The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • C5

Filename: C5-SPORTS-AJCD0430-AJCD DateTime created: Apr 29 2013 Username: SPEEDDRIVER10 Magenta Black 5C AJCD Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 SPORTS 5C TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013 THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION 3 CREDIBLE. COMPELLING. COMPLETE. C5 Sports FROM THE BRAVES CLUBHOUSE Heyward eyes late May return COLLEGE NOTES Slive: Credible panel a must Atlanta's Jason Heyward (right) plans to start normal activities in a week. He doesn't want to return too soon out of fear of pulling an oblique or suffering a hernia, ap file more surprising was when Nationals writers spotted Jones in the visiting video room working with former teammate and hunting buddy Adam LaRoche.

Nationals manager Dav-ey Johnson saw Jones on the visiting side and informed Nats writers about the exchange afterward: "I said, 'Get him feeling good and then I've got a couple more guys you can talk LaRoche entered the series in an 0-for-26 slump. When asked about aiding the Nats, Jones said in a text message: "I will always help a close friend if he asks." McCann on track: Braves catcher Brian McCann played in his third rehabilitation game with Class-A Rome on Monday. Gonzalez said McCann, who had shoulder surgery in October, is scheduled to play with Rome on Wednesday before finishing the week with Triple-A Gwinnett and then possibly re-joining the Braves next week. Tipping his cap: A day after AL Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run home run off Cory Gearrin in Sunday's Tigers victory over the Braves, Gonzalez said he wasn't so much bothered by the pitch as impressed by Cabrera's approach. "This is how good Cabrera is," Gonzalez said.

"It's a 3-0 count and most guys hit that home run which way, him being a right-handed hitter? To left field. This is how good that son of a gun is. On a 3-0 count, he went opposite field, went bam, and he hit it like a left-handed pull hitter. How many times do you see a 3-0 ball hit that way?" I thought, 'OK, this is no longer a stomach Heyward said. He said he appreciates the well wishes he's received from fans but added the only scary part about the ordeal came during the time he wasn't sure what was wrong with him.

"As soon as I knew it wasn't a tumor, that was a relief," Heyward said. Beachy makes progress: Right-hander Brandon Beachy was encouraged by his second live batting practice session Sunday and how his elbow is responding, a key step in his comeback from "Tommy John" elbow reconstructive surgery. He threw in the indoor cages in Detroit. Hitters stood in and didn't take swings, but he's already seeing progress. "It came out better," Beachy said.

"It was definitely a lot better yesterday than it was two days (before) in terms of velocity, just the crispness of everything." Beachy is scheduled to throw three or four more BP sessions before he can be cleared to begin a six-start minor league rehabilitation program. If all continues to go as planned, he'll likely begin his rehab stint in mid-May and return sometime around the anniversary of his June 21, 2012, surgery. Helping a friend: When Chipper Jones dropped by the Braves clubhouse Monday afternoon, it was not a surprise to see him draw a crowd of hitters into a conversation, including Dan Uggla, Tyler Pastornicky, Chris Johnson and, at one point, Heyward. What might have been Right fielder taking it slow and easy after his appendectomy. By Michael Cunningham mcunninghamajc.com and Carroll Rogers crogersajc.com Back with the Braves for the first time since his emergency appendectomy, right fielder Jason Heyward looked slimmer, moved gingerly around the clubhouse and said he was nowhere close to being able to swing a bat.

Heyward's goal is to return to the lineup no later than the end of May but first, he has to return to normal. "It feels like I could pull something," Heyward said Monday, one week after undergoing surgery in Colorado. "Not that I will (but) it feels like if I do anything too quick, that's what will happen." Heyward said he still hasn't lifted objects (though he admitted to picking up a bat a time or two) and plans to start normal activities in a week. Heyward said the fear of feeling as if he might pull something is a "mental thing." The first step in recovery is doing everyday activities and then getting feedback from his body "to know that it won't be bad." But Heyward said he plans to take his time because the risks of returning too soon include a pulled oblique muscle and a hernia. "I don't want any of those to happen," he said.

"My goal, I would like to say, (is back in action) no later than New York at the end of May. But, again, I have to wait for my body Nationals pose no problem Braves continued from Cl home plate. The Braves won their eighth straight game against the Nationals overall and fourth this season, including a three-game sweep in Washington April 12-14. Jordan Schafer walked off with the dirtiest uniform and rightly so. He reached base in all four plate appearances, drew three walks, stole two bases and collected the big hit in the go-ahead seventh inning.

After a Gerald Laird leadoff walk and Tyler Pastornicky sacrifice, reliever Tyler Clippard put runners first and third for Andrelton Simmons, who lined out to right for a sacrifice fly and the winning run. Teheran held his own on a big stage against Strasburg. He gave up 10 hits (nine of them singles) but only two runs in 5'3 innings. He battled Strasburg to a 2-2 tie before both teams turned to their bullpens. The Braves won for the fifth time in five Teheran starts this season and this time, his four-seam fastball was up around 93-94 mph, as lively as it's been all season.

The only extra-base hit he yielded was Bryce Harper's double in the first inning and Teheran stranded him there. Jordan Walden, Eric O'Flaherty and Craig Kim-brel did perfect work for the final 3 innings to finish off the Nationals. The Braves will have to go through the teeth of the Nationals rotation this series, starting with Strasburg, although he's actually been fallible this season, coming in with a 1-4 record. Strasburg's biggest problems have come in Wire services Mike Slive wants knowledgeable football people choosing who plays for the national championship. Whatever the selection committee's makeup, the SEC commissioner is aiming for a process the fans will buy into when the new system takes effect in two seasons.

"We want football expertise," Slive said Monday. "We want integrity, and we want transparency, because this is our opportunity to make sure that not only are we comfortable but you're (the media) comfortable and all the fans are comfortable that this process is the way it should be. It's not going to be easy." Slive isn't predicting when that final, big piece of the playoff puzzle will be put in place but is hoping it will be in the next several months. Speaking at the Associated Press Sports Editors Southeast regional meeting, Slive spoke about the playoff system and the potentially stabilized conference alignment, among other issues. The ACC last week joined the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big 12 when its members agreed to a grant of rights handing over their television rights to the league.

The legally binding deal runs through 2027 and makes conference-jumping nearly impossible. Slive and ESPN are expected to announce a new SEC Network on Thursday in Atlanta minus the grant of rights. "Looking at it from the outside looking in, it looks like it may create some stability," Slive said. "And I do think that at this stage of where we are, stability will be constructive so we can move ahead in some other ways." Slive called the SEC Network "one of the major moments for us." He didn't address specifics ahead of the pending announcement but was asked if the league would use the Big Ten Network as a model. "I think we can, but I also think that we have the most passionate, loyal fan base of any conference in the country.

We're excited, we believe that we have a very significant opportunity to be successful beyond what's happened so far." Nebraska: The 7-year-old cancer patient who became a sensation for his touchdown run in the Cornhuskers' spring football game visited President Barack Obama for 15 minutes in the Oval Office on Monday. Jack Hoffman, his family and former Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead attended. LSU: The Tigers indefinitely suspended running back Jeremy Hill following his weekend arrest in connection with an alleged bar fight near the campus. Tennessee: Athletic director Dave Hart received a one-year contract extension. His salary will remain $592,250.

Basketball Duke: The Blue Devils hired Jon Scheyer as a special assistant. Scheyer was a captain on Duke's last national championship team in 2010. Vanderbilt: Freshman guard A.J. Astroth decided to transfer. The 6-foot-6 guard played in nine games and had a total of four points and five rebounds last season.

Illinois: The school sold the naming rights for Assembly Hall to State Farm Insurance Co. in a 30-year, $60 million agreement. to tell me." Heyward is batting .121 with two home runs and five RBIs in 58 at-bats. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he's not putting a timetable on Heyward's return. "It's whenever he feels comfortable," Gonzalez said.

"I leave that up to the athletes and the trainers and the doctors. He may say that (end of May) and then all of a sudden, five days from now he wakes up and feels great. You never know." Heyward, 23, initially thought he was suffering from a stomach virus during the Braves' series at Pittsburgh. He said at first, he felt general pain in his abdominal area but by Monday morning, it was acute pain in a smaller area. "It felt like a lump on the lower right side and the first inning and that's when the Braves had a great chance at early damage again Monday night.

But a controversial call against Freddie Freeman stunted a rally after only one run. Freeman had rounded first on a single to left as Justin Upton took third base and Freeman was called out while trying to get back to the bag. Replays showed he appeared to have his hand on the bag ahead of Adam LaRoche's swipe tag at his calf. Freeman popped up to argue with umpire Tim Timmons as did manager Fredi Gonzalez shortly thereafter. But the damage was done and instead of having runners first and third with one out, the Braves were on their way out of the inning.

A leadoff walk by Schafer and Justin Upton single accounted for the Braves' only run in the first. But the Braves used Dan Uggla's prowess against Strasburg to add another in the fourth to even the game 2-2. Uggla got his second hit in two at-bats on the night in the fourth inning, raising his career average to .500 (11-for-22) against Strasburg. He scored on a Laird single before being thrown out at third base to end the inning. Strasburg, despite walking four batters for the night, gave up no further damage.

The Braves threatened in the fifth on Teheran's first career extra-base hit a double -and his fourth hit in eight at-bats this season. But after Schafer drew a walk trying to bunt Teheran to third, the Braves stranded him at second on a fly-out to shallow left by Simmons, ajustin Upton strikeout and a line-out Braves pitcher Julio Teheran allowed hits to six of the first eight Washington batters Monday but surrendered just two runs in the game, johnny Crawford jcrawfordajc.com Strikeouts not only problem Schultz continued from Cl postseason and into a World Series. That seems as certain as team going from 13-2 to 2-7. On Monday, it worked. The Braves didn't bludgeon the Washington Nationals, but they at least reaffirmed the pecking order in the National League East so far this season.

Gerald Laird walked and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Andrelton Simmons in the seventh inning and the Braves held on to defeat the Nationals for the fourth straight game this season 3-2 at Turner Field. On a related note, they struck out 11 times, which gives them 60 in the last five games. And the rest of the world catches a draft. More on the implausible historical ramifications of that shortly. To be fair, this hasn't been all about strikeouts.

The Braves were swinging and missing when they were winning. Nobody seemed to care then. The reaction was like, sure, Dan Uggla, Jason Heyward and the Uptons are striking out a lot, "But forget that look at our record!" What ultimately turned the season upside down was starting pitching. The Braves allowed 27 runs in the first 14 games of the season. Then they went on a 10-game trip through the Yukon (Colorado, Pittsburgh, Detroit) and allowed 53 runs.

Do the math: Opponents went from scoring 1.9 to 5.3. So while strikeouts have provided the punchlines, this really has been a collective team flop. "The only reason people are talking about At this pace, the Braves would strike out 1,512 times, which would shatter the franchise record of 1,289 (set last year) and officially qualify them as a wind turbine generator in 37 states. "You can look at it this way," manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "You're not hitting any ground balls into double plays." And that's why he only does two shows a night.

Uggla had a team-high 31 strikeouts in his first 75 at-bats. He has had only two games where he hasn't struck out at least once and had four the other night in Detroit, when Anibal Sanchez had 17 (and the Braves 18). "It's a lot harder to get over a four-strikeout night than a four-ground-out night," he said. "At the same time, it's still 0-for-4. "We definitely want to make the adjustment to where we don't strike out 16, 17 times a game, no matter who you are, even though we're capable of doing that and still put up six or seven runs.

It looks bad." The Braves are trying to make it work. They're now 16-9 overall and 4-0 against the only other team given a shot to win the East. When a team wins, strikeout totals seem to move to the strikeouts now is because that's what everybody was mentioning before the season," Justin Upton said. He was sitting in front of his locker before Monday's game, wearing one of those "Suffer in Silence" T-shirts that were distributed to players before the season. "Everybody's got problems," he said, referencing the cartoon of the man on the shirt with his mouth taped shut.

The Braves' starting pitching needs to get better. Julio Teheran allowed hits to six of the first eight Washington batters Monday but often escaped trouble and ultimately allowed just two runs before being lifted in the sixth. That the Braves are striking out a lot should not come as some starting development. With the roster they put together, you could see this one coming like a Mike Hampton hamstring pull. Through the weekend, they were leading the majors in felonious assaults on baseballs: 36 homers in 24 games, as well as ranking fifth in slugging percentage.

But they also registered an almost cartoon-like 224 strikeouts (9.3 per game), exceeded only by the Houston Astros (248), who don't really count. Black 5C AJCD File name: C5-SPORTS-AJCD0430-AJCD DateTime created: Apr 29 2013 Username: SPEEDDRIVER10 Magenta.