Kurkjian & Stark on Chipper and the Braves

The Worldwide Leader has two good spots on the Braves right now worth checking out. The pieces are the usual, looking at the past success of the Braves and comparing it to what's going on in Atlanta today. This practice, I imagine, will continue until Cox, Chipper and Glavine head outta town (5 years more years for Chip?).

Anywho, here's the links:

Jayson Stark on Atlanta's starting pitching, yesterday and today. Well worth the read for the Braves fan. Stark's thoughts (one year after he predicted the team to win the World Series): "This could be a team capable of a big turnaround."

Tim Kurkjian on Chipper Jones, making him out to be Chingaachgook, the Last of the Mohicans. Chipper gives his take on finishing his career with the Braves, winning the batting title, playing in the WBC, as well as, briefly, on steroids & A-Rod, saying "I think A-Rod, with or without steroids, is a Hall of Famer. Same as Barry Bonds." Interesting, Chipper.

The 10 Spot

Ten random thoughts... No rhyme or reason...

10. I've just found the worst broadcast combination in Baseball, Darren Sutton and Mark Grace of Fox Sports. Yes, worse than Joe Morgan. At least he has Jon Miller to support him. Listening to Darren Sutton and Mark Grace is like listening to Joe Morgan broadcasting with his partner, Joe Morgan. I'm watching the Diamondbacks at the Braves right now on Fox and I promise you I just heard Darren Sutton say "Corky Miller. One of the great names in baseball. First name Corky. Last name Miller." Wow Darren! What insight! And Mark Grace. I kid you not, a batter comes up, his numbers are put on the screen, and it's like the first time Grace has seen his stats. Corky Miller's .100 BA, 0 HRs and 3 RBI come on the screen and a second later Mark gracefully adds "Man, he's not having a great year at the plate." Good eye, Mark. Good eye.


Oh, and they seriously said about Randy Johnson, "He's not your father's big unit." What? Can they say that on daytime t.v.?

9. Speaking of Joe Morgan, be sure to check out his website, http://www.firejoemorgan.com/, "Where Bad Sports Journalism Comes to Die." I wonder if Jon Miller secretly contributes to this site.

8. Even with the bad broadcasters, at least I'm getting to watch the Braves. It's just the second time since I moved to North Carolina that I've been able to catch them on the tube. It's like a piece of me has died.


7. My fantasy baseball team, Donkey's Jawbone, is doing poorly, as July Johnson would say. After sitting pretty in first for a few days, I've hovered around fifth, about 19 points back of the leader, for the last week or so. Not good. It's just a run of bad luck. I'm still banking on it turning around.

6. I spent my first two picks on Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Last year's stats: Fielder, .288, 119 RBI, 50 HRs; Cabrera, .320, 119 RBI, 34 HRs. So far this year: Fielder, .265, 24 RBI, 6 HRs; Cabrera, .283, 26 RBI, 7 HRs.

Cabrera's projected to finish with 24 HRs, 89 RBI and Fielder's looking at 21 HRs and 82 RBI.

5. Fielder's gotta start eating meat again.

4. My catcher is Gerald Laird. He looks like this:

Allow me now to introduce you to a friend of mine, Will ElLaissi. He looks like this:

You decide.

3. Oh, and I'm probably in fifth place because Gerald Laird is my catcher.

2. The Braves are 1.5 games behind the Marlins. The Marlins. The Mets are crashing hard and are now facing distractions from their manager. The Phillies remembered they're the Phillies and only won last year because the Mets lost. I think the Nationals quit playing games sometime around the first week of April.

The Braves are going to win the East.

1. In two games against each other this year, Tim Hudson is 2-0 against Johan Santana. Which is amazing, because if you listened to ESPN in the offseason you would have thought Santana was immortal. Turns out he's just a Met.

Brave New World

"The Braves are younger than the Mets and Phillies, deeper in most respects than the Mets and Phillies and have a better farm system to mine for reinforcements than the Mets and Phillies."

-Jason Stark, ESPN, in his column predicting the Braves to win the World Series.

Click here for the full-text.

I'll give my rundown this week sometime... But here's a quickie:

NL - Braves (East), Cubs (Central), Dodgers (West), Phillies (Wildcard)
AL - Red Sox (East), Tigers (Central), Angels (West), Indians (Wildcard)

World Series - Braves over Tigers in six.

Mock Bubbles

I'm hoping to keep this quick this week... But there's two things that are completely useless in the world of sports (Unless your name is Joe Lunardi or Todd McShay or Mel Kiper, Jr. - The ESPNians who make there living off of the following...):

Mock Drafts and The Bubble Watch.

The NFL Draft is April 26 and 27, and on April 28th Kiper will have his 2009 Mock Draft already posted on the web. And it'll get updated about once a week between then and April 27, 2009.

Is this guy really making a living off of guessing over and over and over again about who's going to draft whom? Are you serious?

And then there's Joe Lunardi's Bracketology and Bubble Watch. Like we're all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to see who the 12th seed will be. Has a 12th seed ever done anything worth mentioning?

I don't understand how these guys get paid big bucks to "project" who really will be in the NCAA tourney or when Matt Stafford will get drafted and by what team next spring. With everything that can happen between now and then, what are the chances that Kiper ever gets it right? I'd like to see some stats on this, people.

I don't understand how there's a market for this.

And then I do. And I think of the third thing that's completely useless in the world of sports... People obsessed with Bracketology and Mock Drafts.

I find this Offensive.

aThe draft is months away. And in the fast-paced, up-and-down world of the National Football League there is no predicting what will happen between now and then. Trades, free agency, injuries and a plethora of off-the-field issues could change everything that the experts at ESPN foresee right now. But, in the media-driven sports world, the teams are already on the clock - some more than others - especially 3-8 teams whose last decent QB is now sitting in the pen.

Thanks to Mr. Vick, this draft is the most important draft for the Atlanta Falcons in years. But don't blame it all on Ron Mexico, there's plenty of blame to go around Flowery Branch these days. The team is in obvious shambles. And the buck doesn't stop with just under-prepared Bobby Petrino. Keep looking up the corporate ladder to Rich McKay and all the way to Arthur Blank himself.

The Falcons' are now roosting in the nest McKay built. And this one is about as weak as they come. There are better offensive lines in the FCS (NCAA, D-II, for those not keeping score) than in Flowery Branch. The veterans (and team "leaders") are ready to start a mutiny against in-over-his-head coach Bobby Petrino. And the team hasn't had a good, non-dog-fighting quarterback since, well, ever. (Chris "Chandelier" Chandler's 1998 season notwithstanding.)

To be fair to The Coach, Bobby Petrino hasn't had a fair shake at the NFL. His franchise player is in the slammer, he's had injury after injury plague his O-Line, and his team was built with a bunch of thugs by his GM, McKay, who hasn't been seen around Atlanta since sometime before the last failed draft.

But that's life as an NFL coach. You go with what you've got. And Petrino ain't got much.

Which brings me to what I find offensive (offensive, as in, terribly repulsive, kind of like how I feel by watching the Falcons offense). I cannot believe the all-but-certain conclusion going around that the Falcons must draft a franchise quarterback with their early first round pick.

ESPN's Todd McShay looks into his crystal ball and sees Brian Brohm leading the birds in 2008: "It almost makes too much sense. The Falcons, in desperate need of a franchise quarterback in the wake of the Michael Vick mess, use their first-round selection on a signal caller who head (sic) played for current Atlanta head coach Bobby Petrino at Louisville from 2004-06."

Hello! McFly! Are you actually employed by a major news media outlet? And because it's put out there by ESPN, everyone under the sun believes it must be true.

What has been the Falcons' biggest problem this year? Not the play of the quarterback - which has been terrible - but amazingly that QB slot has taken the glory away from the team's Offensive Line for being the worst starting unit in the NFL. These guys are terrible. It doesn't matter who Petrino lines up under center, the poor guy's gonna end up on the ground more than a fat man in a sack race. (I'm guessing D.J. Shockley's pretty pleased right about now to be sitting this one out.)

The Birds have three decent QB's - two with experience, one without - under contract for next year: Joey Harrington, Byron Leftwich, and Shockley.

And they've got a terribly undersized and untalented offensive line in front of them.

What's the bigger need? Not another QB to get pounded, but a talented and BIG o-lineman who can anchor this front for years to come. The game is won in the trenches, and the Falcons need to use their first pick on the line if they are serious about improving.

Look, in recent memory we've seen Ryan Leaf get taken number two overall and be one of the biggest busts in history, and we've seen Tom Brady go in round six and turn into one of the biggest winners in history. Spending an early pick on a QB can be a crapshoot. Even if you get a "good" one, he may still end up going to prison for dogfighting before its said and done.

The Falcons need to draft an Offensive Lineman early. They won't do it because their PR is reeling and the team needs/wants a flashy pick to boost ticket sales. But if Rich McKay is serious about winning, he needs to get serious about his strategy. Draft some great O-Linemen, start Shockley next year, and put 2007 behind you as you begin to build for the future.