For all of you Braves fans that remember our pitching woes last year, your prayers have been answered.
The Braves starting pitching has gotten a huge boost by a number of stellar outings by Jair Jurrjens. He made his major league debut in late 2007 for the Detroit Tigers and relocated to Atlanta to play for the Braves in the 2008 season.
Everyone knows the power of Chipper Jones's bat and that the reuniting of Smoltz and Glavine would add some depth to the Brave's pitching staff, but at the start of the season nobody could even spell Jurrjens's first name after only hearing it.
Three weeks later, he is shown that he is going to play a significant role in the Braves playoff hunt this season.
His 2-2 record is very misleading—in his two losses, the Braves as a whole struggled to score runs. In all four of his starts, he has had a solid outing. With a 3.20 ERA on the season, he is slowly emerging as a star of the Braves organization.
Against the Dodgers on April 20 in Atlanta, he threw seven great innings while allowing only one run and striking out a career-high eight batters. This improvement from other already solid starts make him as reliable on the hill as John Smoltz. He has the potential to be an 18-20 game winner if he stays healthy the entire season.
So what does this mean for the Braves? Aside from having a great starting rotation, they now have another pitcher they can count on.
Let's not forget that the Braves won 14 straight division titles in large part due to their pitching.
After the 2005 season, the starting five just have not been able to produce the way the Smoltz/Maddux/Glavine trifecta did throughout the 1990's. Jurrjens brings to the Braves what they have needed for the past two years.
Now that they finally have a solid No. 3 starter who has the ability to consistently give seven great innings, the starting rotation for the Braves should start to worry other National League teams.
The boys from Atlanta now have all of the tools that make up World Series champions—they have the pitching, hitting and determination to capture their first world championship in 13 years.
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5 months ago
Don't get too worked up over a small sample size. Did you seriously call Jurrjens as reliable as John Smoltz? As someone who follows the minors like crazy, I'll tell you I'd be shocked to see Jurrjens win 16. He's a nice little pitcher, but if you think Smoltz-Glavine-Jurrjens is all of a sudden going to be Smoltz-Glavine-Maddux, let me be the first to tell you it's not gonna happen.
One other thing to worry about with Jurrjens is that scouts often question his projectability; they say he's as good now as he's ever going to be. He's a nice No. 4 or No. 5 guy, but don't think he's the missing piece to the championship puzzle.
from 5 months ago
Actually that's what makes him the missing piece to the championship puzzle. We didn't have a half decent 4 or 5 guy a year ago.
from 5 months ago
Fine, but if you think a No. 4 starter upgrade will get you from third to first in that division, you're in for a rude surprise.
5 months ago
Couldn't agree more with you, Nathaniel - 18-20 wins for Jurrjens? THIS year? He's thrown 56 innings in the majors, and the 30.7 of them he had last year with the Tigers were mediocre at best. By that logic, we should be calling for Nelson Figueroa to win the NL Cy this year.
5 months ago
A nice article on the emergence of what the Braves desperately needed last year- a reliable third or fourth starter. As an Atlantan since 1984 and fan since '81, I have not omitted the value of a third or fourth starter in Atlanta's success. Sure, everyone knows Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine; but what about Avery, Millwood, Reynoso, Mercker, Neagle or Chen? While these names are not HOF-bound, they were instrumental in maintaining that streak of division championships...aside from a wild card, being a division champ is the stamped ticket into the post season.
Yes, Mr. Jurjjens is off to a great start. Scouting reports on him are somewhat limited, so I expect some success at this point of the season; however, as more batters see him and the natural movements on his pitches are recorded, he will have to do more than just locate well. He will have to mix his pitches and be bolder in his pitch selection to be less predictable. It is my hope that he seeks out the counsel of Huddy, Smoltz and Glavine when he gets hit. For now, he reminds me of Smoltz, Mercker or Steve Avery in the early 90's: young, with an obvious skill set for winning. He is a delight to watch, but I think the season is far too young to be forecasting his win totals. Not to rain on anyone's parade; Jair is indeed an answered prayer and testimony to the adage, "you don't know what you've got until it's gone"; in this case, it's a good fourth starter. Anything beyond 10 wins from the fourth spot in the rotation is an excellent improvement.
Back in the early 80's, after years of ineffective pitching, Braves fans got win happy with newbies Pascual Perez and Craig McMurtry; they were great for a short time, but the strain on their arms and wiser hitters became their downfall. Cocaine addiction didn't help Perez, either. Their pitches hadn't changed, but the batters had. Great competitors up their game when the opposition is put wise to their skills; we'll see what Mr. Jurjjens does. Until then, I will simply delight to see him pitch.
from 5 months ago
You want a scouting report on Jurrjens? Here you go:
He throws in the low-90's, but likes to change speeds on his fastball, so it varies from 87-97 mph, usually at 91-93. He throws an OK curve and an OK change, and controls his pitches well. His soft body means he likely won't improve much anymore, and his control is just about as good as it gets already, so there's no room to improve there. Classic fourth starter.
That's taken more or less from Baseball America; it's not like I made it up.
And fair enough on that, but Jurrjens himself won't push the Braves past both the Mets and Phillies. He might give them two extra wins, but that's it.
5 months ago
It might. We were 5 games out last year, largely in part of completely pitiful performances from the back end of our rotation. In fact, when it comes to the 3, 4, and 5 spots in the rotation, we were pathetic. With Glavine at three, and with Jair at 4, we're in a lot better shape. If those two can even be average production from our 3 and 4 guys, we'll have a damn good shot at the division, because at 1 and 2 we are as good as anybody, if not better, than anyone else in the division. If you don't think that the upgrade we made at 3 and 4 can make a big difference in the division race, YOU are in for a rude surprise. You do realize that our 3, 4 and 5 spots COMBINED for 29 wins a year ago. If Jair is just average, he'll offer us more than a two win upgrade from what we were getting at that spot
When you were as bad as we were at the back end a year ago, simple mediocrity is a HUGE upgrade, enough to make us a serious threat in the division.
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