EVENTS
 Sportsman of the Year
 Heisman Trophy
 Swimsuit 2001

1. Atlanta Braves

Last year's league champs got stronger thanks to three comebacks and a trade

By Jeff Pearlman

Offense Defense Starting Pitching Bullpen Manager 1999 Record 103-59 (first in NL East) Batting Order 2B Quilvio Veras LF Reggie Sanders 3B Chipper Jones 1B Andres Galarraga C Javy Lopez RF Brian Jordan CF Andruw Jones SS Walt Weiss Bench 1F Randall Simon C Eddie Perez IF Wally Joyner IF Keith Lockhart IF Ozzie Guillen Starters RH Greg Maddux LH Tom Glavine RH Kevin Millwood LH Terry Mulholland LH Bruce Chen Bullpen LH John Rocker RH Kerry Ligtenberg LH Mike Remlinger RH Kevin McGlinchy RH Rudy Seanez LH Steve Avery Next Up... The off-season didn't seem to be a great one for Braves first baseman Randall Simon, who was a) infamously called "a fat monkey" by John Rocker; b) relegated to backup first baseman by the return to action of Andres Galarraga; and c) knocked down to third string by the acquisition of veteran Wally Joyner. Bad luck, huh? "Not at all," says Simon. "I played winter ball in the Dominican, and I played well. That's what's important -- what I can control." Simon, 24, can also control the bat, which is why -- after hitting .317 with five homers and 25 RBIs in 90 games last season -- he'll be a key lefthanded bat off the bench for Atlanta. That's provided the six-foot Simon can control something else -- his weight, which has ballooned to as much as 235 pounds. "It's always been a problem," says Simon, who reported to camp weighing a more svelte 225. "I was chubby as a kid, and it's never gotten easier." The Book An opposing team's scout sizes up the Braves: "Start with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Kevin Millwood and you've got a pretty good team. Terry Mulholland is fine as the No. 4 starter. He's got a rubber arm.... The Braves are looking for another pitcher because they don't have much at No. 5. Bruce Chen is a No. 5 on a lot of clubs, not just the Braves. His stuff is ordinary. Atlanta has usually had that young starter waiting in the wings. They don't now.... Reliever Kerry Ligtenberg is throwing 91 mph and looks good, but the true test for guys coming off Tommy John surgery is when they start throwing their off-speed pitches.... A key for Atlanta is third baseman Chipper Jones. He has bone chips in his elbow, and they could turn into a problem.... It's amazing how good Andres Galarraga looked in spring training. He really swung the bat well.... Second baseman Quilvio Veras isn't a true leadoff hitter -- he doesn't take walks -- but he's better than the guy he's replacing, Gerald Williams.... The outfield is good, with Brian Jordan, Reggie Sanders (when he's not hurt) and Andruw Jones (when he wants to play)."

On a late evening in February 1999, sometime between kissing his wife good night and rising for a bowl of Froot Loops, Andres Galarraga met God. He knows this sounds unbelievable, even a bit silly, but miracles happen -- Galarraga swears to it. The face-to-face took place in a dream. The 6'3", 250-pound Galarraga says God, appearing as a brilliant white light, picked him up (Psalms 24:8: "The Lord, strong and mighty....") and carried him from the living room to the bedroom. "It was a few days after my first chemotherapy," says Galarraga, a gold medallion bearing Jesus' image hanging from his neck. "At the time I thought I was going to die." How is Galarraga certain the light was God? "I woke up," he says, "and I was soaking in sweat from my chest all the way down."

The Braves missed Galarraga's play at first base almost as much as they missed his bat.John Iacono

From that point Galarraga, who missed all of last season, knew he would recover from the non-Hodgkins lymphoma found in a lower vertebra during an exam 13 months ago. He undertook an agonizingly slow, often painful regimen that began with four months of chemotherapy, followed by a month of radiation treatment. But there was Gallaraga last month, reporting to spring training on time, relatively in shape and prepared to resume his role -- not only as Atlanta's powerful cleanup hitter and regular first baseman but also as a happy-go-lucky clubhouse presence. "With Andres back, we have the order we were supposed to win with all along," says rightfielder Brian Jordan. "It makes our team complete."

Galarraga, who had 44 home runs and 121 RBIs in 1998, is part of a lineup that needed retooling after last season, when Atlanta ranked ninth in the league in batting (.266), eighth in on-base percentage (.341) and seventh in runs (840). The Braves were slow, boring and -- as the Yankees proved in a World Series sweep -- vulnerable to good pitching. Injuries to other players forced Eddie Perez, Ozzie Guillen, Brian Hunter and Keith Lockhart, all sound backups, to play key roles down the stretch.

General manager John Schuerholz, routinely frustrated by Atlanta's lack of spunk at the top of the order, boldly dealt with that shortcoming on Dec. 22 by acquiring second baseman Quilvio Veras and leftfielder Reggie Sanders in a six-player trade with the Padres. "Since Otis Nixon's heyday, we've really lacked that leadoff threat," says Schuerholz. "This addresses that." The Braves lost a good measure of power in the exchange (the departed Bret Boone and Ryan Klesko combined for 41 home runs), but suddenly Atlanta's first two hitters can fly. Veras, a pesky switch-hitter, stole 30 bases last season, Sanders 36. "Man, everyone overlooks the speedy little guy nowadays, with the home run lovefest and all," says Jordan. "But this is the first time in my career I'm going to play with a real leadoff hitter. We're going to score some runs."

They should. With catcher Javy Lopez returning from a knee injury that sidelined him for the last three months of the season, manager Bobby Cox boasts his best collection of hitters since taking over the Braves 11 seasons ago. The order, from the No. 2 slot through 7, of Sanders, reigning National League MVP Chipper Jones, Galarraga, Lopez, Jordan and centerfielder Andruw Jones can reasonably be expected to produce 200 home runs and 600 RBIs.

As for pitching, Atlanta could still have baseball's best rotation despite losing John Smoltz for the season (torn medial collateral ligament in his right elbow). For that to happen, the other senior starters, righthander Greg Maddux and lefty Tom Glavine, will have to return to Cy Young form after showing signs of their mortality last season. Maddux, 34 in April, won 19 games but only after six weeks of getting hammered; he had his highest ERA, 3.57, since 1987. Glavine, 34, won only 14 games and struggled with his command, allowing 259 hits in 234 innings. On the other hand 25-year-old righthander Kevin Millwood has emerged as a first-rate starter (35-15 over the past two years). Veteran lefthander Terry Mulholland, who went 4-2 with a 2.98 ERA after being acquired last July, becomes the No. 4 starter, and 22-year-old lefty Bruce Chen (4-2, 5.05 ERA in 20 big league games) is the front-runner for the fifth spot.

Hence, while Galarraga's and Lopez's returns were more talked about, much of Cox's joy this spring was reserved for the comeback of righthanded reliever Kerry Ligtenberg, who saved 30 games in '98 but missed all of last season with an elbow injury. There was talk he would replace John Rocker as closer or become the primary long reliever. "It makes no difference to me," says Ligtenberg. "I'll be the long man, I'll start, I'll save. I need to prove myself all over again."

He's not the only one.

Issue date: March 27, 2000

Copyright © 2000 CNN/Sports Illustrated An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines.