Bleacher Report - Atlanta Braves

Atlanta Braves: Bullpen Issues Continue with Injuries to Lefties

Joe Tansey — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:03:23 -0400

The Atlanta Braves were handed a double dose of bad injury-related news this week as Jonny Venters' second Tommy John surgery was announced and Eric O'Flaherty was put on the disabled list with a torn UCL.

Over the last few seasons, both left-handed relievers were heavily relied on in the Braves' chase for the playoffs.

While the duo were pitching in a combined 293 games over the last two seasons, the concerns about the longevity of both players' have been ever-present.

Both Venters and O'Flaherty have provided the Braves with some superb work in relief and they formed one of the most feared bullpen combinations in the majors with closer Craig Kimbrel.

But with both relievers out for the foreseeable future, the criticism of how the two pitchers were used can be heard even more than it was in the past.

Throwing a reliever over 60 games in just one season can do some damage, especially combined with two seasons of stress-filled situations on the mound in the latter innings.

Manager Fredi Gonzalez now faces a situation that he created himself. His two best left-handed relievers are most likely out for the season and now he has to find capable relievers to fill that void.

Luis Avilan and Cory Gearrin will assume the "next man up" mentality for now. And the addition of veteran left-hander Joe Beimel, who is on the road to recovery from Tommy John surgery himself, will help the ball club if he reaches the majors.

There is also be some concern about the right arm of Kimbrel, who has appeared in 142 games over the last two seasons and 16 games already this season.

If Kimbrel begins to experience arm issues, the World Series and even playoff hopes of the Braves could go down the drain in a heartbeat.

For now, Braves fans can focus on the terrific job that Gearrin and Avilan have done in relief so far this season. But if they fold under pressure in the seventh and eighth inning roles in front of Kimbrel, the criticism will grow around Gonzalez on how he managed his bullpen over the past few seasons.

Follow me on Twitter, @JTansey90.

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Atlanta Braves: Grand Slam by Justin Upton Powers Victory over Dodgers

Joe Tansey — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:49:57 -0400

After a brutal 10-game road trip that saw the Atlanta Braves go 4-6 against the Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks, they returned home to Turner Field and finally got back on track with an 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The main talking point going into Friday night was the return of Jason Heyward, but by the time Craig Kimbrel closed the game out in the top of the ninth inning with his 12th save of the season, all everyone wanted to talk about was the grand slam delivered by Justin Upton in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Upton's 14th home run of the season came at a crucial point in the game, as the Braves were down by two runs and starting pitcher Paul Maholm was reaching the end of his start after throwing 95 pitches.

After Upton's shot to left field scored Jordan Schafer, Andrelton Simmons and Heyward, the Braves bullpen got down to business.

The trio of Luis Avilan, Eric O'Flaherty and Kimbrel conceded just two hits, one of which was a home run by Scott Van Slyke in the eighth off of O'Flaherty, as they preserved Maholm's fifth win of the season.

The performance of Avilan was the most important to Braves fans, especially after the news of Jonny Venters' second Tommy John surgery (via Atlanta Journal-Constitution) was delivered yesterday. Avilan will be one of the many Braves relievers who will be asked to fill in for Venters and bridge the gap to O'Flaherty and Kimbrel for the rest of the season.

As for how the returning Heyward performed in first game back, the right fielder went 2-for-4 at the plate, and he delivered an important insurance run in the seventh inning as he brought home Simmons on a RBI single.

With Heyward's activation from the disabled list on Friday, manager Fredi Gonzalez was forced to make a roster move, and he did so by placing right-hander Jordan Walden on the disabled list (via ESPN.com).

By placing Walden on the DL, Gonzalez has given himself more time to demote or release a position player, which should come before the Braves hit the road in a week's time to play the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays.

On Saturday, Mike Minor will take the mound for the Braves against Matt Magill of the Dodgers in the second game of a three-game set in Atlanta.

Follow me on Twitter, @JTansey90.

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Atlanta Braves: 5 Things We Learned Through the First Quarter of the Season

Grant McAuley — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:39:43 -0400

A red-hot start propelled the Atlanta Braves to the best record in baseball. Holding that distinction over the course of an entire season proved to be an unrealistic expectation.

Sitting in first place since Opening Day, Atlanta has staked a claim for its first division title since 2005. And they have done so in large part without all of the pieces at their disposal.

Several key players have missed significant time due to injury. Others have underperformed, while one in particular is enjoying a career-best season.

The club boasts an offense with plenty of fire power, but that comes with an Achilles' heel in the form of strikeouts. On the other side, the pitching staff has seen a few peaks and valleys already.

What have we learned about the 2013 Braves to this point? Find out now.

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1st-Quarter Grades for the Atlanta Braves

Gavin Andrews — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:06:52 -0400

After getting off to a blistering 12-1 start, the Atlanta Braves looked invincible, especially after sweeping the rival Washington Nationals in D.C.

Mike Minor has looked like a staff ace, Justin Upton has seemed superhuman at times and Brian McCann has bounced back admirably.

However, not everything has been great in Braves Country.

Dan Uggla is off to yet another slow start, as are the newly acquired B.J. Upton and the injury-hampered Jason Heyward.

With the first quarter of the season coming to a close, how have the Braves shaken out?

All records and statistics are courtesy of MLB.com and are current as of Tuesday, May 14.

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Atlanta Braves' World Series Design Is Fatally Flawed

Andrew Brining — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:30:00 -0400

If the Atlanta Braves are serious about completing the championship journey they supposedly started during the offseason, they're going to need some help.

Preferably, that help will come in the form of a top-of-the-lineup bat that doesn't strike out at an eye-bulging pace. Another front-line starter for the rotation wouldn't be a bad option, either. Brandon Beachy is on his way back from Tommy John surgery, though, so Atlanta should be covered there.

The Braves' recent trip to AT&T Park showed that their grand plan of stocking an offense full of dangerous hitters who happen to swing and miss a lot isn't so grand.

Atlanta came into San Francisco and dropped three of four, managing to beat only the struggling Ryan Vogelsong—and even Vogey fanned seven members of the opposition.

That stat was even more impressive (or troubling) considering the right-hander recorded only 13 outs total. Put it another way, Vogelsong got tuned up and still had a nice pile of strikeouts when the mushroom cloud cleared.

As for the other three starters?

Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum each matched Vogelsong's seven strikeouts while Madison Bumgarner one-upped everyone by fanning a whopping 11 Braves. All three won their starts.

Dig deeper into the numbers and you'll see the trio combined for 22 innings pitched, 16 baserunners allowed, three earned runs allowed and surrendered only a single home run by Cainer to Brian McCann immediately after being staked a six-run lead.

No big deal, right?

Everyone knows the Giants are built around pitching and have one of the best rotations in baseball, especially at the top of the rotation, except that hasn't been the case in 2013.

Bumgarner has been holding steady through the early going, but after the 23-year-old, San Francisco's next-best starter has been none other than Barry Zito, who was the only starting arm Atlanta didn't see.

Cain has been strong in his last two outings, including his gem against Atlanta, but it was an ugly mixed bag before those and a similar picture can be painted of Big Time Timmy Jim's spring.

Vogelsong has been downright awful as the wheels may have finally come off his magical ride.

In truth, the Braves came to The City and got shredded by a talented pitching staff that's a bit unsteady at the moment. Although worrisome, it's only May and Atlanta has cooled off of late after a scorching start to its 2013 campaign. The series might be easily, and justifiably, dismissed as a minor blip in a long season.

The situation, however, gets significantly more troubling when you consider that Ted Turner's boys trail only the Houston Astros for most whiffs in the majors.

Furthermore, take a gander at the other teams giving Atlanta a run for its strikeout money. The Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox look solid, but they're both mired in extended slumps. The rest aren't exactly a Who's Who of World Series hopefuls until you get down to the Washington Nationals.

Of course, the A's defy logic while the Red Sox and Nats have bona fide aces atop their rotations.

The thing is, nobody strikes out 150 times in the span of 600 plate appearances by accident. If you're failing to put the ball in play that often, it's because you have a hole in your swing and/or poor plate discipline.

At the moment, the Atlanta Braves have six players on such a pace and that doesn't include the injured Jason Heyward, who eclipsed the mark in 2012.

Granted, these are not the sort of problems that slow down a team much over the regular season. Lots of strikeouts usually accompany lots of power and those elements tend to even out in the long run. A quick look through the history books supports this notion.

In 2012, the A's, Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Braves and Cincinnati Reds were all in the top 10 as far as whiffs and all made the playoffs. In 2011, the Arizona Diamondbacks were in the top 10 while the Tampa Bay Rays were knocking on the door, and both made the postseason. The year before, the Rays and Reds were again among the MLB leaders and both were back in the playoffs.

That's a list of nine teams and not a single one made it to a championship series.

That brings us back to the pitching. For a good or confident pitcher, either a hole in a batter's swing or poor plate discipline is like an invitation to steal. Combined, they're a direct order.

I'd bet good money that when a major league hurler is feeling right, he'd rather see a swing-from-the-heels-in-all-counts type like Dan Uggla instead of a pesky little gnat like Marco Scutaro, who's going to shorten up and protect once he loses count leverage.

Uggla's certainly the bigger threat to go yard, but if a pitcher makes his pitches, he's heading back to the dugout swearing under his breath. A slappy hitter like Scutaro will work the pitch count by spoiling a number of nasty offerings and can beat a pitcher for a hit without needing a mistake to do so.

Under the right circumstances, the high-strikeout sluggers are low-hanging fruit.

Well, guess what you see an awful lot of in the postseason? Good pitchers who are also confident.

Whether they've been so all year or got hot at the right time, it's often superlative pitching that carries a team into and through the postseason. As the saying goes, good pitching beats good hitting every time. Admittedly, the saying is wrong because good hitting does win from time to time, but it's close enough.

That's no good for Atlanta because it is World Series or bust at Turner Field.

The Upton moves were not made to add a few wins and advance a level deeper into the playoffs. They were made to turn visions of the Commissioner's Trophy into a reality.

According to the current plan, however, that's not happening.

Read more Atlanta Braves news on BleacherReport.com

An Early Look at 5 Realistic Moves the Atlanta Braves Could Make at the Deadline

Daniel Kock — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:04:07 -0400

We are about one quarter of the way through the MLB season with the Atlanta Braves clinging to a slim lead in the National League East.

After a blazing start, the Braves have come back down to earth against a rather difficult early schedule.

The Braves have yet to play a game with their full lineup and still have one of the more talented rosters in the National League.

However, they have also shown some glaring weaknesses, which general manager Frank Wren will look to improve.

Much will change between now and the trade deadline, and the moves the Braves make will depend on how injuries play out and what new ones the Braves get hit with.

Here's an early look at some realistic moves the Braves could make at July's trade deadline.

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