N.L. East

Sporting News, The, August 23, 1999

Patience pays off

Gerald Williams has had a considerable impact on the Braves' lineup since manager Bobby Cox made him the team's full-time leadoff hitter on August 5. In Williams' first nine games after the move, the team was 7-2, and he batted .345 with two homers and 12 RBIs.

"It's not shocking, what he's doing,, Cox says. "He hit .310 (actually .305) last year, didn't he?"

Williams has put to rest any lingering doubt about his ability to hit righthanders. That was the knock against him, which he says was simply a lack of opportunity, not an inability to hit them.

"I waited patiently until I got an opportunity," he says. "I don't get frustrated. Frustration has a negative connotation, and I'm always positive."

Williams, who played for the Yankees and Brewers before the Braves swapped reliever Chad Fox for him in December 1997, has outstanding speed and is a good defensive outfielder. But in his first seven major league seasons, he tallied more than 270 at-bats just once (566 with Milwaukee in '97), a lack of playing time that can be directly attributed to his failure to hit righthanders.

Williams entered the season with a career batting average of .234 against righties and hit lefthanders at a .292 clip. This season, he has improved those numbers, hitting .248 against righties and .312 against lefties.

Cox might have inserted Williams as the leadoff hitter sooner, but he couldn't justify benching first baseman Randall Simon and shifting Ryan Klesko back to first. But when Simon was shipped back to Class AAA Richmond to make room for backup catcher Pascual Matos, Williams went to leadoff, and he has made the most of his opportunity.

"We were starting to sputter there a little bit," Cox says. "(Gerald's hitting) is coming at a great time."

Overall, Williams is hitting .301 in 31 games as the leadoff man, 86 points better than the combined average of all other Braves leadoff hitters. He also put together a 15-game hitting streak, the club's best since Michael Tucker had a 16-game streak in 1997. --Bill Zack

Atlanta

74-47: T 1st

Three-quarters of Smoltz Is better than none

Everything about John Smoltz looks familiar except his delivery. The righthander, who has spent 11 years in the majors as a strikeout pitcher, has transformed himself into a sinker/groundball pitcher by dropping to a three-quarters delivery. The results are some confused hitters and a right elbow that no longer needs a cortisone shot every couple of weeks. Smoltz is hopeful of working out all the kinks of his new delivery by the postseason. Doing it now, with less than two months remaining in the season, is unheard of and one of the biggest challenges of Smoltz's career. By dropping his delivery, he has created a whole new set of problems, primarily newfound movement on his pitches. In the past, Smoltz's fastball was in the 95 mph range, but it was straight. Now, his velocity is in the 90-91 mph range, and his fastball is sinking down and in on righthanded hitters. It's all part of the learning process. He's experimenting during bullpen sessions between starts and studying video frame-by-frame of his new delivery.

RETURN OF THE CAT: Andres Galarraga expects to complete his radiation treatments in about 10 days and plans to rejoin the dub in about 2 1/2 weeks.... Tom Glavine says he learned some valuable lessons from the two months he struggled to find some consistency in the location of his pitches and his changeup. His struggles forced him to pitch inside more and use his curve, which he had never done.

SEE A DIFFERENT GAME: Ryan Klesko says he doesn't mind shifting between left field and first base, depending on who's swinging a hot bat The numbers reflect his comfort He's hitting .298 with seven homers and 29 RBIs in 151 at-bats as a first baseman and .324 with 10 home runs and 34 RBIs in the same number of at-bats as a left fielder. If manager Cox wants Klesko to maintain his production, he'll keep the big lefthanded hitter in the No. 5 hole. Klesko is a far better hitter (.340, 12 HRs, 40 RBIs) in the fifth slot than at No. 6 (.275, 4 HRs, 19 RBI). --Bill Zack

GRADING OUT

OFFENSE A

Chipper Jones is picking up the offensive slack in Javy Lopez's absence.

PITCHING A

The rotation is solid again, and the bullpen is among the league's ERA leaders.

DEFENSE A

The league's third-best defense has committed only nine errors in last 15 games.

BRAVES

                AVG     G    AB    R     H    HR   RBI

C. Jones(#)    .321   114   417   85   134    31    74
Klesko( )      .311    97   302   43    94    18    66
Myers( )       .300    61   160   18    48     5    22
Jordan         .293   111   434   78   127    20    92
Williams       .280   101   246   44    69    11    50
Hernandez      .275   108   371   65   102    16    46
A. Jones       .261   118   437   71   114    23    65
Lockhart( )    .256    81   125   17    32     1    15
Boone          .251   110   439   76   110    16    47
E. Perez       .250    67   196   18    49     2    12
Hunter         .246    79   118   20    29     4    21
Guillen( )     .230    73   213   18    49     0    14
Weiss(#)       .223    75   247   31    55     1    23
(*)Battle      .000     1     1    0     0     0     0

                OBP    SLG    SB     K    BB     E

C. Jones(#)    .437   .631    14    73    87    13
Klesko( )      .384   .570     4    53    38     6
Myers( )       .364   .431     0    17    16     4
Jordan         .355   .493    10    57    37     3
Williams       .332   .467    10    40    20     2
Hernandez      .358   .450     9   107    43    12
A. Jones       .346   .487    14    78    52     6
Lockhart( )    .326   .320     3    15    13     1
Boone          .315   .424     8    85    38     6
E. Perez       .299   .332     0    25    10     4
Hunter         .350   .424     0    30    16     4
Guillen( )     .269   .291     4    17    12     6
Weiss(#)       .310   .300     7    41    31    10
(*)Battle      .000   .000     0     1     0     0

GRAND SLAMS: Jordan Williams(1)

                 ERA    W-L    G      IP     H     R   ER

Rocker( )       2.22    3-3   53    52.2    33    14   13
Remlinger( )    2.57    3-1   50    56.0    50    18   16
Seanez          2.86    6-1   52    50.1    43    17   16
(*)McGlinchy    3.23    6-3   53    55.2    53    23   20
Millwood        3.28   13-7   24   159.0   129    67   58
Maddux          3.57   14-6   25   166.1   193    74   66
Smoltz          3.60    8-6   20   122.1   114    52   49
Glavine( )      4.14   10-9   25   169.2   186    86   78
Springer        4.60    1-1   32    31.1    25    16   16
Mulholland( )   5.11    7-6   30   119.2   150    78   68
(*)Chen( )      6.14    1-2    8    36.2    32    26   25

                HR     K    BB    SV   Avg.

Rocker( )        2    72    26    25   .175
Remlinger( )     6    56    28     0   .235
Seanez           3    41    20     3   .228
(*)McGlinchy     5    51    27     0   .259
Millwood        18   139    50     0   .220
Maddux          12    94    30     0   .292
Smoltz           8    99    25     0   .251
Glavine( )      11    95    60     0   .284
Springer         3    33    15     0   .219
Mulholland( )   18    51    35     0   .311
(*)Chen( )       9    28    19     0   .237