Matty to the DL, Smoltzie has the flu and Chipper's leading the All-Star ballot

Yup, that about sums up all the news from the last few days. Oh yeah, and Bobby Cox signed a one year extension, so we don't have to deal with that drama for the rest of the season. As for Matt Diaz, he'll be out for at least 15 days after he flew into the outfield fence and hurt his knee. Mark Kotsay may also be heading that way after missing a couple days with a sore back, but Rafael Soriano's coming back so that's exciting. And Smoltz could be close to a return as well.

What's not exciting is the Braves record on the road. I made mention to it last week, but with the guys playing in Milwuakee and Cincinnati this week, we'll really get to see if the guys can pull it together. (I've decided, I'm not including last night's 3-2 loss to the Brewers, being a one run game and all and our horrible record during those types of games.) We've proven that that there is no way that we can win every game at home or for that matter lose every game on the road, but if we hope to contend for a playoff spot, we'll have to improve our road record.

Separated at Birth:


All-Star Update: Chipper Jones is leading all third baseman in the NL vote. His closest rival is the Mets David Wright who is currently about 100,000 votes behind! Brian McCann is second behind Geovany Soto, but I'd expect him to be named as a back up if he doesn't make the starting squad, he's had a really great first half so far. Jeff Francoeur is the only other player listed, he ranks 14th in the outfielders category. So we have to start votings (you can vote up to 25 times) to get the rest of our guys in the starting line-up. Click here to vote away!

Braves continue their series against the Brewers tonight at 8:05 PM/est. It will Jo-Jo Reyes going up against Jeff Suppan.

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate