Despite Chipper Retiring, Braves Future Still Looks Bright

This entire baseball season as an Atlanta Braves fan has been dedicated to the farewell tour of future hall of fame third baseman and Braves legend Chipper Jones, who is going to be sorely missed following his retirement.

However, while watching Sunday night’s game between the Braves and the San Francisco Giants, which Chipper did not start in, but did receive a pinch hit farewell appearance late in the game I was struck by the realization that even though Chipper is going to be missed that the Braves still have a very, very bright future.

This realization came to me late in the game when the Braves young sluggers right fielder Jason Heyward and first baseman Freddie Freeman connected on back-to-back home runs off of Giants reliever Clay Hensley.

As long as the Braves can keep all of their young talent together for years to come (including perennial all star catcher Brian McCann and their very talented pitching staff) this Braves team shouldn’t miss a beat heading into the future without Chipper Jones (as hard as that may be to fathom). I’m very grateful that these young guys like Heyward and Freeman have now had a few seasons under Jones’ tutelage to teach them the right way to play the game: the Chipper Jones way.

I honestly can’t think of too many teams with a young duo as talented as or more talented than the Braves have with Heyward and Freeman. The Angels with Mike Trout (possibly just the third player to ever win rookie of the year and MVP in the same season this year) and Mark Trumbo are the only other team that I can think of.

I’ve had a blast watching Chipper play the game ever since I became a fan of his, the Braves and baseball in general in Jones’ rookie season of 1995. I look forward to developing this kind of relationship with Heyward and Freeman going into the future. If these two kids play up to their potential we might be watching two more future hall of famers in the making.  

Chipper Headed to 15-Day DL

When Chipper is down, so are the Braves.

Chipper Jones’ left leg contusion is severe enough that the Atlanta Braves had to place him on the 15-day disabled list tonight after their 7-4 loss to the Washington Nationals at Turner Field in Atlanta. The move is retroactive to Wednesday when Jones pinch hit in a game against the Cincinnati Reds, drawing a walk. That pinch hit appearance was Chipper’s first game action since suffering the injury at Tropicana Field against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 18 in interleague action.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has said that the player called up to take Jones’ spot on the roster will be a catcher, likely Triple-A Gwinnett catcher J.C. Boscan. The Braves are in need of a second catcher right now after backup catcher David Ross (the best backup catcher in the bigs, in my opinion) strained his right groin in the Braves loss tonight (May 25). On top of that Braves starting catcher Brian McCann has missed almost the entire week with the flu, which he was forced to finish the game tonight for Ross while still having.

According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution: “Jones said the nasty bruise was taking much longer to heal than he originally expected. While Jones has been able to take batting practice, he said he could only run at 25-30 percent of full speed due to soreness in the area ranging from his foot to mid-calf from the bruising.”   

The worst part of all of this is that Jones did pinch hit in Wednesday’s game, meaning that the retroactive date for him to come off of the DL. Had he not made that short appearance, the retroactive date would’ve been May 18, meaning that Chipper could’ve potentially returned sooner to the Braves lineup.

The Braves have proven desperate to have Jones in the lineup this season. With Jones in the lineup the Braves have been the best team in the National League East Division, but with him out of the lineup they have looked like cellar dwellers. This fact alone seems to make Chipper the single most important player in baseball this season to a particular team.

In shortened time this season Chipper is batting .307 with five home runs and 24 RBI. When healthy and in the lineup Jones has put up All Star type numbers, so for the Braves (who are sinking fast) sake they better hope he returns as soon as possible and keeps up his hot pace.

Chipper Blasts Bomb on 40th Birthday Against Dodgers

Braves legend Chipper Jones celebrated his 40thbirthday in grand fashion with a solo home run to get the Braves going in the top of the fifth inning on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodgers Stadium.

The home run came off of Dodgers starting pitcher Aaron Harang with the Braves down 2-0 to the Dodgers at the time. The Braves would tie the game 2-2 later in the fifth. The game would end up going into the ninth inning tied at 3, after each team scored one more time. In the ninth, Braves left fielder Martin Prado drove in shortstop Tyler Pastornicky for the go ahead and eventual winning run with a triple over the heard of Dodgers center fielder and current National League MVP frontrunner Matt Kemp.

Jones’ birthday blast is the fifth homer for the veteran on his birthday in 13 games. The homer was also his 13^th as a visitor at Dodgers Stadium. Chipper’s five career dingers on his birthday tie him for the active lead with New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and Colorado Rockies vet Todd Helton. Jones also homered on his 24^th birthday, twice on his 29^th birthday and on his 36^th birthday, according to the Miami Herald. He is now 21 for 49 on his day of birth.   

To see Chipper’s birthday blast click: HERE

Thanks to MLB.tv showing the Braves/Dodgers game as its free game of the day I was able to see Chipper Jones’ 40^th birthday. This game marked only the second Braves game I’ve seen so far this season on TV (I saw the Braves final game against the Astros in Houston earlier in the season). Big kudos to MLB.com and MLB.tv for choosing Jones’ 40^th birthday game as the free game of the day. I’m sure it put a lot of smiles on Braves fans like me, who are out of Braves territory and don’t get to see many of their games.

Chipper’s home run was his only hit of the game as he went 1-for-3 against Harang and was walked in the top of the eighth inning by Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen. In the top of the 6^th inning, Jones had a likely RBI single taken away from him when his hit basically caught Harang, who was able to turn a 1-6-3 double play out of it.

The Braves are now 11-2 in Chipper's birthday games. According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s David O’Brien, Chipper became the fifth player to homer on his 40th birthday in Major League Baseball history on Tuesday night in L.A.

Despite playing in less than half as many games as many of his teammates, Jones is tied for the team lead in home runs with three. Catcher Brian McCann, second baseman Dan Uggla, first baseman Freddie Freeman and Chipper’s frequent replacement at third base Juan Francisco all have three bombs on the season, as well. Jones’ nine RBI on the season are tied with McCann and Uggla on the team, behind Freeman’s 15 and Prado’s 11. Jones is now hitting .276 on the season.

Chipper’s first home run at Dodgers Stadium came off of Carlos Perez on April 19, 1999. The only pitcher he’s rounded the bases off of more than once at Dodgers Stadium was Darren Dreifort, also in 1999.

Should Jones crack the Braves lineup in tomorrow night’s game it’ll be his last at Dodgers Stadium. Veteran pitcher Ted Lilly will take the mound for the Dodgers. Jones is 3-for-13 (.231) in his career against Lilly with no homers and three RBI.