Guess who's back! That's right, I'm finally stateside after 20 hours of airplanes and airports. There was a good time had in Singapore by me, although there was a lot of work-related activities that took place as well. I'm tickled pink-bats (which the Braves didn't get to use) with the job that Matt did filling in for me while I was gone. I believe we've found another permanent addition to Talking Chop. My extreme thanks to Matt for keeping things going while I was away.

Enough about the blog, how about them Braves. An interesting scenario is brewing because of the rain-out yesterday and the impending possible double-header today. I say possible double-header because there is rain expected all day -- a 50 to 60 percent chance until 4pm, then around a 30 to 40 percent chance the rest of the evening. Odds are we'll only get one game in if we're lucky -- and there goes another future off-day.

But if we do get both games in today then we have a bit of a starting pitching problem, with either Jurrjens or Hudson only having three days of rest the next time their turn in the rotation comes up. The scuttlebutt is that the team may recall Charlie Morton to make his major league debut on Friday. He's doing amazingly well in Richmond this year, and I for one, would like to see him get his shot at the major league rotation. With Tommy Hanson moving up from Myrtle Beach to Mississippi, our prospects for replacing Smoltz and Glavine in the rotation are getting closer to the majors. Not that I want to see anyone rushed, but if they appear ready, then maybe they are. Morton looks ready.

Anyway, enough looking ahead, on to the first game against the Bucs today -- we need to win this thing. They have played us incredibly hard this year. It seems that every year some random team plays us extra hard. Last year it was Cincinnati, two years ago it was San Diego, and I guess this year it's Pittsburgh.

For the purposes of NAHWAL, assume that these two games are one game, attendance will be for the combined games, as will picks to click and AAB picks -- only one set of picks.

Sigh. I really don't understand how we can be this horrible on the road. You know most of the blame can fall on the offense on the road too. The Pitching has been solid away from the Ted but our offense is the second worst in the league when it comes to away games. Something really needs to change with that. I would like to see how many of our starts against lefties have come on the road and see if we are getting hit by a double weird coincidence.

Jurrjens goes tomorrow for the Braves (thank god) and we all know what he has been doing this year. He won his last start against Pittsburgh (which was also his first start of the season. There really haven't been any weaknesses for him so far this year and I pray I'm not jinxing him.

Zach Duke goes for the Pirates. Here is a guy who will be brilliant one game and then awful the next. He has strung together a couple of pretty good starts recently. Two things that bode well for are he doesn't strike out too many guys and he gives up his fair share of hits. What doesn't bode well is he doesn't really walk anyone and he doesn't really give up many homers. We thrive on homers so that could be a problem. We'll see.

Make sure you tell your mom happy Mothers Day between innings at some point.

Wow, so this road record thing needs to get straighted out. We have been better at home the past couple of seasons but this year is just ridiculous. For the last three or four years we have been right around the .500 mark on the road but 4-12 just can't cut it. Luckily we are 14-4 at home. This has to balance out a little at some point.

Chuck James tosses again tonight. His ERA looks pretty rough so far but if it hadn't been for all those bad games he pitched it would look a whole lot better. Seriously though, he walked too many guys last time out and gave up a 2-run homer. I like Chuckie but I don't know how much faith I have in him right now. I guess we just cross our fingers and hope for the good CJ.

Tom Gorzelanny throws for the Pirates (he is the guy I was thinking about while writing yesterdays post) and his season has been almost as rocky as James' so far. His ERA is a large 6.91 and he is walking a man an inning and has 10 less K than walks. Yikes. Some people here would have me believe that a poor K/BB ratio isn't a a big deal, but I dunno, walking as many men as you sit down doesn't seem to be a great way to go about your business. Thats just me. Gorzelanny does have a back problem and there are some concerns that he may not start but all signs are saying he will at this point. The guy has talent so our hitters still need to stay on their toes against him.

Richmond 2, Louisville 0

• B. Canizares - 2-3 HR(4), BB, K
• B. Jones - 1-4 SB
• D. Hernandez - 1-4 RBI
• F. Bueno - 6IP 5H 0R 0BB 5K

Bueno pitched a great game and was really picked up by the bullpen too who pitched 3 inning of no run ball. Diory Hernandez now is hitting .415 on the season at AAA while being held hitless in only one game so far. I would love to see him in ATL at some point also but chances are slim since he isn't on the 40 man right now and we have several infielders in ATL and Pena can play some INF as well.

Mississippi 8, West Tenn. 9

• K. Kaaihue - 1-4 HR (2), BB, 3 K
• G. Creek 2-4 RBI, BB
• J. Perry - 2-5 2B, 2 RBI, K
• D. Evans - 3.1IP 9H 7R 5BB 3K

Top Prospect Dustin Evans got demoralized (again), this time by West Tenn. That brings his ERA up to 9.48 on the season. Just spectacular. You know only in baseball can a power hitting prospect go 200+ ABs without a homer, and then hit one in two straight games, simply amazing really. Maybe Kala got his adjustment period and now he is going to start raking like he did at the Beach last year. He has struck out in 40% of his PAs this year though. That can't be good. Which of course means he is doomed forever because I have pointed out a negative stat.

Myrtle Beach 6, Wilimington 1

• T. Flowers - 1-5 HR(3), K
• B. Powell - 3-5 K
• W. Cabrera - 3-5 2B, 2 RBI
• R. Reynoso - 4IP 2H 1R 0BB 4K

Reynoso pitched another solid game for the Pelicans. He has really been impressive in his last 6 starts. It is good to see Tyler Flowers doing some power hitting. He hasn't hit a homer since the 2nd week of the season and I was starting to worry a bit. He had some pretty extreme home/road splits but those are starting to come down a little now. He hits lefties well but all his homers have come off of righties.

Rome 2, Greenville 5

• J. Heyward - 2-3 2B, HR(4), BB
• F. Freeman - 2-4 2 2B, K

That is really all for the positive performances in this game. Chad Rodgers hot hit pretty hard in 5.2 IP. Jason Heyward is starting to see his power spike a little (4 doubles in his last 10 games) which is of course good news. When I saw him in person I was struck by the fact that he is definitely a big boy, but his frame didn't look 'full'. He's going to add more muscle and he going to hit some long home runs. ::Shivers:: Freeman has 6 doubles in his last 4 games and is really settling into the SALLY league. I had heard his bat was good and I can't wait to see him develop some more. Gilmore is supposed to have an excellent bat but he just got to Rome.

Well the winning streak continues and we finally get our first win in a one run ball game. That is freakin' sweet! You know at this pace we are gonna end up like 27-0 this month. That would have to be a record.

We toss Glavine out there tonight after he got hammered in his last start. He was very hittable last time and he has to locate his fastball to really succeed (or have an ump with a liberal strike zone). Tom pitched a solid game against the Pirates earlier in the year but the bullpen came on and lost the game for us in extra innings. Another scary stat for Glavine is his batting average against is .315. Thats not good. Actually both of our losses to the Pirates were credited to the bullpen.

Ian Snell throws tonight (I originally had some misinformation here so I have come back to change it) for Pittsburgh. He is another one of the live-armed young guys that Pittsburgh has been attempting to build around the past couple of years. He is good enough that Braves made a pretty serious run at trading for him but it never came to fruition. I like the kid even those his stats haven't been great this year. His K rate has dipped a bit and his BAbip has gone up a lot. We should be able to knock him around a little a get into their soft bullpen. Lastly Pittsburgh has the worst team ERA in the league. 

Our bullpen will most likely come into considering Glavine has only made it into the seventh once this season. Hopefully our hitting will come alive and let him pitch from the lead.

5/6

Indianapolis 7, Richmond 1

Diory Hernandez continues to hit with 2 more hits at AAA while playing 2B now. I like him better at second and some others have said so also. His bat definitely profiles better there. He still has some growing pains though as he made two errors in this game. Josh Anderson also had 3 hits in the loss. Also one last note. Scott Williamson pitched in this game. I didn't even know we had this guy. He had a great arm back in the day and was a go to reliever for a couple different teams. He hasn't really been relevant since 2005 though but *think* he has been injured.

Mississippi 2, West Tenn. 5

Jason Perry hit his 7th HR and Mark Jurich chipped in with his 3rd. I mean other than that i really don't know what to say. There aren't any prospects here to keep an eye on at this point. Soooooo moving on.

Potomac 4, Myrtle Beach 3

Brandon Powell hit his second homer of the year and other than that nothing too special went down in this game. Deunte Heath gave up 4 runs in 7 innings and still had a 1/1 K/BB rate. on the year he has a 22/25 K/BB ratio which just does not bode well at all.

Rome 0, Augusta 7

Wow a 4 game sweep by the Greenjackets. Also the Rome team piled 4 errors on themselves (2 from Freeman, Coe and Gress had the others). Let me also not forget the 15 strikeouts they piled up. Just not a good game. On top of it Jeff Locke got hammered pretty hard in his 4.2 IP and he gave up his first homer of the year.

5/7

Indianapolis 5, Richmond 6

Another 2 hit game for Hernandez in this one raising his average to .467 on the AAA season and extending his hitting streak to 12 games I believe. Very impressive start. Infante also had a couple knocks and 3 RBI for the R-Braves and Scott Thorman and Canizares both chipped in with hits. Nothing else exciting here other than Phil Stockman lowering his ERA to .89

Mississippi 7, West Tenn. 5

Mark Jurich busted out the whoopin stick in this one with a 3-4 ,2 doubles and 5 RBI performance. He is probably the second best hitter on the team right now, which isn't really saying a whole lot, but this is one of the toughest hitting environments in organized baseball (the Southern League). Perry, Holt and Guzman all had 2+ hits in the game to drive the offense a little more. Todd Redmond has given up 4 runs in 3 straight starts. The shine is starting to wear off a little.

Potomac 5, Myrtle Beach 11

There were a lot of hitters in this game but Willie Cabrera and Chad Ludahl both get special props for 3 hits and a HR. Kyle Cofield continues to have control issues. He walked 4 in 3 innings of work tonight and has walked 3+ in 6 straight starts. His stuff must be good because he isn't giving up a lot of runs. But still...

Rome 5, Greenville 1

Freddie Freeman continues to be the most consistent hitter for the Rome team going 2-4 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI. Heyward went 1-4 with a double and Benji Johnson hit his first homer of the season. Scott Diamond went 7 strong innings giving up only 1 run. He has pitched very solid baseball so far this season.

5/8

Indianapolis 2, Richmond 1

This is another 1 run game for Richmond. They are 7-7 in 1 run games this year (thats right, 14 of them total). Scott Williamson started the game for some reason but he gave up 2 runs in 1.2 innings and Charlie Morton promptly came in and went 7.1 allowing only 5 hits and no runs. Nice. He is currently sporting a 1.76 era.

Mississippi 9, West Tenn 7

OH MY GOD KALA KAAIHUE FINALLY HIT A HOMER IN AN AA GAME!!!!! STOP THE FREAKING PRESSES.

Myrtle Beach - Off Day

Rome 3, Greenville 5

Freddie Freeman added another double and Adam Coe chipped in a 2-4 performance but again these young Braves couldn't bring in the win. Eric Barrett wasn't his usual dominant self as he gave up 5 runs (3 earned) in his 3.1 innings of work. Michael Broadway did come in for 3.2 innings of work allowing only 1 hit and striking out 5

Rookie Jo-Jo Reyes comes to the mound against former Brave Wil Ledezma. If we win this game it will mean several things for us. Firstly, it would extend our win streak to 6 games and would be the longest such streak of the season for us. Second, it would put us in third place by ourselves (the Mets don't play tomorrow) and it would make us 6-0 in the month of May.

Reyes pitched reasonably well in his first start, though he had an inning where he reverted to his old ways of walking a few guys. You guys know I'm high on him and he has had solid control all all month in Richmond, so I think he just had a little hiccup against the Reds.

Ledezma has been pitching very well so far this year (where was this last year?) but it has all been out of the bullpen. His ERA is 1.96 and he has gone as long as 5 innings in a game against Colorado. I really don't know what to expect out of him. Everyone said we should have started him while he was pitching with us and that his skills lent themselves more readily to a starting role. I dunno, I hope we pound him.

Kotsay, as you guys surely know, has an 8 game hitting streak. He has multiple hits in 4 of the eight games is hitting a smoking hot .406 during that span. He's starting to make us forget about Andruw.

This mad e me chuckle:

(Sorry this is late, the site went down for maintenance while I was typing this last night.)

Who would have thought at this point in the season, heck, any point in the season, that our new center fielder, Mark Kotsay, would have three times as many homeruns and over four times as many RBIs as our old center fielder, Andruw Jones? Some of us thought that Andruw might regress a bit more from the numbers he put up last year, which were all pretty much career lows. Still other's thought that last year was just an off-year for Jones, and that he would eventually rebound; and he may eventually rebound, but right now he is the worst hitting center fielder in baseball. He's worse than Michael Bourne, he's worse than Lastings Milledge, he's worse than Rick Ankiel, his OPS (.543) is almost half that of Pittsburgh's Nate McLouth (1.079).

Who would have thought that Andruw would have fallen this far. On the other side of that coin, who would have thought that Mark Kotsay would have rebounded from his past injuries and off-years to produce at the level he is currently producing at -- when judged by OPS he is the sixth best center fielder in baseball; better than Grady Sizemore, Vernon Wells, or Carlos Beltran.

But when judged on defense, surely Andruw is better, right? Wrong. While neither has made an error, when judged on zone rating Kotsay is among the top third of all major league center fielders, while Andruw is in the bottom third.

I thought there might be a red flag in Andruw's stats that would tell us why he's doing so bad, but he's bad pretty much across the board. His average is under .200 either at home or on the road, either against left-handed or right-handed pitching, either day or night, either with runners on or with the... oh wait, he's hitting a whopping .246 with the bases empty -- his highest average of just about any split category. Compare that with the .038 average with runners in scoring position -- just 1-for-26 with 3 RBI -- and we begin to see the negative value of Andruw Jones.

While Mark Kotsay is not hitting left-handed pitching particularly well, he is hitting right-handed pitchers at a Chipper-esque .394 pace. He's also hitting a more-than-respectable .297 with runners in scoring position.

Better hitting, better defense, I never thought I'd say that I'm glad we have Mark Kotsay rather than a long-term albatross of a contract (or even a one year bank breaker) with Andruw Jones. I think most of us would like to see AJ come out of his funk, but after watching him last season it's hard to believe that he will be able to pull himself out of it, let alone return to his MVP form from just several years ago. Here again is another win-win player personnel decision by the Braves, who must have seen the writing on the wall.

Do you guys realize we are 12-4 at home this season? Only the surprising St. Louis has as good a record at home so far. The downside is that we are 4-11 on the road but I'll bring that up again when we are actually on the road.

We are tossing Hudson up there tomorrow and he was very strong last start after getting off of that flu bug that has been going around. Obviously with Huddy having the season he has had I feel pretty good about the game in general. The amazing thing about Hudson is RH hitters only have 2 XBH against him this season in 72 ABs. Thats just amazing. (Other quirky stats include: No LH hitter has scored a run against Hudson and LH have more ABs against him at 88 vs. 72).

Randy Wolf will be throwing for the Pads and several of our guys have had good success against him in that past though outside of Chipper and Kotsay no one else really has a bunch of ABs against him. I would guess we'll see Diaz starting since he is 4-5 career off of him.

By the way, Chipper Jones is good.

I was sorely disappointed in the fact we didn't get our 500 posts. I will assume some of the blame because I had to be out to the house tonight, but failure will not be tolerated again.

 There's nothing like playing one of the worst teams in baseball to help get you back in a division race of your own. The Pads offense has been - how shall I put this - abysmal? Atrocious? Ghastly? We'll go with that. Anyways they have the second fewest runs scored in the NL and the worst AVG and OPS.

The thing is their pitching is still pretty good, the starters at the very least. Their starters ERA is right behind ours at 3.84. Their bullpen ERA is last in the league though so we need to work the count on the starters.

We get Chris Young first but luckily we will miss Peavy in the series so we have a good shot throughout with Hudson and Reyes throwing the next two games. Jurrjens will pitch tonight and we all know he has been at worst solid this season and at best a revelation by angel Gabriel.

Alright people get to chatting I want 500 posts by 9 o'clock.