Once again, Chris Capuano was great. 7 innings, 6 strikeouts, one run. Best of all: this was his first start without giving up a long ball. I still don't want to jump the gun with him, but his performance so far looks like that of an ace. Which was a good thing: the bats didn't muster a whole lot against Kyle Davies.
Over at Talking Chop, it sounds a lot like BCB. We've certainly had our share of days like the Braves had yesterday: solid pitching performance (Ben Sheets, anyone?) and just barely not enough offense to make it pay off. After the rough last week or two, it's great to win a close one.
And that leaves us to discuss Rickie Weeks. He batted leadoff last night, dropping Brady to the 8-hole. I'm willing to be more patient with Brady Clark than some of you are, but "taking some of the pressure off" may be a good thing. I'm not at all sold on Rickie in the leadoff spot, though: I guess all those strikeouts make pitchers work a bit, but...that's all you can say for it. Unfortunately, when Brady is slumping, there isn't an obvious (or even a compromise) leadoff hitter in the lineup: just about everybody strikes out too much to be a traditional top-of-the-order guy.
And Rickie's defense...well, I can't add much to what we've already said. I hope Robin Yount can help him turn things around. I like this team a lot better in '07 and '08 if Rickie is playing second and Nelson Cruz is in center, rather than the alternative of Rickie in center and...uh...I guess Bill Hall full-time at second.
Tags: Robin Yount, Atlanta Braves, Kyle Davies
Update [2006-4-25 11:10:27 by Jeff]: One more thing. On the heels of Frank Robinson's 1,000th career victory and the 50th anniversary of his 1st hit in the big leagues, I wrote an article for Baseball Digest Daily about Frank's rookie season. Good stuff, if I do say so myself.