Wood Couldn't Stop Jones
Wood Couldn't Stop Jones
Atlanta -- There's no crapshoot in professional sports like the baseball draft. It's the real-life version of "Risky Business," except it doesn't end with a romantic encounter with Rebecca DeMornay aboard an elevated train.
Consider the best matchup in the Cubs-Braves game Saturday night: Kerry Wood versus Chipper Jones . It wouldn't have come to pass, and the Atlanta Braves wouldn't have had quite as much success over the last four years, if the Braves had landed the young gun they really wanted, a powerful pitcher from Texas.
Because Todd Van Poppel considered the Braves a train headed nowhere--they were in the midst of their sixth consecutive second-division season at the time--he told them repeatedly he would honor his commitment to the University of Texas. The Braves reluctantly used the No. 1 pick in the 1990 draft on Jones, a high school shortstop from Jacksonville, Fla.
Van Poppel, who was then considered the Nolan Ryan starter kit, briefly made the Braves look bad by signing with the Oakland Athletics, who took him later in the first round. It's funny how these things turn out.
While Jones was welcoming Wood to baseball's latest launching pad, Van Poppel spent another night in the Pacific Coast League, trying to revive his career. He illustrates the folly of calling any 18-year-old a can't-miss prospect. With pitching prodigies, how can you know?
Scouting directors consider hitters a safer bet, and Jones has certainly paid off. The All-Star third baseman turned 26 last month and seems headed to a third World Series. He and newcomer Andres Galarraga are making the Braves the National League's most powerful team. If not for Seattle, they would lead the major leagues in home runs.
Jones proved a quick study against Wood. He drove the first 97-m.p.h. fastball he saw into the center-field bleachers at Turner Field.
Wood's poker face revealed little after Jones' long drive. But three pitches later he showed the trickle-down effect, giving Galarraga a whack at a hanging curveball. He sent it where such a pitch should go to die--into the seats in left-center.
This was the way Braves batting coach Clarence Jones had hoped his team would respond against baseball's hottest pitcher.
"It's not like he's the first good pitcher we've seen all year," Jones said. "To me, he's no different than a (Curt) Schilling or a guy like Pedro Martinez. Those guys throw the ball hard, have good off-speed pitches. That's what he does."
Wood, who has made props out of other All-Stars, couldn't establish himself with Chipper Jones and Galarraga. They reached base five times in six plate appearances against him. Jones followed his first-inning homer with a single to left in the third inning and a five-pitch walk in the fifth.
Galarraga, who also walked in the fifth, was retired only when Wood started a 1-6-3 double play on a comebacker to end the third. Wood's snap throw to shortstop Manny Alexander might have been his best fastball of the night.
Wood left with the Cubs trailing 3-2 on Ozzie Guillen's bloop single. He struck out six in six innings, but allowed a dozen baserunners (six hits, five walks and a hit batter) and watched his earned-run average cliimb from 2.90 to 3.11. On the plus side: He got his batting average back over .200 and tied Steve Trachsel for the RBI lead among pitchers (four).
Guillen compares Wood to another Texan.
"He knows he's good," he said. "He reminds me of Roger Clemens when he broke into the big leagues. Roger knew he could pitch. I think (Wood) is that kind of pitcher."
Braves General Manager John Schuerholz was with the Kansas City Royals in 1984, when they brought up Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza and Danny Jackson from Double-A. The drug scandal that sent Vida Blue, Jerry Martin and Willie Mays Aikens to federal prison left the Royals needing a new image.
Saberhagen was 21 when he won the first of his two Cy Young Awards. He gave Schuerholz many restful nights and a World Series ring. Schuerholz sees Wood in the same role with the Cubs.
"The expectations, the anticipation, are the same (with Wood) as with Saberhagen, Gubicza and Jackson," Schuerholz said. "We hoped they would develop quickly, because we needed them to, and they did."
Unfortunately for Wood, Chipper Jones didn't turn out badly, either.
By Phil Rogers
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