Even Braves in the Market for Pitching

The callus that has plagued John Rocker all season is not the only Atlanta Brave pitching irritation. The bullpen has been decimated by injury--”we can’t go to anybody we can trust,” one member of the Braves said Saturday--and the loss of John Smoltz to elbow reconstruction has weakened the vaunted rotation.

That the Braves, given their usual depth and pitching eminence, are in the market for help with few alternatives at triple A, is another statement on the state of pitching.

“From the standpoint that we’re in the market every year looking to improve, it’s nothing new,” General Manager John Schuerholz said. “Every team with a chance to win is in the pitching market. Everybody is trying to fix something, but there’s so few fixable parts now that it’s easier to write and talk about it than doing it.”

OK, the Braves aren’t totally in a fix. They lead the National League East and are second to Arizona in earned-run average.

It’s just that “we keep losing guys left and right,” Manager Bobby Cox said. “There’s only so many moves you can make. This is the toughest year we’ve had for trying to keep guys in their roles.”

In addition to replacing the irreplaceable Smoltz in the rotation, Tom Glavine has struggled recently and Kevin Millwood, 18-7 last year, is 5-6, putting stress on a bullpen missing Greg McMichael, Rudy Seanez, Kevin McGlinchy and Odalis Perez, all on the disabled list. Rocker is day to day because of the callus, and the valuable Mike Remlinger is currently sidelined because of a tender elbow.

The Braves, who have had the NL’s lowest or next-to-lowest ERA since 1992, now have an ERA in the 4s for the first time since Leo Mazzone was hired as pitching coach in 1990.

“I was looking at the American League ERAs the other day and they were almost all in the 5s and 6s,” Schuerholz said, “and I was looking at ours in the 4s and it was as if it was foreign to me. I guess you could call it a reflection of our pitching times. Of course, we’re still first or second in almost every pitching category, so it’s all relative, I guess.”

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The widening search for ballpark revenue may have resulted in the broken left wrist suffered by New York Met starting pitcher Rick Reed on Thursday night. Reed was injured when he deflected a liner hit by Atlanta’s Andruw Jones and expressed frustration at having lost sight of it momentarily because of a white advertising sign behind the plate.

Reed, now on the disabled list, called it a “ridiculous” placement and added, “A couple of the other pitchers have been complaining about it, as well.”

However, reliever John Franco said it’s merely a sign of the times and how the search for revenue is often at the expense of the pitchers--like everything else.

“It’s like when they added all those extra seats in left and right field here,” Franco said of Shea Stadium.

“That took away a lot of foul territory. There might be 15 or 20 balls a year that don’t get caught. That’s the way the game is now. You can’t do anything about it.”

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Amid a wrecking-ball season, Houston Astro owner Drayton McLane denies he is trying to unload Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, calling them franchise cornerstones. Bagwell is eligible for free agency after the 2001 season, and McLane compared the situation to that of the Chicago White Sox, who have the best record in baseball and, “who got rid of a lot of players but kept Frank Thomas because he’s their cornerstone. I’d take Jeff over Frank Thomas any day.”