Catcher’s Blog

There are few things I thought that were worth mentioning, so see below for different articles, pictures, etc.

• As most of you have heard, Corky was desginated for assignment with the promotion of Chuck James last night. Corky was hitting .093 for the season, and with Mac being cleared last night to catch in an emergency and pinch hit, clearly Clint Sammons was here to stay. I think the Braves only kept Corky around until they knew Clint was ready or they found another option. He’s not expected to get claimed by anyone off waivers because of his batting average, and thus will go to the minor leagues. Clint will continue to catch for the remainder of this weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers and Mac should return on Monday to his starting duties.
• The Braves and their wives, in their Christmas in July promotion, went to visit and deliver toys to patients in three children’s hospitals. Visiting patients is a really great thing that they do every year and it’s apparent that the kids at the hospitals really enjoy it. I think the players enjoy it just as much as the kids do. There are three different galleries of pictures: one, two, and three.

  I’m not sure of everyone that went, but the pictures include players, wives, and broadcasters such as Mac, Frenchy and wife, Catie, KJ and wife, Lauren, Boyer and wife, Ginsey, Gonzo, Blanco, Ring and wife, Tricia, Brian Snitker, Chip Carey, Joe Simpson, and Fernando Palacios, who is one of the Spanish broadcasters.  And a quote from tough-guy closer, Gonzo, about his experience:

  “This was an unbelievable experience, man,” Gonzalez said after the two-hour visit. “It’s pretty much why we do this, why we’re proud to be big leaguers and see the smile on these kids’ faces.”

• Huddy might have to have Tommy John surgery. His MRI results showed that he had a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. Both Dr. James Andrews and a Braves physician recommended that he have the surgery done. Huddy would like to avoid having the surgery at all and is going to try to “tough it out”, as stated in a text message. He’s going to try to take the Peter Moylan route to try to avoid the surgery, but no one is sure that it will work. We’ll have to hope it does, but it might just be better for him to go ahead and have the surgery since it might become worse down the line if he pitches with it.
• The Braves may choose the option of trading some players still in the month of August to get other players that can be used in the future and will be younger. Kotsay may be on a different team by the time September rolls around, and even some of the other regulars we see on the field everyday. Terrence Moore says fans should not to be surprised to see the Braves put some of their players on waivers to see what kind of return they can get for them. Putting someone on waivers isn’t risky in that that team can pull him off if they decide not to trade that player after all. Apparently, some still think Frenchy won’t be a Brave by the time the season concludes, but we’ll have to see how things go.

This is my review of the day game in Atlanta on June 25, 2008. It was good trip, it was a very, very hot that day, and we played a good game. I got decent footage and pictures below. The footage is a little shaky and I apologize for that. That would be from me not being able to hold my camera still hardly at all. I can’t sit or stand still, so that’s probably why. The footage was clearer on my computer before I uploaded it to photobucket, so know that it wasn’t my camera. The only bad thing about that day was that it felt like it was 100 degrees, literally, with no shade hardly at all and the seat digging into my leg the whole time, resulting in my leg becoming almost numb when I did finally get up around the 8th inning. I’ll save the rest for the review. The review is under a cut for length purposes.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wasn’t planning on posting today, but DOB’s blog changed my mind. First, we’ll look at some quotes that I’m referring to:

“I’m finally off the hook,” he said, smiling as he ate a postgame sandwich in a clubhouse that was as noisy as a frat party when compared to the morgue atmosphere of the previous week. People were smiling, laughing, after the pins-and-needles atmosphere we felt entering the clubhouse after recent losses.

Most of you know just what Johnson was referring to — his dropped popup with two out in the ninth inning a week earlier against Philadelphia seven nights earlier, when the Braves had a game in the bag … until it squirted out of his glove.

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Johnson hadn’t stopped thinking of that popup since. But late last night, he could finally smile about it, since some of the mounting pressure of losing for a solid week after his error had finally been released.

“I told my wife [earlier Friday], if this [losing] goes on much longer, when we walk by fans it’s not going to be, ‘Hey, there’s Kelly Johnson, the Braves second baseman,’” he said. “It’s going to be, ‘There’s Kelly Johnson, the guy who dropped the ball and lost us the season.’”
If the Braves don’t start playing like they did last night a lot more frequently, that dropped ball might still be the moment fans point to first, fairly or not, as the point where the season was lost.

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No, that dropped popup is a moment that sticks out, not just because the Braves were one out from a series-opening win against the Phillies, but because they seemed to be in a daze the rest of the weekend and much of the Chicago series.

And, of course, because a dropped popup with two out in the ninth tends to stand out in the memory bank more than so-and-so failing to deliver with bases loaded with none out, or with one out, or with two outs….”

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We’ve been told before by KJ himself, that KJ is very hard on himself. I’m sure that’s all he’s thought about until last night after they won and still probably will for the remainder of the season. But even though no one but himself could be to blame for dropping the ball, there is other people at fault for that loss and it’s not KJ’s fault we went on a 6-game losing streak. KJ can only control what KJ does and even then sometimes he can’t control that since he’s merely human. I know I’m a fan of KJ and I’m not saying this because of that love as a fan I have for him, I’m saying it because some fans automatically turn on players when they start costing the team wins. Take Frenchy for example, people wanted his head, along with KJ’s, on a silver platter to feed to the wolves when he continued on his major slump.

Fans that decide to pack it up this early in the season, after a few mishaps and tough losses, shouldn’t be fans at all. Injuries are a mere excuse, but you can’t get past them when it’s half of your starting lineup/payroll on the DL; they’re going to start hurting you eventually. But with that, fans should be behind the team that much more to help pick them up. If the going gets tough and the tough gives up, you’re not going to get very far no matter what you do. We as fans need to keep supporting this team, no matter what they do. We need to show them that fans are not just there to see them win, we need to show them that we’re there for when they win, lose, or whatever. True fans never give up on their team, no matter how bad things get. I’m not giving up on this team and true fans won’t either.

I didn’t get to see the entire game last night because I was dog sitting and the people didn’t have the channel out at their house. My friend and my mom were telling me what was happening, though, but I still didn’t get the full effect of it. I didn’t see the botched play by KJ, and I know everyone wants to blame the loss on him, but he’s not the only one that should take the blame.

From what I’ve read and heard, there are many different reasons we lost the game, KJ’s error just made it seem like he was to blame for dropping the ball. But even through that tough loss, most fans on AJC are ready to take KJ’s head and call it a season. I, for one, will not call it a season until we’re out of it in September. I don’t care if we are 4.5 games back, we can still come back from that. We have to keep trying and shouldn’t give up because of one tough loss. Today is a new day and anything is possible. Maybe it’s just me, but true fans shouldn’t be naming players’ heads to be had, we should be looking at the next game trying to win that one, and so on. We could sit here all day long naming reasons why we lost and who’s to blame for the loss, but it will not get us anywhere. Hanging our heads and wishing players to their deaths, per se, won’t solve anything.

Tonight “Never know with Jo-Jo” takes the mound against Kyle Kendrick. Let’s forget about last night and try to win the next two. On paper, this looks like a pretty even match up, even though Kendrick has three more wins than Jo-Jo and one never really knows which Jo-Jo will show up. Think of the run support Kendrick has behind him, though, and that’s probably why he’s won five games.  Let’s make it happen, guys.

Normally, I don’t make girl-y posts on here, and I’m sure this one won’t be the last since I am, in fact, a girl and do have my moments at times. I’ll be honest and admit it. Today we have a video of KJ being interviewed on Braves Live after the game yesterday. With my girl-y, fan girl intuition kicking in, I really have no clue what he’s even saying or the questions being asked, nor do I really and truly care. The deer-caught-in-headlights look in his eyes, his breathy expressions of disappointment, and his shirtless, freshly showered self has me completely unfocused on the topic at hand. I’ll be honest and admit it.

Did the team just get swept? Of course, they did. Are we upset that they did? Yes, we are, but, from the female perspective, as guys are the same with girls, we tend to focus on the sexiness that is Kelly Johnson. KJ might not be the hottest guy on earth, he may not be the most defined or muscular guy, but nevertheless, us females are going to have the same reaction as if it were any other guy that is remotely good looking and has a toned and defined body (and even some who don’t) unless you have really bad taste in guys or are just not into guys at all. Probably because previously the only skin you saw in the clubhouse consisted of arms and legs of the players with bike shorts and undershirts on, walking about in the locker room. Or seeing Chino walking out of the shower in a towel that is barely covering his body, which is definitely not my idea of something I want to see on Braves Live or at all really. *gag*

But I will add to this girl-y post, that I do honestly think there’s more to a guy or a baseball player than looks. But again, me being my girl-y self at times, I had to mention it. I am of the female nature and I do think my favorite players are good looking, but please know that that is not the only reason that I like them. There are other reasons as well, naturally. I’m trying to add more personal things in the blog and be less stat-motivated on here, so please know my blog won’t change completely.

But moving on to a-not-so-fan-girl-point. Today starts the homestand with the top two teams in the NL right now. Hopefully our luck is still at Turner Field since we can’t seem to find any on the road whatsoever. First up, we play the Marlins for four games and afterward in come the Phillies for three, who are now in first place in the division.

Tonight we have Jo-Jo matching up against Scott Olsen. Jo-Jo’s last start in Milwaukee was probably his best start in the majors so far, yet he still ended up taking the loss due to lack of run support. This shouldn’t be a problem since we are back within the fences of Turner Field, which is our security blanket for some reason. Let’s hope Jo-Jo can match his last outing and actually get a win for it this time.