Avery Injury Causes a Blip in Mazzone’s Brave Rotation

The Atlanta Braves put Steve Avery on the disabled list Tuesday because of a pulled muscle on the left side of his rib cage.

Put it in headlines.

In this era of hangnailitis and twingectomy, with disabled lists overflowing and baseball wondering (or should be) if it should hire Kerri Strug to deliver lectures on motivation, perseverance and performing in pain, Avery is the first of Atlanta’s Big Four starting pitchers to go on the disabled list since the start of the 1991 season--a span of 5 1/2 years.

Even more remarkable, until Avery missed two starts because of this injury, the remarkable Big Four of John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Avery had missed only three starts in the 5 1/2 years and only one because of an arm problem.

Smoltz missed a 1994 start because of an elbow condition just before the players went on strike, and ultimately had surgery.

Maddux missed a 1995 start because of the flu, and Glavine missed a 1992 start because of a cracked rib.

This record of durability and dedication by a staff responsible for putting the Braves in the playoffs in four of the last five seasons is “the thing were most proud of,” pitching coach Leo Mazzone said. It’s also a testament to a program initiated by Mazzone and Manager Bobby Cox in which pitchers, as Mazzone puts it, “throw a lot and run a little” between starts.

Yet, despite five years without serious injury to the talented starters, Mazzone said “we still get criticized” by old-school baseball people who think pitchers should do the opposite of what the Braves do, meaning run a lot and throw a little between starts.

While the Atlanta routine varies a bit per individual, each of the starters basically plays catch with Mazzone on the first day after he pitches, throws off a mound on the second and third days, plays catch with Mazzone on the fourth, then starts on the fifth.

Most clubs have their pitchers throw off a mound only on one of the middle days between starts and otherwise do heavy running.

While the Braves throw twice off a mound, it’s not at maximum effort.

“Just get some touch on the ball, make it move,” Mazzone said, having studied under Johnny Sain.

“How do you develop touch and retain it if you don’t throw?

“It beats standing around and shagging [during batting practice]. They’re also maintaining leg strength as they throw. We run in the spring.”

Atlanta relievers also throw almost daily, even if they’re available to pitch that night.

“Our guys are so accustomed to throwing that they don’t feel right when they don’t,” Mazzone said.

“It’s also helpful if there are times when Bobby goes to a four-man rotation. It’s easier for the guys to do it [because they’re conditioned to the frequent throwing pattern].”

The Atlanta program, Mazzone said, combines the best of the four-man and five-man concepts.

“Our guys stay as sharp as if they were in a four-man and healthier because they’re in a five,” he said.

“It all verifies the way Bobby handles pitchers. We know how, and [the pitchers] know they won’t be abused.”

A lot of it also comes down to the Maddux-Avery-Smoltz-Glavine work ethic and commitment.

Said Mazzone: “Pitchers are not going to be 100% all the time, but these guys have such pride, determination and talent that they believe they can win when they’re not 100% and are willing to go out there.”

Avery warmed up before each of his two missed starts but couldn’t go. He may be out three weeks.

Terrell Wade is being given the first opportunity to replace him, which seemed to be a case of the rich getting richer Wednesday night in St. Louis when Wade gave up only one run and struck out eight in five innings of a 4-1 Atlanta victory.

The Braves found Wade at a tryout camp in South Carolina five years ago.

He has a 90-plus fastball that helped account for 539 strikeouts in 503 1/3 minor league innings, but no breaking pitch, poor control and uneven work habits slowed his progress.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound left-hander lost weight and pitched well in the Arizona Fall League last winter, however, and he had a club-low 1.23 earned-run average for 27 relief appearances before his first start Wednesday.

He will get another start Tuesday night in San Diego, having prepared by throwing twice off a mound in the meantime and having demonstrated in St. Louis that he could be a dominating and intimidating addition to a vaunted rotation.

“There is so much to be said for mound presence,” Mazzone said of the 23-year-old rookie. “You like for people to think you know what you’re doing out there.”

Do the Braves know what they’re doing? You can look it up.

CUBAN CONNECTION

When the Cuban and U.S. Olympic baseball teams play in Atlanta today, Livan Hernandez and Osvaldo Fernandez will be a long way from that pursuit for gold.

One or the other might have been the Cuban starter against the United States, but both got their gold last winter.

Hernandez, 21, received a $4.5-million contract from the Florida Marlins. Fernandez, 29, got a $3.2-million deal from the San Francisco Giants.

Combined with the recent defection of ace Rolando Arrojo, who is between 28 and 32 and seeking citizenship in the Dominican Republic so that he can follow Hernandez and Fernandez on that yellow brick road to free agency, the Cuban rotation has definitely been diluted.

In addition, Orlando Hernandez, Livan’s talented brother and a potential starting pitcher for the national team, was left home because Cuban officials feared he would try to join his brother, who is 5-1 with Portland (Maine) of the Eastern League, Florida’s double-A affiliate.

Hernandez opened the season at triple-A, but cultural and communication problems prompted the move to Portland, where Spanish-speaking Manager Carlos Tosca is also Cuban.

In a process that is part baseball, part culture, Marlin General Manager Dave Dombrowski said Hernandez is making progress.

Unfortunately, he showed an easy adaptation to fast food. Chunky to begin with, Hernandez is, well, even chunkier.

Dombrowski wouldn’t say how much Hernandez is overweight, but “he needs to lose it and knows it. He’s not throwing with the same velocity he did last winter, when he was 94, 95 [miles per hour].”

Nevertheless, Dombrowski said, the Marlins still feel good about the investment--aimed, in part, at catering to Miami’s large Cuban community.

“We had preferred not to spend that much money, but other clubs were going to spend more,” he said. “If we were going to sign him that was the cost, and we felt strong enough about his potential to make the commitment.”

At this point, of course, neither the Marlins nor Giants would acknowledge a mistake.

Fernandez has been at the major league level all season.

He was moved to the bullpen this week with a 4-11 record and 5.46 ERA in 20 starts, but Manager Dusty Baker said it wasn’t a demotion.

Baker said that with a revolving-door rotation, with a stream of injured starters coming on and off the disabled list and room needed for the return of Allen Watson, Fernandez and his healthy arm best fit the relief mold.

“He’s done a heck of a job for a guy coming right out of Cuba and moving into the National League,” Baker said.

“His ERA got blown out in a couple games, but he’s pitched well enough to have four or five more wins, and he should be better next year when he has that much more knowledge of the league,” Baker said.

Shortstop Rey Ordonez, a former member of the Cuban junior team, might also have been starting against the United States today, but he defected before Hernandez and Fernandez did, largely because incumbent Cuban shortstop German Mesa showed no signs of yielding that position.

Ordonez, playing for the New York Mets, remains the National League’s leading rookie of the year candidate.

“He’s been a human highlight film,” said Steve Phillips, the Mets’ assistant general manager. “He’s exceeded our expectation. His batting average has tailed off after a fast start [he’s in the mid-.260s], but he’s justified our feeling that he’ll learn to hit at the major league level like Ozzie Smith and Alan Trammell did.

“He has 18 errors, but many of those [have been] on off-balance throws after getting to balls other shortstops wouldn’t. He’ll learn with experience that there are times when you just have to eat the ball, but he doesn’t fear extending his range or trying the difficult play.”

As Hernandez, Fernandez and Ordonez would attest, the most difficult play was defecting. The rest, in time, should be easy.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--The resurgence of the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central has dimmed chances of the payroll fire sale that ousted owner Marge Schott wanted before Wednesday’s non-waiver trade deadline, but ex-Angel Lee Smith said of the rampant rumors:

“Well, I guess it’s time for me to start rounding up the fliers for Ryder and U-Haul again.”

--The Seattle Mariners have done a big job playing through the injuries to Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., Chris Bosio, Russ Davis and now Edgar Martinez (the designated hitter became the latest replacement for Davis at third base and suffered badly bruised ribs in his first start in a collision with catcher John Marzano), but the patience and stamina of weary regulars has worn thin.

“Ownership has told us that if this team is in contention they’ll go out and get us help,” outfielder Jay Buhner said. “Well, we need help. We’d really like to know when that unnamed date is going to come. A trade now would be like a shot of B-12 when we need it most. If they wait much longer, it could be too late.”

--In the category of underachievement, the Angels are surpassed only by the Baltimore Orioles, who have a payroll of $48 million but have been riddled by a series of internal problems that the re-acquisition of Eddie Murray and his pursuit of 500 homers won’t solve. Said Roberto Alomar:

“We have a good ballclub here, maybe the best I’ve ever been on, but we have to go out and do the little things, help each other out. We don’t have the same fire, the same look in the eye [we had when the season started].”