Braves' Bullpen: A Huge Sigh of Relief

As I am writing this article, Jonny Venters just completed his second inning of relief against the Philadelphia Phillies. So far this season Venters has compiled five innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit with two walks and four strikeouts. He is just one of the pleasant surprises that has come out of the Braves' bullpen this year.

Nothing short of outstanding this year through 46.1 innings, the bullpen has allowed 16 earned runs, which translates to a 3.11 ERA.

But bullpen ERA can be slightly overrated. Take for example the bad outing by the recently disabled Jo-Jo Reyes. He pitched 3.1 innings and allowed nine earned runs, which translates to a 24.30 ERA. Now if you take those three innings out of the Braves bullpen statistics you can see how truly dominant the Braves' bullpen has been. Without those three innings by Reyes the Braves bullpen has allowed seven earned runs through 43 innings. That translates to an ERA of 1.47.

Those statistics are truly amazing considering the woes the Braves' have experienced in the past years with their bullpen. Most Braves' fans will remember the horrible time the Braves had in one-run games in 2008, sporting a record of 11-30. The 2009 season showed a slight improvement with a 27-25 record, but ever since the Braves' run of division titles ended in 2005 the bullpen has been a weak spot.

This year seems to be a different year so far. The bullpen has been the most consistent aspect of the Braves this season. Through Wednesday night's game with the Phillies, the bullpen has three pitchers who have yet to surrender a run (Takashi Saito, Peter Moylan, and Jonny Venters), two pitchers who have sub 2.00 ERAs (Eric O'Flaherty and Jesse Chavez), and two pitchers who have an ERA between 2.00 and 3.00 (Billy Wagner and Kris Medlen).

Entering the year the bullpen was one of the huge question marks for the Braves. There are still some skeptics who believe the age of the back-end of the bullpen could pose a problem, and it still may, but if the year so far is any indication the bullpen will be just fine.

Here's a look at how the Braves' bullpen has been statistically:

Billy Wagner—1-0 with a 3.00 ERA, two walks and 11 strikeouts in six innings pitched. He has only allowed two runs, which came courtesy of an Edgar Renteria home run.

Takashi Saito—In six innings he has given up two hits, one walk, and has 9 strikeouts. As of right now he has been the most dominant pitcher the Braves have.

Peter Moylan —In 6.2 innings this year Moylan has allowed three hits and two walks with six strikeouts. The addition of "Dave" has helped him be as dominant against lefties as he is against righties.

Eric O'Flaherty—The "lefty specialist" has been amazing again. He has shown an ability to pitch to both left handers and right handers with equal results. Through 6.2 innings O'Flaherty has allowed two runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Jesse Chavez—A guy who many thought should not make the team because of his spring training woes, he has shown nothing but good results. So far through 6.1 innings he has allowed one run on three hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Kris Medlen—Medlen leads the bullpen with 9.1 innings pitched, and he has done a fantastic job being the "long man." He has allowed three earned runs on nine hits with a walk and 10 strikeouts.

Jonny Venters—The guy who no one knew about has seemed to find a permanent home in Atlanta. In two appearances Venters has pitched five innings allowing only one hit, two walks, and five strikeouts.

Now all the Braves need is for the offense to start to turn things around and this could be a great year in Atlanta!