I didn't get to see Sunday's game...

Did I miss anything?

Horacio The Magnificent

That headline is right up there with "Cox Publicly Trashes Players" and "Francoeur Walks Twice" in terms of likelihood -- in other words, not bloody likely. But there you have it -- in his first start since a lengthy DL stint, Ramirez shut down the Cubs over seven innings, allowing a first-inning run on a sac fly and nothing thereafter.

The story, though, was the breadth of his performance. First, and most importantly, no walks. He also chipped in a single, scoring from first on a double by Giles, and threw in a perfect sac bunt for good measure. Horacio's highlight reel for this game, though, will feature a couple of spectacular defensive plays at the first base bag. His gimpy hamstring kept him from running full speed, so Jordan had to wait longer than usual to feed him the ball on a couple of grounders to first, then did him no favors with two erratic tosses. But Horacio made one barehand grab and then one twisting pirouette to keep the feeble Cubbies off the bases. I don't know how much we can expect to get from HoRam, but he deserves any and all kudos today.

Cox looks to be going with a situational closer approach for now, as Remlinger became the fourth Brave reliever to get a save this week (after McBride, Reitsma, and Ray). I think it's the right approach for now, but I do hope Schuerholz is casting about for more help.

Bullpen Musings

OK, so one game after Cox pulled Reitsma to give a save opportunity to McBride (and not exactly giving Reitsma a vote of confidence in the paper the next morning), Reitsma is given another chance and converts. It would seem high time to replace him, but the in-house options seem less than promising. So I believe that Reitsma is being kept in the role in preparation for a deal -- otherwise, McBride or Ray would have gotten the opportunity last night. But why install one of them if you have a plan to import a new closer soon?

So maybe it's time to scan some other rosters -- teams who are going nowhere, have needs, and possess a relatively inexpensive veteran reliever. There are only about eight such teams at the moment -- many other teams are at least superficially in contention. Here are some possible imports:

LaTroy Hawkins, Baltimore -- A live arm, and the O's aren't making postseason plans. But he's a tad pricey ($4.4 million), and has famously flamed out as a closer in the past. Not likely.

Scot Shields or Brendan Donnelly, LA Angels -- Each has logged several years of excellent service for the Angels. Shields ($2.1 million) is more expensive than Donnelly ($950K), and will be arbitration eligible after this season. Sooner or later the Angels will have to deal some bullpen arms to fill other gaps on their aging roster. Hmmm....

Joe Borowski, Florida -- Possesses the Experienced Closer label, and is a former Brave. Very affordable ($327K). These factors combine to imbue me with fear that this could actually happen. Yikes.

Roberto Hernandez, Pittsburgh -- He's really old. Let's not get him.

Scott Eyre, Bob Howry, or Scott Williamson, Cubs -- Ah, here we might have something. These are guys you bring in if you think you're in contention, and are eminently tradeable if (as is the case with the Cubbies) your season collapses. The Cubs have needs in the middle infield and outfield, and there's no sense whatsoever in hanging on to three guys making $2-$3 million each as setup/situational relievers. Howry and Williamson have each closed before, and all three are pitching well this year. Williamson is a particularly interesting stealth candidate -- he's fallen off the radar after two years of arm troubles, but seems healthy now and his K/9 ratio is about twice that of our present pen.

Here's my pecking order at the moment:

1. Williamson
2. Shields
3. Howry
4. Donnelly

Thoughts?

One The Old-Fashioned Way

OK, this makes up for the debacle in Arizona on Friday. Ordinarily, we would have had no business winning this game, but for one swing by Langerhans and yet another crafty Smoltz performance. Even Reitsma redeemed his Friday performance (though overcoming the totality of his failures to this point would be a task fit for Sisyphus).

Since we notched the victory, we can approach with some contentment the historical significance of Jake Peavy's performance -- a new contender in the annals of dominant pitching performances against the Braves. Seven innings, 3 hits, 16Ks, one ball out of the infield (Langy's HR). How in the world he is 3-5 with a 3.64 ERA is completely beyond comprehension. Last night he looked like Greg Maddux with 10 extra MPH.

Off the top of my head, there are three other performances that compare:

1) Ramon Martinez (June 4, 1990) -- 3-hit shutout, 1BB, 18Ks. Aesthetically, Peavy's performance most resembled this one. Pedro's older brother also threw a darting 98 MPH fastball, and made us look foolish all night. Of course, our 1990 lineup featured the desiccated remains of Murph, and the less said about "Jim Presley, cleanup hitter", the better.

2) Ben Sheets (May 16, 2004) -- another 3-hit, 1BB, 18K domination, with his only mistake being a solo HR to Andruw. Sheets doesn't have quite the arsenal of Peavy in terms of nasty, late-moving pitches. This was more Ryan-esque -- here comes another fastball, and you won't be hitting it. Please have a seat.

3) Randy Johnson (May 18, 2004) -- right on the heels of the Sheets debacle came the Unit's 13K perfect game. The Braves didn't play the day before, so these were consecutive games. In truth, Sheets was more dominant, but you can't do much better than no baserunners allowed.

I'll rank them:

1) Johnson
2) Sheets
3) Peavy
4) Martinez

With our early struggles again this year, it's easy to forget the gloom that followed the Sheets and Johnson games. These were the standings the following morning:

Florida 21-17
Philadelphia 20-17
NY Mets 19-20
Atl 17-20
Mon 14-25

We didn't give up then, and we're certainly not giving up now.

We Might Be In Trouble

Last week the Phillies, who have starting rotation issues right along with their division competitors, brought up super-prospect Cole Hamels from Scranton and installed him in the rotation. He was wild but effective in his first start against the Reds, and struggled yesterday against the Brewers.

A look at his minor league numbers and it's obvious he's something special. But, as with any burgeoning legend, it's the anecdotal evidence that really grabs you. And if this collection is any indication, it could be a long summer for all those not named Cole Hamels.

For instance, did you know:

"Cole Hamels once threw a curve ball so well that the batter's children struck out."

"When Delmon Young heard Cole was promoted to triple-A, he went and got himself suspended."

and...

"Cole Hamels' preferred catcher is Cole Hamels."

Something like that's gotta be true. I'm frightened.

Now We're Rolling

A look at the final scores of the first three games of this series, and you might say, "OK fine. We're supposed to beat the Marlins at home." But the nature of the wins, capped by Chipper's 3-run walkoff HR tonight, could prove far more energizing. Three improbable comeback wins, and maybe this portends better things to come (provided Francoeur didn't just send Chipper to the DL by pounding on him at the plate -- Jeff, you gotta lighten up on the old man).

Hidden in the overall good performance by the offense is the fact that Chipper hasn't been much of a run-producer lately. He still gets on base with the best of them, but the power hasn't been in evidence. We can't expect 30 HR from him anymore, but if he can string some games like this together now and then (and can avoid getting hurt), our lineup truly rivals the Mets. Speaking of whom, their recent 9-game lead has been cut in half.

On the other hand, we've got Sosa going tomorrow. As Harry Caray would often say, "Let's get some runs!"

Why Not? McCann MVP Watch (Part 1)

Here's one ridiculously early NL MVP ballot:

1. Try to guess
2. Carlos Lee
3. Lance Berkman
4. Carlos Delgado
5. Miguel Cabrera
6. Brian McCann

Funny, Francoeur's sudden arrival last year was given much more media attention, but McCann's performance so far this year is even better. In Atlanta Braves history, who besides Chipper Jones, Dave Justice, and Bob Horner have ascended so quickly to middle-of-the-lineup stalwart status as McCann? Maybe Earl Williams. Anyway, it's a short list. McCann has it.

Kudos also to Andruw Jones, who cut down his swing and had four singles good for four RBI (not to mention an Andruw Special catch to end the eighth), and Chad Paronto, whose three standout innings of relief gave us a chance in a game that looked lost.

Anatomy of a Hitting Streak

We at Brave-O-Matic haven't made too big a deal of Edgar Renteria's hitting streak, which numbered 23 to start the season (24 including last year), and which ended today. Maybe we were waiting for him to get to Rowland Office or Rico Carty territory, I don't know, but the fact is it was a sneaky little streak.

First, he missed some games. Second, he wasn't ostentatious about it -- which is a nice way to say that it was about as unimposing a hitting streak as one could manage.

Now, I don't mean that to denigrate Edgar's accomplishment. Every day he'd played before tonight (which we won't discuss), he'd gotten at least one hit. And at the beginning of the day, his .354 BA led the National League. So far he's been everything we could have hoped.

But it was an odd streak -- typically, a player on a significant hitting streak bats around .400 in the process. DiMaggio batted around .430 during his 56-game streak. Quick check on Jimmy Rollins shows a .369 BA during his streak. My point is weakened, but I press ahead...

Take a look at Renteria's game log for 2006. In every game, he got exactly one or two hits. In no game did he get more than one extra-base hit (7 2Bs, 2 HRs). And not since April 14 has he scored and driven in a combined 3 runs in a single game. Basically, he's been contributing in some way to one scoring inning per game.

Which is fine, really -- I'm just saying that, hitting streak or not, we're going to need him to continue to do at least that -- just about everyone else in the order (besides McCann) is inconsistent or injury-prone. Edgar Renteria is the best candidate to perform at a consistent level throughout the season.

Breaking News!!

No, not the first Atlanta appearance of Chad Paronto...

And no, not Edgar Renteria extending his hitting streak...

John Thomson regaining the NL ERA lead from Tom Glavine? Nope...

Francoeur walked! On four pitches! When we're hanging the banner for our 15th straight division championship, we may very well point to this plate appearance as the one that turned the season around.

OK, probably not. And leave it to Turner South to ruin the moment, by the way, by cutting to a shot of the mound just before Francoeur arrived at first base to be congratulated by Hubbard, and following that with a replay of ball four. Presumably they had a good laugh -- not that we would know.

The Next Carlton Fisk

I'm told there's a publication out there somewhere that I.J. Rosenberg, former AJC Braves beat writer, is presently writing for. I haven't found it -- anyone out there who knows about it would be doing me a big favor by letting me know what it's called and where to find it.

The reason for my interest is that he evidently penned a column a couple of weeks ago about Brian McCann, in which McCann is compared favorably to Fisk. That's high praise, maybe too high, but there's no doubt that to watch McCann is too see the burgeoning of a special player. With apologies to Edgar Renteria and Andruw Jones, McCann, at age 22, has been the most impressive Brave so far this season.

The stats tell the story of what he's done to this point, but watching him hit reveals that his hot start is more than just that -- he just plain knows what he's doing. He hits line drives all over the park, and seems to do so every day. He knows when he can dump a ball into left field, and seems happy to do just that. He hits LHPs even better than RHPs, at least to this point. And he displays a patient approach -- he hasn't walked very much, but he's willing to wait for a pitch to drive, and he drives a whole lot of pitches.

His numbers last year compare favorably to the age-21 stats of a couple of catchers you might have heard of -- Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza. And while these names represent a pretty lofty ceiling, he hasn't done anything to show that he isn't capable of that kind of career. He's the best young player we've brought up since Andruw, and all this is a prelude to the suggestion that Jarrod Saltalamacchia might want to try on a first baseman's mitt, or else consider what other team he might end up playing for.

Hudson Shines -- Braves 2 Rockies 0

Tim Hudson has really turned it around. Tonight's game was his second complete game victory in his last 3 starts, and his second career one-hit shutout. That it came against the Rockies might have seemed a surprise, as they've been road warriors this season and have a pretty good stable of young hitters. What they may have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, is that the Braves always, always beat the Rockies. That's just the way it is. In fact, we'll win again tomorrow, Sosa notwithstanding. I'll even make him my Pick to Click.

Quick stat note: The Braves starters ERA is now 4.32, good for sixth in the NL with a bullet.