Bryce Elder made a strong case Sunday in his bid to claim the 5th spot in the starting rotation. Who the 3rd and 4th starters will be, we have no idea. The Braves are going through starting pitchers like Spinal Tap went through drummers. Elder gave up 8 runs in 2 2/3 innings, allowing 6 hits and walking 4.
Texas sweeps the series and the Braves fall to 44 – 60, 1 1/2 games ahead of the 5th place Nationals.
Michael Harris II continues to hit well, registering 2 of the Braves 4 hits. Dylan Dodd pitched 3 strong innings in relief, which means he won’t be available to relieve whoever is starting Monday’s game at Kansas City. Rich Hill takes the mound for the Royals at 7:40 Eastern.
Hurston Waldrep was scratched from his start yesterday, so it looks like he will get the start tomorrow. Hopefully he can throw strikes.
Thanks, B14. And it looks like Erick Fedde may be number 4. https://x.com/Braves/status/1949590632579932546
Holmes to the 60 day? Maybe it’s just a case of shutting him down even it’s not serious, though I’m not optimistic. Unreal.
Great reference. So funny that Harry Shearer on the left in that picture would go on to voice half the characters in The Simpsons for 30 years. Let’s hope we can turn it up to 11 in the next series, and I mean that in the way of not embarrassing ourselves.
BESPE (Bryce Elder, Starting Pitcher Extraordinaire).
Garrett Anderson catching strays.
Rosenthal says Fedde will start Tuesday. That will give Strider an extra day of rest.
As I detailed two weeks ago, Erik Fedde has the worst ERA against the Braves of any pitcher who has gotten over 100 outs against them. If you can;t beat ’em, join ’em. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=feddeer01&year=Career&t=p#oppon_extra::5
JonathanF or others, I would like to somehow understand the correlation between pitching coaches, the pre-season training program, and injuries. I know Mazzone had an amazing track record with minimal SP injuries and Camp Leo was legendary. However, he also had ironmen like Maddux and Glavine. If pitching coaches make a big difference in overall injuries (especially to starting pitchers), Kranitz should be fired. Of course having a rotation of Mike Hampton’s could have a huge effect also. The injury history of Sale and Lopez made their injuries expected, but losing every pitcher in the opening week rotation to injury is hard to fathom.
You ask a great question that I’m absolutely every team is throwing analytics at, but none of that analytics is public. Here’s one old article which starts to get at how much you have to control for:
https://seamsup.com/blog/why-do-mlb-injury-rates-continue-to-skyrocket-and-what-does-it-mean-for-baseball-coaches-and-parents-of-all-levels
For a bibliography of studies, this is more than you probably wanted to know:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9310227/
Good article from Seamsup, but I find a few of the 10 possiblities for more injuries to be laughable. Lack of amphetamines and games last too long? Interesting that this was written in 2024 and nothing was said about the pitch clock. My feeling for increased pitcher injuries, in no particular order, is the following ( I actually think the study should look at IL stints over 60 days):
1) Velocity
2) Pitch clock
3) Inadequate preseason prep.
The article states that throwing 95 with good mechanics is better on your arm than 90 with poor mechanics. However, I don’t believe you can get away with throwing 95 with poor mechanics very long. I think item 2 and 3 above point to a possible pitching coach problem. The priority seems to be, “Let’s put getting their velocity up as the top priority”. I also think about pitch selection change could be a factor. You don’t see many slow curves anymore. There seem to be a lot more sliders.
You really have to squint hard to find any sort of 2025 silver-lining, but I’m hoping we get to see a bunch of minor league arms in these last 50 games. I couldn’t care less about “rushing” guys or hurting their confidence. It’s better to find out early what needs to be worked on, and then work on it. Better it happens sooner rather than later. Counter-point: do we really want this coaching regime leading the charge for instruction at the major league level? We’re gonna want actual teachers, not guys that haven’t figured out that Iglesias should stop throwing his slider. I want new teachers.
I don’t much buy into an early promotion doing irreparable harm to a player, but sometimes it is utterly pointless, as it was for Didier Fuentes. You can see what a guy has on video against minor leaguers. But if you’re not hacking A+, you aren’t ready for the show.
Now anybody who has a strong track record over 2-3 months at AA or higher is fair game to be called up in my book.
We swept the Mets in New York, June 17-19. That brought us to 34-39, and was possibly the high point of the season.
Since then, we’ve gone 10-21 – we’ve literally lost two out of every three games for more than a month.
I wouldn’t let Strider pitch past August 31.
Waldrep was not called up today and it appears Strider will pitch tonight on regular rest for some reason. Fedde will pitch tomorrow and I guess Wentz will pitch Wednesday.
We just acquired Erick Fedde and Carlos Carrasco for peanuts.
At least they will help us limp through the last 2 months and hopefully allow us to shut down Strider (in September), Sale and Schwelly for the rest of the season. Need to see some kids brought up as well.
Just waiting for the confirmation of the Ben Sheets signing next.
Grab these old arms to limp through the season, we don’t need lots of rookies getting the snot beat out of them. A start or in late august is fine, but buy some time with these zombies.
Last Sunday I wrote about how 2020 Snit managed a terrible starting rotation and a great bullpen. Now we’ll get to see how he manages a terrible starting rotation and a terrible bullpen.
The Braves currently have 6 guys on the 60-day IL. Five of them are starting pitchers (Sale, Holmes, Smith-Shawver, Lopez, Schwellenbach) and the sixth is Joe Jiminez.
The call went out from AA to “give me your tired, your poor, your pitchers you’re afraid to put into a game even against us.” Erick Fedde and Carlos Carrasco are what you get, and I hear Bartolo Colon is hiring his grandson to play catch.
Honestly I’m just sorry we couldn’t get Rich Hill.
I’m not completely certain but we may still have the rights to Satchel Paige.
Hey, maybe Iglesias’ stock just went up in the trade market…
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45843304/sources-guardians-emmanuel-clase-leave-gambling-probe
Well, for Fedde and Corrasco, this is their last chance to make a good impression on teams. They need to show that they have something left in the tank to get a contract next season, so they should be motivated to do well.
The fascinating thing here is that when you hear that five starting pitchers are on the 60-day IL, (and that one other pitcher on your roster now started the season on the 60 day IL) you’d think that the problem for the season was starting pitching. Acknowledging the weakness of the statistics (but they’re easy to find) the Braves currently rank 6th in quality starts. https://stathead.com/tiny/hygMl and 13th in starting game score https://stathead.com/tiny/lkDDW and a note to Iglesias haters, they are 16th in blown saves… right around average https://stathead.com/tiny/lkDDW
On the other hand, you have to be ahead to blow a save, which has been the biggest problem for us all season.
Ooof. That stings.
Hear me out.
https://x.com/DudespostingWs/status/1949961313775735265
Braves with 10 runs, 9 hits and 14 walks tonight. I assume they have now turned a corner, fully bought into Hyers’ approach and will likely average at least 8 runs per game for the rest of the season. Every player except Riley walked and he was 2 for 6 with 4 rbis. Albies with 3 walks tonight – his obp for the rest of the year will likely be over .400. Do you guys think I am too optimistic?
You’ll be fine. Just don’t predict a no-hitter from Erick Fedde.
recapped (and not merely “recrapped” as has often been the story this year).