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September 15, 2000 The Daily ProspectusDot, dot, dot...With sincere apologies to the late, great Allan Malamud... On June 21, Bobby Cox brought John Rocker in to start the ninth inning with the Braves trailing 3-1. It was Rocker's third appearance since his recall from Richmond, and he was brutal: one out, four walks, a hit and five runs. Since then, Rocker has been indistinguishable from the pitcher who blew through the NL in 1999: 26 1/3 innings, a 1.37 ERA, 16 hits, 15 walks and 35 strikeouts. Before yesterday, Rocker had gone almost a month since his last walk allowed. The Braves desperately need Rocker. With him effective, the team has three solid relievers for the late innings, with Kerry Ligtenberg and Mike Remlinger. Since Cox didn't want to use Kevin McGlinchy last season, there's no reason to believe he'll want to use Scott Kamieniecki this year, meaning the Braves will need to get as many effective innings as they can from the rotation and their three good relievers. John Rocker makes the plan work; without him, it's unlikely the team can get through three playoff rounds without dipping into the Kamieniecki/John Burkett/Terry Mulholland parts of the staff, which is a recipe for disaster... Has Mike Cameron touched the plate yet?... The Cardinals can clinch this weekend, with a magic number of five as of this morning... Chaos update: the AL wants the Indians play another day/night doubleheader, this time on September 25, to make up Sunday's rainout of their game with the White Sox. They would play the Sox at noon and their regularly scheduled game with the Twins at 7:00 p.m. I love this idea. Anything that could create weirdness is always fun. What if it rains that day? What if they first game goes 14 innings? Exactly how big is the the visitors' clubhouse at the Jake, anyway? And how late can the Twins play, anyway? Doesn't most of their roster have a 9:00 bedtime? The Indians are, frankly, in an absurd situation. They have no off-days between now and the end of the season and have to play at least 19 games, and possibly 20 or even 21, in the 18 days between now and October 2. I don't blame the league for trying to get the makeup game out of the way, because they may need October 2 for a playoff. And maybe October 3 as well, if the Blue Jays or an AL West team gets into the mix... Cleveland lost five coin flips, by the way, and would be on the road for any and all potential wild-card playoff games... Joe Sheehan can be reached at jsheehan@baseballprospectus.com.
Joe Sheehan is an author of Baseball Prospectus.
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