While we don't have a "first-round" pick, I think most of us can say that with the state of our starting pitching this year we're all pretty glad that we have Tom Glavine. For those of you who don't know, in order to sign him we had to give up our first round pick (#18) as compensation to the Mets. Even without a pick in the first-round proper, we still have four picks in the first 100 selections -- enough to come away with some very talented early round players. Our early selections include:

#40 - In the supplemental first-round as compensation for losing Ron Mahay to free agency
#64 - Our standard second-round pick
#70 - In the "supplemental" second-round, as compensation for not signing Josh Fields
#96 - Our standard third-round pick

The first rounds will be televised today on ESPN2 from 2pm to 6pm EST.

If you post about the players please do not post content from pay sites (like Baseball America or Scouts, Inc.). You can post snippets and quotes from write-ups, and you can post content that is not behind a subscriber firewall, but not full-copy of exclusive content.

Richmond 8, Durham 1

• D. Hernandez - 3-5 HR(3)
• S. Thorman - 2-5 2 HR(9), 2 K
• J. Perry - 2-4 HR(2)

I don't know if Chuck James was on a pitch count or if he got hurt again but he came out after 3.1 IP and allowing only 1 hit. Scott Thorman continues to beat the ball into submission in the new month and is trying to prove to someone he is a major league hitter. I'm not really sure he is, but he is a pretty good AAA hitter. He still needs to cut back on his Ks some. Richmond is now back in 1st in the division.

Birmingham 3, Mississippi4

• J. Schafer - 2-4 HR(1)
• K. Kaaihue - 3-3 2B, 2 RBI
• M. Gonzalez - 1IP 1H 0R 1K

Jordan Schafer seems to be shaking the rust off pretty well. He has 6 hits on the season and 3 of them are for extra bases. In his 3 games back he is 5-13 with a double, HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB and K. Definitely solid production. I can't wait to see him get back in the swing of things and start producing and judging from the circumstances surrounding his suspension I think he is going to have a chip on his shoulder. In other news Kala Kaaihue is doing a poor man's Scott Thorman impersonation. He just doesn't quite have it yet.

Winston-Salem 2, Myrtle Beach 4

• T. Flowers - 2-2 2B, RBI, 2 BB
• R. Marcial - 3-4 2 RBI
• S. Diamond - 6IP 6H 1R 2BB 7K

I am really encouraged to see that Tyler Flowers has been hitting better at home recently. His home road splits are abysmal, but really everyone hits for crap at the Beach. That makes it all the more impressive that this team leads the league in HRs. Scott Diamond has really asserted himself this season as a solid pitching prospect. I don't know much about him yet, but I intend to find some reports about him. He is now 6-1 on the season between Rome and Myrtle Beach

Rome 5, Charleston 2

• J. Heyward - 2-4 RBI, K
• M. Fisher - 3-4 2 2B
• C. Rohrbough - 6IP 4H 1R 3BB 5K

Always good news to see Rohrbough throwing a good game. I was a little worried there for a couple of games but I will just chalk it up to him being rusty or something. I haven't ever been sold on Cole being a top of the line type prospect but we obviously can't discount his stats from last year. I would still probably rank him behind Hanson, Morton and maybe Locke. Maybe. I've been a big Locke fan the past couple of seasons but his struggles this year remind me a bit too much of Beau Jones and Jeff Lyman.

It was nice to see that we got a one-run "win" last night, but today there was a pretty big let-down; John Smoltz will have season-ending arm/shoulder surgery.  I think most of us knew this might happen when he first started experiencing arm problems and then continued to have setbacks.

Oh well, not much we can do but moan about it and move on. Feel free to vent a bit in this business-man's special open thread. Perhaps Trader-Wren will find the next best thing on the trade market. Who would have thought that Glavine would last longer than Smoltz this year?

Richmond 7, Durham 0

• C. Morton - 8IP 1H 0R 1BB 13K
• B. Canizares - 3-5 HR(8)
• M. Jurich - 3-4 2 2B, 3 RBI

Well damn Charlie Morton. In a big game with the division leader Morton came up huge and just proves that he is in a zone right now. In Baseball America's Hot Sheet chat today someone asked about Morton:

What kind of Ceiling does Charlie Morton have?

Matt Eddy: Let's peg him as a potential No. 4 for now, because of his age (24) and lack of a track record. On the other hand, if his fastball command improves a bit, Morton's got the secondary stuff, particularly a curveball and changeup, to be better than that.

I think that is fair given his track record, but he really appears to have found something extra since the AFL. I am a believer and I think he has the potential to be a #2 with his current fastball command. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Birmingham 3, Mississippi (Final in 13 innings)

• J. Schafer - 1-5 RBI, BB, K
• G. Creek - 3-4 2 2B, BB
• T. Hanson - 6IP 5H 3R 1BB 5K

Van Pope singled in Jose Carmena in the 13th for the win. Tommy Hanson pitched a solid game again. He appears to have made the adjustment in the past couple of games and hasn't really been hammered save for that second start. Greg Creek has really been the most consistent hitter in this lineup for most of the season but I don't think he'll ever really amount to much. He might be the first mayor of Gwinnett. Mike Gonzalez threw an inning of relief giving up no runs but allowing two hits. He should probably be back within a week to give us a really solid bullpen. I still think they should have kept Stockman up. He must have done something with Bobby's daughter to be treated like he is.

Winston-Salem 2, Myrtle Beach 5

• G. Hernandez - 3-3 RBI, SB(6)
• E. Campbell - 1-4 2B, 3 RBI
• D. Heath - 7IP 6H 1R 3BB 6K

Heath pitched an excellent game and appears to have recovered from his struggles in the last few starts. Gorkys had another big game as we have come to expect from him. Eric Campbell had the big blow with a bases loaded double in the first. I used to love Campbell but I don't know how i feel about him after all his off the field stuff. I hope he can rebound like Josh Hamilton but stay with us.

Rome 0, Charleston 3

• F. Freeman - 1-4 3B
• J. Locke - 6.2IP 8H 3R 2BB 1K

Every time I see Jeff Locke's name in the box score I think of John Locke and then I think about that damn coffin on the season finale. Was anyone at the game tonight? Why didn't Heyward play? Did he get called up or just taking the night off?

I'm usually a pretty big homer, but the Braves have been finding all sorts of ways to mess-up games lately. I just can't watch anymore. It's actually a fortuitous thing that I'm headed out to the west coast this morning and I won't be able to watch them for eight days. At least then it will only be one horrendous minute or two when I read the box score.

The problem with box scores is that a lot of our problems lately have been problems that don't appear in box scores. Misplayed balls in the field, someone not backing up the right base, baserunning mistakes, the petty list goes on and on. It's like we need a fundamentals spring-training-esque class here in the middle of the season. But these guys know how the game should be played, they're just not executing.

The lucky part of last night's game is that we were finally able to come back after letting the lead slip away (twice) in the late innings. I said a few days ago that Soriano and Smoltz would have to shake the cobwebs off, and it's good to get a win in a game where they didn't have their best stuff.

Playing baseball is tough... so is watching baseball.

(Picture from Threadless)

So yeah I'll try to cover some of the stuff that I have missed over the past week or so.

Richmond 28-28

Richmond has dropped back to second in the division and 2 games back of Durham. They went 14-15 during the month of May but they did have a 7 game losing streak tossed in there in the last week or two that kind of crippled them. The pitching has dropped a bit and now sits in the middle of the league with a 3.95 ERA. The offense has plummeted though down to the second worst OPS in the entire league. Thats just horrible considering what they were doing a few weeks ago. Jason Perry might help a little though I think he will struggle more at AAA. Scott Thorman has been coming around so we might see a boost there.

Mississippi 22-35

The M-Braves went 16-13 for the month which is obviously a marked improvement over the first month of the season. Jason Perry powered the offense most of the month but he was moved up to Richmond recently and Reid Gorecki (another journeyman OF) hit the crap out of the ball for a few days but then went on the DL. Jordan Schafer is back with the team and will probably be in the lineup again here in the next couple of days. The team still has the worst BA in the league at .236 as a team and the second worst OPS at .676. They also have the worst ERA in the league with a horrible 5.06 mark. I don't know how they won most of the month like they did. They are 10-8 in 1 run ball games.

Myrtle Beach 37-20

This team has been a juggernaut the last month and a half. They are 9.5 games up on the second place Kinston team. Recently the Pelicans have been my only bright light in the Braves Universe. They went an incredible 20-9 during the month of May. They did lose their best pitcher (Tommy Hanson) to Mississippi but the rest of the pieces in that rotation have been solid and Chris Vines has been pretty good since he returned to starting. Their ERA is easily the best in the league at a paltry 3.06. They still have the best OPS in the league and lead in homers also. We'll probably see an OF with Gorkys Hernandez and Jason Heyward here soon I would think.

Rome 18-38

I am just amazed at how bad this team is. As good as the Pelicans have been this team has been worse. At 20-8 for the month nothing good can really be found outside of the 3-4 men in the lineup. Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman have been all the offense for most of the past month and sooner or later I would think they'd break down from all the pressure. The ERA hasn't been horrible, not good, but not horrible either. The team OPS is second to last. All I have to say is Secondbass and company need to root harder or slip the team some HGH or something!

Hotlist!!!!

1. Jason Heyward - So as one of the youngest players in the SAL (Angel Villalona of Augusta is the youngest) Heyward .345/.398/.564 for the month of May. He walked more, struck out less and spiked his power. A good sign of real improvement.
   
2. Freddie Freeman - What these have done can't be stated without also noting how bad their offense is outside of them. Frederick went .313/.336/.625 on the month. Obviously he needs to walk a bit more after only 4 in 112 ABs in May but his power was amazing with 21 XBH for the month after only 7 in April.
   
3. Scott Thorman - A bounce back month for the former prospect. He went .333/.343/.635 for the month. Again, not many walks but 17 XBH in less than 100 ABs ain't bad.
   
4. Kyle Cofield - a 1.57 ERA for a month is excellent. He walked a crap ton of people - 28.2 IP 22/16 K/BB -  but it didn't matter too much. I'll keep an eye on those Ks and Walks but everything else was good it seems. He had a decent ground ball average so that works for him.
   
5. Charlie Morton - Well amazingly Morton was even better this month than last. He went 3-1 with a 1.60 ERA in 39.1 innings with a 32/12 K/BB. An excellent month for him and if anyone else goes missing in the starting rotation in Atl. it will be hard to ignore his performance so far. Only thing we have to watch for with him is his annual late season decline.

Maybe now that we're home, we can finally win some games...

FYI, on a personal note, I'm headed on yet another business trip, this time to beautiful sunny Irvine, California (that was actually not sarcastic, it really is beautiful and sunny out there). I'll still be doing the game threads, though they may be more abbreviated. This is your chance to write an op-ed fan post... the best ones will be promoted to the front page.

Here is a quick snippet from the AJC :

The Braves' John Smoltz threw a scoreless eighth inning Saturday night for Class A Rome, striking out one, and could be activated as soon as Monday.

Mike Gonzalez made his second appearance in his minor league rehabilitation assignment at AA Mississippi. He gave up two hits in two scoreless innings after throwing one scoreless inning Thursday. The Braves would like to give Gonzalez a couple of weeks to work his way back.

"He just needs to get back competitive," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said.

I expect that even when these guys return they'll be a bit shaky for their first couple of outings, so the immediate benefits may not be realized, but if they stay healthy and return to their previous form (still a tall order for Gonzo, who is coming back from TJ) then the end of the game for the Braves may begin sometime around the sixth or seventh inning.

I especially like what this portends for our problem in one-run games. There is a distinct lack of confidence in some of the Braves relievers right now, so to add two guys like Smoltz and Gonzalez to the back of the pen makes a huge difference in how Cox uses his relievers (not to mention the recent addition of Rafael Soriano). Guys like Acosta and Boyer turn into the early innings guys, and Ohman returns to being just a LOOGY. Bennett and Carlyle can then go back to being just long-men or situational guys. By the way, that list sort of tells you that I think the team will cut Royce Ring and demote Phil Stockman (though they may choose to demote Carlyle instead).

As much as this is a good thing for our bullpen, I still would prefer that Smoltz come back as a starter. Obviously the thought from the team and from John is that his elbow will hold up better as a reliever than as a starter, but this leaves our rotation without its best pitcher -- and the winningest pitcher in post-season history, if we're looking that far ahead (and we should be).

Further down in the AJC article it mentions that Mike Hampton did some more long tossing on his latest road back from his latest injury -- and he didn't have any setbacks. I'm still of the opinion that he'll severely stub his toe on his way out of the dugout to make his first start and have to leave the game without ever throwing a pitch.