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Friday, May 12
Braves will adjust to life without Smoltz

By Bob Brookover
Special to ESPN.com

John Smoltz' season ended Wednesday, victimized by a worn-down elbow. The Braves and the rest of the teams in baseball know that much for sure. What happens to the National League's team of the 1990s from here isn't nearly as clear.

There are two schools of thought. One is that this is the beginning of the end for the Braves, a team that has won an amazing eight division titles and reached the World Series five times over the last nine years. The other is that the Braves will do what needs to be done in order to win another division title.

Both arguments have valid points.

You really have to wonder how much more the Braves can endure. Yes, they shrugged off the loss of closer Kerry Ligtenberg and first baseman Andres Galarraga last season and still managed to win 103 games before being swept by the Yankees in the World Series.

But losing Smoltz is a much more devastating blow. It not only weakens the best starting rotation in baseball, it also makes an already vulnerable bullpen even more of a question mark.

"You don't replace John Smoltz," pitching coach Leo Mazzone said. "Somebody else will pitch when it's John's turn, but he won't replace him. It's a sad day for all of us."

Actually, Kevin Millwood, the Braves' lone All-Star pitcher last summer, will do just fine moving into Smoltz' No. 3 slot in the rotation. At least on paper, the Braves' trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Millwood is better than any in baseball. But the beauty of the Braves' rotation has always been its unmatched depth.

Starting with Denny Neagle in 1997, the Braves' fourth starters averaged 18 wins per year the past three seasons. Among National League pitchers, only Maddux has won more games during that stretch than the Braves' No. 4 combination of Neagle and Millwood. As the fifth starter in 1998, Millwood won 17 games.

Terry Mulholland will move into the fourth spot in the Braves' rotation. He's an accomplished veteran and a true professional who spoke his sensible mind the day John Rocker reported to spring training. Mulholland was one of the first to tell Rocker that his conduct was unacceptable last season and he wasn't just talking about the pitcher's insensitive racial slurs in Sports Illustrated.

As good a man as Mulholland is in the clubhouse, he has not been used solely as a starter since 1996 and he has amassed more than 200 innings just once since 1992. The Braves had hoped to have him as a swingman, a role in which he is an invaluable asset. Mulholland made 24 starts and 18 relief appearances for the Braves and Cubs last season, going 9-8 with a 4.43 ERA.

The fifth spot in the rotation is up for grabs, with Bruce Chen likely to win the job over Steve Avery and Derrin Ebert. None of those three will evoke fear in the Braves' opponents. Chen failed in his bid to nail down the fifth spot last season and allowed 11 home runs in just 51 innings.

Avery, the Braves' stud fourth starter at the beginning of the 1990s, is a shell of his former self and underwent surgery last August to repair a tear in the undersurface of his rotator cuff. He probably won't be ready to start the season, but he could be ready if Chen falters again.

Ebert has five relief appearances and a 5.63 ERA on his major-league resume.

It is a still a good rotation, but nothing compared to the 1997 quintet that won 85 games. Factor in that Maddux and Glavine showed signs of being mortal last season and you can see why the Mets and the Phillies -- if Curt Schilling makes a hasty return -- feel a lot better about their chances today than they did last week at this time.

None of this even takes into consideration the Rocker situation, which is quiet now, but has the potential to explode when regular-season road trips begin.

"The reality is we probably got a little closer to (the Braves)," Phillies manager Terry Francona said when told about Smoltz' injury. "But I can't feel good about it. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I want to beat the Braves as bad as anyone, but I don't want to beat them because Smoltz went down."

Of course, there is the other theory, too. It's more than likely that the Braves will at the very least hang close in the National League East race. History tells us that if general manager John Schuerholz feels his team needs help before the July 31 trade deadline, you can envision them landing Brad Radke or one of the other stud starters on the block, just like he pried Neagle away from the Pirates in 1996.

"They always seem to come up with something," Phillies first baseman Rico Brogna said.

In other words, any reports you might see on the Braves' demise are probably greatly exaggerated.

Around the Senior Circuit

A new outlook: Nobody is happier about the way things are going in Montreal than long-time Expos manager Felipe Alou. If all goes according to plan, the Expos will break ground on a new downtown ballpark next month and possibly have a $50 million payroll to go along with a new park by 2002.

"Last year, there was only one plan, and the only plan was to get the club out of Montreal," Alou said. "It looked that way. That's the way we felt. Now, there are many plans. Keep the team in Montreal. Build a stadium. Sign free agents. Make trades to improve the team instead of the other way around. Actually try to win a trade."

Win a trade?

"You win games, but you also win trades," Alou said. "Most of the trades we've been doing are trade a superstar for a Class A prospect. We traded John Wetteland for a kid who wouldn't be here until five years later. Those are not big-league trades. Now, we mean business."

Good hit, good field? Mike Piazza is unquestionably the best offensive catcher of his era, but he is painfully aware of his shortcomings behind the plate. Piazza is working with former Mets catcher John Stearns this spring to improve on his throwing. Basestealers were successful on 79 percent of their attempts with Piazza behind the plate last season, sixth-worst in baseball behind Eddie Taubensee, Dave Nilsson, Todd Hundley, Dan Wilson and Chris Widger.

"I'm never going to be as quick as Pudge Rodriguez or Johnny Bench, but there's no reason why I can't improve," Piazza said.

Mad at McKeon: After watching Pete Jr. play all nine innings for the Phillies during an exhibition loss to the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday, Pete Rose took some shots at Cincinnati manager Jack McKeon, who was in charge when the Reds released his son in 1998.

Rose, banned for life by baseball, said he wants to manage again, but added he wouldn't want to be in charge of the Phillies because he wants to see Terry Francona have success.

"But Jack McKeon, I don't care about him," Rose said. "I'm not one of those guys who has run out and bought my (Reds) World Series tickets. I think McKeon used to get upset because Petey beat him to the ballpark. If you're the manager you're supposed to be the first one at the park."

Still a Rockies fan: Jamey Wright, dealt to the Brewers during the offseason, claims he is still a Rockies fan and he even offers advice for Jeff Cirillo, one of the players Milwaukee sent to Colorado for him.

"Still being a fan of the Rockies -- I came up through their system and I still have a lot of friends there -- I hope the new guys like Cirillo don't fall in love with the home run once they hit a few at Coors Field," Wright said. "We'd get beat 12-10 at home and everybody would talk about our offense, but then we'd get beat 3-2 on the road because we didn't hit."

Wright, however, is not sold on the Rockies' remodeled pitching staff.

"Pitching? We'll see," he said. "I've always told people that even if you put the Braves rotation in Coors Field, they'd have pretty much the same numbers as we put up. I've read things about how they got pitchers who are not scared to pitch in Denver. I was never, ever scared to pitch there. ... But pitching in Denver, it's tough. The new guys will find that out."

This and that
The Cubs remain conservative on Kerry Wood's return. It appears as if he won't make his Grapefruit League debut until at least March 18 or 19. It's even possible he won't pitch at all before the team leaves for Japan on March 24. They also want him to abandon his slider, but he has not yet bought into the idea. ... Phillies ace Curt Schilling is hoping to be throwing off a mound next week and is still shooting for a late April return. The Phillies continue to use the middle of May as a target date. ... Marlins first baseman Derrek Lee was upset after his salary was cut from $265,000 to $250,000 this season. On the other hand, the Marlins weren't too happy when he hit .206 and struck out 70 times in 70 games last season before losing his job to Kevin Millar. ... The Giants have yet to play a game in their new 40,800-seat Pacific Bell Park, but they've already set a franchise attendance record. The old mark was 2,606,354 in 1993. Attendance will easily surpass 3 million this season. ... The A's, meanwhile, have taken shots at their Bay Area cousins with billboards that read, "While they're building a stadium, we're building a team."

Bob Brookover, who covers the Phillies for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times, writes on the National League for ESPN.com.


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