Section 435 An Atlanta Braves blog. From the upper deck at Turner Field.

Saturday Quick Hits

Smoltz, who is apparently not broken, is going this afternoon against John Lannan, the Nationals’ 2007 Minor League Pitcher of the Year. (Does that even mean anything?) He had a good outing against the Redbirds in his first start of the season. Quick hits for today:

• Does anyone else think that maybe Hampton’s biggest problem is a really lousy warm-up/stretching regimen. Since his arm finally recovered from the Tommy John surgery, his three tweaks in the winter, spring, and regular seasons have all been strained muscles. And maybe a bit of the old learned helplessness.
• Looks like it’s time to put the big FRAGILE sign back up on Chipper, too.
• What’s the deal with no one going to games at the new Nationals Park? You know, besides that the Nationals have cooties.

Update 3:45pm: Apparently Smoltz is a little bit broken, but if he comes out he loses his making fun of Hampton privileges, so he’s going to tough it out.

Shaun, thanks for the comment.

It looks like Chipper’s going to be alright. They just took him out because of the big lead. But he is fragile, no doubt. Those legs are always getting strained our tweaked. If he plays 150 games, he’s going to be an MVP candidate.

Kind of crazy that a professional athlete would have so much trouble stretching. I think it could be Hampton trying too hard to keep pressure off the elbow when he throws. The compensation isn’t natural.

There’s probably something to that, and it might explain the pectoral strain. But the winter league strain was the hamstring when he was going for a ground ball, and the spring training thing was a groin strain.