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Insider | Short Hops | Love Letters
The addition of Shane Reynolds is a boon to a gasping Atlanta pitching staff, and the former Houston right-hander at least buys some time for the Braves until they come to terms with -- and solve -- their very unusual problem of not having enough pitching.
You can't plan for things like Mike Hampton's strained calf (he's due back within the next week) and Paul Byrd's bad elbow (surgery will knock him out for two-to-four months).
But most of all, based on history, you can't plan for the beating Greg Maddux has taken this year.
After signing the most expensive one-year deal in baseball history ($14.75 million), Maddux, at 0-3, is off to his worst start since 1989, when he was with the Chicago Cubs. He has surrendered 29 hits and 24 runs in 14 innings and his ERA is 11.05, but the silver lining for the Braves is that they say there are no hidden injuries and, Maddux being Maddux, they expect him to return to form any day now.
So does Maddux.
"It doesn't do you any good to know how to pitch when you can't throw it where you want to throw it," he said after the Phillies pounded him for 10 runs (seven earned) and 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings during Wednesday's 16-2 romp. "My location is terrible, and when your location is terrible, it's tough to pitch."
Opponents are whaling away at Maddux for a .397 batting average and a .792 slugging percentage.
Atlanta skipper Bobby Cox noted Maddux's seven strikeouts against the Phillies, pointing out that the right-hander's stuff is there -- even if Maddux has trailed 4-0, 3-0 and 3-0 after the first inning of his three starts this season.
"But he is making some bad pitches," Cox said. "He might be trying to do too much."
Whatever, after losing Tom Glavine and Kevin Millwood during the offseason and rebuilding their staff with Hampton, Byrd and Russ Ortiz, this pretty much is a worst-case-scenario start for Atlanta. Reynolds likely will join the rotation soon, and assuming Hampton comes back soon, that at least gives the Braves a fighting chance.
Which is more than they've had more often than not this season.
- This losing streak is reaching historic proportions in Detroit. Among many other statistics, there's this: According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Alan Trammell now owns the longest losing streak in 99 years at the start of his career. By dropping to 0-8 Thursday, Trammell surpassed the 0-7 mark of Jimmie Wilson of the Phillies, who won in his eighth game. According to Elias, the longest losing streak for a manager at the start of his career is 13 games, set by Malachi Kittridge of the 1904 Washington Senators.
- At least Cal Ripken's wife had the foresight to deliver one of their kids on an off day so her husband could keep his Iron Man streak intact (attention, Martha Burk: That was an obvious tongue-in-cheek statement in reference to what's coming next, so settle down.) Whether Florida first baseman Derrek Lee's wife will be that cooperative, well, we'll find out in two or three weeks. She's due with the couple's first child, and Lee, whose 218 consecutive games played through midweek is the longest streak in the National League, might actually have to miss a game. The due date is May 1, when the Marlins are scheduled to be in Arizona. Florida's closest off days to that date are April 21 and May 5. It's OK with Lee, who wasn't exactly planning to challenge Ripken's record 2,632 consecutive games played, anyway.
- Maybe there's hope for an old baseball art form that mostly has been lost in recent years: Nicknames. Oakland's players have taken to calling quiet slugger Erubiel Durazo "Mongo" after the Alex Karras character in that excellent flick Blazing Saddles.
- It's official, the Ivan Rodriguez era now is longer than that glorious Mike Piazza era in Florida. Rodriguez played in his sixth game the other day, Piazza played in five during his brief layover there in 1998.
- Sometimes, even Gold Gloves clank. Pittsburgh second baseman Pokey Reese, who has won two of the awards, committed three errors in the first five games and then added a fourth in the Pirates' seventh game. Last year, it took him 76 games before he committed his third error, and he wound up with only eight in 117 games.
- E-Rawlings? Over in Seattle, another second baseman isn't exactly having a smooth relationship with a Gold Glove, either. When they handed Bret Boone his award before Seattle's home opener Tuesday, his name was spelled "Brett" on the plaque. "A lot of guys spell it with two t's but, geez, you think they'd have checked," Boone said.
- Here's a new twist on the old "deferred salary" concept: Pittsburgh released reliever Matt Herges late this spring and the right-hander is expected to be recalled by San Diego from Triple-A Portland by this weekend. Yet he's not finished collecting from the Pirates: He's owed $1,000 from the team's NCAA Tournament clubhouse pool for Kansas' second-place finish, and he had Texas in another pool and is owed $150 for the Longhorns' Final Four appearance.
- Look out -- Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson may soon have company. The best pitching prospect in the A's organization is Rich Harden, and the A's promoted him to Triple-A Sacramento on Wednesday after he threw 13 perfect innings over two starts to begin the season at Double-A Midland. Harden worked six perfect innings against Round Rock (owned by Nolan and Reid Ryan), then came back with seven more perfect innings against the same Round Rock team in his next start. He retired all 39 Double-A batters he faced, and he fanned 17. He is expected to make his Triple-A debut Sunday.
- Sometimes the trouble with rebuilding projects is the weather. You've no doubt seen some of the temperatures at ballparks in the Midwest and East this week, but how about the case of Buffalo, Cleveland's Triple-A team? The Bisons played their season opener ... then had six games postponed by snow and ice. "It doesn't do much for player development," John Farrell, the Indians' farm director, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "You don't want to overexpose your pitching by scheduling six doubleheaders." Wise guy Paul Hoynes, veteran baseball writer at the Plain Dealer, notes that, to escape the cold, Buffalo headed north to Ottawa for a series this weekend.
- And one more minor league note, because we just can't resist moments like these: Right-hander Mike Crudale, pitching at Triple-A Memphis, will be lost to the St. Louis organization for the next several days after breaking the little toe on his left foot. He reportedly was going to answer the telephone in his Memphis apartment when the injury occurred.
- Good luck charm, or just plain lucky? We'll see what happens this summer before judging, but let it be noted that the past two NL West teams to employ reliever Troy Brohawn have won the pennant (San Francisco last year, Arizona in '01). So where is the lefty this year? Ensconced in the Los Angeles Dodgers' bullpen.
- Fun with numbers: Take away that little thing called the offseason, and Baltimore had lost 38 of its past 44 games through midweek (4-32 to end last year, 2-6 this year). Narrow that down even more to the 12-game losing streak with which the O's -- and we do mean O's -- ended the 2002 season, and they were 2-18 in their past 20 games.
- So you know what's coming next: Baltimore sports talk radio shows are screaming for Orioles skipper Mike Hargrove to be fired, conveniently ignoring that matter of the personnel he's had to work with.
- Cubs closer Antonio Alfonseca is scheduled to throw from a mound soon at the team's training base in Mesa, Ariz., but the club says Alfonseca won't be back until early May no matter what. "The way he was maligned around here last year, if you bring him back too soon and he blows a couple saves, he's right back to (being maligned) again," skipper Dusty Baker told Chicago reporters. "We want him to be 100 percent and throwing the ball like he's capable with the control he's capable of."
- Count San Diego manager Bruce Bochy as among those who disagree with San Francisco advertising itself as a club with less power and more speed this year. The speed part is still possible, but Bochy says forget the power -- he thinks the Giants will lead the National League in home runs this year. Of course, that's after watching the Padres' pitching staff serve up 12 dingers to the Giants in their first six games this season.
- Lou Piniella gets a whole lot of pub for his volcanic temper, but here's one more example of why he's so good at what he does: Trying to find a way to help a struggling young pitching staff through another rough stretch, he remained at Tropicana Field after a game with the Yankees on Friday night until 2 a.m., meeting with catcher Toby Hall about his responsibility in helping pitchers make better decisions. Among the points Piniella stressed to Hall was the importance of coming up with a good game plan and sticking with it.
- When Colorado first baseman Todd Helton reached base seven times in Tuesday's marathon loss to St. Louis, tying a major league record, he saw 29 pitches from six different pitchers. He also finished a triple short of hitting for the cycle.
- San Diego, by the way, has never had a batter hit for the cycle or a pitcher throw a no-hitter since joining the majors in 1969.
- Keep an eye on Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia when he starts against Kansas City on Saturday. He left last Saturday's start against the Royals in the seventh inning after hyperextending his left elbow on a 97 mph fastball to Michael Tucker. An MRI and other tests came back negative, and let's hope it stays that way. Losing Sabathia would be a huge blow to the Indians.
- If Chan Ho Park flames out in the Texas rotation -- and he's getting awfully close at 0-2 with a 15.88 ERA -- it could result in two job changes. The Rangers are pondering moving the disappointing Park to the bullpen, and there's also the very real chance that catcher Chad Kreuter will be pink-slipped. The only reason the Rangers signed Kreuter is because he was Park's personal catcher in Los Angeles two years ago, and they thought his presence might get the pitcher going.
- Tampa Bay GM Chuck LaMar was asked for a credential the other day by an elevator operator. Funny thing was, the elevator (and the operator) was located in Tropicana Field.
- That shrinking feeling: As Cleveland owner Larry Dolan has lowered the payroll from $92 million in 2002 to the $50 million range this year, season ticket sales are down sharply, from 23,000 last year to somewhere between 14,000 and 15,000 this year. The Indians are expecting attendance to decline from 2.6 million in 2002 to roughly 1.6 million this year.
- That shrinking feeling II: Colorado's season ticket base is down about 25 percent from a year ago, to 18,300.
