Sports Page Atlanta

Well, Chuck James is back and he is back to his old tricks… that is not necessarily good.  The southpaw pitched 2 2/3 innings yesterday and gave up 6 runs as the Braves lost to the Brewers 9-0.

In the game James gave up 2 home runs… one to Prince Fielder and one to Mike Cameron.

When it comes to James there is a big difference in triple A and in the majors.  In 76 1/3 innings at Richmond, he has allowed just 3 home runs, but in 25 2/3 innings he has allowed 9.

The record for most home runs allowed as an Atlanta Brave is 386 held by Phil Niekro.  Knucksie surrended 482 long balls overall which is 3rd all-time behind fellow hall of famers Robin Roberts and Ferguson Jenkins.

Clint Sammons hit his first career home run yesterday as the Braves defeated the Cardinals.  Sammons was just called up from Richmond and has played 4 games for Atlanta.  In those 4 games he has almost as many hits as the other backup catcher Corky Miller and Miller has been the backup all season.  Here are both of their season stats.

                                             Corky Miller                             Clint Sammons

Games                                      26                                                  4

hits                                            5                                                    4

at-bats                                      54                                                  8

average                                     .093                                           .500

home runs                                 1                                                     1

runs batted in                            3                                                    3 

Georgia Tech started the Paul Johnson era on Wednesday as they began football practice.  As you all know by now, Johnson was previously the Navy head coach (yes I know he was at Georgia Southern, too… but most recently he was at Navy).

Anyway all the talk is that he is going to change the offense dramatically.  Well, this is how the Yellow Jacket offense has been split up the last 2 seasons compared to how the Midshipmen divided their offense.

Georgia Tech

2007: 548 running plays (60.2%) 363 passing plays (39.8%)

2006: 526 running plays (58.8%) 369 passing plays (41.2%)

Navy

2007: 804 running plays (85.5%) 136 passing plays (14.5%)

2006: 764 running plays (87.2%) 112 passing plays (12.8%)

The Braves acquired Casey Kotchman yesterday in the trade sending Mark Teixeira to the Angels.  Kotchman is a very good fielder with solid offensive numbers.  The one thing that Kotchman doesn’t have a lot of is strikeouts… which is good.  In fact he is one of the hardest players in baseball to strike out.

Fewest strikeouts this season with players who have played 100 or more games

Yuniesky Betancourt: 101 games - 22 strikeouts

Casey Kotchman: 100 games - 23 strikeouts

Robinson Cano: 104 games - 33 strikeouts

Dustin Pedroia: 106 games - 38 strikeouts

Cristian Guzman: 101 games - 39 strikeouts

As you know by now Tim Hudson is on the disabled list and may have to get Tommy John surgery which may lead him to miss this season and possibly the next.  Hudson was supposed to start tonight against the Cardinals.

We all know, he wishes he would have made the start, but check this out…

Tim Hudson: Highest Career ERA vs a NL opponent

vs Cardinals: 4.74 (6 starts)

vs Rockies: 4.65 (5 starts)

vs Padres: 4.29 (6 starts)

vs Giants: 4.03 (11 starts)

vs Cubs: 3.94 (5 starts)

Brian McCann suffered a concussion in yesterday’s game against the Phillies when Shane Victorino crashed into him at a play at the plate in the 6th inning.

McCann will most likely be out for a few games.  His offensive output will certainly be missed as he is the leader of the Braves in a category that the team has struggled all season.

The Braves are batting a combined .264 with runners in scoring position this season. 

Here are the Braves leaders in batting average with runners in scoring position for players that have at least 50 at-bats in the situation…

Brian McCann - .310

Chipper Jones - .3099

Gregor Blanco - .297

Kelly Johnson - .293

Mark Teixeira - .284

I am sorry. But yesterday, as I watching the Braves game and they lost 10-9, I was thinking about the stat… how many times has the Atlanta Braves scored 10 or more and given up 10 or more.  I was hoping the Braves would have scored one more run and it would have been a good stat, they didn’t.

But someone was looking out for me as it happened today.  The Braves lost 12-10.  So I will do that stat for today’s stat of the day.

This is the 40th time in the Atlanta Braves era where they have scored and allowed 10 or more runs.  They are 17-23 in those games.  The last time they did it was on March 31st earlier this season when they lost 12-11 in Pittsburgh.  The last time they won was in 2006 when they beat San Diego 15-12.

The first time they did this feat was in 1969 when they defeated the Pirates 12-11.  Some years they did not have any occurances, but sometimes they had many.

In 1977 it happened 6 times that season and the Braves went 3-3 in those games and in 1990 it happened 5 times and they won 4 of those contests.

Mike Hampton might make the start tonight…. I know you have heard it all before.  This time it might actually happen.  Well if he does, the Braves might be able to his bat more than his pitching.  Atlanta has struggled with that aspect more it seems.

If he is back it might be just in time.  Since his career started in 1993 he leads all pitchers with home runs with 15.  Even with missing action since August 19, 2005, he still leads the pack, but just barely.

Here are the top 5…

Mike Hampton - 15

Carlos Zambrano - 14

Livan Hernandez - 9

Dontrelle Willis - 8

Jason Schmidt - 7

Kerry Wood - 7

His last home run was on May 8, 2005, when the Braves defeated the Astros 16-0.  Hampton pitched a shutout that day and hit the home run against Chad Harville.

All this talk about trading Mark Teixeira made me think how dominant he has been in his career.  Since he started his big league career in 2003, he has 628 career rbi.  That rbi total rates him 6th most in the majors in that time period and he notice that he’s not far off from the leaders.

Here are the top 6…

1. Alex Rodriguez - 692
2. David Ortiz - 685
3. Albert Pujols - 660
4. Carlos Lee - 641
5. Manny Ramirez - 630
6. Mark Teixeira - 628

If you were wondering, Chipper Jones is 21st in that time period with 517.

As many of you saw or heard or at least read Chipper Jones got hurt again last night in the win against the Marlins.  This time he hurt his hamstring in the 4th inning running to first base.

It is not known as of right now how much time he will miss.  The Braves desparately need him if they still think the can make the playoffs.

It is also bad that he might miss the upcoming series against the Phillies.  Most people think that it is the Mets that Chipper has the highest batting average against.  Well it is actually the Phillies in teams that he has played at least 100 games against.

Here are the top 5…

Phillies (185 games)  .339

Astros (106 games) .332

Mets (184 games) .330 

Padres (105 games) .322

Marlins (193 games) .314

Chipper has also hit the most home runs against the Phillies (40) but not the rbi (that honor belongs to the Marlins with 143).