Chipper gives us something to think about
Chipper Jones gave us all something to think about with his quotes and it has nothing to do with his retirement,or injuries, or skill with the baseball bat. Chipper Jones gave us a perfect example of why it is a mistake to overreact and analyze things immediately as well as take the written word literally.
If you didn’t see what Chipper said to a few reporters I will gladly provide that for you:
"“Tomorrow might be my last day,” he said “I don’t know. I don’t really focus on it that much. The body is starting to tell me every morning when I wake up that it’s getting close. I’m signed through the end of this year. If I play in a certain amount of games, I got an option for next year. I don’t know what next year entails.“I don’t know if I can make it through this year.”"
Of course after this hit the internet people started freaking out left and right, whining about the offense, injuries, bad luck, the apocalypse and whatever else they immediately thought of when they heard “Chipper” and “last day.”
Most people are really good at picking up sarcasm in writing. See what I did there? That was sarcasm. People are definitely not good at picking up sarcasm through writing so why should they be able to pick up jokes either. Tone is something that is extremely important for interviews and especially quick responses to a reporter’s questions.
It would be beneficial if we could hear everything exactly how it was said but unfortunately we are not always able to. So try and take everything with a grain of salt and not jump to all kinds of ridiculous conclusions. Of course I might not be talking to you personally and if I’m not try and tell your crazy friend not to freak out.
On a more serious note however, Chipper’s statements should put more of a light on how badly we need an outfield bat. Matt Diaz isn’t that guy, Eric Hinske isn’t that guy, and Jose Constanza isn’t that guy. Drew Sutton may be that guy but he’s far from a sure thing.
If Chipper misses a lot of time and Martin Prado has to cover the hot corner we will need a guy to play left. Ideally—like I have said before—we would trade for an everyday left fielder and move Prado into the super utility role but an ideal world is never very realistic.
So for now be patient, remember that people aren’t always being literal, and hope that Jurrjens throws like an ace for a month so we can trade him straight up for Adam Jones.
As always thanks for reading. You can like Tomahawk Take on Facebook here and if you want to hear more of my Braves thoughts as they come into my head you can follow me on twitter here.