Comments on: Bradley’s Buzz: So maybe Wren was right about Smoltz

By: michael roberts

michael roberts — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:24:26 +0000

the braves have a great pitching staff and i cant imagine it getting better. theyre problem is that cox is to darn stubborn to steal bases and play hit and run. we have to many offensive lapses because we dont have any real speed outside of mclouth. the early nineties had otis nixon stealing up to 60 bases, gant stealing 30 bases, deion sanders stealing, blauser ran a little bit. cox is depriving the braves and theyre fans one of the most entertaining and fundamental aspects of the game. the trade for francour had to be made. i dont think the trading of kotchman for laroche was very good. kotchman was a great defensive first baseman and an excellent gap line drive hitter, thats more important to winning than hitting homers. kotchman hustled and played hard. last i remember laroche embarassed us by not hustleing. laroche isnt a good situational hitter where as kotchman was. i think kotchman sort of gelled the team together, he was just reliable, sort of sid bream type of player, the type that help you win championships. i didnt like kotchman at first, his last name took time to get used to. i grew fond of him this year. a good hard nosed player.

By: michael roberts

michael roberts — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:16:32 +0000

smoltz gets back in the national league again next year. maddux retired because he got fat and he couldnt top 87 mph anymore though he threw 93 in his prime. smoltz is in great shape and is throwing 93 ALREADY! if your throwing 93 and your slider is great then your not washed up.

By: michael roberts

michael roberts — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:13:54 +0000

its too crazy and to early to write off john smoltz, like i said, the redsox are the proffesional experts and they wouldnt of signed him if they didnt see that he could be a good pitcher. smoltz had that surgery so he could not only pitch this season but beyond this season, it takes 2 years for the labrum to fully recover. lets compare john smoltzs stats for september compared to july and see if there is any improvement. He knows that he is on the line here and needs to show something more than hes shown so far.

By: Mitch C

Mitch C — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:55:13 +0000

Mark, it seems as though the Braves in recent years have a knack of letting some players go at just the right time. Except for 2006, Glavine wasn’t nearly the pitcher with the Mets that he was when he won 242 games for us. Maddux did okay in Chicago, and California, but other pitchers seemed to struggle. The only icon player in Braves history who flourished for a couple of seasons after leaving the Braves was Phil Niekro. Besides that, many of them floundered after leaving.

I’ll admit I was upset with the way the Glavine and Smoltz situations were handled. Up until now, the Braves have been right. I would say it is highly likely that Glavine never pitches again, and as for Smoltz, unless he turns it around, this will likely be his last year.

Hopefully, we can win in 2010 with what we have, and a couple of good farm additions. This team has a decent pitching staff now, even without Glav and Smoltz, and hopefully will get better next year.

Mitch

By: Daily Box Score 8/5: What Sabermetrics Has to Teach Managers

Daily Box Score 8/5: What Sabermetrics Has to Teach Managers — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:15:46 +0000

[...] the towel on the 42 year-old? Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mark Bradley argues it should be sooner rather than later. Of course, he relies on ESPN's Inside Edge, which is fraught with sample [...]

By: Fed up

Fed up — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:34:11 +0000

I still feel like trading Francouer was a mistake. Between the knotheaded fans on his case and the media wanting him gone it got in his head and that is one thing that is hard to deal with. He is better off with another club but I hate that he went to the Damn Mets where he should shake the cob webs out of his head and play up to his potential. The Braves got the raw end of the deal and now with Andersen and Church in the outfield we are seriously weak there. As for Smoltz you have a 40 year old with arm problems and he needed to take a page from Maddox and retire gracefully while still a Brave.

By: "War Eagle" is a battle cry, not a mascot

"War Eagle" is a battle cry, not a mascot — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:40:02 +0000

Guys, do you seriously think Frenchy is going to keep up his hot streak with the Mets? Give me a break. Everybody could have seen that he was going to have a little “jolt” when he strapped on a new uniform (the phenomenon happens a lot in all sports…call it a “revenge factor” I guess).

By: michael roberts

michael roberts — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:49:04 +0000

ive watched smoltz for many years and hes a touchy go type of pitcher. hes so incredibly competitive which is why hes already bounced back, and hes in great shape unlike a curt schilling or david wells or roger clemens were. smoltz is an emotional pitcher,dont forger about the psychiatrist that would attend smoltzies games and provide therapy. smoltz gets overly frustrated when he makes a mistake that usually the next better hammers him after he makes that mistake and thats why smoltx has a bad inning in all of his losses, he lets his emotions get to him when he makes a mistake that he forgets how to pitch and just throws. He has to have all his kinks out of the way and everything just right and things going the right way for him to get in his grove, sometimes its when the defense makes an error that bothers smoltz like that,he needs to relax a little out there and just pitch, try to get the ground ball outs and not try to strike out everybody.

By: michael roberts

michael roberts — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:38:57 +0000

I didnt think smoltz was washed up. did everyone forget what he did last spring before he had surgery? his stuff was incredible, his fastball was 95 mph and he had 3 10 strikeout games in just 6 starts despite the fact that his shoulder was already so torn up that the pain only allowed him to go 5 or six innings, so it was only logical that a pitcher with his competitiveness and his stuff could FIX his broken labrum,rotator cuff, pvc joint and biceps and return to form eventually,after all, he came back 4 times already from major arm problems in the past and is someone that knows how to rehab himself into form unlike any other. its not his stuff thats suffering this year,its his location. And probably mostly adapting to the american league and a new franchise with a new catcher. the red sox arent idiots and jason veritek who catches smoltz has repeatedly said that his stuff is good, francona who used to be a catcher also says the same thing as does the pitching coach. Theres also been a little bit of bad luck. smoltz would be 3-4 if hed pitched one more inning against the first start against the orioles and if the redsox had held on. also, he was breezing against a dangerous texas team until he had one bad inning where slipped on pitch and the guy hits a homer, then another guy reached out and hit a good pitch for a homer and then he left one over the plate for a homer. So he could realistically be 4-3 which would be acceptable at this point still early in his comeback. Hes just now getting out of spring training. His slider which is his trademark strikeout pitch is generating a lot of swings n misses. His slider is still nasty which is why he is suprisingly still got a good strikeout ratio. Last year his fastball averaged 92.8 and this year its averaged at 91.8 and has risen a mph since his first two starts and in a game of inches thats significant. He still has a 93 mph fastball. He will continue to build strength and with have a 94 mph fastball by october. most importantly his endurance will continue to build. He started out just pitching 3-4 innings in the minors for rehab. He should of been rehabbing in the minors back in april. Now he’s showing that he can go through 6 innings, these are baby steps but they ARE STEPS in the right direction. Hes being hit because hes not locating good enough. thats called rust and is to be expected when he didnt pitch in a mlb game for 13 months. All smoltz has to do is build to where he is going 7 innings by the end of august. And have an era below 5.0 for the month of august which is pretty good for the american league and fine for a fifth starter. This is achieveable and realistic. IF he wants to be a starter in postseason he needs to have the era for the month of september to be around 4 and go 7 innings. Two things, location and stamina, thats just rust, no one expected him to go 10-2 with a 2.5 or 3.00 era or strikeout 8 or 9 per 9 innings, just a solid FIFTH starter that would step his A game in the postseason as experience is valuable. I think that smoltz continues rehabbing this offseason and returns the the NL somewhere and again becomes a 15 game winner. That arm still isnt flexed out yet and wont be until the end of september which would be 3 months of mlb pitching. Hes had 3 innings this year so far that he has struck out the side. That era looks horrible but could easily be under 5 with better location. I think its the sox fault for babying smoltz to much during his reheb, he should of built up more stamina during his rehab starts but then again the sox didnt want an injured smoltz by the time postseason arrived. atlanta was going to have him as the opening day starter this year, would he of gotten injured? maybe and probably. Most pitchers that have had a torn labrum dont fully recover for 2 years,not one year and thats for a young person, so its amazing that smoltz still hits 93 and has a great slider, baby steps from here on out, if not he could get injured and be over. If you take away his fastball average this year where opponents are hitting over .420 then the al is only hitting .262 against smoltz, its a good fastball, not great fastball, but much better than average, its just not going where its supposed to go. lets all hope for the best

By: Roy Hobbs

Roy Hobbs — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:08:33 +0000

Wren and co better see about trading TP to NY. IF Frenchy gets back to form and back to raking in RBI’s and HR’s, it has to be Wrens worst nightmare to face him 16 times a year and be reminded of the time he chose the hitting coach over the young talented home town kid.