Ballgame tomorrow; Is this the last day of ST clichés?
By Fred Owens
The first week of clichés is finally past. I was thrilled to know that everyone lost weight, is in their best shape ever and looks like having a great year. I applauded players who had less than stellar years working hard to impress their coaches and manager, why didn’t they think of that sooner? I was amazed that all the rookies are impressing everyone and wonder that such talent and amazing pitching can be hidden in A ball without notice. Mostly I shook my head and longed for real reporting. Tomorrow at Port Saint Lucie we actually get a game to digest; or at least a few innings of a game with a few starters we’ll see this season.
Word is that McCann and Bethancourt, Hinske (playing LF), Freeman, Conrad, Lucas and Diory Hernandez, Heyward, Schafer, McLouth, Matt Young and Constanza travel to play against the Mets tomorrow along with Kimbrel, Venters, Delgado and Oberholtzer. Schafer will DH (Gawd I hate the DH) and Jurrjens will start for us. No Chipper yet and he takes it easy on the bionic knee rebuild but he might DH on Sunday. Today he’ll be practicing sliding for the first time since his surgery. Yesterday wasn’t a good one for Chipper who had a fluid buildup on that knee but he says he’s fine today and the knee didn’t require a plumber. He’s pacing himself and his bionic knee as he tries to insure his last season is his best. What? You didn’t know this was his last? Of course he hasn’t announced it formally but in an interview with old buddy John Smoltz, he said that it would sure be nice to ride off into the sunset like John Elway with a championship. Maybe he’ll ride back with the dawn next year but I don’t think so; time will tell. If his knee continues to react this way he’ll struggle to get 100 games this year. That would really expose the lack of starter caliber depth on our bench. I’m for sending him to Lourdes to get a little divine intervention.
Presumably helping with Chipper’s sliding is new first base coach Terry Pendleton who spent part of yesterday teaching players how to get a lead on a fly ball. That raises two questions for me. First, why don’t players at the big league camp already know how to do this and second will the runners respond better than hitters did to his instruction last year. I really hoped he would spend a lot of time with Prado at third but perhaps that will come later?
I believe Brooks Conrad has to show well this spring on the field. As I wrote earlier, he’s out of options and as much as GM Wren thinks bats are better than gloves I doubt he can stay with the big club when all he can do is hit. OTOH Diory Hernandez is still there and he doesn’t even hit all that well so. . .
Lots of talk about the Braves trading a starter to the Yankees – who never asked according to Buster Olney – and this week the Cardinals who sadly lost former Brave prospect Adam Wainwright to TJ surgery. The Braves have only one pitcher I know of actually on the market and KK doesn’t fill a need for either of those team. I’d gladly give them Rodrigo Lopez for a bag of batting practice balls and a used catcher’s mitt but they don’t want him either. I don’t think the GM is considering trading anyone from our projected starting five and certainly trading Hudson would get him run out of town on a rail. Lowe might be available midyear but for now all that talk is wishful thinking from fans of teams with no minor league system who know our GM sometimes makes odd trades.
Unfortunately Saturday won’t end the Spring Training Cliché avalanche but it will give us a few innings of real baseball to talk about for a change. My wish is that an unexpected source explode onto the radar this spring and spark everyone to a season that exceeds every projection. Whether that will be Matt Young, Joe Mather, Jordan Shafer or someone else I can’t say. It would be nice to see that begin tomorrow. Who’s your pick for surprise player of the year?