In the 8th inning of last night’s loss to the Yankees Mariano Rivera was brought in to protect the Yankees then two run lead. I kind of chuckled when I saw who was strolling to the plate for the Braves…Kelly Johnson. I thought to myself, “Can’t this guy get a break?” As most of you already know, Johnson has had a tough time at the plate as of late. As a matter of fact his batting average was .297 in May and so far it is a dismal .132 in the month of June. To make matters even worse he’s had only 2 RBI’s this month after knocking in 18 over the first two months of the season. Bobby Cox has shuffled him every where from 1st to 7th in the lineup trying to find Kelly a groove, but nothing seems to work. Often times we see that when a guy goes into a small slump it turns into a HUGE slump because he’s let it get to his head. Maybe that’s what has happened to Johnson, but whatever it is, it needs to be fixed soon. I say give Kelly a little more time to find his swing, if he doesn’t, let him take a little vacation to AA much like the one Francoeur took last season.

Speaking of Frenchy…how many people were surprised to see him launch one last night? I know I was, but let’s see about 20 more of those by October before we consider taking Francoeur off the trading block.

And finally, the deadline to vote for the All-Star game is 11:59 pm on July 2. At last check McCann was still trailing Yadier Molina, which is ludicrous considering he is beating him in almost every category. Hey, I don’t like that the fans vote for the starters but this is the system for right now. So, let’s keep those votes coming and push McCann to the top!