The Killer Gs...Glavine and Glaus

As of today, no one on the Atlanta Braves roster will ever wear No.47 ever again. The announced today that Tom Glavine will have his number retired this August 6 after Glavine officially hung up the glove and cleats earlier this year to take a position with the organization. Glavine won two Cy Young awards with the Braves (1991, 98), along with 244 games for Atlanta and 305 games overall. Glavine’s No. 47 will be the seventh number retired with Atlanta and comes one year after Greg Maddux had his number retired at a Braves game last summer. Glavine was a ten-time all-star and pitched 17 years for the Atlanta Braves with five years with the New York Mets thrown in for good measure. The lefthander was the starter in the World Series-clinching game six against Cleveland in 1995 when the Braves won the team’s lone title during the franchise’s incredible run of division titles. Glavine also finished with 20+ wins five times with Atlanta and is 21st all-time on the most-wins list.

And not to go all Mark Bradley on you here, but it might be time to lay off Troy Glaus. Last night the guy laid into a ball and crushed it to dead centerfield to give Atlanta a 2-0 lead in a game it would go on to win 8-2. While Glaus hasn’t provided the pop thus far that many thought he could, (I thought he’d be good for 25-27 home runs) that isn’t to say he isn’t going to finish with 20+ longballs. And he has played in all 32 games (as of Monday), which is tied with Martin Prado for the most on the team. He has the third highest batting average among regular starters and he has more hits than everybody’s favorite rookie Jason Heyward, aka the MVP of the season thus far. He is second on the team in home runs as well as RBI and he has really been clicking recently when it comes to RBIs, with ten already this month in just nine games. In fact, for the month of May, Glaus is hitting .400 with a .450 OBP plus a slugging percentage of .514. Glaus is slowly becoming the player Braves should have hoped he would be, and remember, he is coming cheap on a one-year deal because we don’t want anything blocking Freddie Freeman for next season. For those who say Adam LaRoche over Glaus, the stats are identical and Glaus is having the better May by a longshot. Oh, and Glaus is a power righty in the lineup to break up the Heyward/McCann lefty-train. Options. And Glaus is only getting healthier…