On opening day, a sold out stadium of faithful and new Braves fans came out to witness the first of many curtain calls for legendary Manager Bobby Cox and the unveiling of future superstar Jason Heyward. The ovations from the crowd were deafening as Bobby was introduced, Hank Aaron (who threw out the ceremonial first pitch to who? Yes, that's right, Jason Heyward.), Heyward, McCann, Chipper, etc.
Ok, ok, ok, so as you have heard, Heyward hit his first career home run in his first career at bat against Carols Zambrano in the first inning that day, which was a Monday actually. McCann also hit his first bomb of the season that game too. Hurray!! We won 16-5, and I was there which was amazing!
Here is where things start to go down hill. The next game, still riding that high wave of emotion we pull out a come from behind "W" with a 2 run blast off of Chipper Jones' bat... HE'S BAAACK!
Or so we thought. (Over the next couple days, Chipper hurt his toe then strained his right oblique and missed all of the San Fransisco series) We win the game 3-2. So far we're 2-0 on the season. Well, the next game we get blanked as we waste Tommy Hanson's first start of the season and lose 2-0, then fly out west to San Fransisco that night for a day game the very next day. Reportedly Bobby & co. got to the hotel at 3 am that day only to have to wake up at 6am. I'd call that a bit of a rude move by the MLB, but they can't even figure out their heads from a hole in the ground, but I digress.We lost that game in 13 innings with terrible calls from the Umpiring crew and waste Tim Hudson's first start of the year, a gem of a start with 92 mph sinking fast balls and ground outs all over the place. But our new closer, who saved his first game that Wednesday, gave up a 2-run home run to the former Braves shortstop, Edgar Renteria. Blah, blah, blah bad calls, Bobby gets tossed and we lose. Game two of the three game set we win, 7-2, didn't watch it, i know i know, but I was at a wedding that didn't have a TV, oh well, cool note, Jason Heyward hit his 2nd home run. The third game, which was delayed 4 hours and 7 min. was against "The Freak", Tim Lincecum, yes 2-time Cy Young Award winner who fanned 10 Braves in 7 innings, but gave up a 2 run shot to McCann in the first and was really put to the test to be perfect by the "Dragon Slayer" Kenshin Kawakami of the Braves who has a history of shutting down the opposing team's Ace of the staff. An error here and an error there gave the Giants a 6-2 lead until Jason Heyward hit his third bomb, now leads the team... hmmmm... but we lost 6-3.
OK, we're 3-3.
Then there comes last night. Jair Jurrjens pitched his worst game in his professional career. 3.1 innings, 8 ER, 8 hits, 2 walks and 1 strikeout. Not to be outdone, Jo-Jo Reyes, the guy who for some reason is still around, went 3.1 innings, 9 ER, 10 hits, 3 walks and 2 strike outs. We lost that game to the San Diego Padres 17-2. We couldn't muster more than 2 runs on the worst hitting team in the Bigs. Our number 1 guys are the worst hitting hole in the majors, that would be Nate McLouth and the rather chunky Melky Cabrera. The latter having most of his ABs in the 1 hole while Nate is not doing too terrible in the 8 hole with a .348 OBP, but still churning butter to the tune of .118 batting average.
I go through all that to preach this, dear Braves fans, Terry Pendleton needs to be fired. Every time he gets his claws into a player in Atlanta, they turn into a terrible hitter. Why do you think it is that Chipper Jones and Brian McCann use their fathers as their personal hitting coaches. The two leaders of the club won't listen to their own coach. Martin Prado, the best hitter on the team, in my humble opinion, is leading the majors in avg. and I think is good enough to listen to himself and not Terry. Nate McLouth was a power hitter in Pittsburgh, now with an entire off season and Spring Training under Terry's eye, he has become almost ineffective.
Let's look at it this way: When Jeff Francoeur came up, he was a great hitter. The longer he spent with Terry, the worse be became at the plate. Kelly Johnson lost the ability here in Atlanta to make contact.
NEWS FLASH: Jeff Francoeur is hitting .476 with 2 home runs, and an OPS of 1.538 for the METS! Kelly is hitting .368 with 3 home runs with an OPS of 1.425 for the Dimondbacks.
That's number 1 and 3 for highest OPS in the NL.
Another note of interest, what has Derek Lowe done to gain all the run support? He was given the gift of a 6 run first inning on opening day after giving up a 3 run blast to Marlon Byrd of the Cubbies in the top of the first, then gets 7 runs of support from his hitters when he played the Giants on Saturday.
Lowe- 2-0 ( .380 BA against him and a .425 SLG% with a 4.5 ERA)
JJ- 0-1
Hanson- 0-1
Hudson- 0-0
Kawakami- 0-1
Just some food for thought:
Terry Pendleton: the bane of my existence I love the Braves and may have the greatest Braves day of my life coming up very soon, but the fact remains: We need a hitting coach that has proven to be a positive influence on our players, or at least one that won't ruin a hitter's swing. Glaus has yet to do deep. Heyward, who is still on track with his swing that HE has been working on, would do wise to not listen to what TP has to say and listen to Chipper, McCann and Prado have to say.
Well sports fans, I hope that we at least take the Padres series with a couple of back to back wins on Wednesday and Thursday with Tommy Hanson pitching and then Tim Hudson, but you cannot win if you don't hit the ball. So until then, pray for HITTING!!!, be proud of the Tomahawk Chop, and if you need a smile, just remember when Sid Slid.
