Sports Page Atlanta

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.

Mark Kotsay is the talk of the town after hitting for the cycle last night, as he should be. But, all the Kotsay conversations aren’t revolving around last night’s historic hitting display. Dave Cameron just posted an article, this morning, over at FanGraphs where he talks about Kotsay’s reemergence at the plate this season. He also mentions a bit about the trade where the Braves sent Joey Devine to Oakland for Kotsay. I have a few comments to add.

• Remember back to Spring Training when all the talk wasn’t about Kotsay becoming a fixture in center field for the Braves, but how long it would take Jordan Schafer to take over. After Schafer’s bonehead bout with PED’s and his inability to return to the level of play expected from him after 2007, Kotsay’s reemergence is a wonderful thing.
• When this trade occurred I felt that the Braves would surely miss Devine. And with the way he’s pitched in Oakland this season (sub 1.00 ERA and more strikeouts than innings pitched), he’s proving me correct. The question remains which would have been more valuable to the Braves, Devine’s 27.2 innings of sub 1.00 ERA or Kotsay’s almost 300 at-bats of .300 hitting? If Schafer’s development hadn’t been halted by stupidity, and he was ready to take over center field in 2008, I might have been inclined to say Devine would have been more valuable to the Braves. But, now that Schafer probably won’t even be ready for the 2009 season in Atlanta, having Kotsay around is reassuring.

The Braves lost again, but the story of the game for Atlanta was Mark Kotsay (I know Jeff Francoeur hit a home run), but Kotsay hit for the cycle.

In the history of the Atlanta Braves, Kotsay is one of two players in the history to have hit for the cycle.  Albert Hall on September 23, 1987 was the other.  4 other Braves did it, but the franchise was playing in Boston at the time.

Hall was the leadoff hitter that game when they defeated the Astros 5-4.

That season Hall only hit 3 home runs, 4 triples, 20 doubles and 56 singles.

Atlanta 6, Arizona 4 (box)
Durham 11, Richmond 2 (box)
Mississippi 9, Jacksonville 2 (box)
Myrtle Beach 3, Lynchburg 2 (box)
Rome 12, Charleston 9 (box)

MLB - Atlanta: Charlie Morton was impressive last night throwing seven scoreless innings allowing only five hits. He struck out four and only walked one in his third win of the season. Mark Kotsay hit his fifth home run of the season and Blanco, Escobar, and McCann each had two hits in the win.

AAA - Richmond: James Parr gave up 10 hits and six runs in four innings of work against Durham to take the loss, his third of the season. Josh Anderson stayed hot with two hits and a stolen base in the losing effort.

AA - Mississippi: Jerome Gamble earned his third win of the season as he pitched five innings of six hit ball and didn’t give up an earned run. He struck out seven and only walked two. J.C. Holt went 3 for 3 with two doubles, Jordan Schafer went 3-4 with two doubles and a stolen base, and Kala Ka’aihue hit his 13th home run of the season.

Adv. A - Myrtle Beach: Designated Hitter Tyler Flowers drove in two runs and hit two doubles as he went 2-4 in last night’s win. Scott Diamond continued to impress on the mound winning his 11th game in Myrtle Beach (14th for the entire season, as he started in Rome) . He pitched seven innings and only gave up five hits and no earned runs. He also struck out five while walking zero. Tyler Wilson pitched two innings in relief to earn his second save of the season.

A - Rome: Edgar Osuna earned his 7th win of the season as he pitched six innings while only giving up two earned runs and striking out nine batters. Every Rome position player collected at least one hit with Mathew Kennelly and Cody Johnson each getting two hits. Johnson added his 20th home run last night as well.

The Braves made it kind of interesting last night, but fell short to the Phillies by the score of 7 to 3.  The game could have been tied, but Mark Teixeira struck out with 2 outs in the 9th with the bases loaded.  A few pitches earlier, Teixeira blasted a shot that was just foul.

It would have been the 2nd grand slam hit by a Brave this year.  Kelly Johnson hit a pinch hit grand slam against the Mets back during the first week of the season.

Here are the number of grand slams hit by the current Atlanta Braves…

Chipper Jones - 6 (although last one was back in 2001)

Brian McCann - 4

Mark Teixeira - 3

Mark Kotsay - 3

Kelly Johnson - 2

Greg Norton - 2

Jeff Francoeur - 1

Going into yesterday’s game, Mark Kotsay had his second consecutive day off due to back spasms, and it appeared that he may have been heading to the disabled list. Three hours later, things changed immensely.

Matt Diaz, on a pop fly down the left field line, slid into the wall and banged his knee against exposed concrete underneath the padded wall. Why do ball parks not place padding from the top to the bottom of the wall? Well, lunacy for one, but that’s another entry for another time.

If the Braves were to disable Kotsay along with Diaz, that would leave Omar Infante as the presumptive starting CF. If not Infante, then who? Bring up Brandon Jones for LF and play Gregor Blanco in center? Certainly a possibility considering Blanco’s early season success. But, the bigger story in this whole situation is Jordan Schaffer. This situation is screaming for the big league debut of Wonderboy. What? A 50-game HGH suspension? Crap.

So, what now? Kotsay needs to play. We all expected him to take days off to rest the back, after all, he did only play 56 games last season. But, if he’s able, he needs to suck it up right now. We all were teased with his early season surge, and the Braves absolutely need him in the lineup, in whatever spot Bobby decides to hit him, immediately.

Looking over the past few years, the Braves have made some wise decisions and some let’s say not-so-wise decisions about who they should keep and who they should let go via trade and not go after in free agency…

Two of the more recent ones look pretty good for the Braves. Here are some stat comparisons of two positions they have upgraded big time…

• CF - Mark Kotsay: .307 avg, 3 hr, 15 rbi and struck out just 12 times

- Andruw Jones with Dodgers: .170 avg, 1 hr, 4 rbi and struck out 36 times

• SS - Yunel Escobar: .333 avg, 3 hr, 14 rbi, 24 runs and 17 walks to 18 strikeouts

- Edgar Renteria with Tigers: .280 avg, 3 hr, 18 rbi, 17 runs and 6 walks to 19 strikeouts

(also when the Braves traded Renteria they picked up Jair Jurrjens… not bad)

Mark Kotsay hit his first home run as an Atlanta Brave last night and now has 104 in his career.

He was the 9th overall pick in the 1996 MLB Amateur Draft selected by the Florida Marlins. In 1995, he won the Golden Spikes Award as the best collegiate baseball player when he excelled at Cal-State Fullerton.

He is not the only Golden Spikes winner to play at one time for the Atlanta Braves. Other award winners to play for the Bravos include…

• Bob Horner (1978 winner… and first winner ever)
• Oddibe McDowell (1984)
• Mike Kelly (1991)
• J.D. Drew (1997)