Sports Page Atlanta

The Mississippi Braves have slated Tom Glavine as their starting pitcher this Saturday night against the Jacksonville Suns.

This will be the second rehab start on his road back to “The Ted”. On Monday he pitched four innings at Myrtle Beach allowing  three hits and one run with a walk and four strikeouts.

Saturday night will mark only the second rehab assignment for Glavine since 1987. And, if all goes well, it’ll be his last for a while as he’s expected to rejoion the big club next week.

With the Braves playing the Padres in a 3-game series that starts tonight… it made me think, oh yeah Greg Maddux is on the Padres.  I bet we will hear a million times, how great the Braves were when they had all Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux all on the same team.  Well, here is the first time.

The 3 of them together were on the Braves from 1993 to 2002.

The 3 of them are on almost every major pitching category’s top-4 list in Atlanta Brave history, well them and Phil Niekro.  For example… (remember these are just as member of the Atlanta Braves only)

Wins: 1. Niekro (266) 2. Glavine (244) 3. Smoltz (210) 4. Maddux (194)

Strikeouts: 1. Smoltz (3,011) 2. Niekro (2,855) 3. Glavine (2,088) 4. Maddux (1,828)

Complete Games: 1. Niekro (226) 2. Maddux (61) 3. Smoltz (53) 4. Glavine (52)

Shutouts: 1. Niekro (43) 2. Glavine (22) 3. Maddux (21) 4. Smoltz (16)

ERA: 1. Maddux (2.63) 2. Niekro (3.20) 3. Smoltz (3.26) 4. Glavine (3.39)

Saves: 1. Smoltz (154)… ok that’s where it ends… Glavine and Maddux have a combined 4 relief appearances (all Maddux during his 1st 2 seasons with the Cubs)

And in case you were wondering… Niekro is first in losses, Smoltz is 2nd, Glavine is 3rd, but Maddux is Tied for 5th with Ron Reed and behind Rick Mahler.

Chipper Jones and Brian McCann made the all-star game roster this season.

Chipper is making his 6th appearance and Brian his 3rd.  Both players have a long way to go to catch up to the great Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial.  Those 3 Hall of Famers made it 24 mid-summer classic’s each.

Although Hank Aaron made it 24 games, he represented the Atlanta Braves in 9 of those games.  The 9 games is the most by an Atlanta Brave…

Most games in the all-star game as an Atlanta Brave…

Hank Aaron - 9

Tom Glavine - 8

John Smoltz - 8

Dale Murphy - 7

Chipper Jones - 6

Greg Maddux - 6

Even though he pitched just 8 innings and received the loss, Braves pitcher Jorge Campillo pitched a complete game in the 2-0 loss to the Angels last night.

You probably guessed it was Campillo’s first career complete game. He actually did not even have one in his 48 career minor league starts.

The Braves have only 2 complete games this season (Tim Hudson has the other).

In fact only 40 pitchers this season have thrown one and Roy Halladay has 5. The 5 is pretty amazing since Halladay was the only pitcher to have more than 5 last year when he led the majors with 7.

Cy Young is the all-time leader in complete games with 749.

I think that record is safe. Greg Maddux is the active leader with 109. Statistically (remember this is a stat article) he would have to pitch until the year 2143 and keep up his current pace to break the record… doubt it

Tom Glavine (56) and John Smoltz (53) have 109 combined.

For the second time this year, and the second time in his career, Tom Glavine is headed to the 15-day disabled list. Glavine was taken out after just three innings Tuesday night vs. the Cubs with a strained elbow. He flew to Atlanta after the game to have an MRI on his elbow.

This marks the second time this year that Glavine has visited the DL. In April, he was out for almost a month with a strained hamstring. No roster move has been made yet to take Glavine’s spot, but SP Charlie Morton could get a look, with Buddy Carlyle and Jeff Bennett also being considered for the starting rotation.

Tom Glavine is the latest Brave to get hurt as he strained his elbow in a 10-5 loss yesterday to the Cubs.  The southpaw is now 2-3 on the season and he might be headed to the disabled list.  The Braves have completed just over 40 percent of their schedule and it looks like the veteran will have one of his worst season-win totals ever.

Here are the lowest amount of wins Glavine has had since becoming a major leaguer…

2008: 2 (he should get some more… let’s hope)

1987: 2 (rookie season… he only had 9 starts)

1988: 7 (still learning the game)

2003: 9 (first year with the Mets, we all remember that season)

1990: 10 (the following season started the Magic (not the NBA team))

Tom Glavine got the loss yesterday as the Atlanta Braves fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Glavine also allowed 2 home runs in the game including a grand slam. The homers is not that uncommon, Glavine has allowed 352 in his career and has allowed the 4th most by an active player. He is 22nd all-time on that list for all players.

What is surprising that it was only the 2nd grand slam he has allowed in his career. Eric Byrnes was the lucky guy this time around and Jose Vidro got the other when the southpaw pitched for the New York Mets.

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.

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

Tim Hudson is tonight’s scheduled starter against the Padres tonight. The right-hander has been pitching in the majors since 1999. Since then he is among the elite pitchers in baseball. He is currently 3rd in the majors in games won in that time period. Here are the top 7 and you will notice a few other names that you recognize

1. Greg Maddux - 147
2. Randy Johnson - 143
3. Tim Hudson - 139
4. Andy Pettitte - 137
5. Mike Mussina - 136
6. Curt Schilling - 132
7. Tom Glavine - 130