Sports Page Atlanta

When the Braves sent Edgar Renteria to Detroit in the off-season, no joke, I was a bit concerned. Renteria was nothing but spectacular for the Braves during his tenure in Hot-lanta. The trade brought minor-leaguer Gorkys Hernandez and recent call-up, Jair Jurrjens, who hails from the island of Curacao, to the Braves. As a lifelong baseball fan, I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I knew nothing about either of these two. I soon came to learn that Jurrjens supposedly had the stuff to be in the starting rotation right now. Boy, does he. After another solid outing vs. the Padres on Tuesday night, Jurrjens isn’t just an end-of-the-rotation guy, he’s a bona fide stud, and the Braves are lucky to have him.

In his first six starts for the Braves, Jurrjens is 3-2, with a 3.05 ERA. Even more impressive, Jurrjens, who isn’t known as a strikeout pitcher, has punched-out 28 batters this season, while only walking 13, four of which were intentional. Those stats are quite impressive, but they aren’t nearly as important as the impact Jurrjens has brought to the staff considering the rash of injuries. John Smoltz has been to the DL twice and Tom Glavine has been once (for the first time ever), both of whom joined Mike Hampton, who is President of the Disabled List Home Owners Association. Jurrjens first month wasn’t just a “nice bonus,” it was sorely needed, and has kept the Braves afloat during the first month of the season.

The kid has proven that he belongs. The next step? Proving he can be an ace…and he’s well on his way.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 10:28 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.