Sports Page Atlanta

In a conversation about how the rotation would fall if Smoltz did land on the DL, Bobby Cox gave reporters a few different scenarios. All of these scenarios included Jair Jurrjens.

The Braves would open with Tim Hudson pitching opening night Sunday at D.C., then Glavine on Monday at Turner Field. After the Tuesday off day, Cox said either Mike Hampton or Jair Jurrjens could pitch Game 3, with the other going, obviously, the next day. He hasn’t decided whether to split up the lefties with Smoltz out of the rotation.

With Smoltz in the rotation, Cox said he would have split up Glavine and Hampton. He didn’t give specifics, but I think it would have gone Hudson, Smoltz, Glavine, Jurrjens, Hampton.

Oh, yes, without announcing Jurrjens was in the rotation, Cox did announce it by saying Jurrjens could go in the third slot, or Hampton could. You have to read between the lines, put 2 and 2 together, etc, a lot on this beat. Not that anybody expected Jurrjens wouldn’t be in the rotation, which has seemed like a done deal since that game March 5 right here in Winter Haven, when he pitched three perfect innings against the Tribe in his second Grapefruit League start.

It surely appears as if Jurrjens is in the rotation.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 1:16 pm and is filed under Atlanta Braves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.