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As noted in comments. Anyway…
1. White sucked, putting up a 4.32 ERA this spring.
2. But Tom Martin sucked big time, with an 11.74 ERA so far.
3. But the Braves saved $452,000 by releasing White now, because his contract wasn’t guaranteed.
4. While they’re on the hook for half of Martin’s $1.8 million this season (the Dodgers picking up the other half) no matter what.
5. But the actual saving on White’s release is only $152,000, because even if he’s replaced by someone making the minimum, that minimum is still $300,000.
6. There is no #6.
7. The Yankees probably spend $152,000 a year on Post-It notes.
8. The Braves seem to favor Adam Bernero over Buddy Hernandez, even though Hernandez has been great and Bernero hasn’t gotten anyone out in two weeks. They might both make the team anyway with White’s release.
9. They will both vegetate because there isn’t enough work for six righthanded relievers.
10. Tom Paciorek was openly rooting for Pete Orr to make the team instead of Wilson Betemit today.
Tee hee.
I like #’s 6 and 7.
#5 is a good point.
Does anyone else love the fact that Livan Hernandez pitched 8 innings in a spring training game, or am I the only one? Outstanding.
I thought it was stupid. Borderline insane.
Of course, the Braves drew 0 walks against him, so maybe he was on a pitch count and was breezing through. Or maybe they let Eric Gregg do an ST game.
Jeez, could you imagine making 148,000$ working part time for 1 month?
As anticipated, Cox just announced Smoltz as the opening day starter. That means that on April 10th at Turner Field Smoltz will face Pedro Martinez. I live in Atlanta and I will definitely be going to that game. If anyone else is going, let me know.
Jeremy, I’ll be there for sure.
I love the fact that Livan pitched 8 innings against US. He really wants to beat us any chance he can get. I know he’s not a Cy-Young caliber guy, but I really like Livan Hernandez as a pitcher.
He’s good. His arm is also made of rubber. Sooner or later, though, overwork could catch up to him. Best not to tempt the fates in ST, when it doesn’t count, unless he hadn’t thrown that many pitches (like 80).
AJC say that BC is persuing Bobby Seay of the Rays.
Livan only threw 99 pitches. He and Frank both said he could have gone 9 (and they’re probably right). That’s really not a heavy workload, considering his next start will be during the regular season; I guess we just didn’t take or foul off many pitches.
When I was a kid (before lights, I know), pitchers used to work up to pitch 9 innings by the end of spring training. I think it’s great what Hernandez did. I don’t understand why, in a day when athletes are much better conditioned and sports medicine and technology is much better than 30-40 years ago, pitchers now pitch far fewer innings than they did before. It makes no sense to me other than managers start overmanaging and making bullpens more important. I think the reliance on the bullpen has really reduced the quality of the game, made the games much longer, and taken out the romance of having a starting pitcher out there at the end of the game.
I admire Hernandez–there is no reason he should hurt his arm from throwing 9 innings. Warren Spahn, in his last year with the Braves, at the age of 42, pitched 16 innings against Juan Marichal in 1963. Yes, things have changed (including much smaller strike zones, juiced up balls and hitters, smaller parks), but I would much rather see something like that, than 4 hour games where each team uses six pitchers like we do now. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.
Can the quality starters of today go 9 innings with regularity? I used to play APBA and Strat-o-Matic (George Brett was my go-to guy) and they had a device that increased the pitcher’s ability as he pitched deeper into the game. Does anyone know if this is still part of those games, or has modern managing made that irrelevant?
But the actual saving on White’s release is only $152,000, because even if he’s replaced by someone making the minimum, that minimum is still $300,000.
The savings are a little less than that – the league minimum has a COLA provision that has increased it to about $315,000.
APBA still does.
Jeremy, Hap: I live in Athens and I’ve been planning to go to that game for a while. I knew it’d be either Hudson or Smoltz against either Pedro or Glavine and I’d have to go. Should be a good one
I know he’s not a Cy-Young caliber guy, but I really like Livan Hernandez as a pitcher.
Couldn’t agree more, even after the Eric Gregg fiasco. Livan is a true throwback to the days when pitchers took the mound expecting to finish the game. Years ago when BPro was heavy into their pitch count witch hunting, they practically guaranteed that Livan’s career would be toast by now. I like to think that it’s his performance that has quieted the always annoying pitch count police.
Look at Prior and Wood, Burnett, Izzy, Pulsipher, and Paul Wilson, though. I feel like there are a lot more negative examples than there are positive. I don’t realy think any pitchers should go over 120 unless it’s an important, close game.
Braves trade Nick Green for Jorge Sosa.
Trade news: Nick Green for Jorge Sosa of the Devil Rays, according to ESPN.com. Sosa’s all potential and no results so far, but he’s got great stuff and good strikeout numbers — just needs to walk fewer guys. Green is emminently replaceable, so I’m fine with the trade.
Does this mean that the Braves intend to sign Marcus Giles long term? The organization would have probably held onto Green if they were uncertain.
My assumption has been that the Braves will keep either Giles or Furcal. Since Giles is the better player, I’d assume he’d be the one. Neither really has a replacement on the horizon, since Orr is a utility guy and Betemit can’t really play short, but Luis Hernandez is supposedly the shortstop of the future. Problem is that he won’t be ready in 2006.
Cool fellas; we’ll have to meet up for a bravesbeat beer at the pavillion at the stretch. If you guys are down, write to my e-mail a day or two before the game.
I’m not questioning that today you have to watch young pitchers pitch counts. They have been conditioned to only pitch so much, plus a lot of them have been forced to throw so much in high school and college their arms are about to fall off. Still, I have to question why pitchers today throw fewer innings today than did pitchers in the past who had much less advanced training techniques. I realize there were probably pitchers in the old days who hurt their arms from overwork and nobody knew; still,the fact is guys used to throw a hell of a lot more than they do now. Now you have guys that can’t throw much more than 100 pitches. It doesn’t make sense to me when performance and endurance have increased in virtually all other aspects of sports.
More velocity, new pitches? Just a couple ideas.