Sports

Age-old question

• The Braves’ pitching staff will rely on four aging hurlers to stay injury free and deliver the team back to the postseason.

Paul Dehner Jr.

KISSIMMEE, Fla.  —  There are drugs in the Atlanta Braves clubhouse.

No, not those.

We are not talking about greenies, HGH, cream, clear or any other performance-enhancing drugs.

Believe it or not, the legal drugs circulating through the Braves’ lockers could go a long way in sustaining Atlanta’s playoff hopes.

“You are going to see a lot more anti-inflammatories here than around a young team,” said Tim Hudson, the youngest of the Braves’ top four starters at a comparatively infantile 32 years old. “We spend a lot of time in the training room. It is part of getting older.”

Without doubt, the Atlanta starters are just that.

John Smoltz, 40, Tom Glavine, 42, and Mike Hampton, 35, join Hudson to secure the glaring weakness in last year’s 84-79 third-place finish in the NL East.

Few doubt the talent this quartet possesses. The glaring question is if the four of them can make it through the season in one piece.

“If they're not healthy, we're going to really struggle again,” Chipper Jones said. “But if they are, and give us quality innings, then we're going to be very competitive.”

If they stay healthy, maybe head athletic trainer Joe Porter can win an MVP award.

The time spent in the training room could prove just as important as the time on the mound.

Smoltz has had injury problems, but prides himself on staying off the disabled list and had only touched it once since 2003 before tweaking his shoulder this past Friday and landing with the walking wounded.

Glavine has amazingly never been on the disabled list in his 20 years in the majors.

At a certain point, with a track record such as these, the idea of health being a product of luck remains true, but they all have proven it goes far beyond that.

“Just being diligent when it comes to working out in the winter or between starts like that,” said Glavine, while slugging prescription pills between sentences before a spring training game. “There are a lot of lazy guys in the game, no question about it. But I think beyond that, it has just been a little bit of luck. I have had my fair share of nagging things that I have pitched through but nothing that has required surgery or required me to go on the DL. I have been blessed in that regard.

“It is not totally luck. I have done a good job of knowing the things that I need to do.”

Among those involve not pitching harder, but pitching smarter. His fastball tops out nowhere near the 90 mph it once did and his offspeed pitches sometimes appear able to stop mid-flight.

But it is his precision which pushed him to 303 career wins and the Braves believe he will carry this team back to the postseason.

Catcher Brian McCann has enjoyed accepting Glavine’s stuff this spring and been impressed with the efficiency.

“He’s one of those guys that puts the ball where he wants it, changes speeds and has a lot of success doing that,” McCann said. “I am just back there, set up where he tells me and follow his lead.”

Smoltz already experienced a symptom of old-age and begins the season on the

disabled list, likely to make his first start during the second week.

Though he termed it “no big deal,” it was an example of what pitchers like the Braves’ top four have to deal with on a daily basis.

Every twinge, tweak and twist sends trainers scrambling and an aging pitcher’s mind spinning.

Smoltz suggests that dealing with the mental aspect plays an equally important role. 

“So many people the last few years have just been waiting to say, ‘This is it,’ ” Smoltz said. “I will let everyone know when it's it.”

The same questions have hovered around Hampton as he spent the past two seasons on the bench with arm injuries.

Yet, he appears on point with a 1.98 ERA in 13O spring innings and manager Bobby Cox called it “the best we’ve ever seen him,” after a recent start.

Following two years of spring disappointments, which left him out for the year, Hampton’s spring shifted from worst-case to best-case scenario this March.

“This is kind of in a perfect world how I saw it happening,” he said. “This is where I envisioned myself being and I’m glad so far this is how it’s happened.”

Hudson represents the youngest among the four, but has still logged 281 career starts.

He laughs at being thought of as the baby of this group and admits his body would disagree with that idea.

“With every year, I realized I understand that your body is changing and you are going to be sore a little longer than you were when you were 23,” he said. “It may take you a couple of days to recover from a start. As you get older, you can’t exactly push yourself every start. You have to kind of pull the reigns back.”

Even with restraint, he didn’t miss a start last season and went 16-10. Combined with Smoltz, the two were 30-18.

The remaining starters finished 28-40.

The combination of  fifth starter Jair Jurrgens — acquired from Detroit in the Edgar Renteria trade — and Tyler Bennett will head a group of prospects hoping to provide depth in the rotation.

But there is no denying, the health of the old guns will decide the team’s fate.

They can only hope their offseason preparation holds up.

“A lot of this is work ethic during the season,” Hudson said. “Guys who put the time in and show honest effort to stay in shape and work on their body aren’t going to break down during the season.”

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