When asked how his team has encountered so many pitching injuries and still produced a National League-best 3.69 ERA, Braves manager Bobby Cox without hesitation has responded with, "Roger has done an excellent job."
With Leo Mazzone and TBS's affiliation with the Braves now a thing of the past, Cox can't refer to his current pitching simply as "Roger" and assume a wide-ranging audience would certainly know who he was referencing.
But those who have worked with Roger McDowell during his three years as the Braves' pitching coach know he's not just another "Roger" and that he's proven not to be just another pitching coach, either.
Circumstances might not be strong enough to describe what the Braves have dealt with on the pitching front this season. McDowell was supposed to have a rotation that included four former 20-game winners.
But with John Smoltz's season complete and the futures of both Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton in doubt, McDowell currently finds himself with a rotation that includes Hudson plus four other guys who had combined for 18 starts entering 2008.
Unfortunately for McDowell, the injury-related concerns have extended into his bullpen. Projected closer Rafael Soriano has been healthy long enough to make nine appearances and collect four save opportunities. Soriano's projected top setup man, Peter Moylan, made seven appearances and then underwent season-ending surgery on his right elbow.
Regardless, McDowell has found a way to stay positive and follow the direction he gained during his formative Major League playing years, when Mel Stottlemyre served as his pitching coach. "I just look at it like we have a schedule to play and they're not going to change it for us," McDowell said. "We all still have jobs to do, and that's what drives us to come to the park every day."
When the Braves began their search for Mazzone's successor after the 2005 season, they didn't know a lot about McDowell, who had spent the previous couple of seasons in Las Vegas as the Dodgers' Triple-A manager. But it didn't take long for Cox to immediately take a liking to the former hurler, who was the winning pitcher for the Mets in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series.
McDowell takes full advantage of the technological benefits that allow him to study the best way to pitch specific batters. But it's his ability to adjust and relate to all of the different personalities and approaches on his pitching staff that might be his greatest asset.
Obviously McDowell approaches Jair Jurrjens, Charlie Morton and Jo-Jo Reyes -- the rotation's three youngest members -- differently than Tim Hudson or Jorge Campillo, who has emerged as the season's biggest surprise. But at the same time, McDowell has shown each of them a level of respect that hasn't been ignored.
Maintaining his humble approach, McDowell doesn't want to even hear about how he deserves the credit for the surprising success his injury-riddled pitching staff has enjoyed this season.
"It's not me," McDowell said. "It's the 12 or 13 pitchers that go out there and make the pitches. I just hand them the ball."
Only Tim Hudson and Jair Jurrjens remain from the Braves' projected starting rotation, the one that prognosticators thought was World Series-caliber, not a sorry attempt at nostalgia. The other starting pitchers have succumbed to injury, age, or fate -- or a combination of the three. Surely this season has been anything but nostalgic.
Ace John Smoltz underwent season-ending shoulder surgery. Veteran Tom Glavine's durable body finally broke down, which sent the 42-year-old left-hander to the disabled list twice this season. Oft-injured Mike Hampton hasn't thrown a pitch for the Braves since Aug. 19, 2005, and remains a few weeks away from a possible return.
Yet the Braves, lauded for their pitching depth and quality for the past two decades, seem to have found the right trio of young hurlers to remain competitive.
Three of the Braves' five starters -- Charlie Morton, 24, Jo-Jo Reyes, 23, and Jurrjens, 22 -- are under the age of 25, and none has more than a year of Major League experience.
"Those three, my gosh, they're holding this together," said second baseman Kelly Johnson. "They're the reason why we're four or five games out instead of 10."
Despite a steep learning curve, which is especially prevalent in the organization, Morton, Reyes and Jurrjens have exceeded expectations.
"I expect a lot out of our guys and it almost surprises me when they don't [pitch well]," Hudson said.
There will inevitably be struggles. But as Smoltz said, it's about limiting the damage, not allowing one bad start to affect the next three.
"What experience allows you to do is deal with everything that has come your way," Smoltz said. "I could tell them the blueprint of all the things that could help them. But until they go through it, some of those things won't matter."
That Jurrjens is the staff's No. 2 pitcher is not surprising to most in the Braves' clubhouse. Not much was known about the right-hander from Curacao when he was acquired from the Tigers in the Edgar Renteria deal, other than he had a tremendous upside.
That potential was realized in Spring Training. Hudson, who, at 32, is the team's oldest pitcher currently in the rotation, was Jurrjens' throwing partner this spring, and said he undoubtedly knew that Jurrjens would fill one of the Braves' vacant starting rotation slots. The kid had too much talent not to be on the mound every five days.
"You can't have a rotation without young kids," Jurrjens said.
Before his starts, Jurrjens will frequently sit down with Hudson to go over scouting reports and decide how best to attack opposing hitters.
Jurrjens' seven wins are two more than any NL rookie, and his 3.20 ERA is third-best in the league among rookies.
Morton's first three big league starts have elicited nothing but positive reviews from those around the Braves organization. "He's shown people a lot with his maturity and how he's come along," general manager Frank Wren said.
And Reyes, who Jurrjens said had the best 'stuff' of any young pitcher in baseball, has been far more impressive than his 3-5 record indicates. Manager Bobby Cox continues to rave about the lefty, who has significantly improved his command of both his offspeed pitches and fastball.
"Guys are coming up and pitching phenomenally," catcher Brian McCann said. "It's not the pitching when we're struggling."
As the Braves' record of 14 consecutive division titles was coming to a close last season, Chipper Jones indicated that things would be different if a healthy Mike Hampton was able to return for 2007.
Now as this 2007 campaign comes to a close and the Braves once again find themselves preparing for a dormant October, nothing has truly changed. A second straight season without Hampton has simply been another one that has gone unfulfilled in Atlanta.
What separates the 2007 season from '06 is the fact that it was planned with the belief that Hampton would be essentially healthy. Having missed all of the previous year rehabbing from Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery, the Braves didn't know exactly what to expect from Hampton.
"I know where we'd be in [the National League East] with 10 more wins, and I believe a healthy Mike Hampton at the top of his game could have given us those wins," Braves general manager John Schuerholz said. "Not to lay this at Mike's feet, but that was our plan when we put this team together."
But when Hampton learned he had a torn flexor tendon that required season-ending surgery on April 9, it's safe to say the Braves were dealt a blow from which they never truly recovered.
Instead of enjoying the luxury of having three former 20-game winners in their rotation, the Braves found themselves watching Tim Hudson and John Smoltz provide the only form of consistency that they realize from their starting pitchers.
"This year, I know I was counted on to be one of the main guys in the rotation," Hampton said. "It was set up in the rotation, and I was on schedule. So I kind of put the Braves behind the eight ball, because I was ready to go, and then all of the sudden, I have another surgery."
How Hampton could endure the grueling rehab required after Tommy John surgery and still manage to tear the flexor tendon remains unknown. The discomfort he felt while throwing in the instructional league in early October last year was initially believed to be caused by scar tissue.
When Hampton had both good and bad days during Spring Training this year, he figured he was following the same frustrating path that many other pitchers had traveled following the common ligament-replacement surgery. But after throwing a simulated inning at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia less than 24 hours before Opening Day, the veteran southpaw knew something was certainly wrong. A little more than a week later, Hampton found himself undergoing another surgery.
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