Rowland's Office

To make room for Gonzo, Stockman was sent down to Richmond, despite pitching well during his brief stay in Atlanta (seven innings, no runs, 9 Ks). His numbers at Richmond were dazzling; Ridgway, meanwhile, gave up 43 hits in 33 innings in Triple A, and he's been just as crappy up here, hitting a batter to score the winning run in Chicago and blowing a possible win for Sir Charles today.

Ridgway is lefthanded, but the Braves are stocked on that front, with Ring, Ohman and Gonzo. So why choose him over Stockman, who deserves more of a chance than he's been given.  

For all the talk about the leadoff spot, Yesco's been OK there lately. As the No. 1 hitter this month, he's hitting .294 with a .400 on base percentage. For the season, when he leads off he's at .273 with a .352 OBP.

Significantly, in the at-bat leading off games he is wailing: .364 with a .382 OBP.  In his first-inning ABs as a leadoff man, KJ is a putrid 3-for-27. So, while Yesco sometimes might not look as comfortable in the leadoff spot as he does hitting second, lately he seems the best fit there. Blanco? Strikes out a good bit — he's on pace for 125-plus for 550 ABs. He has a good OBP but probably has not shown enough overall as a hitter to merit bumping Yesco out of that spot. 

The 2 hole is another story. KJ is there now, and he's hitting just .241 in the role with a .327 OBP. By contrast, hitting 7th, the other place he's been for more than a game or two this season, KJ's numbers are brawny: .429 BA, .458 OBP in 24 plate appearances. Granted, it's a small sample, but to me he just looks more at ease hitting lower and his good gap power can drive in runs there. These days, I'd rather see KJ than Francoeur up after McCann, Tex or Chipper have been pitched around.

How about this as an experiment: move Blanco to the 2 spot. He's the best bunter on the taem, reaches base reasonably often and can haul ass around the sacks ahead of Chipper, McCann and, on the rare occasions he gets a hit with men on, Tex. Slide KJ into the 6th spot and move Frenchy down to 7th. Maybe you flip KJ and Francoeur against lefties. And leave McCann in the 5th spot all the time — he's hitting .361 with 10 doubles against lefties, vs. 12 in many more at-bats vs. righties.

What do y'all think?

–CD   

I am not in any way predicting that Jo-Jo and JJ will approach the success of Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux and Avery.

Still, it's interesting to compare how the two young Bravo hurlers of today compare with those giants when they were fledgling big leaguers. They stack up quite nicely. In fact, Reyes and Jurrjens are at about the same point where Glav, Smoltz and Ave found their magic and became great pitchers — in Avery's case, of course, it did not last as long. As for Mad Dog, he became the best of the lot, and the best of this generation, but it took him a bit longer, about 32 starts.

Back to today. Reyes in 19 big league starts is 5-6 with a 5.30 ERA. JJ in 21 starts is 10-4 with a 3.77. That is the best start to a career of any of these guys. Compare to the greats through 20 starts:

Glavine, 4-10, 5.84

Avery, 3-11, 5.64

Smoltz, 8-9, 4.08

Maddux, 6-11, 5.18.

I don't know if great pitchers tend to hit their stride around the 20-start mark, but that was the case for the first three on that list. For example, after 18 mostly bad starts, Glavine pitched 159-2/3 innings the rest of 1988 with a 3.55 ERA. From there, it was on to 300-plus wins. After his first 20 starts, Avery went 18-8 with a 3.38 in 1991 to start a sparkling three-year run. Smoltzie actually found the mark after only a dozen starts.

In 12 starts in 1988, John was 2-7 with a 5.48. The following season, he pitched 208 innings with a 2.94 ERA and never looked back. For his part, Mad Dog got his dipping, darting pitches harnessed after 32 starts. Following those, he went 18-8, 3.18 in his second full major league season and the rest is truly history.

Now, Jo-Jo has been excellent of late. In his past four starts, he's thrown 28-1/3 innings with a 3.18 ERA. JJ had a rough patch, cause at least in part by blisters. Then he was superb last time out. The parallels are encouraging but could, of course, be meaningless.

We can only hope our two kids approach what their forebears have done. I have not included Morton in this, as one start, encouraging though it was, is no basis for anything.   

–CD

Mike Hampton (aka Goofus) threw a simulated game at the Braves' complex in Orlando on Tuesday, the AJC reports.

He came away from two innings of 25 pitches each without problems with his pectoral muscle. 

He will pitch once more there and if all goes well, head out on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment. 

What do you wanna bet all doesn't go well? My hope: Hampton says he's ready, but the Braves keep him at Richmond. I don't want to see him replacing any of the rookies — maybe he can assume Jeff Ridgway's slop role. 

On the other hand, I wish nothing but the best for Mike Gonzalez (Gallant) who, despite just one month on the active roster, has become one of my favorites. Unlike some people, he's anxious to contribute. 

"I'm getting two or three hours of sleep every night just because I'm so anxious to get up here," said Gonzalez, who joined the Braves in Texas on Tuesday.

My prediction: It may take him a little while, but by the All-Star break Gonzo will emerge as the Braves closer, and a damn good one. I hope he's here to stay. 

* A giant old lady statue that screams, "Where's the offense?"

* A wiry man with a moustache who roams the stands repeating, "You can call me Ray….but you doesn't have to call me (Kelly) Johnson."

* Bill Cosby swinging a Jello bat.

* Ronald McDonald pinch hitting.

* Old men and various others screaming, "I can't believe Acosta blew the whole game!"

* T Buff wearing a top hat and tails festooned with Braves logos. (That I'd actually like to see.)

* The Wolf Man and Donna on the center field screen introducing the starting lineups. (I'd like to see that, too.) 

* Another elderly woman who, on que, yells, "Corky Miller's fallen, and he can't get up!"

Feel free to add more.

–CD

To paraphrase Pete’s call of the ‘91 division clincher, let the humiliation begin, Atlanta — the chopping cow has arrived. 

It’s our duty — as real baseball fans — to boo the moo whenever the opportunity presents itself. 

This is off topic, but too good not to pass along. And it does involve a retired big league baseball player.

I have this on reasonably good authority. A former Falcons coach now employed at the University of Arkansas made a tentative agreement to purchase an expensive home in Fayatteville, Ark. from former Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi. After the sale, the football coach approached the former backstop in the home and demanded the Pagnozzis vacate the premesis within 24 hours.

Pagnozzi replied that his family would need at least five days to pack all their belongings and move. At which point, the football coach pulled the sales contract from his pocket and ripped it into small pieces.

–CD

Believe me, baby, I'd rather be writing about the miracle unfolding at Portland State, where Jerry Glanville is rapidly building a college football powerhouse, but Johnny Heyman at SI.com deserves what my friend 'Dre Rison would call a shout out, heeeey!

Hey, Johnny, you're not alone. I've been saying that about the old tractor farmer for years, but everyone down here, including the scribes at the fishwrapper downtown, has been brainwashed to think Bobby knows what he's doing. And clearly, he does not.

You're talking about the man who failed to utilize the premier athlete of our time, my friend, Prime Time Sanders. I suggested back in the early 90s that Bobby give Prime a shot at first base, to get him in the line-up but of course the animal rights fanatic had to keep playing the old white guy, Sad Bream as I called him. Heeeey!

I'm not making accusations, baby, I'm just sayin'. Finally, people seem to be catching on to what I've been reporting for years. There's no innovation in that dugout, and as long as Bobby stays on the job there never will be.

For Man's Best Friend, I'm Beau Bock. Heeeey! 

Willie Randolph never stood a chance of succeeding in Flushing, not with that dysfunctional franchise. As Buster Olney writes (no link; registration required), his firing was inevitable:  

Even the writers of "The Sopranos" could not have invented a more recklessly handled hit. The process really started after last season's collapse, when Minaya — who came to the Mets having been promised full autonomy and, for more than a year, has had all the power of a marionette — first regressed into lawyer-speak. "Willie is the manager," Minaya said over and over, as if repeating the phrase would somehow give the crafted but flimsy words backbone and fool anyone into thinking that Randolph wasn't one really bad day away from being fired.

When the Mets sputtered in April, the backstabbing began, with Randolph being undermined along the way. Words of Randolph's honest player evaluations in those staff meetings somehow made their way to the ears of players. That left the manager in a brutal position of trying to draw performance out of veterans who heard that behind closed doors the manager wasn't so sure if they had the right stuff anymore. Some on-field staff members doubted whether they could trust the front office.

And when the losing continued, the front-office leaks to the newspapers became rivers of rip-jobs, the leakers inoculated by the fact that they fired first. It's better to blame the manager and his coaches, after all, than to take responsibility. But even after Randolph's demise became a fait accompli, which was sometime in the last days of May, the decision-makers stopped focusing on the change itself and started becoming concerned about properly scripting his firing.

When the Mets finished a road trip with a loss in Colorado on May 25 and had a record of 23-25, the front office already had talked and talked for hours about managerial alternatives, and unenthusiastically decided that Jerry Manuel was likely to be Randolph's replacement. "Everybody is scared to death about this," said one front-office member at the time.

But rather than just firing the manager quickly, there was a very public meeting with Fred and Jeff Wilpon on Memorial Day. Friends of Randolph say he felt like the Wilpons were waiting for him to take himself down, with some impetuous or angry remark; if he wanted to quit, they wouldn't stand in the way. But the Mets wouldn't fire him — not on a holiday because that wouldn't be the classy thing to do, firing a manager on a holiday. So Randolph walked out and sat side by side in a news conference with Minaya, who continued with the lawyer-speak. They had to pretend everything was good and settled, and that the organization was moving forward.

That wasn't true, of course; Randolph remained just one losing streak away from getting dumped, and the losing streak came last week. Along the way, the Mets' front-office whisperers generated the same kind of leaks that came before Steve Phillips was fired, before Art Howe was fired, before Jim Duquette was shoved aside — the same kind of leaks that came after the Scott Kazmir trade went bad. Not since the days of the vintage Steinbrenner Yankees has any team leaked the way the Mets leak. By Friday night, the papers reported that Randolph was out, and by Saturday night, the papers reported that Peterson and Nieto were going to be fired.

There was just one last vexing problem: Telling the news to Randolph, Peterson and Nieto directly. The Mets' front office could've done that Saturday, as they sat for hours through a rain delay. Or they could've done the job Sunday. But somehow, the Mets' front office seemed to shrink from the idea of firing Randolph on Father's Day.

By Sunday morning, Randolph — who might or might not be a great manager but is unquestionably a man of dignity — almost seemed to be laughing at the absurdity of the situation. He chuckled as he told reporters that, sure, he thought about the possibility he might be packing for a West Coast road trip that he might not last all the way through.

The Mets won the second game of the doubleheader Sunday, just as they had won on Friday, and then Randolph boarded a plane to the West Coast with his coaching staff and flew all the way to California. The Mets won again Monday, their third win in four games — and that's when Minaya and Bernazard made their move, capping the employment of Randolph and two coaches after midnight. As if nobody would notice.