When I started prep work for the 4-game Braves vs. Pirates series preview, I was shocked to find out the Braves are 6-4 in their last 10. It has seemed much worse, especially when scrolling through X, which is still twitter.com even when it’s X.com. The Braves comes in at 70-39 and still has the best record in the bigs, but as odd as it is to say, the Baltimore Orioles are now right on their tails at 70-42. What a world. The Pirates come in at 50-61 and that’s pretty wild considering they were 20-9 in the season’s first month.
Braves vs. Pirates Pitching Matchups
Game 1: Spencer Strider vs. Osvaldo Bido, 7:05 EST
Game 2: Yonny Chirinos vs. Mitch Keller, 7:05 EST
Game 3: Max Fried vs. Quinn Priester, 7:05 EST
Game 4: Bryce Elder vs. Bailey Falter, 12:35 EST
On paper and just looking at the SPs, the Braves have a fairly large advantage in games 1,3, & 4 and this would be a great series to take all 4 and put some extra cushion in the quest for a World Series ring.
When They Come Back
Alex Anthopoulos has buried himself firmly in “good problems” territory with his acquisitions, especially in the relief core. In the past month, AA has acquired pitchers Yonny Chirinos, Pierce Johnson, and Brad Hand. They have also activated and IL’d Daysbel Hernandez. Currently, the Braves have Kolby Allard, Nick Anderson, Jesse Chavez, Dylan Lee, Tyler Matzek, Kyle Wright, Huascar Ynoa, and Ehire Adrianza on the 60-day IL. Of that group, the Braves hope that Wright, Lee, Anderson, and Chavez come back before season’s end, but who do they replace?
Let’s get the easy one out of the way. If Kyle Wright is activated and all of the SPs are healthy, Chirinos will get the boot. However, from there, it’s not easy, especially considering the lack of options.
- Joe Jimenez? Heck no.
- Raisel Iglesias? Heck no.
- Pierce Johnson? Heck no.
- Brad Hand? LHP and has a club option. Highly unlikely.
- Collin McHugh? Maybe, but that option for next year would be hard to turn down.
- A.J. Minter? Of course not.
- Michael Tonkin? Maybe, but he’s really cheap and has been great this season in multiple innings.
- Kirby Yates? His peripherals scream fluke but he’s carried a 2.88 ERA since May. Also has cheap 2024 option.
Here’s my pecking order: McHugh, Yates, Tonkin. That’s it.
My hope is that Lee is optioned to AAA until an injury occurs, Chavez takes his time and preps for the playoffs, and Anderson is released.
I have to imagine that Lee will be reinstated to the active roster, rather than being optioned to AAA, when he completes his rehab assignment (assuming he is fully healthy and ready to go). With Lee in the mix, the Braves will have three lefties in the bullpen. It’s always good to have left handed options, particularly in the postseason when being able to play matchups is crucial.
They could just leave Lee on rehab until September and not burn an option year.
If someone in the current bullpen has to go, I think McHugh is clearly the worst pitcher. But even he is roughly replacement level and not a bad long relief option.
From last thread. Considering the topic above, it seems appropo.
To say the playoffs are a crapshoot is an understatement. We lost to the Dodgers in 7 games in 2020 after being up 3 games to 1 with the incredible pitching staff of:
Max Fried
Ian Anderson
Kyle Wright (2/3 IP, 7 runs)
Bryse Wilson (6 IP, 1 run)
AJ Minter
We won it all in 2021 in 6 games against Houston with the following pitching:
Morton
Fried
Ian Anderson
Dylan Lee (pitched .1 innings and was bailed out by Kyle Wright who came from nowhere)
Tucker Davidson
Our hitting is better this year than in either of those years and overall pitching should be better. We may not win it all this year, but not making a deadline move for a starting pitcher will probably not be the reason why.
Wow, that Strider outing is on Frenchy. After striking out the first two of the second he predicted 14 Ks. Then Spencer did his best Elder/Morton impersonation and put us in a real bind in this one and the rest of the week, what with seven more games to play.
Good grief…
Strider looks like he needs a sports psychologist once In a while, he’s prone to having sudden issues.
Aside from his K numbers, he’s been slightly disappointing this year.
Doesn’t help that he consistently gets squeezed by umps, just as Ronald did before this year.
Meanwhile the defense is putrid
The last three starts are worrisome.
They’re definitely seeing Bido better the second time through. Aside from Ozzie’s homer, Ronald’s lineout and Riley’s double were both scorched.
I asked this in the Fangraphs chat:
Dag. That’s a disappointing loss. It’s almost identical to the two we lost in Chicago. Enough offense, but just bad starting pitching. Too deep a hole to dig quite all the way out of.
Really bad starting pitching. The amount of barrels Strider gives up is shocking…having that lineup bat around is something!
I can’t help but think that rain delay was a gift to the Pirates. The offense was applying pressure but lost momentum.
Recapped, as I channel my inner AAR above.