Should Braves fans be worried?
All-Star Atlanta third basemen, Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones, Jr returns to midseason injury issues, suffering a muscle strain in his right side, and opting out of the rest the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
He heads back to Braves' Spring Training camp to rehabilitate. Hopefully he's in the lineup come Opening Day when Atlanta plays the defending World Series Champion Phillies in Philly.
Lil Wayne rests until real baseball, MLB's 162-game regular season schedule, starts in April. Jones hasn't a stayed healthy enough to play an entire season in his entire baseball career, playing 160 games in 1998—the year before his NL MVP season.
So, Braves fans had to expect an injury to occur to him at some point this season, but did they expect it to be this soon?
Braves fans need not worry just yet; Jones said he should be fine in a week or two, and proclaimed "Yes, We Can!" to changing some of the rules to the WBC.
No hits for Jones in 10 at-bats during the 2009 WBC...so yeah...the World Baseball Classic needs some rule changes. How dare players play the game hard, with love and pride for their homeland?
This isn't the World Series. These games mean nothing.
Don't worry Chip, I doubt Braves play in World Series this season with or without you, so your injury means nothing and you will have plenty of time to rest.
Spring Training games and exhibition tournaments like the WBC are both meaningless for most Braves fans—as long as Jones returns by opening day and plays an entire season.
Too bad, that's not possible for him or anyone this late in his career. Depending on how far the Braves are down in the standings, Chip will no longer be off the trade block.
Without Jones, it will be incumbent on Braves skipper Bobby Cox to motivate an exceptional young Yunel Escobar, who currently serves as Atlanta's starting shortstop, in returning to his more natural position at third base to help reduce the teams' 115 errors and a low fielding percentage last season.
Jones himself botched double-dight errors for the first time since 2006, and Escobar booted 16 in his 121 games for the Braves last season.
Middle infielders Martin Prado and Omar Infante also expected to share fielding responsibilities should Chipper be out past opening day or re-aggravate the injury later in the season.
But fielding is NOT what concerns Braves fans and management heading into the upcoming season should they be without the Hall-of-Famer Jones for the first time in 16 years.
Although his games played and have been steady declining over the years and a below 100 RBI production in four of the last five seasons, Jones' career-high .364 batting average last year and his consistent 20 homers—20 doubles every year, must be replaced by the yet still unproven major-leaguers in Prado, Infante, and Escobar.
At shortstop, Escobar played over 100 games for the first time in his two-year Braves career, smacked 24 doubles, and hit 10 homers. Braves fans expect Escobar to vastly improve on those numbers this season, but can he put up numbers comparable to his NL East counterparts?
Mets Jose Reyes, Phillies Jimmy Rollins, and Marlins Hanley Ramirez have ALL been All-Stars, so Escobar will have his work cut out for him in that respect.
3 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete