In the absence of Spencer Strider, or Spencer Schwellenbach, or Hurston Waldrep, or Joey Wentz, or the front-line starter so many wanted AA to acquire this past offseason, Jose Suarez got the start in the fifth game of the season.  He didn’t get bombed, exactly, but he did surrender 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks in 3 2/3, so it is fair to say it was not a successful outing.  Joel Payamps pitched one inning and yielded a solo homer.  Martin Perez finished the game by going 4 1/3 shutout innings on just 2 hits and no walks.  Looks like Perez is the new number 5 starter, at least until Strider comes back, when the rotation will be Sale, Strider, Lopez, Holmes, and Elder.   Assuming no one else gets hurt.  Surely the bad injury luck can’t continue, right?  Right?

Those five runs were enough to earn a victory for the A’s, since the Braves only managed two.  Drake Baldwin hit a solo homer in the first (on his bobblehead night), and Ronald drove in a run with a sac fly in the 5th.  The Braves had their chances to get back in it, with two runners on in the 7th with no outs and the top of the order coming up, and two on the ninth with one out and the top of the order up.  I love the top of our order, but Ronald and his mates let us down tonight.  RAJ struck out in both the 7th and 9th, and Baldwin and Olson did not reach either.  Ronnie is off to a slow start, but I have no doubt that he will turn it around soon.

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Jose Suarez is almost certainly not the answer for the lack of depth in the Braves’ rotation.  Nonetheless, believe it or not, he has a chance to be the best “Jose” ever to play for the Braves.  Who do you suppose is the “Jose” who accumulated the most bWAR as a Brave?  I may be missing somebody obvious, but a brief search of my memory and Baseball Reference shows that no one by that name has been very good for the Braves.  Remember Jose Constanza, the little sparkplug best known for licking his bat?  That Jose accumulated .8 bWAR in from 2011-2014.  He was never really a big league hitter but had a couple of hot streaks that convinced Fredi Gonzalez to replace him for Jason Heyward for a while.  Remember Jose Oliva, who played third base in 1995 for about 25 games?  He had negative 0.7 bWAR.  Jose Ramirez (sadly, not that one) pitched in the rebuilding years of 2016-17, to the tune of -0.2 bWAR.  Jose Bautista, who was a very good hitter, was briefly a Brave in 2018.  But in just 12 games for the Braves, Joey Bats was terrible, with a -0.4 bWAR.  Jose Hernandez, the infielder in the bigs from 1991-2006, played for the Braves for one season as a bench piece; he had .4 bWAR.

Jose Suarez, in just 7 appearances in 2025, pitched so well that he earned 0.6 bWAR.  He didn’t help that number tonight, but it would not take much for him to pass Jose Constanza on the all time Braves bWAR list.  But passing Constanza would not make him first.  No, the leader is Jose Alvarez, pitcher back in 1988 and 1989.  I had completely forgotten that guy.  Those seasons were as forgettable as any in the 60 years of Atlanta Braves baseball.  In 1988, Alvarez pitched very well, and earned 2.7 bWAR.  In 60 games he had a 2.99 ERA.  No one else was any good at all for the Braves—they lost 106 games.  Indeed, Jose Alvarez was the pitcher of the year that season.  Alvarez wasn’t bad in 1989 either, with .6 bWAR.  So I believe Jose Alvarez with 3.3 bWAR is the best Braves Jose.  What are the odds that Jose Suarez can catch him?  I hope they are not good, because it is not in the Braves’ interest to need Suarez to pitch that much.  (If I had to bet, I’d say young Jose Perdomo is most likely ultimately to surpass Jose Alvarez–I sure hope so,)

On the other hand, Martin Perez had a decent chance to be the best Martin Perez ever to play for the Braves.  You oldsters will remember 1970’s shortstop Martin “Marty” Perez (pictured above).  In 6 seasons as the Braves full-time shortstop, Marty “earned” -0.1 bWAR.  This year’s Martin Perez won’t have to do a lot to surpass that.  He probably won’t, but he could.  He’s been a pretty good pitcher for a long career.  If he is healthy, he could be a helpful piece of the puzzle.

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Today is the birthday of Rene Descartes (March 31, 1596), the Shohei Ohtani of his day.  Before Ohtani, who believed that a single player could be one of the very best pitchers and hitters in the game?  Well, Ol’ Rene D was the preeminent philosopher of the early 16th century, and also the preeminent mathematician (inventor of analytical geometry).  Imagine being the best at those two distinct skills.  Anyway, I had a Cartesian moment the other day.  I was sitting around wondering if I actually exist, and I realized that I was thinking about the Braves—as I do pretty much continually.  Cogito baseball, ergo sum.  Thanks, Rene.

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In baseball, momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher.  We’ve got the big mo, because Chris Sale is on the mound for tomorrow’s 12:15 start.