Against the Padres on Wednesday, the Braves started a pitcher whose ERA was over 7. By Thursday, his ERA was over 8 and he was released. Never has a Colonectomy been so welcome.
Thursday, the Padres started a pitcher I had never heard of whose ERA was nearly 7. How did he do? You don’t have to have stayed up to watch this west coast game to know the outcome. As happens so often with our Braves over the years, this team can make struggling starters look like Cy Young. The Padres’ pitcher in question is apparently named Denilson Lemet. There is a difference, though, between this guy’s performance and the ones I have in mind from the past. It used to be the undistinguished soft tossers who gave the Braves fits. Lemet’s stuff was electric-—mid to upper nineties heater and a slider that seemed to break a foot. Every Braves batter looked like Dansby trying to hit a slider.
Lemet pitched 7 shutout innings. Jaime Garcia had his third consecutive poor outing, greatly diminishing his trade value. Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe each hit massive homers off Garcia. And that’s pretty much the story of this game.
Folty is on the mound tonight in Oakland. The Braves will finish with a winning June however it goes, but let’s go for win number 16 in the month.
Guys the most important part of the rebuild was the part where we took back less for Kimbrel so we could dump BJ’s salary and pay Bartolo Colon $13 million to run an 8 ERA for a few months and then cut him. Strategy all along, Coppy playing the long game.
ESPN said that the Mets are strongly considering signing Colon. I can’t think of a better win win for the Braves. Of course if this happens he will probably pitch a no hitter against us.
That trade is almost as bad as the Olivera trade.
The Colon idea was not a bad one. Noone could predict that he would fall off a cliff like that. These things happen and ideally happen in a rebuilding year.
@2
That’s what’s kinda tough about old pitchers. We kept hearing how Bartolo had a bad stretch last year but turned it around. He’s only one year older, and he’s gone from a 3.43 ERA to a 8.14 ERA in that time. The Mets are probably thinking that they saw him recovery last year; why not see if he can do it this year? And for those that care, his FIP is a full 3 runs less than his ERA at the moment, and it’s still less than Teheran and Dickey’s. Depending upon the practical application of FIP, what do you do with that info?
In other news, Newcomb’s FIP is now a more shiny 2.94, so we’re all good there.
Thank you, tfloyd. Do you have an older brother named dfloyd?
Regardless, the Braves seem to dislike west coast games as much as I.
Any news on when Kevin Maitan is going to play?
Coupla days ago somebody asked him via Twitter when he would play. His answer was Friday or Saturday… I see he is not in the lineup today, though I suppose he could pinch-hit or sub later. He acknowledged he was being held out with a minor injury…. 2nd hand info, mind you, but it’s all we got.
The Padres turned around and traded Kimbrel, after a down season, for the #26 prospect, Margot, and the prior year’s #76 prospect, Guerra, who has since fallen off, and two others others. The third best player they got back was Carlos Asuaje, who had a 3 hit game against us on Wednesday night. He has a career .809 OPS in the minors as a second baseman. The fourth player, Logan Allen, a 20 yo lefty starter, is dominating at A-ball this year.
It’s hard to quantify how bad the Kimbrel trade was for us, but it rivals the Olivera trade in squandered future value.
The Braves saved about $60M in future obligations in the Kimbrel trade; that money has been spent on more than just Colon.
Braves got that $60M salary cleared, plus the #34 overall prospect at the time according to BA (Wisler), plus Cameron Maybin (since turned into Ian Krol), plus the #41 pick in the draft (turned into Austin Riley), plus Jordan Paroubek (the Pads #19 prospect, since traded for INTL slot money).
The trade was viewed really favorably by lots of analysts at the time because the Braves got a lot of value.
I don’t think the trade was great, but I don’t see it as the disaster you seem to think it was. And really, the jury’s still out.
Sorry blazon, but I hear your son will be busy again quite soon. Industry rumors. Hope it is just chatter and you get to spend time with him.
@10, fair points, but I don’t think we can count saving the $40+ million we owed Kimbrel as some sort of boon in the trade. Kimbrel’s future salary wasn’t a liability. We could’ve traded him at any time and still saved most of that money. BJ’s salary is a different story…
Obviously Kimbrel’s contract wasn’t a liability or we wouldn’t have gotten extra value back in trade. But you absolutely have to consider the $11M per year he was owed. Braves were able to use that money on rebuilding rather than an elite closer, which was something they didn’t need while rebuilding.
Dansby needed that.
Camargo is a winning ball player, IMO. I like him.
The thing about the Kimbrel trade was getting out of Melvin Upton’s awful, awful contract. Evidently some have forgotten just how bad he was and how much he was paid.
We haven’t forgotten, we just disagree with this regime’s unwillingness to eat sunk costs. I’d be more sympathetic to their position on that, had we not just built them a new stadium.
Folty has allowed a goose egg in a certain column and it’s getting late.
Folty is missing by a lot for several pitches, them he pulls it together. Let’s hope he can pull it together for 6 more outs.
3 more outs.
3 more outs, baby.
This isn’t really happening, is it?
A couple of insurance runs would be wonderful. This game is very much in doubt. In any other circumstance folty would not pitch the 9th but I assume snit will send him back out.
Damn…
ooof
Well shit
That’s how to lose a no-hitter in style.
Rats. That’s ok. Great, great game, Folty.
Looked like he may have had him struck out but didn’t get the call.
Well, the umpire called two of those balls that were strikes
Now let’s don’t blow the game
It’s sad that Oakland has to play in that dump.
@braves14, evidently you have forgotten just how generationally dominant Kimbrel was and you also have developed amnesia as to the copious returns that closers have generated on the trade market in the last 2 years.
Recapped.