Cardinals vs Braves Round Two

The Braves took a win instead this time around, beating the Cardinals 2-1.

- Derek Lowe is looking very good. He pitched four innings, gave up two hits, walked one and struck out four batters. He has yet to allow any runners to cross the plate.

- Top pitching prospect Julio Teheran pitched a scoreless inning. He too has an ERA of 0.00.

- Martin Prado was 2-2 with a walk and a run scored.

*Tommy Hanson will pitch tomorrow against the NY Yankees. Kenshin Kawakami will make his first appearance in relief.

Nate McLouth - Luis Salazar

In other news, Nate McLouth received a cortisone shot in his right shoulder. It appears to be nothing serious but rather a "bruise" as Nate puts it. Hopefully he comes back on schedule and resumes his successful spring.

Also, Minor League Manager Luis Salazar was knocked unconscious after being struck in the face by a foul ball hit by Brian McCann. He was taken to the hospital.

According to Bowman,

"Salazar suffered multiple facial fractures and will have to undergo further tests to determine the significance of damage to his left eye. But doctors have ruled out the possibility that he suffered brain damage and been encouraged that he can interact with family members."

St. Lous Cardinals vs Braves

The Braves couldn't get their bats going as they lost to the Cardinals 6-1.

- Rodrigo Lopez pitched four innings and gave up 3 earned runs. His four strikeouts were a plus. It's nice having a decent experienced pitcher for pitching depth.

- Jonny Venters has yet to allow a run this spring, pitching another scoreless inning and striking out one.

- Pitching prospect Arodys Viscaino pitched as well, giving up two hits and striking out two in an inning of work. He too has yet to allow a run this spring.

- Jordan Schafer had an ugly game. He was hitless in five at bats.

- Freddie Freeman was unable to get himself a hit as well, going 0-4.

*There was also a "B" game against the Cardinals minor leaguers today. Two guys competing for the 5th spot pitched in this game. If you haven't guessed it already, those two were Brandon Beachy and Mike Minor. Here's a DOB writeup. I like Mark Bowman's better here.

- Brandon Beachy is using a slider he used to throw in college this time around. Beachy pitched four innings and allowed two runs. He had control issues, walking 3 batters.

- Mike Minor allowed one run in four innings. He allowed three hits, but also recorded an impressive seven strikeouts.

*Derek Lowe will get his chance to pitch again against the Cardinals tomorrow.

Monday's Game 3/8

The Braves took a loss from the NY Yankees with the final scoring being 5-4.

It was another typical game, a starting pitcher getting stretched out for the season and the relief guys getting an inning or so in.

- Jair Jurrjens got roughed up this time around. He gave up four runs in four innings, but he did strike out four batters as well. I'm not worried. Here's a little bit on his performance from David O'Brien.

"After feeling rusty in his first two spring outings, Jurrjens said he could tell – without looking at the radar gun or asking anyone for readings – that his fastball was better Tuesday. And he was right. It was consistently 90-91 mph and topped out at 93.

'The first two outing I don’t think I even broke 90,' he said. 'Finally I feel loose, and really that’s the thing I wanted to accomplish today, try to get that looseness again and trying to see that zip on the fastball. I think my next bullpen I’m going to start working on the sinker and make it sink a little more.'

Gonzalez also had suspicions that the Yankees were seeing something that tipped Jurrjens’ pitches, because they kept stealing on breaking pitches and not fastballs.

'Yeah, that leads me to believe they were seeing something at first base,' Gonzalez said. 'We can correct that. It’s not that big of a deal.'"

- Peter Moylan struck out all three batters in his one inning of work.

- Craig Kimbrel pitched a scoreless inning while striking out one batter.

- Nothing tremendous worth noting on the hitting side.

Predicting Derek Lowe

It's been a while since I predicted a players stats for the upcoming season. I'm still on my starting rotation, and so I decided to do Derek Lowe this time. It's hard to not be real optimistic of Lowe considering him being named NL pitcher of the month for Septemeber and his strong performance in the playoffs. Take it with a grain of salt, but he's having a pretty good spring training as well.

Lowe has been a disappointing pitcher during his time in Atlanta so far. He certainly hasn't lived up to the contract he signed in January of 2009. Perhaps we will see it payoff this season?

I'll have to keep in mind that Derek Lowe will be turning 38 years old this season. So I really can't expect him to have a season like he did in 2008 with the LA Dodgers. One plus is that the guy is never injured, and he should be a lock for at least 190 innings pitched. He hasn't pitched less than 193.2 innings in the last 6 seasons, and his lowest was 182.2 innings (2004) in the last 9 years.

With all that being said, I think he will have his best season as an Atlanta Brave yet for 2011. I like Bill James projections for Lowe on fangraphs.

I'll give it my shot.

14-11, 191 IP, 3.80 ERA, 128 K, 1.27 WHIP