West Coast Road Trips Wear Me Out!

First, I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to Chipper Jones!!  The Braves #10 is celebrating #40!  I won't make any bad jokes as Joe Simpson already took care of that with his comments about our third baseman being eligible for early bird specials and free desserts.  Ouch!!  I'm hoping that Chipper's knee is behaving and he'll be back in the lineup tonight.  Historically, his birthday numbers are great and I really want to see him back on the field tonight.  It makes the world feel right.

Secondly, and no less important, a huge congratulations to Freddie Freeman for being named the National League's player of the week!!  Freddie had a tremendous week and it's about time that he's recognized nationally.  He so deserves this!

Lots of good news, followed by some not so good news.  Jair Jurrjens was sent down to Triple-A after last night's horrific performance.  Truthfully, I'm glad this happened.  Something isn't right and JJ needs to work it out.  During the first half of the 2011 season JJ was nothing short of spectacular and it was a crime that he wasn't named the All Star Game's starting pitcher.  However, in the second half of the season he did a complete 180 and he played a key role in the Braves epic collapse.  Unfortunately, 2012 is picking up right where 2011 left off.  Last night JJ didn't make it past the third inning.  To quote an old friend, it was absolutely horrifying.

A pitcher was slated to be sent down to make way for Tim Hudson's return.  At the start of the season, it was expected to be Randall Delgado.  But then a funny thing happened.  Delgado out-pitched Jurrjens.  In fact, he way out-pitched him.  I thought that Randall still might be sent down as he would get more starts on a regular basis in Gwinnett.  But with JJ pitching as horribly as he is, well, the choice was obvious for Fredi Gonzalez.

It's Minor versus Harang tonight with the first pitch around 10:10.  These west coast games kill me!  To quote another old friend, I'm just so tired!

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Congratulations to Jamie Moyer for becoming baseball oldest winning pitcher (49 years old, 151 days) with his 5-3 victory over the Padres last week.

And congratulations to the White Sox Philip Humber for pitching a perfect game versus the Mariners last Saturday.  It only the 21st perfect game in baseball history.

Be on the lookout for Derek Lowe's 2004 World Series ring.  It was stolen from his Fort Meyers home sometime early last week.