Millwood the key

Braves' No. 3 starter faces up to his responsibilities

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Everybody wants to lay all the responsibility for the Braves' success this season on Kevin Millwood. Everyone says it's Millwood, the Braves' right-hander and No. 3 starter, who holds the key.

Oh, brother, all that preseason pressure must be absolutely suffocating.

"I think how I go is going to be pretty much how the team goes," Millwood shrugs in agreement. "I think [No. 4 Jason] Marquis and [No. 5 Albie] Lopez are very capable of winning a lot of ballgames.

"But I think the team is looking to me to take a lot of pressure off these guys."

The Braves have been synonymous with good pitching for a decade. They still carry one of the strongest top-of-the-rotation duos in the game in Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Now that John Smoltz has officially been converted to a closer, the onus for backing up Maddux and Glavine falls to Millwood, the 27-year-old who won 17 games in 1998 and 18 the year after.

Millwood struggled to 10-13 in 2000, then last year, battling a shoulder injury that put him on the disabled list, he fought to a 7-7 record with a 4.31 ERA. But he's healthy again now and throwing freely, as he demonstrated Monday in his first outing of the spring.

Against the Houston Astros at the Braves' training complex at Disney's Wide World of Sports, Millwood started and went two innings, allowing neither a hit nor a walk. He threw only 16 pitches, hardly enough to get a feel for his progress. But he was happy with what he threw.

"It went real good," he said. "I felt good. I felt comfortable. I just wanted to feel good when I came off the field. And I feel great."

After an offseason rehabilitation regimen that included some three hours of therapy four days a week, Millwood says the shoulder injury that stifled him as early as spring training last season is now healed.

"It doesn't take 20 minutes just to get loose anymore," he said. "It's nice to work on things the right way, the correct way, instead of trying to find new ways to throw so it doesn't hurt."

As long as he stays healthy and throws the way he did Monday against the Astros, Millwood will be the unquestioned No. 3. It's a position that Smoltz was in back in 1993. That was the year Maddux came over from the Cubs and the Maddux-Glavine 1-2 punch was formed.

It's a position, Smoltz says, of huge importance.

"I had to deal with that. Now he has to," Smoltz said. "There's going to be a lot of pressure on him. But he knows he's going to be asked to start 30-something games and he knows we need some good starts out of him -- so go at it.

"Kevin knows. He'll be all right."

In fact, he has to be all right. Everybody, including Millwood, says the Braves' season rides on it.

Boston too public

Red Sox manager Joe Kerrigan has been as stand-up of a guy as you could expect from someone who is asked daily when he will be fired. Or at least if he will be canned.

Kerrigan isn't particularly happy about the whole situation the Red Sox have put him in. But he's dealing with it, getting the team ready for whoever might take over.

The other day someone asked him if he had heard from Felipe Alou, the longtime Expos manager. It was an uneasy moment in a spring full of them. Kerrigan was being asked to comment on a man who could take his job.

Alou is very well thought of in Boston. Former GM Dan Duquette reportedly offered him the managing job last year after the firing of Jimy Williams. Kerrigan thinks so highly of Alou that he tried to get him as a bench coach for him earlier this spring.

So Kerrigan had no problems talking about his old friend, whom he worked under in Montreal and last talked to around Christmas.

"He's still keeping his options open as far as managing," Kerrigan said. "I still think he wants to manage."

Alou, who will be 67 in May, has a 691-717 record as a big-league manager, all with Montreal. Kerrigan says he thinks the sub-.500 record is what motivates Alou to consider getting back in to baseball.

Alou is not the only name being tossed about as a possible successor to Kerrigan, if that becomes necessary. Former big-league skipper Jim Fregosi may be on the make-believe list, along with former Arizona manager Buck Showalter, former Twins manager Tom Kelly and longtime skipper Jim Leyland.

It's a strange situation. But, as interim general manager Mike Port said the other day, "That's the Red Sox."

A rookie DH

The Yankees have everything they need to make their fifth straight trip to the World Series. That doesn't mean they've figured out exactly how to use it.

Manager Joe Torre is trying rookie Nick Johnson at designated hitter to see if the big slugger can handle doing nothing but swinging the bat every couple of innings. Johnson is a first baseman, and by all accounts could be the team's first baseman in the future. But for this year, and maybe a couple more after this, the Yanks have a guy named Jason Giambi who wants to play first.

That leaves Johnson at DH or coming off the bench if he is to make the big club. So, given the choice, DH sounds fine to him.

"They've got me running in the outfield a little bit, too, so we'll see. I'm up for anything," he said. "It's the big leagues."

One problem with a rookie DH is a lack of knowledge of the pitchers he will face. Designated hitters, generally speaking, often are older guys who have been around the league for awhile and may have an idea of who and what they will be facing. That's critical when so much is expected of a DH.

But a bigger problem for a rookie DH may be just getting used to being involved in only part of the game.

"It's what to do with your time," Torre said. "It's what you're used to."

Johnson, at 6-foot-3 and 224 pounds, had 18 homers and 49 RBIs in 110 games at Class AAA Columbus last season and has a left-handed power swing tailor made for the short porch in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees would love to have a productive lefty hitter in the lineup.

But can he do it? Can a guy with 67 big-league at-bats step in and be a regular hit in New York?

"We've got [a few] more games to find that out," Torre said.

Camping out ...

One aspect of the game that Pittsburgh's Lloyd McClendon is stressing this spring: Baserunning. "It was absolutely atrocious last year," the Pirates manager said. "It cost us a couple of games." The Pirates could use all the help they can get. They were 15th in the National League in runs last year. McClendon has vowed to fine his players this year for baserunning blunders. ... The Reds, who everybody knew would be starved for pitching, gave up 21 runs on 32 hits in their first two games. But, hey, it's only spring training. It doesn't mean a thing. ... Kansas City outfielder Mark Quinn is out with a cracked rib he suffered while horsing around with his brother in San Diego, doing "a little kung fu sparring" before he came to camp. He fell on a wooden chair, broke the rib and probably will miss Opening Day. ... Most impressive home run seen so far this spring? OK, the most impressive home run seen this spring by your intrepid Buzz reporter? That would be the job that Philadelphia's Bobby Abreu muscled out to right field Saturday in a loss to the Pirates at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium in Clearwater, Fla. It was against winds that were gusting upwards of 30 mph. ... Braves reliever Smoltz remarked how it has been hard to get in his work because of the weather. Not only has it been chilly at times, but those winds have played havoc with his control. At the least, Smoltz said, the un-Floridalike weather will give him some practice for the Braves' April schedule, which includes a road trip that begins in Philadelphia, moves to South Florida, then jumps back up to New York. "My gosh, I'll never figure that out," he said. "Why don't we just start in Alaska?"

John Donovan covers baseball for CNNSI.com. His Spring Training Buzz will run each Tuesday and Thursday until Opening Day.

 

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