To continue with answer on Stults: He gave up six runs in seven innings against Cincy two starts ago. In the other three of his last four starts, he's allowed a total of six runs and 15 hits in 18 1/3 innings. That kind of pitching is not getting anybody demoted from this rotation.
Good chance, since he or Banuelos would be next in line, and there's almost always something that comes up with a current starter or two, requiring one to skip a start or spend 15 or more days on DL, etc.
If they stay in wild-card contention a while, I could see them making at least a modest move for bullpen help. Don't forget, also have Moylan as potential help down stretch. He's now throwing in games at team training site, just started.
Doesn't "expect" it, no. It's their goal, but they're also realistic.
OK, but fact remains, Stults isn't pitching poorly as Cahill did. And Braves major league team isn't a development squad, much as a lot of folks seem to believe it is. Fredi's trying to keep his job, and team is trying to win and sell tickets. If they wanted to make it their de facto 4A team, they wouldn't have brought in guys like Grilli, Johnson, Markakis, A.J., Stults....
Possible. Not likely, for sure. But possible.
Good question, and I don't know. Too soon to know. He lost a lot of muscle in offseason just because he wasn't allowed to do hardly anything for 2 months after surgery. So actually, I've been quite impressed by the average/OBP numbers he's produced and especially by fact he's played almost every day and wants to play every day. Dude is, as they all said before he came, a consummate pro.
No concern. They look at fact they've only had 2 weekend series against teams that aren't traditonally big draws, and the fact that school's still in session, which always has affected the Atlanta market more than almost any other. And then, obviously, the fact they traded away marquee players and turned off some who had low expectations as a result. If they stay close to .500 and keep playing the kind of ball they have, attendance will increase when school's out. Bottom line, for those who watch this team night in, night out:: It's far more enjoyable to watch than last year's, in my opinion. And I don't honestly see how anyone who watches them every night could disagree. Pitching staff is disappointing, but offense has done what Braves hoped, or surpassed expectations. And team just carries itself so much better on field, so much more energy and positivity.
Certainly possible. If Peterson continues to develop, I'd be surprised if he's not in there, or at least not their top utiilty guy getting a lot of starts at 2-3 positions. They really, really like him.
Wisler and Banuelos pitching. Peraza hitting.
If you want to bottom-line it, the Braves (15-17) are a half-game ahead of the much-hyped Marlins (15-16) right now. I know it's still way, way early, but that's a fact. And they're a game behind the defending World Series champion Giants (16-16) in the wild-card standings. I mean, it is what it is. People can bash them all day and night, I understand that. It's frustrating to see them get swept by the Nats and for the lack of bullpen depth to be exposed and for a couple of key starters to have ERAs about 1 1/2 runs higher than expected. But for all that, the team is 15-17, and almost nobody predicted them to be above .500 this season, right?
If it didn't work out as a starter, sure, he would be considered. But as long as he's got chance to be a top-half-of-rotation starter -- and he certainly does have that ability -- then he'll stay on developmental track as starter.
Let me see if Bob is still here in the live-chat center. I think he stepped out for a cig.
Last update was that no one was injured seriously. But our Michael Cunningham is on top of the situation and will file updates, if he hasn't already while we've been on this chat.
More arms will be available in another month or two. I agree with you, team could really use a couple of bullpen arms. But I don't see Varvaro as the answer. If he was healthy and/or pitching well, I don't see why he'd have been DFA'd twice already this season. Don't know of any injury and I'm not speculating he's hurt, just saying there's usually a good reason why two teams would DFA a guy so quickly.
Thank ya, Bob. Much appreciated.
They've indicated they aren't interesting in trading him. But as we know, we've heard such indications before. And if Peterson continues to produce and play solid D that he has, well, anything is possible.
No, he's not hard to deal with. Never heard anyone say that about him. Look at his numbers this season. Average at best. And Cubs DFA'd him immediately after getting him, so they obviously didn't think he'd help their big-league team. Hey, I don't know what reason is. But it's unusual to get DFA'd twice like that.
As said earlier, good chance we see him this year if another starter struggles, gets hurt, has a tired arm and needs a 15-day DL stint or to skip a start, etc. He could come up to help bullpen if necessary, but #Braves upper management prefers to have him continue starting every fifth day and feeling is he's not quite ready for big leagues and they'd rather not rush him at all.
Don't see that happening this soon, not with Maybin on roster and under contract another season at $9M. And Maybin is producing lately.
It's a mostly inexperienced bullpen, and guys like Martin and Cundiff have been thrust into roles that no one expected them to have this soon. For the most part, they've performed very well. I agree with you that guys are still getting their legs under them, still getting a feel for roles and the big leagues, etc. And Grilli back spasms really showed how fragile the pen is in terms of just not having much depth. They are what they are.
