Sports Page Atlanta

Congratulations to the 22-year-old right-handed ace, Jair Jurrjens for being given the National League Rookie of the Month Award presented by Gillette for the month of June.

In four June starts, Jurrjens was 3-0 with a 1.63 ERA. He had an 18:7 strikeout to walk ratio and gave up fewer hits (25) than innings pitched (27.2).

For the season, Jurrjens has an impressive 9-4 record in 18 starts. His season ERA is 3.00.

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.

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.

Jair Jurrjens pitched well in his Braves debut last night. The rookie right-hander threw 5 1/3 innings, allowing just 2 runs en route to a win.

Who knows how he will finish his rookie campaign? Here is how two current Braves did their first year.

• John Smoltz: 1988 (2-7 5.48 era)
• Tom Glavine: 1988 (7-17 4.56 era)

The Braves are 0-2 after two heart breaking losses and in the Braves third game, Wednesday night, they’ll send 22-year-old rookie Jair Jurrjens to the mound to fight for the team’s first win.

Last season, with the Detroit Tigers, Jurrjens was 3-1 with a 4.70 ERA in 7 starts. In spring ball this year he was 2-3 with a 5.03 ERA in 6 starts.

Even though Jurrjens pitched in Detroit last season, he’s always been a Braves fan, and he’s still trying to get a handle on his new surroundings here in Atlanta. Butterflies are sure to be floating in this kids stomach as he takes the mound, but nervous or not, The Braves are counting on him to pitch well, and lead them to their first victory in 2008.
photo credit: NJ Baseball

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.

Most of you have already filled out your brackets for the NCAA Tournament.

But if you want to fill one out that might make you laugh try this one…

Minor League Baseball Moniker Madness

It is list of minor league baseball players. These players were fortunate or unfortunate to be given odd names at birth. The good people of MiLB.com formed a bracket to choose a winner. On the list you may notice possible big league Brave Jair Jurrjens and Brave minor leaguer Van Pope. Also on that list is former Georgia Bulldog Will Startup.

I heard an interesting statistic yesterday about the back of the rotation for the Braves last season. The guys in the #4 and #5 spot in 2007 (Buddy Carlyle, Lance Cormier, Anthony Lerew, Jo-Jo Reyes and Mark Redman) were a combined 22-36 with a 6.37 ERA. That’s a whole lot of mediocrity. Looking at those stats, it means the Braves, in those 58 games, had to overcome more than a six run deficit to win. That just can’t happen in 2008 if the Braves hope to make it to post-season play.

So, let’s take a look at the contenders for the back of the rotation in 2008. It’s an almost certainty that John Smoltz, Tim Hudson and Tom Glavine will be the #1 through #3 starters. That leaves six pitchers fighting it out for the final two spots. I’ll place them in order of likelihood to earn the last two rotation spots.

1. Mike Hampton - Yes, he tweaked his groin and is going to miss his scheduled start tomorrow. But, he’s going to throw a simulated game and even though the injury scares most people, Hampton really is putting together a mighty nice spring. He hasn’t given up an earned run and has two strikeouts and a walk in 3.1 innings. If he gets back on track and only misses his next start, keeps pitching the way he’s been so far, he’ll win the #4 spot.
2. Jair Jurrjens - There has been as much hype surrounding Jurrjens lately, than any other Braves pitcher. He’s been electric so far with a 2-0 record in three starts. His ERA is 1.00 and he has four strikeouts to only two walks in nine innings of work (the most by any Braves hurler). It probably wouldn’t hurt Jurrjens to get a little more seasoning pitching in Richmond, but if he’s throwing like this, he’ll make it impossible for the Braves to send him down.
3. Buddy Carlyle - Carlyle is 1-0, but his ERA is a little on the high side (5.14) after getting touched up by Cincinnati last week. Up until that point he was pitching close to flawlessly. One thing to be optimistic about is Carlyle’s strikeout to walk ratio. In seven innings of work he has logged seven strikeouts and zero walks. It’s ratio’s like that that make pitching coaches very happy.
4. Jo-Jo Reyes - In two starts, Reyes has a 4.50 ERA as he’s given up an earned run in each of his two inning mound appearances this spring. A little troubling is his five walks in only four innings of work. He does have five strikeouts, but needs to get a handle on his control and bring the walks down to grab that 5th rotation spot.
5. Chuck James - James hasn’t pitched at all this spring, and isn’t schedule to pitch until later in March. Unless he gets going very soon, his chances of a rotation spot, and even making the ballclub are in jeopardy.
6. Jeff Bennett - Bennett is in the same boat as James. He hasn’t pitched yet this spring, and is way behind the four competitors who have.

photo credit: too_thickskinned