The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Choice of pitcher for home opener tells tale
It was the Braves’ home opening night — not to be confused with opening night in New York (season opener), Pittsburgh (Pirates’ home opener) and Miami (Marlins’ opener) — and there were so many media members for the first official game in SunTrust Park that Matt Kemp was nearly run over as he walked to his locker.
“Are all of you going to be here tomorrow?” he asked the assembled vultures. Well, no. But it is a nice stadium, as most new sports venues are, with all of the latest creature comforts for fans and players. This probably was best illustrated by the Braves’ future Hall of Famer, Chipper Jones, who said of the home clubhouse, “the amenities that these guys have now, I probably would’ve spent a lot less time on the DL.”
His favorite feature of the new park? “The hot and cold tub.” Of course. The night was a celebration of the past. Dale Murphy, Phil Niekro, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Jones, Bobby Cox and Hank Aaron (who threw out the first pitch) all were in attendance. They were introduced one by one, as their retired numbers were unveiled, and they stood on individual large red dots on the field.
(Former Cobb County commissioner Tim Lee watched from nearby. He was very upset that he didn’t get a dot. So he had to settle for $400 million in public money and a bandit mask.)
The ceremonies all went well, except for that part when baseball commissioner Rob Manfred thanked, “The city of Cobb.”
Once the buzz over the new stadium subsides, the biggest question is: Will the Braves get a lift from their new surroundings? Their lineup is solid and their defense presumably will improve from the first eight games. But the pitching is an issue.
Let’s start with the starters, and why and how Julio Teheran was on the mound for the first game at SunTrust.
Teheran was making his third start of the season. He didn’t allow a run in the first two outings (13 innings), but came away with two no-decisions, a statement on the defense behind him (two unearned runs), the bullpen and the offense (shut out in the season opener).
Teheran is the one starter the Braves can depend on. Not that we needed any more evidence of that, but the flimsiness of the rotation was put to rest when manager Brian Snitker pushed back R.A. Dickey’s turn in the order, gave Mike Foltynewicz a turn in the rotation the other night and brought back Teheran.
Snitker surely got a nudge from management, or marketing, or both. He will tell you the late decision to shuffle the rotation and start Teheran was merely the residual of two open dates early in the season and also him trying to keep as many starters as possible on schedule. Logic screams otherwise. The last thing the Braves wanted to do was open their new Valhalla with a 42-year-old knuckleballer (Dickey) or their No. 5 starter (Foltynewicz).
Teheran was the safest bet for a successful Friday night. Or any night.
It was a bit different in 1997. The Braves’ rotation included three future Hall of Famers — Greg Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz — as well as Denny Neagle and, well, it didn’t really matter.
Neagle wasn’t your average No. 4 starter, so Cox (and marketing) was just fine with him starting the first game in Turner Field. He had 16 wins the season before, when he was a part of a major pre-deadline trade with Pittsburgh, and won 20 in 1997.
Neagle would be the No. 2 starter in this rotation. By a long shot. The Braves’ staff entered the night with the fewest strikeouts in the majors, the 18th best ERA and the 23rd best batting average allowed. It’s not a staff that’s strong in the rotation or the bullpen, which means the Braves will need to win games with their offense and defense (the latter of which also was poor in the first eight games, with eight errors leading to nine unearned runs).
Glavine believes the Braves will “scrape and claw every game.” But ...
“If you had to look at an area of the team you would be concerned about, obviously it’s the pitching,” Glavine said. “Certainly, you’ve got two guys in Bartolo (Colon) and R.A. who — they are what they are, and you hope they stay healthy and eat innings like you want them to. But that’s obviously a question. And you’ve got some young guys down there in the bullpen, and some inexperienced guys.”
In summary, from Glavine: “How does all that play out? I don’t know. I think they’ll be competitive. Are they ready to win their division? I don’t know about that. But nobody thought we were ready in ’91, either.”
The Braves jumped from 65 wins in 1990 to 94 in 1991 in what turned out to be the first of 14 consecutive division titles. Even if the Braves’ lineup performs to, or exceeds, expectations, it’s hard to imagine this team winning that many games, given the pitching.
Then again, we are in strange times in sports. We’ve celebrated the Cubs, the Cavaliers and Sergio Garcia. Also, there was a 75-year-old Cox in the upper deck, leading fans in the “Chop” with an electric tomahawk.
Full stadiums sometimes spur overachievement in sports. There’s also the ballpark itself, which, according to Jones, could be a launching pad for home-run hitters.
“I did a commercial here a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “I walked in through the center-field breezeway, and it was like I was walking into a blizzard. Everything was just being sucked out of the park. I think the ball will carry really well, more so than at Turner. This place, I don’t think you’ll have to crush one to get it out of here.”
Fans will welcome home runs by the home team. The opponents are the concern.