Interesting game. Julio Teheran, overall, made some adjustments to his control and saw a strong outing: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 K’s. An error by Jace Peterson, filling in at short, led to an inning continuing and a 3 run homer (all runs were considered unearned). But considering the Jekyll and Hyde routine that JT had been under between his home and road starts, a strong start at home is encouraging.
The good thing about this season is that any modest deficit is not insurmountable. Down 3-0, the Braves scored 4 runs in the 6th on 5 hits to take the lead. For the day, Ender Inciarte, Brandon Phillips, Matt Kemp, and Rio Ruiz all had 2 hits, and they had a total of 12 hits and no home runs. This team can score runs without hitting the long ball, and that’s also encouraging.
But after throwing the equivalent of two straight no-hitters (54 batters retired without giving up a hit), the bullpen unit ran out of luck. Jason Motte, Ian Krol, and Luke Jackson bridged the gap to the ninth, but Jose Ramirez, filling in for Jim Johnson and/or Arodys Vizcaino, gave up 2 runs to blow the save. Josh Collmenter, in the worst relief outing since the infamous John Smoltz debacle at Shea Stadium, gave up 7 runs in 1 inning, including back-to-back-to-back home runs.
For his troubles, Josh Collmenter was DFA’ed and Matt Wisler was re-called. Collmenter had 3 starts last year and looked mostly good, and he also had a good April where he averaged almost 2 innings per outing. But in May, he was pretty much a one-inning guy, and he absolutely imploded. Unfortunate.
Anyone else think pinch-hitting for Julio was dumb? We just took the lead so it’s not like the guy on 2nd was absolutely critical, but more importantly Emilio Fucking Bonifacio is our PH and a guaranteed out anyway…why not leave Julio in there and save a bullpen arm?
Having Bonifacio on the team is not the best use of roster slots. Is he a better hitter than Julio? Was Julio completely gassed? I do not know the answer to either question.
Thank you, Rob, for both the recap and the roster move. Keep up the good work.
Bonifacio has to go when Adonis is ready, right?
Your lips to Coppy’s ears, smitty.
2, 3 — I bet Santana is gone instead.
I also wonder if Soroka and Allard are about to go to AAA
I don’t know how I missed this last night:
http://www.120sports.com/video/v232290702/security-guard-rips-into-fan
I can do without the internet idiots’ commentary since STP has a big problem with fan interference. I bet they’ll really hammer some of these dumb fans that don’t understand that you can’t interfere. Seriously, it’s the 8th inning. No one freaking told you that you can’t catch a ball that’s in play? I’m glad this calls attention to the subject.
Have to think Bonifacio gets the boot unless they decide to drop down to a 12-man pitching staff instead. With Recker and now Collmenter, they’ve shown a willingness to DFA guys with guaranteed contracts. Even though Santana hasn’t done much of anything, he’s younger and more positionally-versatile than Bonifacio and has essentially the same skill-set. Surely, it’ll be Bonifacio. Surely…
@7
The Braves ended up giving the kid a ball.
Oh boy, frustrating to watch.
Glad I can’t watch this.
Put a fork in Bartolo.
Is Matt Wisler here yet?
@12 — amen … he got nothing left … cut him and bring up a youngster not named Wisler or Blair ….
Well, the defense isn’t really kind to him either.
If he hurries Bartolo can catch a ride with Collmenter and hopefully Bonafacio on the DFA’d train
Well the Braves pitchers have given up 14 runs in the last 4 innings … wow ….. nice
Sims is pitching right now, would be primed to take Bartolo’s next start. And then all of the following.
Is Colon on the team on June 9th? That’s his bobble head doll night.
He should be the long man and we should bring up Newk.
Colon needs to go have Collmenter’s old job, and call up Sims.
@20 Seems like as a starter Colon does a good impression of Collmenter with the barrage of home runs he gives up
Colon has struggled this year, but to be fair to him, his line in the 2nd inning today is a lot uglier than his performance was. The home run was bad, but iffy defense and little dribblers accounted for the other runs. It was some really bad luck. Then he was just robbed of a hit right there. If he was having a good year this would just get lost in the shuffle. With the type of year he’s having, though, it’s kind of like adding insult to injury.
Sims just gave up a 3 run homer to Saltalamacchia, so this would be his 2nd rough start in a row. Newcomb walked 6 men in 4 innings his last time out. So my guess is Colon gets another chance after today.
@23 .. just saw that .. just when you think a guy ( Sims) is turning corenr — he gets a reality check .. hoping either Newcomb or Sims can figure things out and we dont have to wait on Soroka and Allard for 2 years …
Sims threw 101 pitches in 5 IP, allowing 4 runs on 3 walks and 4 K.
I don’t think there’s necessarily anyone on the farm currently deserving of a roster spot. But a month can really change things. Colon has an ERA of 7, and he’s basically a dead asset if you cut bait now. Could you flip-flop Colon and Wisler, and if Wisler struggles, go back to Colon? You’re not going to DFA a 44-year old making $12.5M or whatever. You owe it to yourself to try to rehab him. We’re not going anywhere. I continue to think that, in the right situation, Wisler can be successful, and if Colon looks as done as he does, then why not just keep going to Wisler? Wisler is 24, and has a career ERA of 5. Do you know who else was 24 years old, had a career ERA of 5 (4.92), and had a 95MPH fastball with poor consistency? Mike Foltynewicz. Let’s not bury Wisler just yet.
Rio looks like he belongs.
@26. Have the shovel handy, though.
@26
I agree to a point. I think Simms and Newcomb are really close. If that is the case, then we don’t have room in the rotation for Wisler or Blair. Especially with the guys in AA dominating. If that is the case, why not go ahead and move Wisler and/or Blair to the pen? Wisler has never shown he is more than a number five starter.
26 — Wisler doesn’t throw as hard as Foltynewicz and only has 2 major league caliber pitches. I think if he sticks in the majors it will be as a reliever and it appears the Braves think that as well.
We could’ve cut Bud Norris early last year, but we hung onto him long enough for him to put together a good month and become a trade chip that we squeezed a couple of decent relief prospects out of. Colon’s salary is several times what Bud’s was and all the more reason to hang onto him. Besides, letting him pitch is an otherwise effective way to blamelessly tank (hey, what were we suppos’a do, cut him for 12 million?)
@26,30: Yes, there is little comparison between Folty and Wisler except that they were both bad major leaguers at 23. Folty always had the stuff to succeed. Wisler needs to develop Madduxian control to win with his bland stuff.
I would like to point out that Norris didn’t turn around until after he had been moved to the bullpen. He figured something out then moved back to the rotation briefly before being traded.
@26, 31
I don’t think that’s really fair. Their pitching style is irrelevant. Wisler has the stuff to succeed, and he’s demonstrated it. In fact, some of the best pitching performances over the past couple years have been by Wisler. How they do it isn’t important. While Wisler struggles to develop a quality third pitch (he has one, by the way), Folty struggles with his command. But both issues could keep a pitcher in AAA (Sims, Blair, Newk). Braves know more than we do, of course, but I think we’d be pretty disappointed to see Wisler successful in another uniform when he could have been doing it in the Braves’.
http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=1425080783&sid=milb
Free.Ron.Acuna.
33 — Folty has established himself as a starter because he has harnessed his control and command. He is walking less than 7% of batters since the beginning of 2016. In the minor leagues his walk rate at times was almost twice as high.
Wisler has started 45 games in the major leagues and hasn’t shown any improvement at all. He’s essentially been Kyle Davies. He has a decent fastball and slider, which he should be able to throw harder as a reliever since he doesn’t have to pace himself. His third pitch is a changeup which he does not command. I think it’s time to go all in as a reliever because it doesn’t appear he’s going to figure out the changeup.
Folty still has top of the rotation capability, so the point is not whether or not they will be the same pitcher. Wisler could still be a 5th starter, IMO, which is the reason to be patient. Seriously, we’re not contending, and Wisler could have as little as 4-5 Kris Medlen starts before the ship sails. Throw him out there.
I’d be more willing to agree with you if he wasn’t putting up a 5.20 ERA at Gwinnett.
Wisler as a 5th starter–I’ll give you that, but I’m not quite so desperate to find out if he can reach that low ceiling that I’m shutting Colon down and scuttling his trade value. If Wisler has that kind of value, surely he can put up average numbers in AAA for a full season…
Ian Anderson with a great game in Rome yesterday: 6IP 1H 1BB 11K – 88 pitches
@34, Well, that video surely proves Acuna can smack the heck out of a garbage pitch.
@34 Ronald Acuna is 19 years old and has played a grand total of 16 games at AA. The Braves aren’t contending this year, there’s no good reason to rush him to the majors. To the contrary, it would very much behoove the Braves to give Acuna plenty of development time against crafty AA/AAA pitchers who will pitch him backwards, throw breaking balls for strikes, etc. so that he’s in position to succeed from Day 1 in the majors (likely, some time between late April and July 2018). I’ve got some ‘Acuna Matata’ jokes in the hopper all ready to go!
Right. No sense in rushing the 19 year olds.
By the way, does it not seem like the position player/bench portion of the rebuild is a little ahead of the pitching side? And considering a big part of the rebuild was dealing off position players, you’d think we’d at least just have a bad position player side along with a bad pitching side.
Randy is handy and well connected.
a slugger at play in the Sally
will highly unlikely there dally
expect his promotion
confirming the notion
Coppy and he are quite pally.
ray patrick didder
recalling his name we best need consider
reducto absurdum
Raydidder, remembered the first time you heard’um.
says Bowman
one more start
then he may depart
said Lucas Sims
in that event at least i don’t have triple chins.
@41, it’s long since been established that krussell’s personal enjoyment is a valid reason to rush prospects to the majors.
Why else are we all here?
I’m watching Mike Minor pitching for the Royals. Kinda surreal.
This team still blows. Acuna is a bringer of hope.
Jaime Garcia increasing his trade value!
Has Brandon Phillips always fallen to his knees in the batter’s box after a big swing or is that something new? I’ve seen him do it several times. He was still on his knees when the double he just hit was zooming past the Giants third baseman.
in that Rio/Swanson play that got away is Swanson supposed to call him off…and if he doesn’t does that leave the onus on Rio to take it?
Love what Garcia’s doing.
I would say you should pinch hit here but Jaime is as good of an option as Bonifacio and Santana
If teams aren’t interested in Garcia as a pitcher maybe they’ll trade for him as a hitter.
Your bullpen gets taxed when you don’t trust your starter. Jaime shouldn’t have been pulled there at 83 pitches
Amazin’ that Nick caught that Spahn belt to RCenter so comfortably in the 8th- he must have been playing 120 ft off the line…
that proved to be true when he couldn’t get to a high pop up by Buster in foul territory…
I love Rio but he needs more elevation on his throws across the diamond- last one was ok but too many are in or near the dirt for Adams.
Braves win 2-0…our first shut out of the season apparently…Garcia did it all and, yes, he’s tiring when the pitch count gets into the sixties…but what a performance and then the winning Rbis somehow getting a ground ball through the left side of the best defense in the league.
How nice to have a game we were in control from the start. You somehow knew, the way he was pitching. And JJ back where he belongs, not a problem.
Alex Wood… another 8K in five scoreless innings against the Cubs. Damn, Alex, I miss you.