Atlanta Braves: Ranking the 5 Biggest Disappointments of the Young Season

The Atlanta Braves have been off to a solid start to the 2012 season. Their 12-7 mark in their first 19 games has them in second place in the NL East and they are tied for the fourth best record in all of baseball behind Texas, Washington and the LA Dodgers.

Though the Braves have started well, not everything has gone as planned for the team. There have been some disappointments along the way, such as Jair Jurrjens struggle to get batters out. This article ranks the five biggest disappointments in the young season. 

5.Randall Delgado Has Not Been the Star from Last Year

Randall Delgado was excellent for the Braves down the stretch last year. The 21 year-old made seven starts in August and September and posted a 2.83 ERA at a time when the Braves were desperate due to injuries.

There were some signs that Delgado wasn't as good as we witnessed a year ago. He had only limited Triple-A experience and his advanced stats let people see that he wasn't quite as good as the numbers he posted last year. Another sign that he wasn't ready to be a steady big league starter were his struggles in spring training, as he beat out Julio Teheran for the final spot, mainly due to Teheran's own difficulties.

Through his first three starts Delgado is 2-1 with a 5.74 ERA, but that is a bit deceiving. Delgado pitched well in his first start, but that was against a very weak Houston team. He allowed three runs over 5.1 innings in his second start against the Mets, but also allowed 10 base runners. Then came his third start where Arizona hit him for five runs in 5.1 innings.

Delgado hasn't been awful, but he also hasn't been the guy that we saw last year. Most fans didn't expect to see him with a sub-3.00 ERA again, but there was hope that he could keep it below 4.00.

4.Eric O'Flaherty Being Hittable

Eric O'Flaherty seemed to break out last year. He appeared in 78 games and posted a 0.98 ERA and 1.09 WHIP while striking out 67 batters in 73.2 innings. O'Flaherty pitched the 2011 season at age 26 and put up dominant numbers, leading many to believe that he was the next great late-inning reliever in the Atlanta bullpen.

O'Flaherty has not been pitching that well this year. He has a 5.68 ERA through seven games and 6.1 innings, but it's what he has done in each game that suggests he is not as dominant. O'Flaherty has given up at least one hit or walk in each of the first six games he has appeared in. The only exception being a game that he only had to pitch to one batter.

While I won't say that this is the decline, the advanced pitching stats show there is some downfall. His strikeouts are down, his walks are up, he hasn't been as good at holding runners, and the velocity is down. It is early and there is time to turn it around. Also, the BABIP does suggest that he has been a bit unlucky so far.

3.Julio Teheran Has Struggled

Julio Teheran was considered to be one of the elite prospects in the game heading into the season. The 21 year-old Colombian put up eye-popping numbers in Triple-A last year considering his age. He did struggle a little with the Braves when given an opportunity though.

Teheran was given a chance to win the final spot in the Braves rotation this spring, but struggled badly. That ended up with him losing out to Randall Delgado and being sent back to Triple-A. Teheran was expected to continue having his way with minor league hitters, but he has struggled instead.

In his first start in the minors Teheran only made it 1.2 innings before being knocked out after allowing as many base runners as he recorded outs, five. He did pitch well in his next two starts, as he pitched 10.2 shutout innings. Then came Wednesday night when he allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks over 4.1 innings.

Teheran looked bad in the spring and has been blasted in half of his minor league starts. Not the start you would expect from an elite prospect repeating the league he was successful at just a year ago.

2.The Opening Series Against the Mets

The second biggest disappointment of the season has to be the sweep by the Mets to start the season. This is something that bothers fans because the series was one that the Braves had no business losing. Their bats struggled badly against pitchers the Braves should have had more success again.

In the first game of the season, the Braves offense was totally shut down by Johan Santana. This doesn't sound bad on the surface, but Santana was making his first start since 2010 after returning from a shoulder injury and had lost significant velocity.

In the second game of the year, the only runs the Braves posted came from a two-run homer by Martin Prado off of R.A. Dickey. Then Jon Niese shut out the Braves in the first six innings of the third game. Closer Frank Francisco was able to close out all three games without much trouble, even though he has been hit hard since that series.

The Mets are without a doubt the worst team in the NL East. Losing three games to them at the start of the season could come back to hurt the Braves in September if there is a tight race for a playoff spot.

1.Jair Jurrjens

It's obvious that the biggest disappointment in Atlanta so far this season has been the performance of Jair Jurrjens. He had to be demoted to Triple-A after his most recent bad start in Los Angeles. Jurrjens was arguably the best pitcher in the National League in the first half of the 2011 season before a knee injury forced him to miss most of the rest of the season.

Jurrjens spent the winter resting and working out, and Braves fans were confident that he was ready to be a key piece of the rotation. Some regression was to be expected, as his sabermetric numbers suggested he had been a bit lucky last season when he posted a 2.96 ERA.

Still no one expected Jurrjens to be this bad. Through four starts he was 0-2 with a 9.37 ERA. He had trouble pitching five innings per start and saw his fastball velocity drop. It wasn't that Jurrjens was just getting hit hard, he just didn't look right out there on the mound and had lost his confidence.

Jurrjens could still return to help the Braves in 2012, but it just appears that he has a lot to work on for that to become a possibility. The Braves have many options for their rotation, which will only make it tougher for Jurrjens to get back to Atlanta as a Julio Teheran or Kris Medlen could pass him.