I’m neither at the game nor listening to it on the radio, but I am keeping up with the box score online. And it looks as if the Yellow Jacket offense is rolling.
Jonathan Dwyer has 113 yards on ten carries and two touchdowns.
Josh Nesbitt hasn’t thrown for a touchdown, but he fumbled himself one and ran for another.
Halftime score is Georgia Tech 27, Jacksonville State 0.
Dessens was slowed by an injury this Spring and eventually cut by the Pirates, then wasn’t good enough, upon become healthy, to pitch in the majors. So, in true “Jake Taylor” form (What movie guys???), Dessens went to Mexico to pitch… the Triple-A Mexican League.
It’s true, Dessens is 10-2 in the Mexican League, but he has a 4.03 ERA in 19 starts. Can anyone guess what the equivalant MLB ERA will be? This is gonna get ugly?
Dessens is expected to join the Braves later this week for the final month of the season.
With our two 40+ year-old, future Hall of Fame veterans out for the season, I can understand the need for veteran leadership on the staff. But, Elmer Dessens??? He’s got a career 44% winning percentage (48-61) and had only made 140 starts in 11 big league seasons.
Here are a couple of questions that I have:
Was Dessens the best that the Braves could do from all of the pitchers on the waiver wire, in Mexico, or in the Minor Leagues?
Is the “veteran” approach really the best thing for this Braves team? Or I guess I should ask, is this approach better than calling up Chuck James to take his lumls and learn or some pitcher in the farm system who tore it up this season like Todd Redmond, Kris Medlen, or Thomas Hanson?
Mark Bowman over at MLB.com sugar coats Dessens achievements a bit in his article, but do Braves fans really care about his Triple-A Mexican league championship game exploits?
Dessens, who has gone 48-61 with a 4.50 ERA in 11 Major League seasons, went to the Mexican League after being released by the Pirates on March 27. In 20 games (19 starts) with the Mexico City Red Devils, he was 10-2 with a 4.03 ERA.
After going 2-0 with a 2.10 ERA in his final five regular season starts, Dessens went 3-0 with a 3.54 ERA in the playoffs. During the league’s championship game on Sunday, he allowed one run and five hits over eight innings.
Now in a full rebuilding mode, the Atlanta Braves continued to build on Wednesday, trading CF Mark Kotsay to the Boston Red Sox for power-hitting OF prospect Luis Sumoza. The 20-year old Sumoza was having a stellar year for Class A Lowell, Mass., hitting .301, with 11 HR and 38 RBI in 51 games.
CF Josh Anderson will be called up from AAA Richmond to take Kotsay’s roster spot on the Atlanta Braves, and will undoubtedly get an extended audition to be the starting Braves CF in 2008. Anderson was acquired last off-season from the Houston Astros in exchange for RP Oscar Villarreal.
Kotsay hit .289 in his only season with the Braves, with six HR and 37 RBI in 88 games. The 32-year old veteran was signed to a one-year deal in the off-season after suffering through a miserable, injury-riddled 2007 season with the Oakland A’s. Kotsay cleared revocable waivers in August, and was eligible to be traded to any team.
Barrett Sallee has worked professionally in the Atlanta sports market in various aspects for over 7 years. He can be reached at barrettsallee@hotmail.com
It’s just over 24 hours until kickoff of the Georgia Tech football season. And what better time to show this video of Paul Johnson explaining the new offense.
At least that’s what Rivals.com predicts. Rivals.com put out their 2008 Bowl Schedule and Predictions today and they have Georgia playing in the BCS title game against USC.
Other SEC or ACC teams included were:
Florida in the Sugar Bowl
Clemson in the Orange Bowl
South Carolina in the Liberty Bowl
Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl
Florida State in the Gator Bowl
Auburn in the Capitol One Bowl
LSU in the Outback Bowl
Virginia Tech and Alabama in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl
Mississippi State and Wake Forest in the Music City Bowl
The Georgia Bulldogs had some bad news today. Middle linebacker Charles White will miss the season with an achilles tendon injury. The redshirt freshman was listed as the 2nd team middle linebacker and a key member of the special teams.
Last season of the top 10 leading tacklers on the Bulldog team, 3 of them were linebackers.
Dannell Ellerbe led the team with 93
Rennie Curran was 4th with 53
Marcus Washington was 9th with 40
Of Mark Richt’s first 7 seasons as head coach, only 3 times it has not been a linebacker to lead the team in tackles.
In 2003 and 2004, Thomas Davis led the team and in 2005, Greg Blue had the honors.
The Atlanta Braves have just been swept by the New York Mets and you have to admit, this one was pretty ugly.
On the season, the Braves are just 1-5 at Shea Stadium this season. Only the 1989 season when the Braves were 0-6 did the Braves have a worse season in Flushing. Seven other times they finished 1-5. Now the Braves have 3 more games at Shea this season before they destroy the stadium in the middle of September.
Overall including the postseason, the Atlanta Braves are 137-157 all-time at Shea. The most wins they had in a season was 7 back in 1966 and 1968 and the best by winning pct is .833 by going 5-1 in 1982, 1991 and 1993.
The Braves lost again tonight as they got defeated by the Mets 6-3. Surprising Chipper Jones was hitless. Well, that is not so surprising sort of… yes he is batting a career .328 against the Mets, but in 192 career regular season and postseason games against the Mets, he is hitless in 50 of them (that is more than 25%).
Here is the breakdown of Chipper against the Mets according to how many hits his has against them in a game…
0 hits: 50 games Braves record 23-27
1 hit: 73 games Braves record 40-33
2 hits: 55 games Braves record 37-18
3 hits: 13 games Braves record 10-3
4 hits: 1 game Braves record 1-0 (game was on June 5, 1996)
Tom Glavine received some good news on Wednesday…if you can call a torn flexor tendon in his left elbow “good news.” Glavine will not need Tommy John surgery, but will need to have surgery to repair his tendon, which usually requires approximately five months of rehab, instead of the minimum of 12 months of rehab required with Tommy John surgery. Glavine had previously said that had he needed Tommy John surgery, that he would most likely retire. The lesser surgery will give Glavine time to rehab and then decide if he wants to pitch for one more season with the Braves.
Barrett Sallee has worked professionally in the Atlanta sports market in various aspects for over 7 years. He can be reached at barrettsallee@hotmail.com
The Falcons cut wide receiver Joe Horn today and for most Atlanta fans that might have been a good thing.
Horn’s one year in a Falcon uniform was one of his worst.
His 27 receptions and 243 receiving yards were his lowest totals since his first full season as a player back in 1998. His 9.0 yards per reception were the worst of his career.
His only touchdown last season was in the last game of 2007 when he caught a 4-yard pass from Chris Redman in the 2nd quarter against the Seahawks.
The most receptions he had in a game last season was 4 which he did twice. Once against the 49ers and once at St. Louis.
The most receiving yards he had in a game was 38 which he also did in that game against the Rams.
Bart Stevens 
Aaron Hanks 
Barrett Sallee has worked professionally in the Atlanta sports market in various aspects for over 7 years. He can be reached at 
Dave McMahon 
Tom Glavine received some good news on Wednesday…if you can call a torn flexor tendon in his left elbow “good news.” Glavine will not need Tommy John surgery, but will need to have surgery to repair his tendon, which usually requires approximately five months of rehab, instead of the minimum of 12 months of rehab required with Tommy John surgery. Glavine had previously said that had he needed Tommy John surgery, that he would most likely retire. The lesser surgery will give Glavine time to rehab and then decide if he wants to pitch for one more season with the Braves.
The Falcons cut wide receiver Joe Horn today and for most Atlanta fans that might have been a good thing.
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