This is Jose Fernandez.
This is what you should do if you happen to see him today.
Seriously. I know it’s a bit of an annoying joke with Fredi and all that, but sometimes you run into a guy who is going to buzz saw you. That happened last night. Instead of worrying too much about it and blaming it all on horrible hitting (of which there was plenty, mind you) try to be gracious and think of it the way you did the Julio Teheran outing in Philly last week. Only instead of the Braves coming out on top and Cliff Lee’s* stupendous performance going for naught, this time the Fish came out on top and it was Alex Wood’s brilliant work that got overshadowed by a guy who was just a little bit better.
Jose Fernandez is really good. He was at the top of his game last night. This team is constructed in such a way that a top tier strikeout pitcher, on the top of his game, will occasionally do that to us. And then it can just as easily come back and jack four dingers off of Nathan Eovaldi the next day. It’s a long season. Don’t let yourself get beat down over it. Take off the fan glasses and acknowledge a great player having a great game, while another up and coming player who may be great had a similarly great game, but gave up a double and a single in the same inning and thus “lost” 1-0.
*Holy crap. Cliff Lee’s middle name is “Phifer.” How on earth did I not know that already?! PHIFER!!
This will be the game thread for today’s game.
Eovaldi has similar “stuff”, probably a notch below Fernandez, but still pretty good. The Marlins are a few bats away from being a real threat. If they ever make the postseason in the next couple of years they will probably win the whole thing because I don’t see how anyone touches Fernandez.
Walter Johnson pitched in six World Series games. He won three and he lost three. Anyone can have an off day.
As long as they have their current owner, I think we’ll win a World Series before the Marlins win another one.
If we had Jose Fernandez, we would be in the World Series very shortly.
Alex Wood is good. Are we sure we put HIM in the bullpen when Floyd is ready?
Wood has been amazing so far, but I still have reservations about how he will handle a full ML season’s workload. If he starts to fade, yes, you push him to the pen. You clearly don’t do that now. But then again, Floyd nor Minor are back in the majors yet.
Fredi gonna have carpal tunnel syndrome after tipping that cap so much.
I think Wood has an innings limit this season, which is a shame in a couple ways.
He’ll show you all in 2015! Barring injury, of course.
2—Don’t think Eovaldi has similar stuff, at all. He has a hard fastball, and that’s really about it. Definitely doesn’t have Fernandez’s slider.
Just don’t treat him like Steve Avery.
@9, similar in that he throws 99mph. His breaking ball is functional, but it’s not Fernandez’s slider. Nobody on the planet has that slider. Fernandez reminds me of a young John Smoltz.
We’re running the B-squad out there today so we’ll probably score 15 runs.
My feeling with Wood is not that we should push him to the pen “if he starts to fade,” rather that we should stash him in the pen so that he’s fresh for August/September.
Alex Wood is 23 and in his third season of PRO baseball. Professional, not major league. He threw one out short of 140 innings last season, combined at all levels. (Depending on the veracity of the stats I found, he threw 155 combined between College and the Sally league in 2012, and 102 in college in 2011.)
He’s thrown 35 so far this season. If you pro-rate that 35 innings in 20 team-games across 162, he’s on pace to throw an unimaginable 283 innings. If you pro-rate it instead as 5 starts out of a full-slate of 32, he’s still on pace to throw 224, a ton even for a veteran (Noted workhorse Cliff Lee’s career high is 232.2, which he did at age 32.)
Alex Wood can’t carry this kind of load, or anything even REMOTELY CLOSE to this kind of load, and have anything left for the playoffs.
You can go the Strasburg route, and throw him like this until you shut him down completely. You can go the Mark Prior/Steve Avery (Those guys threw 211 and 210 innings as second year pitchers) route and let him throw until he breaks. Or you can find someway of leveraging his considerable talents in the meantime, and then ride him when the games count most. That’s the one I’m for.
Holy crap who is the new dimwit on the braves radio pregame? Another bs fountain of conventional wisdom. Just what we needed
I say as long as he is effective let him start. Innings/pitch limit? Sure. At some point in time you put a pitch limit on him and look for him to share games with the bullpen. To Alex’s point you have to resist the temptation to throw his arm off because he is performing so well. I mean how hard would it have been last night to pull him in the 5th when he was dominating? But I agree with y’all, that you have to do it at some point in the season.
Chip Caray: “Simmons is the ideal number two hitter, due to his excellent plate disciple.”
This weekend he put a pitch in play that bounced before he hit it.
#15 – LOL
So, Aaron Harang wants to stay in the rotation also.
Alright good, cleared the pitcher.
Harang pitches great this season.
Phillies give him a 2-year deal with an option.
He implodes.
Does Doumit have the PA play Danzig’s “Mother” when he steps in?
Wow, Harang is at it again.
I think Eovaldi is going to be a solid pitcher for the Marlins. He has better than a 5:1 K to walk ratio so far this season.
Hooray!
Doumit finally did something good.
It’d be great for Laird to get on and clear Harang again.
I am following via Gameday, and I bet with this being a weekday during the school year that Turner Field is pretty much empty.
@24 – You’d win that bet.
@24 Kind of like Monday night
Okay, nobody is really a sub 1.00 ERA pitcher, but how far is Harang going to regress and when is he going to start regressing?
Never expected to say this, but how can you bump Harang out of this rotation?
Harang isn’t going anywhere while he’s pitching like this. Minor will replace Hale. Then someone will make a decision about Floyd and Wood and 6 man rotations when that comes up. If Harang keeps this up, he’ll be in the rotation all season long, and rightly so.
You can’t if he keeps pitching this way. Wren & Co. are amazing. Lose Beachy and Medlen, still end up with potentoal rotation logjam.
Okay, so, Freddie apparently needs a day.
Freddie should consider taking a pitch.
Freeman needs a day off, guy is killing us at the plate.
edit: bububut he hits like .400 on the first pitch!…..not in this stretch he hasn’t.
Freddie…come on man
Well, Freddie, I guess the Marlins have something to get you out with.
Freddie has looked like Garret Anderson for about 5 games now.
Well this is a bit uncomfortable.
trust the harang….
lol BS bloop hit
Damn…..
Wondering what the Cleveland fans are saying about dropping Harang at this point (given their rotation’s 5+ ERA) vs Harang’s <.70), I googled "Cleveland Indians Harang" and found this link to a Cleveland Sports Column.
http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2014/04/cleveland_indians_made_right_c.html
Most agree it's early but the fellow (Carrasco) they pitched instead, is now being vilified in contrast. More eye-opening is when I made the mistake of reading fan comments. The negative bantering underscored why the Braves Journal is the only baseball blog I have ever read and sometimes to which I contribute (humbly). We may disagree but usually with wit and stellar logic backed by research.
The shiny seems to have worn off of Chris Johnson.
I really doubt there’s anyone that takes a 95+ fastball to the back more jovially than Dan.
CJ is outhitting BJ, JHey, and Ugg-lay for a lot less mon-ay. There’s a bit of shine left.
#40
It’s like the regret Mets fans are having for trading Ike Davis, who’s been tearing it up for all of 5 days in Pittsburgh.
Ububba, my PCB Old Dutch Tavern Buddy! Yes, 20/20 hindsight by fans. but the brave person in Cleveland is the columnist who entitled his column “Cleveland Indians made Right Call with Harang”
He’s being harangued. Oops, don’t know how to edit that corn!
Walden needs to get this guy… Harang’s Cy Young chances depend upon it!
EDIT: Yeah, baby.
Harang went 6, allowed 1, and his ERA went up from 0.70 to 0.85.
Aaron Harang gave up a run, because he doesn’t know how to win. He also doesn’t know how to pitch to the score.
You know who the shiny is really starting to wear off of? Jason Heyward.
Is Carpenter getting squeezed? From the graphic on the gamecast it sure looks like it
Runs, please.
What was Freddie looking for? Clearly not a fastball down the middle.
Well, Freeman took a couple of pitches that time
Doumit just hasn’t found a groove at all so far.
Doumit batting righty looks a bit like Bartolo Colon.
Come on. Runs, PLEASE.
Yeah, baby!
Goddamn yes, Gattis!
Atta boy Big Fella!
RAW DOG!!
Bear likes fish, confirmed.
Just what the doctor ordered…
Who else would you want up there hitting in the clutch? He’s amazing.
God I love me some El Oso Blanco.
I was sorry to see Brian go, but Evan Gattis is just the best.
I’m done denying it. Evan Gattis is my favorite Brave.
All I’ve managed to catch of this game is the Bear ripping a double to left followed by Laird feebly flailing at a high fastball. Gattis is the key to this lineup; hopefully Fredi will stop batting him seventh.
The nerves of a Kimbrel close…
Nice to have #46 back in fine form.
I’m thinking that Craig might be back to being the Kraken.
And the Kraken returns
I suspect the ‘What to do with Alex Wood?’ discussion is really going to heat up in the next few weeks. No one seems to like what I think is the best solution–a six man rotation (which, it is worth noting, would also usefully limit Teheran’s innings), but Schiller is right that the ultimate objective has to be to have Wood stretched out, sharp and ready to start in the playoffs while still below an innings limit of 150 or so.
Good inning from Craig. No need to worry after all. (Right? Right?)
Count me as fully on board with a 6 man rotation, at least until it fails. Here’s what I would do:
When Minor comes back: Teheran/Wood/Santana/Minor/Harang – Hale/Pickles in long relief
Assuming Floyd comes back in form: Teheran/Floyd/Santana/Minor/Harang/Wood(on Sundays) – Hale/Pickles in long relief; Avilan to AAA to figure out what’s wrong with him.
Out of 7 series, the Braves have won 6.
They’re 8-4 on the road, 6-3 at home.
That adds up to 14-7 and 1st place with a day off until the Reds come to town.
So far… pretty damn good.
@73, only issue with sending down Avilan (or, more likely, sending him to the fake DL) is that Thomas becomes the only lefty in the pen. (Wood would be a long man on the weeks he didn’t have a start, but you wouldn’t use him as a situational lefty.) You can get away with that for a week or two, but managers don’t typically like that for long. So he’d probably push to call up another lefty, which would require freeing up another roster spot.
On pace for 108 wins!
David Hale, and Alex Wood if needed, are lefties.
Wait. No David Hale is not. Why did I think that? Wacko.
When you have something like 20 quality starts to the season, moving to a six man rotation makes a lot of sense – if only to see who becomes odd man out
@77, you’re right about Wood — I edited my comment after first posting it. I don’t think they’d use him situationally.
I think you are right, Alex ,that unless he really sucks you have to keep Avilan. No one should lose any sleep over sending down Pickles and Hale. Hopefully (but not likely) we face the ultimate dilemma sometime in June or July, where Avilan is back to his old self and so is Venters, and all of our other relievers (and starters) are healthy. We could have seven spots for Thomas, Venters, Avilan AND Wood, plus from the right side Kimbrel, Varvaro, Walden and Carpenter.
Anybody think that 21 games into the season we’d be worried about having too many starters?
@81-It’s almost absurd. Time to get the offense going and win a few games 7-1.
It’s gonna be weird when Mike Minor has the highest ERA on the team.
Rank/Player/Team/ERA+
————————–
1 Aaron Harang ATL 530
2 Ervin Santana ATL 435
3 Alfredo Simon CIN 423
4 Jeff Samardzija CHC 294
5 Johnny Cueto CIN 260
6 Yovani Gallardo MIL 258
7 Adam Wainwright STL 242
8 Alex Wood* ATL 240
9 Julio Teheran ATL 206
10 Michael Wacha STL 205
Wait a minute. Who the hell is Alfredo Simon? *Googles furiously*
If I had my druthers, I’d druther Uggla and Bupton go elsewhere and Thursday cure Freddie.
Still, winning sure beats losing. Go Braves.
@85: Didn’t he write the Spanish version of the Odd Couple?
¡Con Felix y Oscar!
Still hard to think that you don’t sweep a series when you give up 4 runs.
Of course, the flip side to that is that it’s hard to grasp winning 2 of 3 when you only score 7.
Mike Minor’s going to be a disappointment compared to this bunch–our starters have allowed one run or none in 10 of the last 11 games. The exception was on Sunday when Hale allowed 3 (2 earned).
That’s absurd.
Alfredo Simon is a once-failed starter for the Orioles who has been in the Reds pen for the last couple of years, who is making starts for them and dominating the league this year. I am hoping that he and Harang match up in the Reds series.
Recapped.