Sports Radio Interviews

Chipper Jones Not A Fan Of The WBC Scheduling Format

Atlanta Braves 3B and former NL MVP Chipper Jones is ready for another long season with the Atlanta Braves. But he’ll be doing so with a strain in his oblique muscle, an injury that he sustained while participating in this year’s World Baseball Classic.  Jones spent some time on 790 The Zone in Atlanta to talk about the Braves’ upcoming season, as well as the World Baseball Classic, which he’ll no longer be participating in due to the injury. The conversation quickly turned to the format of the WBC, which is delineated by multiple days between games. In Jones’ view, this is a mistake by the tournament formatters, as it increases the likelihood of injury for ball players still trying to round into form this early in the spring.

On the format and scheduling of this year’s WBC compared to the previous one:

“Yeah, I think everybody had such a good time in ’06 and thought it was a good idea. We were pretty much playing every day. I really think this tournament could be over by now, to be honest with you. We’re used to playing every day; we’re used to getting our reps in, game reps you know, and trying to play our way into mid-season form. Now, that being said, it’s very difficult to – like Dustin Pedroia said yesterday – it’s very difficult to go out and play 9 innings as hard as you can with a lot riding on the outcome this early in the season. And I think at some point that’s going to have to be addressed. I mean, you play two meaningful games in seven days. That’s not very much.”

On how the format is even tougher for pitchers:

“Well my concern is not really for the position players because those [injuries] can happen anywhere. But especially the relief pitchers, they are not ready to go 100% max effort at this particular time in spring training. And let me tell you something, the mentality of the guys we had in the bullpen for Team USA, those guys are looking to go out and throw a minimal amount of pitches at max effort and their bodies just aren’t ready to do it right now.”

On the severity of his injury and on concerns about his ability to play 140-150 games this year:

“It’s an oblique strain, it’s not something that’s a big deal. It’ll be a couple more days and I’ll be back in games down here in Spring Training. It’s just something that switch hitters have to deal with. There’s guys a lot younger than me that are going through this same injury with Team USA right now so it’s just something that happened early in the season and hopefully I got my missed games out of the way here in Spring Training and I’ll go into the season on a clear slate and hopefully reach that target of 150 games this year.”

Listen here to Chipper Jones on 790 The Zone in Atlanta

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