Lopez is Maddux's catcher for playoffs (AJC)
Tarkus
By DAVID O'BRIEN
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Montreal -- The way Javy Lopez has been hitting, Braves manager Bobby Cox
was not going to keep him out of the lineup for Greg Maddux's starts in
the postseason.
As expected, Cox said Tuesday he plans to catch Lopez when Maddux pitches
in the playoffs. Lopez caught Maddux's start Tuesday night at Montreal,
the first time since 1998 that Lopez was the starting catcher for a
Maddux game.
"Yeah, we're gonna let him catch him," Cox said. "Javy's had such a year,
it's going to be difficult to keep him out of the lineup. The other years
. . ."
The other years, Lopez wasn't hitting .323 with 40 home runs and 100
RBIs, his gaudy totals this season. He's done all that in 427 at-bats,
the second-best home-run ratio (one every 10.7 at-bats) in the majors
behind Barry Bonds (8.6).
Lopez has 39 homers and 97 RBIs as a catcher (he homered once as a
pinch-hitter), leaving him two homers shy of Todd Hundley's 1996 record
for homers by a catcher.
Barring anything unforeseen, Lopez will become the third player in
history to hit at least .300 with 40 home runs and 100 RBIs in a season
as a catcher, joining Roy Campanella (.312/41/112 in 1953) and Mike
Piazza (.362/40/124 in 1997).
Henry Blanco caught all of Maddux's starts this season until Tuesday, and
Blanco is hitting .201 with one homer and 12 RBIs.
"It's nothing personal," Maddux said of using catchers other than Lopez
year after year. "I won a Cy Young with Javy. I like throwing to him."
Lopez was a rookie in 1994 when he caught 180 1/3 of Maddux's 203
innings. Maddux went 16-6 with a career-best 1.56 ERA in the
strike-shortened season and won the third of his four consecutive Cy
Young Awards.
Veteran Charlie O'Brien was the primary catcher for Atlanta's other
starters that year.
O'Brien caught most of Maddux's starts in 1995, and Lopez and Eddie Perez
split the Maddux duties in 1996, with Lopez catching 131 of the pitcher's
245 innings.
But Maddux and Lopez hadn't been a starting battery since. Lopez caught
only 50 2/3 of 1,549 Maddux innings in the past seven seasons before
Tuesday, including none this season and three in 2002.
Atlanta is 29-22 in 51 regular-season games with Lopez as Maddux's
starting catcher.
Maddux is 2-1 in three postseason games with Lopez starting, none since
Oct. 26, 1996, in Game 6 of the World Series vs. the Yankees. Maddux was
charged with eight hits and three runs in 7 2/3 innings of that decisive
3-2 loss.
E-race to the wire
Rafael Furcal's two errors on Monday gave the Atlanta shortstop 31 for
the season, moving him ahead of Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez (30)
for most errors by any player in the majors. No National League shortstop
has made more errors since Mark Grudzielanek piled up 33 with the Dodgers
in 1998.
Fick rediscovers stroke
First baseman Robert Fick went 37 games and 118 at-bats without a homer
before his three-run shot Monday. His past three homers have been hit in
Montreal.
The home run was also his first extra-base hit since Aug. 19, a span of
21 games. He had 10 singles in 63 at-bats over that span, and had more
errors (three) than RBIs (two) from Aug. 19 until his tiebreaking two-run
single Sunday at Florida.
--
"Everybody has a ton of theories about what I'm going to do. If
somebody else knows, I wish they'd let me know." - Kevin Millwood
Now playing: the radio
Colin William
> Lopez is Maddux's catcher for playoffs
> By DAVID O'BRIEN
> Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
> it's going to be difficult to keep him out of the lineup. The other years
> . . ."
What a telling phraseology. "We're going to let him catch him." A freudian
slip, methinks.
> The other years, Lopez wasn't hitting .323 with 40 home runs and 100
> RBIs, his gaudy totals this season. He's done all that in 427 at-bats,
> the second-best home-run ratio (one every 10.7 at-bats) in the majors
> behind Barry Bonds (8.6).
Well, the other years weren't all crap:
1997: 295/361/534
1998: 284/328/540 (34 HR, 106 RBI, Javy sits)
2000: 287/337/484
Colin
Dick Sidbury
> Lopez is Maddux's catcher for playoffs
>
> By DAVID O'BRIEN
> Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
>
major snippage...
> Veteran Charlie O'Brien was the primary catcher for Atlanta's other
> starters that year. (1994)
>
Veteran Charlie O'Brien was the designated catcher for John Smoltz.
Glavine and Avery also pitched to Javy. Lopez had 80 games to O'Brien's
51 games that year. I don't know who caught the other 13 games.
dick
Colin William
> > Veteran Charlie O'Brien was the primary catcher for Atlanta's other
> > starters that year. (1994)
>
> Veteran Charlie O'Brien was the designated catcher for John Smoltz.
> Glavine and Avery also pitched to Javy. Lopez had 80 games to O'Brien's
> 51 games that year. I don't know who caught the other 13 games.
In 1994 the team only played 114 games. Only Javy and O'Brien caught any
games that year:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/1994.shtml
You might have been confusing the number of games with 1995 (144). That year
Javy caught in 93 games, O'Brien in 64, and Eddie Perez in 5:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/1995.shtml
Colin
Jon Richardson
news:bkaq4s$rp8f3$1...@ID-109339.news.uni-berlin.de...
No one did. Only 114 games were played in 1994, meaning that O'Brien and
Javy obviously aplit a few.
Jon