Aches, Pains, and the Braves' '09 Season
by
Paul Kaplan
Georgia Online News Service
Uh-oh, Chipper Jones tweaked his oblique.
I don't even know what an oblique is, but I know this much: If Chipper tweaked it, it's a problem for the Braves.
And Garret Anderson tweaked his calf.
I know what a calf is, but I've never tweaked one while jogging, like Anderson did.
Jones and Anderson have a few things in common: both are 36 years old, soon to be 37, both have become increasingly fragile in their twilight years as ballplayers, and if either of them spends the season in and out of the Braves lineup with tweaks, kiss 2009 goodbye.
That's how tenuous the Braves lineup is.
Spring training is all about aches and pains, but the older you get the more it aches and the longer it pains. Still, Braves General Manager Frank Wren likes older proven veterans. He brought in Anderson, who is winding down a nice career, to play left field and he signed three new starting pitchers, all of whom are in their 30s, including Derek Lowe, who at 35 (and $15 million a season) is expected to be the staff ace.
Wren also re-signed pitcher Tom Glavine, who'll be 43 this month and was injured most of last year. And he tried unsuccessfully to re-sign Mike Hampton (36 and habitually injured) and John Smoltz (41 and increasingly prone to breaking down).
Is this how to build a winning baseball team?
Some clubs have been successful spending big bucks on top-shelf veterans in their prime, while others have won by trading high-priced veterans for young talent who out-hustled opponents with their energy, speed and guile.
The Braves are doing neither. They are signing declining stars on the cheap, hoping to wring final hoorahs out of them, and mixing them in with younger talent (Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, Brian McCann) who have not yet reached their big paydays.
Meanwhile, some of the best young talent in the organization -- outfielder Jason Heyward, a big power hitter the team so dearly needs; pitcher Tommy Hanson, an ace in waiting; first baseman Freddie Freeman, a big kid with a sweet swing; centerfielder Jordan Schafer, who apparently has all the tools – are expected to continue biding their time down on the farm.
True, the longer the Braves leave these players in the minor leagues, the more production they should get out of them in the early years of their pro careers in Atlanta, when they will cost the team almost nothing.
But the Braves looked old and tired last year, and they lost 90 games. The starting rotation was creaky and eventually broke down, and the bench was timeworn, too. A couple of fiery young players might have fit in nicely, but Wren wouldn't bring any of his brightest young stars to the big house, even after the season was completely lost.
Glavine has been one of the greatest Braves ever, but re-signing him means there's no place in the starting rotation for Jorge Campillo, the animated Mexican who showed a nice repertoire of junk pitches as a rookie last season.
Now he's out of the mix while Glavine, who broke down in '08 after winning two games, tries to pitch one more season in an attempt to end a Hall of Fame career on a winning note.
Glavine would make a wonderful pitching coach, or even a manager, and he'd be ideal as head of the player's union. But all of that will have to wait, because he's decided to take the mound one more time in Atlanta.
It will become either a great story line, or the lead on the Braves' obituary for '09.
Paul Kaplan has been an award-winning writer and editor at newspapers in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. [full bio]
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