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| | Thursday, April 20 Atlanta Braves | ||||||||||
| By Rob Neyer ESPN.com
Record: 103-59, 1st overall Payroll: $79.3 million, 3rd overall Runs scored: 840, 7th in NL Runs allowed: 661, 1st in NL What went right? Chipper Jones finally enjoyed the huge season everyone's always expected, and he was rewarded with the National League MVP Award. In his first season with the Braves, right fielder Brian Jordan -- who once played football for the Falcons -- set career highs in both games (153) and RBI (115). Kevin Millwood built upon his solid 1998 season, and led the Braves starters in ERA (2.68) and winning percentage (.720). John Rocker assumed the closer role, and recorded 38 saves. What went wrong? John Schuerholz isn't perfect, and for proof one need look no further than Otis Nixon. A Brave from 1991 through 1993, Nixon was brought back in 1999 to platoon in left field with Gerald Williams, and the 40-year-old batted just .205 in 151 at-bats. Worse from a team perspective, prior to the season both Kerry Ligtenberg (arm) and Andres Galarraga (cancer) were lost for the entire campaign. Also, a knee injury limited star catcher Javy Lopez to 65 games and forced him out of the postseason. Tom Glavine seemed to struggle early on with the new strike zone, but he finished with a respectable 4.12 ERA. In retrospect, the critical decisions were: 1. Signing Brian Jordan to play right field. While the Braves' lineup still wasn't perfect, having Jordan in the cleanup slot meant one less hole. 2. Trading Denny Neagle to Cincinnati. Neagle wound up missing part of the season with an injury, while the Braves got a full year out of Bret Boone, who wasn't great but did constitute an improvement over Keith Lockhart. And with Kevin Millwood developing into one of the NL's top starters, the Braves didn't need Neagle anyway. 3. Moving Rocker into the closer role after Ligtenberg's injury. Just like he did in 1998 with Ligtenberg, Bobby Cox didn't panic -- like most managers would -- over using a young, untested pitcher as his closer. Looking ahead to 2000 Three key questions 1. Will the Braves cobble together enough production at first base, from a large group of candidates including Andres Galarraga, Wally Joyner, Randall Simon and Brian Hunter? 2. Will John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox really hand the shortstop job to top prospect Rafael Furcal, who hasn't played an inning above Class A? 3. Will an already-strong bullpen be fortified further upon the return of Kerry Ligtenberg, recovering from Tommy John surgery? Can expect to play better The sky's the limit for Andruw Jones. He doesn't turn 23 until April, and only figures to get better and better, assuming he stays focused on the task at hand. Can expect to play worse As great as he is, Chipper Jones probably won't duplicate his MVP season. That said, his RBI total might rise, given the probable presence of Quilvio Veras and Reggie Sanders atop the lineup. Brian Jordan set a career high by playing in 153 games, and given his history we might expect a stint or two on the DL.
2B Quilvio Veras LF Reggie Sanders 3B Chipper Jones RF Brian Jordan C Javy Lopez CF Andruw Jones 1B Andres Galarraga SS Rafael Furcal Rotation/Closer Greg Maddux Kevin Millwood John Smoltz Tom Glavine Bruce Chen John Rocker
A closer look
Age Avg HR RBI OBP Slug
Cedeno 22 .301 64 275 .350 .480
Griffey 22 .301 87 344 .369 .494
Jones 22 .260 80 257 .335 .476
Those stat lines are totals through each player's fourth season, which they completed at the age of 22. For those of you born after 1975, the first of the trio is Cesar Cedeno, who after his initial action was labeled by Leo Durocher as "the next Willie Mays." (Sound familiar?) His numbers were all the more impressive -- more impressive than Griffey's, really -- when you consider that he compiled them in the early 1970s, and while playing half his games in the Houston Astrodome, then one of the greatest pitcher's parks in the game's history.
But of course, Cedeno was not the next Willie Mays. He was a solid player for the better part of the 1970s, but something less than a superstar. And a broken ankle suffered in the 1980 NLCS virtually ended his career as a productive hitter.
Griffey ... well, him you know about. He's the closest thing to the "the next Willie Mays" that we've seen.
And Andruw Jones? There is cause for concern here. While there is every reason to think that Jones will enjoy a long and productive career, that .335 on-base percentage is a red flag, especially in this Age of the Hitter. Jones still has a chance to be The Next Big Thing, but he's got some real work to do.
And finally, a note on John Rocker: There is, of course, no excuse for the asinine verbal vomit spewed by John Rocker in a recent "interview" with a Sports Illustrated reporter.
Rocker's comments might well become a distraction this spring, thanks in part to a pack of rabid media that would love to beat this particular story to death in the otherwise boring weeks ahead. That said, there might not be a more professional organization than the Braves, and they'll likely have put all this behind them before the Ides of March.
On a more fundamental level, what are we afraid of here? The man, or the words? Does anyone really think that John Rocker presents a physical danger to anyone who's not crowding the plate? Probably not. So it's the words. And if it's the words that are dangerous, should we be angry with Rocker, or with the news organizations that so happily disseminated those words?
As for talk of somehow "firing" Rocker, I would like to quote a wise man of my acquaintance, who once wrote, "The principle that citizens should be punished for 'erroneous speech' is a short road to hell."
Rob Neyer is a staff writer for ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE Braves minor-league report ESPN.com's Hot Stove Heaters  | ||||||||||
