Here come the Beckhams! No, we’re not talking about David and Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham. We’re talking about Timothy and Gordon Beckham, a pair of shortstops from the great state of Georgia. And, no, Timothy and Gordon Beckham are not brothers.

Timothy Beckham is a 6’2”, 190 pound high school senior in Griffin, Georgia who has committed to play college baseball for the Trojans of the University of Southern California. Tim, however, will most likely never play for USC. The opinion is almost unanimous that Tim will be drafted with one of the top 5 picks in the upcoming Major League Baseball amateur draft. Many scouts have commented that Tim has the best collection of tools of any positional player in the upcoming draft. Many believe he will most likely be drafted with the first or second overall pick by the Tampa Bay Rays or the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is often said that Tim will not escape the grasp of the Rays at the first pick because he fits the athletic profile of many picks in the draft history of the Rays: Josh Hamilton, Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli, Elijiah Dukes and B.J. Upton.

Tim is a former three sport star who is often seen honing his tremendous skills on a baseball diamond or in a batting cage at all hours of the day and night throughout the year. That wasn’t always the case, however. A few years ago, his passion was football and basketball. His father and older brother, however, patiently guided him back to baseball. “I didn’t lose passion for (baseball), but I fell in love with basketball and stopped playing baseball for about three years,” Tim said. “My brother kept telling me how good I could be. He said that’s my meal ticket out of Griffin. So I gotta take it.”

As a player, Tim is widely regarded as a bona fide five tooler and, depending upon which scout is talking, is often compared to Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter, Brandon Phillips, Edgar Renteria and each of the Brothers Upton. Recent scouting reports have said of him:

“He’s got tools galore… he’s got the ability and potential to hit, hit for power, steal bases and stay at shortstop at the big-league level…… the type of athlete that makes everything he does look easy. He glides to balls hit deep in the hole to either side of him, and runs the bases gracefully, stretching singles into doubles and doubles into triples. He has good arm strength, soft hands and good instincts that should allow him to star at shortstop for years to come. While his defense draws more raves that his bat, he has improved at the plate over the last year and is now considered a legitimate threat, as he stings the ball to all parts of the field and has also shown the ability to hit the ball out as his body continues to mature and add strength….. Of the past ultra toolsy high school players selected in the top 5, Beckham has the best chance of remaining at shortstop with a fluid movement and powerful arm. He is blessed with excellent speed that translates to the basepaths as well. His hands are extremely smooth and he’s able to break in on the ball with rapid movement, while bringing the ball from his glove to his throwing hand faster than any shortstop in recent memory…… profiles as a number two hitter with excellent contact skills and extra base power. Easily could become a perennial 30/30 threat. Beckham’s best asset at the plate is his uncanny patience, unafraid to take a walk and allow the player behind him to drive him in.”

His high school coach recently said of him, “He understands you are going to strike out, he understands you are going to make errors, and if that ever happens, he keeps playing right through it. That’s going to help him get to where he wants to go. He is good about keeping his temperament; he never gets way up, he never gets way down.”

Similar praise and expectations have been known to overwhelm many seventeen year olds. Tim, however, seems to have incredible poise. “Griffin, Ga., is a small town where everyone knows everyone and it’s easy to get caught up in the wrong things sometimes. He’s done a good job of keeping his head on the prize and focused on his future. For him to take this route means a great deal,” Clarence Johns, a Houston Astros cross checker recently said of Tim.

Tim’s ability to stay levelheaded seems to have been aided by the great family support network surrounding him. His father is a GM union representative who makes the 90 minute roundtrip trek everyday from Griffin to the Doraville GM plant to provide the financial means for his family and the baseball dreams of his son. “Tim has been kind of expensive,” his father recently told the AJC. “I paid for him to play AAU baseball.” His father estimates that he has had to annually spend $3000 for Tim to chase his baseball dreams. “We’ve paid for him to be comfortable that way,” his father said. The sacrifices made by his father have not been lost on Tim. “I don’t know how much I’m going to get, but if I do get a lot, [I'll] be able to take care of my family. I’d move my dad out of an apartment, and I’d move my mom out of an apartment, too,” Tim recently told the AJC of his divorced parents. Being the recipient of a lucrative contract as a top 5 pick would certainly benefit his family. His father’s Doraville GM plant is scheduled to close in September three years before his father can retire from GM.

Gordon Beckham plays in Athens, Georgia on the collegiate level for the University of Georgia. Gordon is widely regarded as the premier college middle infielder in the upcoming draft. The earliest Gordon is projected to be drafted is with the number 5 pick by the San Francisco Giants. That’s quite a remarkable leap for a player who was not drafted by any MLB team after his senior year of high school. “I could’ve gone and played football at some smaller schools like Air Force, Ohio and Wake Forest and I could’ve played and been a contributor, or gone to some SEC schools and been a low-key player,” said Gordon. “I figured my future was probably in baseball, even though I wasn’t really looked at as a big talent.”

Gordon recently explained his growth as a baseball player to ESPN, saying: “It’s just getting older and understanding what it takes to be successful. It’s almost learning to fail, I guess is the best way to say it. This is a game of failure. When you finally understand you’re not going to be perfect, the game gets easier.” David Perno, Gordon’s coach at UGA recently explained Gordon’s progress: “He always had the tools and skills, but he always got off to a bad start. He was trying to do too much too soon. Now, he’s letting the game come to him. He’s not having to carry bad at-bats out to the field. I think that’s all it was — him understanding what kind of talent he has and slowing it down.”

Those who have seen him play say the 6’0”, 185 pound Gordon is a good wiry athlete and a solid all around prospect. His speed, range and arm force many to project him as an All Star caliber second baseman instead of a shortstop. He has been praised for being a line drive hitter who possesses quick wrists and surprising power. Although a home run hitter in college, it is expected that he will be more of a gap power hitter with a wood bat in the pros. “I don’t believe that I am a per se “power hitter.” In my opinion, I hit long line drives that sometimes leave the park. I think it used to be a big deal to me. But, as I have matured as a player I have begun to realize that it’s more important to constantly put pressure on the defense, to fight and claw for every hit to help the team. That is more important to me.”

Many project Gordon to be a Michael Young type. Gordon refuses to compare his skills to current or past major leaguers, saying: “Every player is inherently different, therefore in my opinion it makes no sense to model your game after someone. I believe you need to watch major leaguers, see how they carry themselves, and see how they handle their business. I would love to lead my team the way Derek Jeter does, but other than that, I don’t model my game after anyone.”

Gordon plays the game with a hardnosed passion. He recently explained what caused him to hit a homer against a trashtalking opponent. “It’s very frustrating to play a baseball game when you have guys on the other team constantly just chirping like a softball team. This is not softball it’s baseball. I was very frustrated with it because that’s not the way you play baseball in my opinion. Some people believe that that’s the way you play but I was just very frustrated. When Michael (Demperio) got on that inning I was like if he throws it anywhere near the plate I’m gonna hit it as hard as I can, and that’s what happened. He left a fastball right down the middle and I crushed it. It’s very frustrating playing baseball teams that act like that because it’s Mickey Mouse stuff.”

Because he comes from a great, stable family, Gordon has remained level headed. His mother recently said of him, “Gordon does a good job of keeping things in perspective. He’s always been that way. It’s a win-win situation with the draft. If it’s not the right time, he’ll come back for his final year at Georgia. If it’s time for him to move on, then he will.’’

Timothy and Gordon Beckham will never become as famous as David Beckham because that’s almost impossible to do. Timothy and Gordon Beckham, however, may have the ability to be better in baseball than David Beckham ever was in soccer. It’s too bad these Beckham boys will no longer be around by the time the Braves start picking players.

John Smoltz is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest postseason pitchers in the history of the game. Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, on the other hand, are generally considered postseason disappointments. Overall, for their careers, Smoltz has been superior to Glavine and Maddux in the postseason. Below are their career postseason records:

Maddux and Glavine, however, were actually better postseason starters than Smoltz during the six postseasons in which they were members of the same starting rotation. The applicable period is from 1993 until 1999. Below is a grid with their performance and the average run support they received during those postseasons:

Overall, the Braves were 32-24 when Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine started for the Braves during the postseasons from 1993 until 1999. Below is the overall team record when each started:

Below is a table of the performance of Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine and the run support given to them in the games the Braves won when they started during those postseasons between 1993 and 1999:

Below is their performance and the average performance of the offense during the games the Braves lost when they started during those postseasons:

Maddux was not only the best postseason pitcher on the Braves during the era of The Big Three but, from the 1995 NLCS until the 1999 World Series, Maddux put together the best consecutive string of 120 or more innings of any postseason pitcher in the history of the game. Below are the postseason pitchers I could find that had the best consecutive string of 120 or more innings in the postseason and the average offensive run support provided them in their postseason starts:

Mariano Rivera is currently at 117.3 innings and will jump to the top of this list once he surpasses 120 innings pitched in the postseason. Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Christy Mathewson and a few others had excellent runs that did not amount to 120 innings pitched prior to the dawn of ALCS, NLCS, ALDS and NLDS play. Greg Maddux, however, had the best string of 120 or more consecutive innings ever from a starting pitcher in the postseason.

**TRUTH:** Andruw had a .957 OPS in the second half of 2006. That was the second highest OPS for any half of a season he has ever had in his career. The .959 OPS in 2000 was the only one higher.

**MYTH:** Andruw has been in a season and a half long slump

**TRUTH:** Considering that he had a .957 OPS in the second half of 2006, the slump has only been a season long

I would drop Kelly Johnson down in the order. I would put Escobar at the leadoff spot and Kotsay at the 2 spot. KJ should hit seventh. KJ is not getting ahead in counts right now because pitchers are being aggressive with him because Escobar, Chipper, Tex, Frenchy and McCann are behind him. Maybe if he was dropped down, pitchers would pitch him less aggressively. That would work to the advantage of his immense patience. He’s too often finding himself behind in the count.

I’m not hitting the panic button on KJ. I think he will be a fine top of the order hitter. I also happen to agree that he will be a poor man’s Chase Utley. I think he and the lineup will be very strong with him at the top of the order.

However, I also think he and the lineup can be even stronger if he hits lower in the order. I think he will be pitched differently. I think he will provide McCann and Frenchy the protection they have rarely had. I don’t think KJ needs much protection because of his patience. My thinking is that he might be the type that is even better with less protection because of his patience. I also think Kotsay would be even better at the top of the order being fed fastballs he can drive.

I think there might be obviously be a resultant dropoff in OPS from KJ to Kotsay. I expect KJ to have a .830 OPS this season. I expect Kotsay to have a .750 or so OPS by the end of the season at the bottom of the order. If Kotsay is put at the top of the order, I think his OPS could be pushed to .770 to .800.

I dunno. Just wanted to make sure people did not think I am hitting the panic button on KJ. I just think what makes him so great for this lineup is that he can be either a run creator because of his OBP or a run producer because of his SLG no matter where he hits in the lineup.

I just happen to think that putting Kotsay up higher in the lineup might increase his OPS 20 to 30 points and dropping KJ lower in the order to protect McCann and Frenchy might increase McCann and Frenchy’s OPS 20 to 30 points and that KJ’s OPS itself might increase 20 to 30 points lower in the order.

My thinking is that the OPS dropoff caused by flip flopping Kotsay and KJ would be offset by a combined OPS increase from KJ, Kotsay, McCann, and Frenchy of 60-120 OPS points.

I dunno. Just thinking out loud and putting that out there for people to think about. Nothing is static about their numbers. Their stats are influenced so much be the dynamics of where and when they hit and how that causes changes in how they are pitched.

One reason why I called KJ a poor man’s Chase Utley is the same reason Jimmy Key was once called a poor man’s Greg Maddux.  Key, like KJ now, was darn good.  But Key was never close to being as good as Maddux and I don’t think KJ will ever be as good as Utley has been the last few years.

I just think when it is said and done, KJ will end up being a slightly better version of Todd Walker.  There’s no shame in that.  Look at how much trade demand there was for KJ.  Look at how Billy Beane and Theo Epstein both obtained Walker and Bellhorn.  The same reasons those two wanted Walker and Bellhorn are the same reasons KJ was the most sought after Brave this past offseason.  KJ is a rich man’s Todd Walker, a very rich man’s Mark Bellhorn, and a poor man’s Chase Utley.  There is no shame in that.

McCann should continue to bat 5th against righties instead of Frenchy. For his career against righties, Frenchy has a .264 AVG with a .300 OBP and a .431 SLG. For his career against righties, McCann has a .303 AVG with a .360 OBP and a .504 SLG. It’s clear McCann should bat 5th against righties and that Frenchy should bat 5th against lefties.

The Braves are still on pace to only give up 700 runs. Still on pace for a 200 run differential. That would make them a 100+ win team over the course of 162.

They are 5-7 and have 6 one run losses. However, I challenge you to find a team in the history of baseball that had a 200 run differential and did not win 90+ games.

Pythagoras needs to man the hell up already though. His bride Lady Luck has been whipping his behind for 2+ seasons.

Chuck James has worked pretty hard on other pitches in the past and has even tried to incorporate them into games early last season. I think he scrapped them because they just didn’t work effectively enough.

Chuck has very flawed mechanics. The only pitch I can really see him effectively developing with his mechanics is a cutter. Any breaking pitch he develops would likely just hang in perpetuity because he doesn’t follow through enough.

It could be argued that he should change his mechanics. His current mechanics leave him too limited in stuff he can develop and incorporate. They also render him a blown out shoulder or elbow waiting to happen.

Changing mechanics however runs the risk of changing the the quality of the two pitches he does have. His flawed mechanics make that fastball and changeup seem alot more special than they are because of the movement on the pitches caused by the flaws and because hitters are not used to eyeballing such flawed mechanics and can have a harder time reading what is being tossed out of those flawed mechanics.

If he abandons his current mechanics, he might end up losing what he does have for the sake of gaining an extra pitch or two that are not special enough to overcome the loss of the 2 bread and butter pitches that made him a big leaguer (and a pretty decent major league pitcher at that).

Chuck is very young and inexperienced as well. People take him to task for not knowing when he is injured as opposed to being just hurt. He’s never been injured before due to throwing, so how the hell would he know how serious his injuries are? He sees Hudson and Smoltz battling through pain and wants to be like them. So he tried last year to imitate them and be tough because his team needed him to make no excuses if he wasn’t injured. Unfortunately, he was too young and inexperienced to understand he was dealing with an injury and not just pain he had to fight through like the tough hombres called Hudson and Smoltz.

Because Smoltz has been through every conceivable injury and pain known, Smoltz is someone who is better able to diagnose what is going on with his arm than the doctors themselves are. Chuck however does not have that experience. It’s really no different than young NASCAR drivers who often drive their crew chiefs crazy because their inexperience doesn’t allow them to understand what is going wrong with the car as they drive in circles for 500 miles. While the crew chief is begging the driver to feed him information so he can fix the problem during the next pit stop, all he gets is a stupid young driver who doesn’t understand how to diagnose or communicate what is going wrong with the engine, tires and whatever. Older John Smoltz drivers like a Mark Martin, however, are able to diagnose it and communicate to the crew chief what needs to be changed so that the next few pit stops can be ultra effective.

Chuck’s inexperience also explains why he has not developed other pitches, worked harder to understand hitters or to fix his mechanics. He’s never really faced adversity as a pitcher. He dominated on the amateur level and in the minors. He has even done pretty darn well in the majors. That kind of success makes young pitchers very reluctant to change what they do. It’s kinda the logic of dancing and going home with the girl you brought to the dance instead of dumping her to try and pick up a new girl and risk ending up with no girls to lay down in bed with that night.

Chuck did face some real adversity last year for the first time in his life as a baseball player. He had injuries and also shaky performance. To his credit, he seems to have been humbled by it and has been honest about how he failed to meet expectations. From his quotes, he really seems to want to figure it out. Due to inexperience and not being the brightest dude and his flawed mechanics, he might never be able to completely figure it out in time before his shoulder eventually falls apart due to his flawed mechanics.

But I think people just need to enjoy Chuck while they can and appreciate that Chuck is a pretty darn good major league pitcher despite his flaws.

Frenchy has 13 homers, 55 RBIs in 89 career games against the Mets and Phils. Pretty darn good.

33 homers, 139 RBIs in 180 career games against the NL East

.314 .373 .505 .878 for his career with 2 outs, RISP

.293 .331 .516 .847 for his career in late and close

.311 .354 .474 .828 in tie games

.333 .381 .534 .915 for his career w/RISP

TRUTH: Andruw had a .957 OPS in the second half of 2006. That was the second highest OPS for any half of a season he has ever had in his career. The .959 OPS in 2000 was the only one higher. July 2006: .923 OPS; August 2006: .921 OPS; Sept/Oct 2006: .942 OPS

MYTH: Andruw has been in a season and a half long slump

TRUTH: Considering that he had a .957 OPS in the second half of 2006, the slump has only been a season long

Last updated Saturday, Apr 12, 2008 6:48 pm EDT

Pitching Statistics

“I was just all over the place, couldn’t throw a strike,” said James, “I need something, I have no idea what. I think it’s just going out and getting innings and getting my location. … Obviously it’s control. I ain’t got that right now.” “It just boiled down to the control — I didn’t have none of it,” said James, who believes he needs to build innings and work on his command, whether throwing on the side or in the minors. “It can’t hurt nothing,” James said of being sent to Richmond. “I need to get back in a groove and figure something out.” “All spring and everything, it’s just been going so slowly, trying to get back,” James said. “It just didn’t work out for me.” “Chuck was just really really rusty,” said Bobby Cox.

Maybe I’m too much of a Chuck and Bobby apologist. Many fans seem angry that the Braves lost and that Chuck sucked and that Cox pitched him even though he was not ready. But I look at it differently. I think what happened with Chuck yesterday is why Bobby’s players love him. Whether people like it or not, Chuck has established himself as a quality bottom end of the rotation starter. Just sending the kid down and not calling him up when there was a vacancy after an injury could have been devastating for Chuck.

By calling him up and giving him the start Cox showed Chuck that he still believes in him and that the organization is not writing him off. It also showed Chuck that he wasn’t ready. So now he can go back down to the minors for a while and not feel insulted or take it personally.

From the way Chuck was talking the last two days, it sounds like Bobby, Roger and perhaps some of the vets spoke with him after his woeful performance and helped him make sense of it. They probably gave him the whole you need more time, don’t beat yourself up over this one, you’re good enough to be here, you don’t have anything to prove other than you are healthy, just go back down there and work on building arm strength and your control.

I bet Chuckie goes back down there, works on his game, maintains his confidence and comes back even better.  If they had not called him up, whatever doubts he had about the organizational direction with him could have fed into him feeling that being passed over in the callup was confirmation that they were giving up on him. But getting called up and having his manager give him the ball for the start is validation that Bobby and the powers that be still believe in him.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it and giving Cox too much credit. I don’t know if Cox thought that maybe it was worth losing a battle yesterday by having Chuck pitch so that Chuck could help him win the war later on in the year. Cox might have just been hoping he could get the usual 5 innings, 2 or 3 earned runs performance out of Chuck. But even that kind of thinking is confirmation that Cox still believes in him which in turn helps ease Chuck’s mind and motivate him to come back and make his manager happy he continued to believe in him. I dunno. Those are just my thoughts, hopes, feelings, wishes, beliefs on what happened with Chuck last night.

Too many fans focus only upon game to game results. What makes Cox a great manager is that he often has a long term view of how to manage his team and the personalities and talents on it. I think losing a battle last night by giving Chuck the ball is evidence of why Bobby’s players love him and why his teams often start slow but get better throughout the season.

WASHINGTON — Chipper Jones limped through the Braves’ clubhouse following Friday night’s 3-0 win over the Nationals at Nationals Park. Whether Atlanta’s third baseman is able to play on Saturday afternoon remains to be seen.

Jones tweaked his right quadriceps muscle during the fifth inning of Wednesday night’s loss at Coors Field and felt the effects while playing the entirety of Friday’s game. But after the game, Jones’ quad was wrapped in ice and providing indication that he might have some troubles if he played on Saturday.

“I’d have to say I’d be hard pressed to score from second if I had to on a single right now,” Jones said. “But we’ll see how it is in the morning.”

Jones first felt the quad when he singled in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s game. With cold, winter-like conditions at Coors, his leg didn’t react favorably when he initially pushed it with thoughts of making the single into a double.

While going hitless in his first three at-bats on Friday, Jones hit three weak grounders and admittedly was feeling the effects of the leg. After a single in the ninth, he ended up racing home from second base on a Matt Diaz single.

“I didn’t do too much today before the ninth inning,” Jones said. “When I took off from second base there, it didn’t feel too good.”

Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Jeff Bennett watched up close what Acosta did last season in Richmond while winning pitcher of the year. “He’s definitely got the stuff,” Bennett said. “Him, [Peter] Moylan, you’ve got all kind of options.” Acosta has a mid-90s fastball — that Bennett says should get to upper 90s as the season gets going — as well as a variety of offspeed pitches. “He would throw changeup, slider, curveball, now he’s throwing a sinker,” Bennett said. “He can throw fastballs predominantly or he can use whatever pitch to get you out.”

Hampton throws a bit Friday

“Before I couldn’t go in that game, even when I threw it easy, I felt it,” Hampton said. “At least I didn’t feel it here when I was playing catch.” “I got to get to the level where I feel like I can pitch without feeling pain,” he said. “It wouldn’t do any good if I do what I did last time.”

The paper cited two construction workers it did not identify, saying they were not authorized to speak with the media. One of the workers said the T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor’s clubhouse.

“It sounds like a tall tale, and it would take more than a Red Sox T-shirt to put a curse on the Yankees,” team spokesman Howard Rubenstein was quoted as saying.

The Yankees move to the new ballpark in 2009.

AL East – Yankees: They’ve got Jeter, right?

AL Central – Indians: Sheffield, Polanco, Renteria, Rodriguez, Granderson, Magglio, Dontrelle will disappoint

AL West – Angels: No good reason. Someone has to win this division though.

Wild Card – Red Sox: Tried to find another team but ESPN told me I wasn’t allowed to.

NL East – Braves: Rotation and Bullpen ERA of 4.00 and 850 runs of offense will lead to the run differential needed to win 95 games

NL Central – Cubs: They pull away in August after Pinella’s head explodes

NL West – Dodgers: Torre will figure out the best mesh of these talents and personalities

Wild Card – Diamondbacks: Who would really pick the Mets? Doesn’t everyone else see that Omar Minaya is just completing the Worst Team Money Could Buy Trilogy?

World Series: Braves vs. Red Sox. John Smoltz reclaims the best postseason pitcher of his era title the airheads at ESPN have mistakenly handed over to Schilling and Beckett. Smoltz beats Beckett in Game 7 of the World Series in a 10 innings, 1-0 game. Smoltz will be the old fella this time instead of Jack Morris who beats the fireballing young’un.

AL MVP: Grady Sizemore, Indians: Will have the kind of season MVP voters love, thereby causing wannabe sabermetricians to bellyache all winter long.

NL MVP: Mark Teixeira, Braves: 54 homers, 145 RBIs will be launched by Tex. He can then take his MVP and act like the prostitute his pimp Scott Boras made him.

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander, Tigers: His stuff is too fast, too strong, too furious.

NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels, Phillies: The Philthy Phillie will be dominating

AL Rookie of the Year: Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox: Even if he’s not good enough, ESPN will never let you think otherwise.

NL Rookie of the Year: Jordan Schafer, Braves: When the Kotsay “stopgap” experiment in center blows up like the Raul Monedesi/Brian Jordan fiasco in 2005, Schafer will be called up to the Braves and set the world on fire like Jeff Francoeur did in 2005.

Note that these predictions were made before the season.  Schafer has subsequently been suspended fpr 5- games for HGH reasons

“It’s been an organizational effort,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said of the Braves. “They have a very good organization. The attention to detail has always been there; the scouts have always been relentless and tireless. A lot of patterns we tried to emulate over here. That’s how organizations stay good for a long time.”

“For this organization to be able to win 14 division titles in a row and not do it with a high payroll and do it primarily from building within their own organization, it’s pretty impressive,” said Braves pitcher Tom Glavine, who played for Atlanta from 1987 to 2002 before returning to the team this year.

“We had a lot of turnover from one year to the next,” Glavine said. “Generally speaking, that turnover was always filled with a young guy who came through our organization and then was getting a chance to play every day.  “It becomes increasingly more important to not only develop guys in your own system and get them to the big leagues, but to constantly have a flow of guys behind them that you’re developing that are going to continue to be able to fill in the holes or fill in positions where you have transitions from one year to the next. It’s a constant process, so it’s a tough thing to stay on top of.”

Clemente’s and Francoeur’s OPS+, AVG, and OBPs fluctuated in the same manner during those three years. Their cannons in the outfield are evident by their assists.   Francoeur’s slugging percentage is higher because he had more power than Clemente, but also because Clemente played in a different era.

Here is what Clemente did after age 23:

I think it’s reasonably fair to expect Frenchy to put up OPS+ numbers similar to Clemente through the age of 31.  Between the ages of 25 and 31, Clemente had a .326 AVG, a .369 OBP, and a .490 SLG.  For Frenchy to have the same OPS+ impact in this era, he will probably need to average a .300 AVG, a .360 OBP and a .550 SLG, with somewhere around 35-40 doubles and 35-40 home runs per season.

Frenchy likely won’t hit for the same high batting average Clemente did in his prime for two reasons. First, Frenchy just doesn’t have the same ability when it comes to his batting eye. Second, he’s playing in an era that values OBP and SLG more than AVG, so he’ll take more pitches to earn more walks and see better pitches he can drive.  What he’ll sacrifice in strikeouts and batting average through increased selectivity, he should make up for with a better OBP and SLG.

Even if Frenchy matches Clemente in OPS+ through 31, we can’t expect him to duplicate Clemente’s OPS+ thereafter. The freakish OPS+ numbers Clemente put up after 31 cannot be expected of many human beings.

McCann and Munson experienced similar wild fluctuations from years one to two to three in their OPS+, AVG, OBP and SLG.  McCann’s SLG is higher than Munson’s because of the era McCann plays in and because McCann may have more power than Munson.  McCann’s 2006 sophomore campaign should be considered a somewhat fluky career year for him.  He had not done anything comparable in the minor leagues and has not done anything similar in his other two major league seasons.  It is reasonably fair to expect that over the next eight seasons McCann will have OPS+ numbers similar or slightly better than what Munson had in the eight seasons after his first three: 114, 141, 101, 126, 125, 121, 101, and 95.

Munson was a far superior defender.  During his first three seasons, Munson nabbed 76 of 136 base runners trying to steal, good for an outstanding 56% nabbed rate.  McCann, on the other hand, has thrown out just 45 of 207 – a pitiful 22% nabbed rate.

Munson was known as one of the greatest clutch hitters in the history of the Yankees.  He had a .357 AVG, .378 OBP, and a .496 SLG for his career in the postseason and was at his best in the World Series.  Munson also had a .302 AVG, .368 OBP, and a .412 SLG for his career with runners in scoring position.  McCann’s postseason history only consists of three games, but he did hit a three run homer against Roger Clemens in his first ever postseason at bat in his 2005 rookie season. For his career, McCann has a .302 AVG, a .392 OBP, and a .563 SLG with runners in scoring position.

McCann will most likely never be the imposing figure in the clubhouse that Munson was, but he has the potential to develop into the same kind of teammate, leader and batterymate Munson was.  Chipper Jones recently commented upon the way McCann and Jeff Francoeur have changed the clubhouse culture of the Braves since their arrival in the big leagues, saying “Frenchy and BMac really make it fun to come to the park. They both act like 12 year olds and that rubs off on the rest of us. They are constantly needling each other and it makes for hours of laughter for us old coots.  But they are intense at game time and they want to win … It is a nice change from the way the clubhouse used to be.”

John Smoltz has loved McCann as a catcher from the first game McCann caught him. Smoltz frequently compliments McCann on his game calling and communication abilities.  McCann is tough and plays through injury after injury without ever publicly admitting he is injured and without ever making an excuse when his performance suffers because of it.

McCann is, by far, his own harshest critic.  When McCann was selected for the All Star game last season, he was embarrassed.  He did not think he was having a good enough season and thought his teammate Edgar Renteria deserved the nod more than him.

When Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus essentially labeled Yunel Escobar “Yutility” Escobar, McCann responded, “Escobar is one of the best players I’ve ever seen.  What he did last year was phenomenal. That wasn’t a fluke. He’s the real deal.”

Those are Munson-esque ways to approach the game.  While McCann is still young and has not yet grabbed the leadership of the team away from the vets, his Munson-esque, proud but humble nature makes his teammates want to go through walls for McCann the way Munson’s teammates would once go through a wall for Munson.  This will be more and more evident as the older vets on the Braves fade away and Jeff Francoeur and McCann become the leaders of the team.   Will McCann ever become the heart and soul of the Braves the way Munson once was for the Yankees?  That’s awfully hard to predict because Munson was so battle tested and that is an intangible asset you can’t ever measure until he and his teammates are vetted like Munson and the Yankees were in the postseason and in the Bronx Zoo.

Compare some key minor league stats for the three:

The similarities are self explanatory. Unfortunately, the groundball to fly ball ratios for minor leaguers are not as available or as reliable as I’d like in making this comparison, and obviously that’s pretty important since what makes Carmona and Wang great is the ability to keep the ball down.  Wang and Carmona respectively have phenomenal 2.90 and 3.00 groundball to fly ball ratios during their major league careers.

From the minor league data that is available through minorleaguesplits.com since 2005 for groundballs, line drives, and fly balls given up, here are the performance numbers for Carmona and Jurrjens as minor leaguers:

Their groundball percentages are virtually identical.  Jurrjens has said several times this spring that he aims to be an effective and efficient pitcher by pitching to contact and keeping the ball down.  Pitching to contact may not be such a bad thing for Jurrjens, especially under the tutelage of his current pitching coach, the former sinkerballer Roger McDowell.  Tim Hudson (2.76 G/F) and Peter Moylan (2.51 G/F) did a superb job in 2007 of killing worms all season long while working with McDowell.

Jurrjens has a fastball and a changeup that both have sink.  Whether he can match the results of Wang and Carmona remains to be seen. Jurrjens was actually much more successful than Wang and Carmona during their respective stints in AA.  Here are their AA performances:

If Jurrjens can be 75 to 80% as good as Carmona and Wang have recently been, the Braves will be pleased with what they received for Edgar Renteria.

Murphy’s chances of ever becoming a Hall of Famer seem slim to none because it is often said that Murphy had nothing other than his prime.

Hall of Fame voters should examine the cumulative effect of catching, woeful playing surfaces, long distance travel and the grind of playing every day on Murphy’s sudden decline.

Early in his professional career, Murphy caught more than 500 games as a 6’5″, long-limbed catcher. That total doesn’t include all the crouching he did as an amateur or in practice sessions over six professional seasons. The injury woes of Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer are an instructive example of the havoc wreaked internally on the bodies of tall, lean, young catchers. Most catchers suffer a decline in offensive productivity in their early thirties, and it’s more difficult for the tall guys.

Murphy spent most of his career in the outfield. The surface at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was considered the worst grass surface in the majors. The ballpark where he played 960 games didn’t even have a full time grounds crew until 1989 – Murphy’s 14th season. He also played 700 games on the artificial turf that was prevalent during that era.

Murphy missed just 20 games throughout the entire decade of the 80’s. As a professional, he logged over 2,000 combined games either playing catcher or running around on turf fields and Atlanta’s shoddy sod. Voters should take special note of the typical decline in the physical health and per game averages of NBA players during their early thirties following years of pounding their bodies and legs on the hardwood.

Murphy also had the misfortune of being on an East Coast team that played in the NL West, at a time when long distance travel conditions were much less luxurious than teams enjoy now. Distances in miles from Atlanta: Cincinnati, 470; Houston, 800; San Francisco, 2,500; San Diego, 2,150; Los Angeles, 2,180. Atlanta was geographically isolated from the rest of the National League during that era as well.

Before next year’s election, voters hopefully will gain a better contextual understanding of the toll exacted on Murphy’s body due to catching, the turfs, the travel and playing every day. These factors explain why Murphy was unable to have a series of average seasons past the age of 35 that would have padded his counting stat totals.

Unfortunately, Murphy’s chances of making the Hall seem hopeless. Andre Dawson and Jim Rice, two comparable players to Murphy, on the other hand, seem bound for induction in the next few years. Here are the voting totals for these three since 1995:

Compare those voting results with their career performances:

Then compare the voting results and their career totals with their offensive performance through the age of 35:

Murphy is as deserving of induction as Rice and Dawson. Rice was inferior defensively, benefited from resting as a designated hitter, was never a catcher and played his home games on a better surface at Fenway. Dawson padded his stats with average seasons after the age of 35, never played catcher, had many days off as a young player due to injuries and played the majority of his last 10 seasons on the grass surfaces of Wrigley, Fenway and Joe Robbie.

If you vote for Rice and the Hawk, you must vote for the Murph. All three deserve the Hall.

Rob Neyer and Peter Gammons have each recently stated they think Chipper is a Hall of Famer if he retires right now. Chipper disagrees and has said that if he retired right now he would be on the cusp and probably would not make it. He says he needs five more good years before he retires at 40 years old to make the best case possible for his future Hall of Fame induction. That may very well be true for the man who has not made an All Star team since 2001. However, Chipper is baseball royalty and deserves to be treated as such during the twilight of his career. He has been mostly forgotten during this decade because of threats posed to his third base throne by pretenders like Eric Chavez, Scott Rolen, Hank Blalock, Aramis Ramirez, and Troy Glaus. David Wright is the golden boy du jour in the National League and is just the latest and perhaps the greatest of the pretenders to Chipper’s throne. At this stage of his career, however, Chipper Jones is too busy chasing down immortals like Schmidt, Mathews, Brett, Boggs, Mantle, Rose, Murray, and Raines to bother looking back to see if a mere mortal like David Wright is nipping at his heels.

You see, Chipper Jones is now at the point of his career where he should be universally considered one of the five best switch hitters and five best third baseman of all time. If you doubt that, check out the tables I have provided below with my rankings of the best third baseman and best switch hitters of all time:

ALL TIME THIRD BASE RANKINGS:

ALL TIME SWITCH HITTER RANKINGS

Hopefully, during the last five years of his career, Chipper can give the baseball world one last glorious run at a batting title like Brett in 1990, or one last great MVP season like Schmidt in 1986, or one last World Series title that ends with Chipper riding a horse like Boggs in 1996.

Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train

(the music heard when Chipper Jones comes to the plate at Turner Field)

While reading New York Magazine recently, I happened upon an article in which Christina Ricci discussed a theory she and her mother have that people experience seven year cycles in their lives: “Every seven years, everything changes: your physical being, your emotional being, the way other people look at you.” As ashamed as I am that I have just resorted to quoting Christina Ricci, I am further ashamed to confess that the only reason I was reading New York Magazine on that particular day was because it contained photos of Lindsay Lohan buck naked. Someone shoot me!

Ricci, however, caused me to think about the way we look at baseball players and I came to the conclusion that perhaps she is somewhat right. When baseball players are young, we love them and they love us. When they become established, we take them for granted, they take us for granted, and we move on to loving the newest young thang. When they get old, we fall in love with them all over again and they fall in love with us all over again.

Now that is not true of most ballplayers. Many like Derek Jeter go through their entire careers being beloved. Most ballplayers do appreciate how much the fans love them and how much of the hard earned money of the fans is used to make the ballplayers wealthy, or at least, well off as compared to regular folks. Most ballplayers never get to experience being beloved, hated, or taken for granted. Their careers are too short. Most ballplayers never get to experience seven year cycles in their careers because they are lucky if their career lasts seven at bats, nevermind seven years. However, there are some ballplayers blessed enough to experience one or two or even three seven year cycles to their careers. There is one player in particular I have in mind.

Larry Wayne Jones, a.k.a. Chipper Jones, the man who famously named his son Shea, has almost 35 years of life and 15 years in the big leagues behind him now. Chipper will turn 36 on April 24^th. Unbelievable. Seems like just yesterday when general manager Bobby Cox drafted Chipper in 1990. It was a somewhat controversial pick since the highly touted Todd Van Poppel was on the board. But Bobby, the man Chipper has often called his second father and the only manager he would ever want to play for, skipped over Van Poppel and went with Chipper, who was so uniquely nicknamed by his lifelong hitting coach, his father, because Chipper was a chip off the old block.

When Chipper was a rookie, he was the good ole boy, a hunting, fishing, country music listening proud Southern boy. He wore his socks high, was good looking, and, like the rest of the Braves, Chipper was as talented as heck. He could run, throw, hit for contact and power, draw a walk, steal a base, and play shortstop. A true five tooler. He could do everything. And he had a cocky swagger to him. To top it all off, he had a perpetual eat you know what grin on his face that told everyone you do not stand a chance against me.

Chipper embodied everything that the baseball world hated about the Atlanta Braves. Dayn Perry admitted as much in an article he wrote for Baseball Analysts back in 2005, confessing about his youthful propensity to “rail against the frat boy smugness of Chipper Jones.” However, the very things that made the world hate Chipper Jones and his Braves were also the very things that Nocahoma Nation loved about Chipper and his Braves. From 1993 until 1999, Chipper was a legend in the making. In his first seven years from 1993 until 1999, he won an MVP, arguably should have won a Rookie of the Year instead of Hideo Nomo, and was a member of a team that won six division titles, three National League pennants, and one World Series.

But then the legend seemed to burn out long before the candle ever did. He seemed to become far less revered by Braves fans and, over the next seven seasons of his career, there was something missing with Chipper. Where was the love, the reverence, the adoration, the adulation, the passion, the emotion? Where did it go? What happened to the legend of the good ole Southern boy done good? As his new teammate and switch hitting compadre recently said, “He’s the most underappreciated player in the game … No doubt Alex [Rodriguez] is the most talented player I’ve played with, but Chipper is right behind him.” If you doubt that, consider this: Arod has a lifetime OPS+ of 147 while Chipper has a lifetime OPS+ of 143.

So, then, how did he fall off the radar? Was it because his 1999 MVP season ended with the Braves being swept in the World Series by the New York Yankees? Was it the too public fallout of his personal troubles at home that were never really anybody’s business but became everybody’s business because of one word: Hooters? Was it overexposure? Were the expectations far too high? Was it all the failed postseason runs? Was it all the injuries? Was it his failure to assert himself as a leader on a team filled with stars? Was it the move to left field? Did being a member of the Jones boys tandem taint him because of the perpetual frustration people had with the failed promise of Andruw Jones? Was it his too cool and aloof public persona? Did his outstanding performance become overshadowed by the steroid freakazoid show MLB was putting out on the field?

Well, whatever the reason is, Chipper never fully became the legend he seemed destined to become just a decade ago. Chipper has not even made an all star team since 2001. Such a shame. It’s almost criminal. When the Yankees swept the Braves in the 1999 World Series by winning their 8^th World Series game in a row against the Braves, it felt like the entire baseball world left the Braves, including Chipper, for dead and forgot them. Oh, sure, they won the division for the next 6 seasons but they were nothing more than dead men walking after that 1999 World Series.

In the second seven years of his career from 2000 through 2006, Chipper moved from third base to left field and then back to third base when the Mark Derosa experiment failed and when it became clear to everyone, except apparently the Cleveland Indians, that it was never going to happen with Andy Marte. Chipper had three seasons of failing to knock in 100 runs. His batting average even dipped down as low as .248 during the 2004 season, which is quite unlike a man who takes great pride in being a traditional #3 hitter who annually strives to accomplish a .300 AVG, 30 homers, 100 RBIs. Chipper only made two All Star teams and failed to win another MVP. The Braves won six division titles but never again won an NL pennant or a World Series title. The man who had played 153 games or more for eight straight seasons from 1996 until 2003 became injury prone. He missed an average of 43 games a season during the last three seasons of his second seven years. The Braves were only 75-75 when he did not start but were 190-146 when he did start in the last three seasons of his second seven years. The last year of that seven year period finally saw the Braves fall out of first place in 2006. Despite all of that, however, Chipper remained one of the best hitters in the game. From an OPS+ standpoint, he was even more consistently dominant during his second seven years than he had been in his first seven years. From 1995 until 1999, he had OPS+ scores of 108, 136, 119, 148, 168. But in his second seven years from 2000 through 2006, Chipper put up OPS+ scores of 141, 160, 153, 137, 116, 151, 154. But Chipper so often seemed like the forgotten superstar on the baseball landscape.

Can Chipper Jones make a John Travolta like comeback in terms of his national popularity during the third act of his career? Does he even care to be adored late in his career as an elder statesman like George Brett and Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn were? Mark Teixeira does not seem to think so. “Chipper could get a lot more attention in New York or L.A., but he’s a country boy who likes to hunt and fish,” said Tex. Chipper responded, “Atlanta is a laid-back town, and I’m not a big-city guy. I know I could probably garner more attention and accumulate more accolades in New York, but that’s not me.” The question then is does Chipper care about his popularity with Braves fans? Chipper has made it very clear that he deeply cares what Braves fans think of him.

Recently, in several interviews, Chipper has admitted that part of his failure to be more engaging in this decade with the fans was caused by the ugly and too visible scars caused to him and his family after the ugly fallout following his divorce from his first wife. It caused him to be reluctant to let people in or to even go out in public for fear people would rudely hassle him, his wife, and his children by making crass remarks about his family and sex life.

His youthful mistakes caused that A for Atlanta on his baseball cap to become more of a Scarlet Letter A permanently emblazoned on his chest. It is pretty bizarre when you think about it. Celebrities and athletes and regular folks suffer divorces all the time. Why did Chipper’s have to be taken so personally by so many fans? We’ll never really know. Maybe it was because Chipper was Mr. Johnny All American in the eyes of most Braves fans, the golden boy who was not allowed to do any wrong.

It is important to remember that Chipper has had the fortune and misfortune of playing his entire career for a professional sports team in the South, which is in the middle of the Bible Belt. If one remembers the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, there is a scene where some judgmental, sanctimonious, holier than thou, Bible beating prude publicly berates Reese Witherspoon’s June Carter character because Reese’s character had just gone through a divorce. If you looked at Reese’s face, you could see how deeply wounded June Carter was by the rude prude (and the thousands of others the rude prude was supposed to represent in the movie). The best Reese’s character could weakly muster in response was “I’m sorry I let you down, ma’am.”

Watching that scene, you can imagine how Chipper Jones has had to absurdly experience the same thing hundreds of times in public with the incessant Hooters taunts over the last decade in the South and also in ballparks all across America. While Chipper probably felt as bad as June Carter did for letting his fans down, Chipper is a man and a man is not going to let himself be talked to that way, especially not in front of his wife and children. Not when the man is 6 feet, 4 inches, 225 pounds and can knock your ever living lights out. Chipper knew that about himself. So he shut down and admittedly became a bit of a recluse, saying recently in a radio interview, “Back when I went through my first marriage, my first divorce, everything that hit the papers, I had to be a little bit of a recluse because I never knew who was going to come at me trying to start something, trying to get me to knock them out in a club or something.…. It only takes one….. I could not afford (to get my name in the papers again) ….. I kept everyone at an arm’s length at that point.”

Chipper understands that he is not a perfect man and that he has not always set the perfect example or said the right things or shown the perfect public displays of emotion. “I know that the kids look up to and idolize us but what people have to understand is that we are intense individuals who want to succeed. Sometimes the emotion of the moment causes you to say and do things that are not G rated. But that doesn’t make us bad people…… I was always passionate about the game. I came from a baseball family. My dad was drafted by the Cubs. I told my mom when I was 4 that I was gonna play in the big leagues one day. I know the passion doesn’t shine through all the time as, like anything else, I might be dealing with an injury or just flat out tired. But I take the field to win everyday.”[i]

Things began changing between Chipper and the fans during the 2007 season, the first season of the third and most likely last seven year cycle of his career. In spring training of 2007, he suffered a minor injury that caused the fans on the blogs to scream out in anger at yet another injury from Chipper. Unbeknownst to the bloggers, Chipper was an active reader of blogs who even occasionally posted anonymously as U Kno Who on David O’Brien’s blog at the Atlanta Journal Constitution website. Having read the outrage, Chipper felt challenged and tried to play through the injury, saying he wanted to prove himself to all the doubting bloggers. “I read y’all’s paper and go online and check out the rumor mill,” he recently told columnist Mark Bradley, “I use it as positive motivation sometimes.” Unfortunately, in trying to prove himself to the fans last spring, he suffered yet another injury several days later. This injury most likely occurred because he was overcompensating for the injury he was trying to play through. However, by acknowledging the outraged concerns of the fans, and trying to be responsive to it, Chipper earned a lot of respect from many blogging fans.

Chipper suffered a few more injuries during the 2007 season. In June of 2007, Chipper and ace John Smoltz became involved in a public spat with one another after Smoltz vaguely questioned Chipper’s desire to play everyday. Chipper was fired up when he heard this and snapped back that he would play the rest of the way but that Smoltz had better not miss a start the rest of the season. Bobby Cox quickly smoothed things over between the two longtime Braves. Some fans are still angry that Chipper had to be challenged by Smoltz to play but many Braves fans were glad to finally see Chipper upset, angry, and acting human.

Chipper had a great season in 2007 but found himself outshined by the golden boy du jour at third base, David Wright, who is just the latest and perhaps the greatest of the pretenders to Chipper’s third base throne. Some others have come on strong and wilted over the years. Hank Blalock, Eric Chavez, Troy Glaus, and Scott Rolen to name a few. Chipper was a top third baseman before those guys and, at 36, is still a top third baseman even after the productivity for those players has declined.

As great a season as people love to argue David Wright had in 2007 through the use of Win Shares and VORP and all the other metrics, Chipper Jones was better than David Wright in 2007 despite missing 26 more games than Wright. Chipper played 134 games, played the best defense of his career, had a .337 batting average, a .425 OBP, a .604 SLG, a 166 OPS+, 173 hits, 82 walks, 108 runs scored, 102 RBIs, 42 doubles, 29 homers, contended until the last weekend for the batting title, finished in the top five in OBP and SLG, and led the league in OPS. In 2007, in 160 games, David Wright had a .325 AVG, a .416 OBP, a .546 SLG, a 150 OPS+, 196 hits, 94 walks, 113 runs scored, 107 RBIs, 42 doubles, and 30 homers. But Wright is the golden boy right now, the new young sexy cat who can do no wrong the way Chipper was in the 1990s. The jury is still out on the golden boy from Queens. Let’s see if he is still standing tall at 36 years old like Larry Wayne Jones or if he falls to the wayside like Blalock, Chavez, Rolen, and Glaus.

As spring training started in 2008, Chipper showed major cajones and took a great leap towards improving his relationship with Braves fans. Chipper was no longer anonymously posting on the AJC Braves blogs as U Kno Who. He finally took off the mask and revealed himself, telling the bloggers, “I read the blogs pretty often. I like to know what is being said. Not so much during the the season because I don’t have that much time, but in the offseason, I read quite a bit especially when we make moves just to see how jacked up u guys get.”[ii] The love thrown Chipper’s way by hundreds of fans on the blog over the course of the next two days was remarkable. He answered question after question after question and the love kept pouring in. Apparently, the love for Chipper from Nocahoma Nation never went away. It was just in hibernation because their favorite star had become a bit of an admitted recluse by necessity. By finally opening up to the fans, Chipper had finally let the fans know it was okay to open up to him.

Chipper has also been much more revealing in recent interviews. On the Mayhem in the AM sports talk radio show on 790 The Zone in Atlanta, Chipper credited becoming less of an admitted recluse to “being a lot more comfortable with what is going on at home. Obviously, being a dad and not taking the game as seriously as I used to. Being a little more open to let people inside my circle.…. Now 99% of the people I meet are excited about the Braves and me being in the race for the batting title. Those are the people I enjoy talking to.”[iii]

Chipper has also received a lot of criticism from fans and media members over the years for not being enough of a vocal and emotional leader. When Chipper was asked recently about his reluctance in the past to step up and embrace being the star and leader of the team, Chipper said: “I didn’t feel that way back early in my career. There were so many stars here. Smoltz, Maddux, Glavine. I felt so out of place saying something in the clubhouse. Even though people wanted me to, I just didn’t feel comfortable doing it. Now, I have no problem …. I’ll jump in someone’s face in a heartbeat if I feel that it is warranted.”

An example of Chipper’s growth as a leader was reported recently in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. During batting practice in spring training of 2008, Jeff Francouer, who had put on 17 pounds of muscle during the offseason, was hitting bombs over the left field fence during batting practice, causing the fans to ooh and aah. Nothing gets on Chipper’s nerves more than a pull happy wannabe slugger. Chipper’s philosophy on hitting taught to him by his father is one of patience and discipline. The hitter should aim to drive every pitch through the centerfield wall. Chipper believes that if one practices this approach, it became a matter of muscle memory during games and the hitter can easily adjust and go the other way if the pitch is outside or pull it if the pitch is fed inside. Although Chipper loved him like a brother, Chipper was often very frustrated with the other member of the Jones Boys tandem, Andruw Jones, throughout the years for not adhering to this approach despite having the ability to do so. Francouer, or Frenchy as everyone down in the ATL calls him, has been a favorite target of Chipper’s barbs Chipper has frequently taken to nicknaming Frenchy Captain Caveman because of his frustration with what he sees as a neanderthalish approach to hitting.

During this particular batting practice session, Chipper told the batting practice pitcher to “Throw some outside,” wanting to see if Frenchy could hit the ball to right field. “Those are outside,” Chipper was told. “He’s just got that kind of power.” With his famous Chipper grin, Chipper reportedly said “Yeah, he does. What time is it?” When someone replied 3 o’clock, Chipper said, “They don’t play a lot of games at 3 o’clock.” When Frenchy continued hitting batting practice bombs, Chipper said “Lose an Andruw, gain an Andruw.” Frenchy then told the pitcher to throw him something outside and Frenchy proceeded to smoke a ball up the middle.[iv]

That little exchange having been reported in the paper, Chipper was asked about it a few days later in a radio interview. Chipper said it was “Said in jest. But he got the hint. When we’re out there taking batting practice, jerking the balls over the left field wall, yeah it’s all fun and sexy, the fans in the stands love it. But you’re not working on what you need to be working on and that’s driving the ball the other way and getting that muscle memory. Because pitchers are not just gonna put the ball right down the middle, middle in, and let you jerk it into the parking lot. They’re gonna work the outside corner with their slider. So we kinda need to work on that. Just a little subtle hint here and they get the gist of it.” When Frenchy later joined Chipper in that radio interview, Chipper reminded Frenchy “Ya know. There is a wall out there in right center…. Quite a few of mine have gone the other way.” Another example of Chipper’s ribbing of teammates was a recent comment he made about All Star catcher Brian McCann that “some of us actually shy away from the buffet table. Some of us camp out at the buffet table.”

Before you think Chipper has turned into a crusty old vet who tears apart youngsters because he feels threatened by their rising stardom, you have to understand that McCann and Francouer are tough dudes who take it as well as they dish it out. Chipper recently commented on the blogs that “Frenchy and BMac really make it fun to come to the park. They both act like 12 year olds and that rubs off on the rest of us. They are constantly needling each other and it makes for hours of laughter for us old coots. But they are intense at game time and they want to win. Does it make me feel younger? No! But it is a nice change from the way the clubhouse used to be.”

Some have wanted Chipper to enter the Rollins/Beltran, Mets/Phillies yapfest about who is “the team to beat” but Chipper has said, “It’s not my place. I sit there and I listen to them haggle. They won the last two. Alright, I’ll give it ya. We did it for 14 straight and didn’t say a word. Everybody just assumed we were gonna be at the top. I’ll let them talk back and forth. Honestly, they can have the division. Our sights are set a little higher than that.” In a subsequent interview Francouer did with Ken Rosenthal, Francouer related that Chipper has told his teammates, “Don’t get me wrong, they’ve had some good years. But come talk when you’ve won 14 in a row.”[v]

The one part of Chipper’s leadership that could never be questioned was his willingness to sacrifice, personally and financially, to give the Braves a better chance to win. Chipper, John Smoltz, and even Andruw Jones in 2001, all could have commanded a lot more money by going to a big market team but they preferred to take hometown discounts and even occasionally defer salary to later years so that the team could better compete. Chipper arguably will have lost out on at least $50 million dollars during the course of this decade by staying in Atlanta and not selling his services to the highest bidders in New York, Chicago, Boston, or Los Angeles. Sounds quite foolish, especially since he was not always appreciated for that sacrifice. Chipper recently explained this, in textspeak, on the blogs: “My concern is trying to give the team the chance to win a championship. With our tight purse strings, it’s hard to win when u have one guy taking up so much of yer payroll. Smoltzie and I know this, so we will do whatever we have to, within reason, to work with the Braves to put the best product on the field… . My home will always be here in Atl(anta). My kids are rooted in the schools here. I wouldn’t want to move them for selfish reasons. They are what’s important. I want them to feel comfortable. Never, ever has the thought of playing anywhere but rite here entered my mind. (But) I know the day is coming. It does for all of us.”

Chipper has recently stated that he plans to retire when he is 40 years old. Realizing the career is coming to a close sooner rather than later, many have started to put Chipper’s career into perspective. Rob Neyer and Peter Gammons have each recently called him a Hall of Famer. And with good reason. If you look at his stats, he has a lifetime .307 AVG, a .403 OBP, a .546 SLG, and a 143 OPS+. He has hit 386 home runs and has 1293 runs scored to go along with 1299 RBIs. Amazingly, he has walked more than he has struck out. Chipper has 1152 walks against 1081 strikeouts.

What does Chipper think of his present Hall of Fame chances? Chipper recently told Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal Constitution that “I’m one of the guys who, if I quit right now, I wouldn’t make it. I’m on the cusp. The next five or six years will tell the tale.” Chipper is now like a President in his last term consumed with the legacy he leaves behind. Instead of concerning himself with the arrangements for his future Presidential library, he is now consumed with securing his place in that great museum up in Cooperstown, New York as one of the best switch hitters and best third baseman ever. Most of all, Larry Wayne Jones wants to be remembered as a Brave and the best player on a team that won lots of games, division titles, NL pennants, and a World Series.

As his career winds down, let’s hope Chipper Jones becomes an elder statesman of the game and has some magical moments left in him that make me shed a tear like when Don Mattingly hit a homer in the 1995 Divisional Series, or that he is moved to tears while standing on the field like Paul Oneill was during the 9^th inning of Game 5 of the 2001 World Series as Yankees fans chanted his name and showered him with their love, or that he hits a homer in his last at bat like Ted Williams, or that he hits three homers in a game in one of his last games like Babe Ruth did, or that he hits a homer in his last All Star game like Cal Ripken did, or that he has one last glorious run at a batting title like George Brett did during the twilight of his career in 1990, or that he has one last great MVP run in him like Mike Schmidt did as his career wound down in 1986. Let’s hope he never lets his batting average slip under .300. That was one of the biggest regrets Mickey Mantle had about his career. Let’s hope he hits 500 homers, gets 3000 hits, gets on base 4500 times, and never lets his OBP slip under .400.

Make the last 5 years great, Chipper, and, in ten years, we will all flock to Cooperstown to watch your induction speech. By then, there will be no doubt you were one of the top third baseman and switch hitters ever.