Miller: Five things to know
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Behind the batting cage. Two springs ago. Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez beckon Atlanta general manager John Schuerholz.
How in the world, they both demand, were you able to trade for a stud pitcher like Tim Hudson over the winter?
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| Tim Hudson had a career-worst 4.86 ERA in 2006. (Getty Images) |
Looking back, either Jeter, A-Rod and Millar don't know squat about pitching ... or something is seriously off-kilter with a key, key member of Atlanta's rotation.
Anybody for the first option?
OK, then ... let's go with the latter.
"We know it's there," Schuerholz says of Hudson's dominant stuff on a chilly spring morning while watching his would-be ace throw from the mound for the first time in 2007. "We've seen flashes of it.
"And from there, we've scratched our heads and wondered where it is."
You'll hear a lot this spring about how Mike Hampton's comeback from Tommy John ligament transfer surgery is crucial, how Schuerholz made the Braves better by acquiring relievers Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez, how John Smoltz remains the anchor and how rookie first baseman Scott Thorman can do it all.
All of that is true.
But so, too, is this: If Hudson doesn't seriously rebound from 2006, a season in which he posted a career-high 4.86 ERA, then the Braves are just the Washington Generals, with better uniforms.
"I'm one who thinks starting pitching is the most important thing there is," Braves five-time All-Star Chipper Jones says. "You can say what you want about the bullpen. Our bullpen will be fine. But if our starters don't pitch well enough to get us to the 'pen, we could be in trouble.
"It's going to take Smoltz, Hudson and Hampton for us to be successful. As they go, we go."
