Mike Hampton isn’t going to pitch for the Braves ever again. That is all.
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Mike Hampton isn’t going to pitch for the Braves ever again. That is all.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
I’ll take that bet.
i’ll take it as well. comeback player of the f’in decade! i also liked the raul mondesi signing at first look. my judgment stinks. however, i do think he will pitch this year. how effectively? i’m not sold on the idea that we will get our moneys worth.
I’m gonna take the bet too.
No, you’re better off giving up hope on Hampton now. You’ll thank me in the long run.
Reminds me of the column Mark Bradley wrote after Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson. Said Tyson would never again be heavyweight champion. Tyson was just 23 at the time, and everyone said Bradley was crazy.
But just as Mark Bradley looked into the soul of Tyson and found the truth, so I believe Mac has peered into the horror that is the Mike Hampton injury report and has come to the only logical conclusion. Hampton is Godot. The rest of you are Vladimir and Estragon. Mac is Beckett. I am a freshman-level Comparative Lit professor.
Nice enough guy and a competitor but fragile as a carton of eggs.
Counting on him for anything is fools gold, guys. He’s done.
Come on, mac. Everybody knows he’ll come back, throw to two batters, injure himself, and THEN never pitch for the Braves again.
Okay, I will amend my statement. He will never pitch for the Braves in a regular season game ever again.
Hard to give a whole lotta thought about Hampton. If he pitches any meaningful baseball with Atlanta, it’ll be like finding money in an old coat.
My bet is that in his first game this year, on his first pitch, his arm flies off, the ball goes into the stands, and his left arm goes right in the catchers mitt for a perfect strike….end of career
I doubt he’s kidding although he rarely knows anything. Smoltz and others have mentioned going with a “6-man” rotation in order to keep the older guys more fresh throughout the year…
If anything, with “Bud-Jo Redavier”, the Braves should have went to a 4-man starting rotation last season.
Even if it keeps Smoltz fresher, less starts for him, Hudson and maybe Glavine has to be looked on as a negative.
hampton might turn out to be the best signing ever ,if he doesn’t come back as the braves haven’t had to pay a cent for him yet.
Off topic I know, but I’m going to a private meet and greet with Obama on monday, anyone have any questions you’d like me to answer? If so, let me know.
that should have read, “Do you have any questions you’d like me to ask him”
sorry
Ask him how he can support ‘clean coal’ and at the same time be serious about stopping global warming. Or, baseball-relatedly, ask him something about the White Sox…that’s his team.
Ask Obama how Antoin Rezko is doing…
We should probably move this discussion out of a no-politics zone …
I would want to know if Obama can commit to being totally out of Iraq by 2012, and if not, why not.
This is really random, but does anyone have any update on Tim Spooneybarger? I was talking with a friend about the early 2000s with the Braves and Spooney came up.
Yeah, let’s not get into politics.
Ask if he thinks Bill will let him have any input on anything when he’s the VP.
Hard to give a whole lotta thought about Hampton. If he pitches any meaningful baseball with Atlanta, it’ll be like finding money in an old coat.
Well, it’ll be like finding money in an old coat you paid $15 million for.
I will be the lone dissenter… If I’m right, then I get to say that ‘ha ha, I knew it’, and if I’m wrong, then I’ll be an optimist. Sounds like a win-win situation.
Interesting little bit with Cashman & Epstein, with Cash dishing a little on Bernie, Abreu & Damon.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01262008/sports/yankees/cashman__johans_not_the_key_122131.htm
Second Spitter,
My question would be the same as Bell Curve’s @ 17.
I’m actually with you desert. I think he’ll pitch about 120 innings this year. Of what quality, who knows? But I’m thinking we’ll get a little worse than league average out of him.
I tried optimism last year. Look what happened.
Is there a place to talk about politics on your other site, Mac?
Braves Journal overflow — politics
Heh, the first post on that deal was me saying we should invade Mexico and Canada, and then colonize the UK. Here’s the kicker: someone took me seriously!
ZiPS is up, and it is very optimistic on Hampton. All of 17 above average innings!
Ofcourse ZiPS doesn’t claim accuracy regarding its PT predictions
Godot,
Dan Szymborski, the guy who runs ZiPS, said that the pessimistic (15%) projection for Hampton was, as a starting pitcher, 0 games started. He also said that ZiPS has never told him that before.
Now, I’m not optimistic that Hampton makes it through Spring Training. But, if some lightning were to strike and he were to make it, he would no doubt be part of the rotation. Given that he would be a fragile commodity, and that Smoltz and Glavine are both 40+, and Hudson has a fair amount of mileage on his arm, I’m thinking that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to begin with a six man rotation. It would get James and Jurrgens (or Reyes) innings while they waited for Hampton’s inevitable injury (my prediction: frayed labrum), while keeping Smoltz, Glavine, and Hudson a bit fresher for the second half of the season and the post-season (there’s my optimism… I knew it was somewhere).
If Hampton can pitch, I’d think you’d have to send Jurrjens down and just work with Smoltz/Hudson/Glavine/Hampton/James. That’s a pretty good rotation, and if anyone goes down, you have Reyes and Jurrjens waiting.
With open dates the sixth man would not have to pirch that often. 162 games are played in 183 days. 3 day all star break and 18 one day breaks. 162 divide by 6 = 27 games. So a spot starter is needed 8 times, plus injuries.
Why stop at six? Why not eight? Why not eleven?
Give me a break. Leaving aside that it’s taking innings from Smoltz and Hudson and giving them to the likes of Reyes or Bennett (Hampton won’t pitch) they won’t pitch often enough to stay sharp, and the younger pitchers won’t get enough work to develop.
C’mon guys, very few people have any hope that Hampton will make any kind of a contribution. You gotta’ have hope so it can be crushed. My prediction for Hampton is that after tearing up AA in rehab starts, he’ll have 3 rocky, but hopeful starts in June. He will then pitch a near perfect game against Toronto’s Roy Halliday late in June (only to lose his no-hit bid in the 8th) and everyone will have great hope for him. He’ll make his next start against Philadelphia and last two innings before a season ending rotator cuff injury after sliding head first into first trying to beat out a bunt.
New poll. Ten options, but I’m pretty sure who wins.
I’m expecting a magnificently mundane incident outside of baseball to end it for Hampton. Opening a screen door or turning right, for example.
The PIRATES? Who could possibly think the Pirates are worse than the Yankees?
Maybe they think actual pirates are worse than actual yankees. I don’t agree, but…
global warming…HA…what a joke
Jack Sparrow worse than a Yankee? I dont think so.
What about Boston — the new Yankees?
That waits for the “Worst inanimate object” poll.
What about Indians? And Braves for that matter? Aren’t they people too?
The picketing of Braves Journal is about to begin.
How did the Mets not make this poll? Is this some kind of courtesy for Glavine? Because they don’t deserve it.
I think the Braves will go with a 7 man rotation this year, with 7 relievers in the pen. We’ll start our best 8, keep Prado as the super sub, and when Chipper gets hurt we’ll call up another pitcher.
Hudson can pinch run; Smoltz and Hampton can pinch hit. (Mac didn’t say that Hampton wouldn’t hit.) After 49 games, every starter will have 7 chances and we still won’t know anything about how they’re pitching, unless they just blow, so we may need to bring Mark Lemke back with his devastating knuckleball.
Fortunately, the games won’t be on TBS, so I won’t have to watch this nonsense.
6 man rotation. Sweet Fanny Moses.
Speaking of TBS, will the new “Where’s Waldo” approach to televising Braves games have any that are in Hi-Def?
I knew Hi-Def would be great for football, but I had no idea how much it would improve the baseball-viewing experience.
Oh, and it seems there’s an active volcano under the ice caps. Probably contributes to more melting than my Tahoe …
Hampton will pitch as the 5th starter and will come into his stride after the all-star break
Here is an old post of mine I dug up and a response from Mac from the game recap against the Mets on 08 April 2007 that I found interesting. I’ve been saying to release him for a long time now, by the way. I’m glad some other folks are seeing the same thing I was seeing a year ago:
–Ben #27. April 8th, 2007, at 6:56 PM.
It’s time to cut the losses with Mike Hampton and just get rid of him. That’s right, I said release him. He’s a terrible investment at this point. I don’t think he’s ever going to pitch again, but if he does, it won’t be pretty.–
–Mac Thomason
#28. April 8th, 2007, at 7:04 PM.
Ben, financially speaking, there is no difference between Mike Hampton on the 60-Day DL and Mike Hampton released. The Braves would still have to pay him either way. Now, it’s possible that he would retire and negotiate a lump-sum payment in lieu of the rest of his contract, but I don’t see Liberty fronting several million dollars to make that happen.–