of spring training.

The future Hall of Famer’s career is winding down, but perhaps not as quickly as many believed it would. The way he looked and talked on Tuesday, it was easy to imagine Chipper sticking around for both remaining years of his three-year, $42 million contract.

Only 5-1/2 months after major surgery on his left knee, the soon-to-be 39-year-old has worked himself back into what appears to be pretty good shape.

He’s admittedly got some flab – not much, but some — around the midsection to work off, which he expects to happen once he begins more rigorous running and agility drills by the end of this week.

But he really looks strong, with considerably more muscle in his arms and chest than at the end of last season. He didn’t do much exercise for two months while recovering from Aug. 14 knee surgery and staying with the team to support his ‘mates through the end of the season and the division-series loss to the Giants.

This winter, however, if Jones wasn’t on a hunting trip he could often be found in the basement gym of his suburban Atlanta home. He said he worked out four or five times a week, and was in his weight room every day “doing something.”

"Alan Butts, I am old, but I will crush you and your pitches...." Chipper between rounds Tuesday. (Hey, I never claimed I was a photographer. Or that Chipper actually said that. But it was "Buttsy" throwing to him.)

“I was down there having to do leg stuff, because the leg just doesn’t feel good unless I’m working out,” he said. He smiled and said, “I did some other stuff while I was down there.”

The other stuff was upper-body work. The old man’s still got some guns, with those triceps and shoulders looking more fit than in years. Jones is 6 feet 4 and weighs 227 pounds, which is about the same as his playing weight before the injury.

He has hit for the past month without any difficulty. He stung balls from both sides of the plate Tuesday, a day after telling reporters that he’s working through some tendinitis in the surgically repaired knee.

After he said Monday that he’s been working through some tendinitis lately in the knee, plenty of skeptics on blogs such as this one, and on Twitter and elsewhere, opined that Jones would not be able to stay healthy and have a productive season.

When I told him about those doubters, Jones smirked and said, “Tell them I’m going to be in the opening day lineup.”

Then he headed to the batting cage for his hitting session, with Braves bullpen catcher Alan Butts throwing to him and new Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez watching from about 10 feet away.

Gonzalez has been encouraged by Jones’ progress, and said every possible lineup that he’s made includes Jones – that’s just how confident he is in the comeback. He added that he has Jones is in his usual third spot in every one of those lineups.

It’s been an eventful nine months for Chipper, to say the least. He went from struggling so much early last season that he was leaning toward retirement, then catching fire in May and hitting .281 with 25 extra-base hits (eight homers), 40 RBIs and an .829 OPS (.383 on-base percentage) over his final 74 games before the injury.

After leading the NL East for much of the summer, the injury-riddled Braves had to hang on down the stretch to win a wild-card spot.

Jones finished the season with a .265 average, .381 OBP, and career-lows in homers (10), RBIs (40), slugging percentage (.426) and games played (95). But his resurgence before the injury, and the team’s return to the postseason, motivated him to attempt a comeback.

For the first time in his career, he will be playing for a manager other than Bobby Cox. Jones is 14 homers from 450, nine RBIs from 1,500, seven doubles from 500, and 10 hits from 2,500, and 96 walks from 1,500.

He won a batting title with a career-best .364 average in 2008, and his career average is still .306 despite his .264 and .265 marks the past two seasons. No other switch-hitter has a .300 career average with at least 300 homers, and Jones also still has a career OBP above .400 (.405) and slugging percentage well above .500 (.536).

He didn’t appear to favor the knee Tuesday as he hit and moved around. But more won’t be known until Jones begins doing agility drills, any day now. He hasn’t been able to take ground balls because the field’s been wet lately, or it’s been frigid out, but he said that might have been for the best, since it’s given him another week or two to strengthen the knee before he takes that important step forward.

I asked how much running he’s done, and if he’s done any sprinting.

“I wouldn’t really say top speed,” he said. “Just form running, trying to get in overall shape, much less the knee. “But it’s coming along good. I think we’ll probably start some agility [drills] here pretty soon, hopefully this week. Maybe today if I’m lucky. But it’s a full go.”

What type of agility drills?

“Ladder stuff. Putting a ladder on the ground, stepping, trying to get some foot speed, explosion, quick first step,” he said. “Stuff that helps you on your jumps and first-step speed.”

I asked how far he was from planting his foot sharply to make cuts (figuring he was still a good ways away from that).

“Not as far as you would think,” he said. “We leave for spring training in 10 days. So once we report — which is what, the 15th? – Bubba has told me from Day 1 that he expects me to have no limitations from the first day of spring training.”

The Braves’ Bubba is the team’s head trainer Jeff Porter, who has given Chipper encouraging progress reports and told him he’s on schedule.

“So that’s what I’m shooting for,” Jones said. “If I can do these agilities and feel comfortable doing it, get rid of this little bit of tendinitis that I have and not think about the knee, then I’ll be fine. As long as the knee hurts, I’ll think about it.

“I don’t want to think about it.”

Jones and Gonzalez agreed the real test for Chipper’s readiness will be when he’s able to field balls and make cuts without thinking about it. Gonzalez said that it’ll be up to Chipper this spring to let the manager know when he needs a day off, or wants to skip a particular part of a workout.

The manager said he’ll leave that to Jones, who knows his own body better than anyone else does. The two of them have already discussed that.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to miss a day of work in spring training,” Jones said, “because I have a very limited time to prove to everybody else – and myself – that I can go out there and play and be the opening-day third baseman. I don’t see many days off [in spring training].

“There may be some days off from [Grapefruit League] games, but unless I’m really, really hurting, I won’t take a day off from getting my work done.”

But there will be times this spring when he does that work back at Dark Star, while the Braves are playing a road game, not unlike what Jones and other veterans have done in the past. For instance, don’t expect Jones to be on the Braves’ long roadie to Fort Myers to face the Red Sox this spring.

That absence will have nothing to do with his knee.

“My 18 years [in the big leagues] says I don’t make that trip,” he said, laughing.

Here’s all you need to know about how serious and motivated Chipper is about being ready for opening day: His beloved Pittsburgh Steelers are playing in the Super Bowl not too far from Jones’ Texas ranch, and he’s not going. Never seriously considered going.

“I can’t afford to take that time off right now,” he said.

Chipper taking cuts from the left side....

While hitting in an indoor cage, he hit a baseball with enough force to unravel the stitching and leave the cover hanging loosely from the ball’s core.

“I think this one’s done,” he said, pausing to hand the ball to a team official before continuing his hitting session.

Older baseballs, sometimes slightly damaged, are typically used during practice, but it’s still uncommon to see a cover torn off a ball in such a manner. Braves president John Schuerholz, the longtime former general manager, couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen it happen.

And while Chipper wasn’t facing “live” pitching Tuesday – not the full-on stuff he’ll face in a few weeks — the sound of balls exploding off his bat was still impressive.

After Chipper finished, Schuerholz was examining the tattered ball cover when Jones came over to him, smiled and said, “That’s what you’ve got to look forward to this year.”

♣ Chipper’s going old-school: Jones also revealed Tuesday that he will wear low-top spikes this year, after years of playing in high-tops. He was wearing high-tops both times when he blew out his left knee, in August and back in spring training 1994, when a torn ACL pushed back his rookie season to 1995.

“I’d much rather sprain an ankle than do that [again],” he said. “So I’m going to low-tops, and I’m pulling up the pants. I’m going old-school.”

He plans to roll his pant legs up near the knees and wear them with solid blue socks provided by his longtime equipment company, Mizuno.

And if Jones does need to go back to high-top spikes for any reason, expect the pant legs to come back down.

“I can’t stand guys that pull their pants up and wear high-tops,” he said. “Bad. Just a bad look.”

Just taking it all in: Gonzalez said he purposefully avoided watching pitchers from behind the plate on Tuesday, because he doesn’t want any of them, especially newcomers, to feel any pressure to impress during the two-week informal camp.

Gonzalez said he just wants them to get their arms loose and throw it near the plate, not worry about making great pitches. Too early for that.

The dozen or so pitchers included several minor leaguers and rookies such as Stephen Marek, who could compete for a spot in a deep bullpen, either during spring training or the first time the Braves need a replacement during the season.

Among starting pitchers, Tommy Hanson threw a session Monday and rookie lefty Mike Minor threw Tuesday. Minor will compete for the fifth spot with rookie Brandon Beachy, who also threw Monday.

Several of the Braves’ projected bullpen members were in camp during the first two days, including lefty Eric O’Flaherty veteran newcomers Scott Linebrink, who threw Tuesday in his only expected day in camp, and lefty George Sherrill, who threw Monday.

Kimbrel had 40 strikeouts and only nine hits allowed in 20-2/3 innings as a rookie.

I saw sessions Tuesday by prized young relievers Jonny Venters and rookie closer candidate Craig Kimbrel. It’s only Feb. 1 and there were no hitters in the box, but Kimbrel was flat-out impressive, folks. Said it was only his third time throwing on the mound this winter, but you’d never have known it. Nasty.

(Fredi G. told me Linebrink was the guy that really caught his eye Tuesday, said he looked “very, very good.”)

Kimbrel and Venters talked about how much it helped them to get the experience they got last season, and how much more comfortable they’ll be entering spring training. They also had high praise for Billy Wagner and how much the now-retired closer meant to their development last season.

“Yeah, there’s so many things I took from it,” Venters said. “Me and Craig both. Whether it’s in terms of how we carry ourselves and go about our routines, to the way we attack hitters. Billy was always telling us to attack guys and go right at ‘em. And I think that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Venters also still insisted – well, sort of — that he didn’t feel tired down the stretch last season, despite being used so much that he acquired the “Everyday Jonny” nickname.

He said, “I didn’t touch a ball for two months [this winter]. So there were some kinks to get worked out when I first picked it back up, but the rest was huge. I didn’t really feel like I got tired last year. I’m sure I did physically, a little bit. But I feel great right now.”

Like I said, it was a sort-of denial.

I’m writing a bullpen story later this week about how the Braves lost Wagner and Takashi Saito, but still figure to have a deep and talented bullpen with the additions of Linebrink and Sherrill and the hopeful return of Scott Proctor, who’s missed most of two seasons recovering from elbow surgeries.

I also talked to Proctor Tuesday. He’s in terrific shape and says he really, seriously isn’t worried about his elbow now, but just about pitching. Says it’s a far different situation than last season. (I know, we’ll wait and see.)

♣ Sliders supreme: In his always solid blog the other day, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney provided stats that ranked the best pitchers in each league when throwing specific pitches. And the two lowest averages and OPS totals allowed among NL pitchers who threw sliders on a regular basis belonged to … yes, Venters and Wagner.

Venters allowed a majors-leading .074 average and .213 OPS on sliders, and Wagner limited hitters to a .086 average and .255 OPS on sliders. Wow.

♣ What do Braves need? One of our blog commenters, screen name The Living Legend, wrote today, “While we are playing GM, I say we sign Willy Aybar….”

Well, I respectfully disagree. Personally, I think the Braves need a backup shortstop a lot worse than a backup corner infielder. They’re all set at the corner spots. But if Alex Gonzalez’s knee is sore (which it almost certainly will be, at some point) and he needs a few games off, right now you’re talking Diory Hernandez, Brooks Conrad, or Ed Lucas?

That’s where I think the Braves need a little help. Aybar isn’t a shortstop.

And with that, we’ll open the floor to you all. What (realistic) move or moves do you think the Braves need to make between now and opening day?

Alright, that’s epic bloggage. Sorry if I ran a little long. Speaking of epic, let’s close with one from the incomparable PJ Harvey. Check her out in this video.

“C’MON BILLY” by PJ Harvey

C’mon Billy
Come to me
You know i’m waiting
I love you endlessly

C’mon Billy
You’re the only one
Don’t you think it’s time now
You met your only son ?

I remember
Lover’s play
The car was cold and
We lay in it for days

I remember
The things you said
My little Billy,
Come to your lover’s bed

Come home
Is my plea
Your home now is
Here with me
Come home
To your son
Ttomorrow might never come

C’mon Billy
You look good to me
How many nights now
Your child inside of

Don’t forget me
I had your son
Damn thing went crazy
But I swear you’re the only one

Come along, Billy, now come to me….

– by David O’Brien, Braves blog