Sports Page Atlanta

Later today Tom Glavine will face Micah Owings of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Owings was born in Gainesville, Georgia.  There has been a lot of major leaguers from the state of Georgia including a lot of pitchers.

The pitcher with the most of career wins that was born in the state of Georgia is current Detroit Tigers pitcher and Savannah native Kenny Rogers with 214 career wins.  Kevin Brown is 2nd with 211.

Here are the top 5…

Kenny Rogers - 214

Kevin Brown - 211 (from Milledgeville)

Tim Hudson - 142 (from Columbus)

Nap Rucker - 134 (from Alpharetta)

Jim Bagby - 127 (from Barnett)

Yesterday Bobby Cox signed a one-year extension to remain with the Atlanta Braves… maybe it is just me, but it would seem weird to have anyone else manage the club. This is his 2nd stint with the Braves. His first one did not go as well. When he managed the Braves from 1978 to 1981, he went 266-323 and his best finish was 4th in the NL West. He then spent 4 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and went 355-292. Once again he came back in 1990 and after one bad season the rest is history.

His first team in 1978 was not too good. The team went 69-93 and only 904,000 people attended the games all year, yet I always hear people telling me that they always used to go to games.

Here is a list of the leaders of that team…

Batting Average: Jeff Burroughs .301

Home Runs: Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Jeff Burroughs all had 23

RBI: Dale Murphy 79

Stolen Bases: Jerry Royster 27

Wins: Phil Niekro 19 (he also had 18 losses that year)

the next highest total was 9 by Larry McWilliams

Saves: Gene Garber 22

Once again Chipper Jones comes through with the go-ahead rbi single in the 7th inning to help lead the Atlanta Braves to a 4-2 victory over the New York Mets.

Chipper went 2-for-4 in the game to raise his average to .412.

If you are a baseball fan you probably already know that Ted Williams was the last player to hit .400 in a season way back in 1941.

But here is a breakdown decade by decade of the top 3 highest averages in a season that qualified for the batting title since the 1940’s (ok I will count the 40’s).  There is a former Atlanta Brave on the list.

1940’s - Ted Williams .406 in 1941, Stan Musial .376 in 1948, Ted Williams .369 in 1948

1950’s - Ted Williams .388 in 1957, Mickey Mantle .365 in 1957, Stan Musial .355 in 1951

1960’s - Norm Cash .361 in 1961, Roberto Clemente .357 in 1967, Roberto Clemente .351 in 1961

1970’s -Rod Carew .388 in 1977, Rico Carty .366 in 1970, Rod Carew .364 in 1974

1980’s - George Brett .390 in 1980, Tony Gwynn .370 in 1987, Wade Boggs .368 in 1985

1990’s - Tony Gwynn .394 in 1994, Larry Walker .379 in 1999, Tony Gwynn .372 in 1997

2000’s - Nomar Garciaparra .372 in 2000, Todd Helton .372 in 2000, Ichiro Suzuki .372 in 2004

For fans going to the Mets games on September 19th, 20th and 21st at Turner Field you better get there early.  The Braves starting pitchers have done a great job when playing the Mets in Atlanta this season.  What makes it more impressive is that everyone is pitching in. (sorry about the pun)

The starting pitchers are a combined 5-0 with a 1.50 era.

April 5th - Tim Hudson: 6 ip, 3 er - win

April 6th - John Smoltz: 5 ip, 0 er - win

May 20th (game 1) - Tom Glavine: 6 ip, 1 er - win

May 20th (game 2) - Jorge Campillo: 6 ip, 0 er - win

May 21st - Jair Jurrjens: 7 ip, 1 er - win

On the other side, the Braves starting pitchers at Shea Stadium this year are just 1-2 with a 7.62 era.

Although Jorge Campillo had only pitched in relief for the Braves this season, Bobby Cox named him as the started of the second game of Tuesday’s double-header. Since the Braves rotation has been punished with injuries this season, the team desperately needed a quality start from Campillo, who has pitched fantastically out of the bullpen.

In his 21.1 innings of relief work, Campillo has given up only three earned runs (1.27 ERA), 16 hits, and has struck out 17 batters while only walking five. These dominant numbers, plus Campillo’s great curve-ball, gave Cox the ability to try Campillo as a starter.

Nine of his 13 outings have been for multiple innings, including three scoreless frames Thursday in Philadelphia.

“He’s got a great curveball, great change-up and he can zip his fastball in there a little bit,” manager Bobby Cox said Saturday.

Campillo was a starter most of his eight years in the Mexican League and in the minor leagues with the Mariners.

Campillo’s start was fantastic Tuesday night. He pitched six scoreless innings and only gave up three hits. He dominated hitters as he struck out seven and didn’t walk anyone. Campillo lowered his ERA to 0.99 and most importantly, for the Braves, is that the team won 6-2 and is now only 1.5 games back in the division.

Tom Glavine won game #305 of his career in game one vs the Mets yesterday.  The southpaw has won 244 as a Brave and won 61 when he played for that other team from 2003 to 2007.

Glavine had no problem against the Mets, but as you remember he struggled big-time the first time he played the Bravos as this graphic suggests…

                                       5/24/03 vs ATL                                 5/20/08 vs NYM

              innings                   3 1/3                                                       6

              hits allowed             8                                                            3

              er allowed                6                                                            1

              decision                    loss                                                        win

Dating all of the way back to October 1, 2005, Jeff Francoeur had started in 370 consecutive games. For the first time in three years, Francoeur got a night off, as his streak ended in the second game of a day-night double header. Francoeur’s consecutive start streak was the longest in Major League Baseball.

There isn’t any word that Francoeur is injured, it just seems that “Frenchy” needed day off. With only 12 hits in his last 52 at-bats, and 23 hits in his last 96 at-bats, Francoeur’s bat just wasn’t sizzling. Last week, Francoeur said that “…I’ll never pull myself out of the lineup”. Apparently, BobbyCox decided to do it for him.

“Mental health” days-off have worked this season for other players, like Boston’s David Ortiz. Here’s to hoping it works for “Frenchy” as well.

As I posted earlier, Matt Ryan signed a six-year contract with the Falcons in the amount of $72 million. You can see his press conference at the Atlanta Falcons media lounge.

Both the SEC and ACC Tournaments start on Wednesday and both local teams need some big wins this week.  Georgia is most likely hosting a regional, but needs to do well in the SEC’s to be a top-8 seed guareenting home field advantage if they win the regional.  Georgia Tech needs some wins to get good placing in the regional and if the win the ACC, maybe they could host a regional.

The Bulldogs are the number one seed in Birmingham this week and will be playing Ole Miss first at 6:00 pm et (the game will be much later, the times will be pushed back). 

Here is how Georgia did against the teams in the tourney this season and how they fared against them all-time in the SEC Tournament…

Ole Miss: 2-1 this season (first meeting in SEC tournament)

Alabama: 1-2 (1-1)

Kentucky: 3-0 (3-2)

Florida: 1-2 (7-4)

South Carolina: 3-0 (2-1)

LSU: 2-0-1 (2-7)

Vanderbilt: 2-1 (1-5)

— the Dawgs are a combined 23-32 in the SEC Tournament with 0 titles and 3 2nd place finishes (1985, 1986 and 1989)

Georgia Tech is the 5th seed and will play NC State in Jacksonville early Wednesday morning.

Here is how the Yellow Jackets have fared against teams in the ACC Tourney…

NC State: did not face them this season (10-11 in ACC Tourney)

Miami: 0-3 (2-0)

Clemson: 2-1 (9-13)

Florida State: 0-3 (5-6)

Wake Forest: 2-1 (9-4)

North Carolina: 1-2 (11-3)

Virginia: 2-1 (6-3)

— Georgia Tech is 64-44 all-time in the ACC Tournament and has won it all 7 times.  The Jackets won 4 straight from 1985 to 1988 under current Miami head coach Jim Morris, but the last 3 were all under current skipper Danny Hall when he won it all in 2000, 2003 and 2005.

On Tuesday, the Atlanta Falcons first round pick (#3 overall), Matt Ryan, signed a six-year deal with the club. Terms of the contract were not disclosed, but the Falcons have announced a press conference for 8:00 PM tonight to discuss the deal.

Ryan is only the second 1st round draft choice from this season to sign a contract with the team that drafted him. Typically, first round picks wait longer to sign trying to maximize financial aspects in their negotiations. In fact, no first rounder signed before July 3rd last season.

This is a fantastic sign for both the Falcons and Matt Ryan as he’ll have ample time now to learn the system and compete for the starting job from day one.