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Braves outlook for 1973-more p
BY Eddie Mathews
The 1973 Braves team
appears on the surface to be
completely different from the
team we fielded last year, but
let me start by emphasizing that
no change has been made for the
sake of simply changing. We've
done what we felt was important
and necessary to improve the
Braves . . . not without a lot
of thought and analysis.
We've kept the basic stren
gths the team had a year ago
but have built our pitching staff,
Improved our catching and pro
vided the opportunity that Jim
Breazeale deserves to play first
base. This has been done while
still maintaining our team speech
and youth.
Going position by position, the
trade of Earl Williams to Balt
imore gave us a young player
who wants to catch with more
catching experience than Earl
had. I'm not saying that Earl
didn’t do a good job for some
one who did not start out as a
catcher; what I'm saying is that
Johnny Oates is a good young
catcher who has played the posi
tion all of his career and does
all the things a catcher should
do . . . things that come with
experience like backing up first
base, getting the jump on run
ners and working with his pit
chers.
If Hank Aaron's legs will let
him move back to right field,
Breazeale will have an oppor
tunity to play first base. He’s
young and untried right now, but
based on his play in the minor
leagues and what he showed last
year for the Braves with the bat,
I think he's capable of doing the
job for us. If not, we can move
Aaron back to first and play
Mike Lum in the outfield.
At second base, we’ve re
placed Felix Millan, who we
traded away for pitching, with
Davie Johnson. Dave is a first
class second baseman and is the
same age as Felix (29), lending
maturity to the infield like Fe
lix did. Both players are ex
cellent second basemen, but
Dave gives us more punch. If
Breazeale hits 10 homers for
us next year and Davie hits
eight, then we’ve only lost ten
home runs out of our starting
linaip by trading Earl Williams.
The 18 is a pessimistic pro
jection, but I think it proves a
point. Besides, I don’t believe
homers win that many ball
games. We're not going to sit
back and wait for a home run to
win. Our players now are more
versatile and can do a lot of
other things like bunting, steal
ing and hitting behind the run
ner.
We'll have a healthy battle at
short between Marty Perez and
Sonny Jackson and possibly
youngster Leo Foster. Marty
had an off season in 1972, but he
has the ability to play the posi
tion. Sonny looked real good
playing short toward the end
of last year, and Foster is
young and just needs time. I
have confidence in all three
and will probably end up playing
whoever looks best in spring
training.
Darrell Evans is young and
constantly improving at third
base. He has his confidence now
and should continue to get
better.
Ralph Garr has finished se
cond in the major leagues in
hitting for two straight sea
sons. He has speed and I ex
pect at least the same type of
performance from him.
There’s nothing I can say
about Dusty Baker in center
field other than he’s going to be
a super player. He hit .321
and drove in 76 runs for us
last year, and he’s only 23 years
old.
And, of course, Hank Aaron
rounds out the outfield.
We've added four good pit
chers to our staff in Pat Dob
son, Gary Gentry, Danny Fri
sella and Rorlc Harrison, and
hopefully a fifth in Jim Pan
ther.
With an exception of Dobson,
tey all are young. Dobson, at
30, lends maturity to the staff.
He not only has been a 20-
game winner, but he’s been
through a pennant race and
World Series and knows what
It's all about.
Right now it looks like Phil
Nlekro, Ron Reed, Gentry and
Dobson will be our four starters
hwith Jimmy Freeman, Ron Sc
ueler or possibly one of our
veterans as a fifth. Harrison
led tire International League in
victories and strikeouts two
years ago, had a 2.30 ERA last
year and will be in the wings.
With the number of pitchers
we have competing, we should
have a strong starting rotation.
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If one doesn’t do it, we’ll find
someone wh will.
We'll have Frisellaasashort
man. Also, Joe Hoerner has
been an excellent short relief
pitcher over the years. Hope
fully, he'll retain that form for
us next year along with Cecil
Upshaw, who has also been a
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good short relief man.
One of our biggest problems
will be trying to give all our
pitchers a fair chance in spring
training. We have 20 on our big
league roster, and ones I haven’t
mentioned like Tom House, Tom
Kelley, Pat Jarvis, Denny Mc-
Lain, Mike McQueen and Adrian
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Devin have all shown evidence
that they cold help us. We’re
short of lefthanded pitching,
although Hoerner should be
better this season and House has
done real well the last two years
in triple A ball. McQueen is a
young lefthanded youngster who
hasn’t had much opportunity to
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pitch. He could come along.
With Mike Lum and Oscar
Brown backing up Hank in the
outfield, we should have pinch
hitting strength. There are a
couple of kids in the minor lea
gues who could help us on the
bench, but I don’t plan to force
feed anybody. And we possibly
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THE FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - JAN. 11, 1973
may pick up another playe- or
two in deals before the season
starts.
In summation, let me empha
size again that we sincerely
mean business In the changes
that have been made. Eddie Rob
inson, myself and several other
people in our organizatia have
PEPSI
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SHORTENING
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put a lot of time into analy
zing our needs. We feel e’ve
maintained our youth and run
production while Improving our
pitching and defense. Pitching
and defense are becoming more
imprtant all the time, and first
class pitching is a very impor
tant part of good defense.
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