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moving parts to his swing it s ridiculous and that s why he s late on every fastball that he attempts to hit he needs to simplify that swing in the worse way and get rid of that added loading process that he s developed like a bad computer he also needs to forget about the contract money doesn t play on the field for the players and that s why guys making the league minimum can get off to hot starts and 75 million dollar players can strikeout every time up and just like pujols struggled last year going to the american league there s a chance that b j is batting the unfamiliarity of new pitchers who have figured him out before he s had the privilege of doing the same to them 2 starter stamina this may seem like an odd thing to be 2 on this list but it s concerning to me we need our starters to give us quality innings and i m not saying that we don t or haven t gotten these innings from our starters but we need more of it we haven t gotten a complete game out of one of our starters in quite a while and even 8 inning appearances are rare you look around at other staffs in the league that go deeper into games and it really saves a lot of wear and tear on that bullpen and as we ve just witnessed bullpen over load will catch up with you and you can verify that with jonny venters and eric o flaherty 3 where are the blow outs staying on the trend of bullpen burnout where are the blow out wins for the braves when you are playing 1 or 2 run games every single night your manager is going to feel obligated to throw his best arms in order to close the game out it s that simple 2 years ago when we played a major league most 1 run games we taxed a ton of innings on the arms of our relievers which has come back to haunt us this team needs to find the occasional 7 1 win for the sake of our bullpen health 4 jason heyward bouncing around from bullpen issues back to outfield issues b j needs to be fixed at the major league level he s 28 years old and he s making a ton of money on his 75 million dollar deal the minor leagues are not an option for him so he s going to need to correct his issues at the big league level and hope he can make enough adjustments however jason heyward could be a candidate to get sent down to aaa for a little while we do have jordan schafer who is more then capable of playing rf and joining the upton brothers in the starting line up this would also give us a true lead off man at the top of the order and that s something we ve been missing all year bring heyward down to aaa for 2 weeks could make all the difference he could go down and relax focus on hitting the ball i m not sure how receptive he would be to the idea but his age and salary make him a candidate for that type of move what if a few weeks in the minor leagues brought back a completely different jason heyward and some may argue well what if it doesn t hey at least we would have tried something 5 jordan walden tonight walden looked really good as he hit between 95 and 97 on the radar gun consistently sometimes players just need a little time off to rest up and start fresh it seems that maybe his d l stint was a blessing in disguise and if he can continue to be affective then this would help to recreate our late inning 1 2 punch as kimbrel would have someone to set him up the other thing to note is walden does have closer experience with the angels so these late inning situations are nothing new to him at all the pressure will likely be far less of an issue then it appeared to be with varvaro and gearrin which would also allow for them to go back to their normal roles out of the bullpen in which they have been stellar at 6 brandon beachy the talk from what i ve heard is that they re hopeful that brandon beachy will be back to pitch 1 of the double header games against the mets on june 18th if i m not mistaken so we re still about 3 weeks away from that date but the topic has brought up a lot of interesting questions the main one being who will be removed from the rotation when beachy is inserted or is putting beachy back in the rotation the best move for the team kris medlen showed last year that working out of the bullpen can be a great predecessor to the starting rotation medlen was brilliant out of the bullpen last year and gave us an opportunity to throw a quality pitcher several times a week and sometimes for multiple innings could beachy ease himself into the starting rotation by fulfilling one of these roles for the braves who have already suffered multiple bullpen injuries now if beachy were to jump immediately into the rotation that would call for someone to exit stage left maholm hudson and minor all seem immune to such a move for various reasons which would leave teheran or medlen out to dry right now it actually seems as if teheran has been a little more affective then medlen has and as a young pitcher and highly touted prospect you d almost hate to break teheran s momentum as a starter by changing his role if medlen was able to do the job once he could almost certainly do it again he would add valuable depth to our bullpen and would be a critical asset to the bridge to kimbrel project i wouldn t look at this as a demotion if this were to happen i d keep an open mind and view it as an opportunity to help the ball club win games as we inch closer to our ultimate goal of winning the world series 7 this weekend now i rarely put too much emphasis on a single regular season series especially when it s before the all star break but there s something very interesting that s about to happen on our schedule and in the standings this weekend the braves still have 1 more game with the jays and the nationals still have one more remaining with the orioles it s not too far fetched to believe that we could beat r a dickey as we have many times over his career especially at turner field and that the nationals could fall victim to a pretty good o s club all in agreement that would put the braves 5 5 games up in the n l east standings before the big showdown this weekend when washington comes to town i will once again throw out a not so impossible scenario that being an atlanta sweep over washington this weekend many would say this is unlikely but if you recall earlier in the year the braves went to d c and beat strasburg and gio on their way to a road sweep of the nationals why couldn t they sweep them once again in their own back yard but anyways you guys get what i m getting at if that were to happen the braves would wake up monday morning with an 8 5 game lead and a strangle hold over the n l east not to say washington still couldn t claw back but that would be quite a whole to over come and would really be a big blow to their already struggling morale as a ball club this is an opportunity for the braves to really deliver a big blow in these 4 consecutive games they play from now until sunday if they make the most of them they could really be sitting in a good spot 8 dan uggla uggla hasn t been the player that we thought he would be when he came over from the marlins which is why i think a lot of fans are so nervous about b j upton they can see glimpses of the same thing going on and many would argue uggla has never fully snapped out of the funk that he began with 2 years ago however this year uggla has already hit 10 home runs and we re a 1 3 of the way through the season a few of them have been timely blasts that changed the outcome or at least the course of a game in the late innings you can never underestimate the power of the long ball as instant offense and thus far dan has given the braves just that on pace to hit nearly 30 homers even 25 would be a very solid power year for uggla and the braves could surely use the production 9 fredi gonzalez eventually the manager has to face the music and take accountability for the results of their players right now the braves are in a good spot sitting 10 games over 500 and holding a 4 5 game lead in the national league east however is making the playoffs enough what measures is frank wren currently holding fredi gonzalez to if fredi were to make the playoffs as a wild card and once again lose in the one game playoff is that enough to satisfy the boss at what point does wren say we want to win the world series and you ve failed to deliver us that result with a team that s more then capable of competing at a high level i still believe that bob melvin out in oakland has gotten far more out of his players then fredi has out of ours last year they won a division and 94 ball games they took the tigers to 5 games and had a shot to pull of the upset they hosted a playoff series at home and yes the braves also won 94 ball games but fredi did it with a lot more talent and a larger pay roll the braves haven t won a playoff series since 2001 and eventually the standards of just getting in will be thrown out the window and replaced with higher expectations i know the braves management likes fredi a lot but they have also already put up with a lot in forgiving him for the epic late season collapse of 2011 10 will an ace emerge i think the 10th and final thing to watch for the braves is whether or not an ace will emerge from this staff at the start of the season some argued it would be the veteran tim hudson while others were convinced it was kris medlen neither one has been overly dominating and although medlen could have a better record if given more run support he still hasn t been nearly as sharp as he was last year and is actually in danger of being removed from the rotation all together i think right now the staff ace appears to be mike minor he s the guy i personally feel most comfortable giving the ball to every 5th day and possibly close to that is julio teheran who has emerged quite nicely in his last few outings hudson and maholm have been shaky despite maholm s very fast start down the stretch every rotation needs that one guy who can stop a losing streak and who can lead their rotation into the playoffs the guy who will get the ball in game 1 hands down the guy you want on the mound with your season on the line someone needs to grab that role going forward i hope that player emerges over the summer months by bob mcvinua written by tomahawk87 leave a comment posted in atlanta braves baseball heyward mlb n l east pitching tagged with atlanta braves baseball bj upton braves fredi gonzalez jason heyward pitching rotation may 21 2013 bullpen burnout i don t want this article to become one that is filled with stats and numbers i don t want to go into the details of the past season this season or any other season all this is about is discussing an often misunderstood entity of the game of baseball the major league bullpens the topic of bullpens rarely turns into a heated debate even by baseball s biggest fans people are far more focused on the starting rotation and the position players that play every single day it s rare for there to be a block buster bullpen signing or trade that really gets the juices of baseball fans going and the names in each bullpen are barely recognizable to most baseball fans however we can t over look this important element of the game and what really goes on in the process of making decisions regarding this entity of the game bad bullpens hurt your chances of being a successful ball club just ask the new york mets who for several seasons now have had enormous issues at the back end of their bullpen there s nothing more heart breaking for a team and nothing that zaps morale faster then the bullpen blowing a late game lead a lot of talk has been made of the atlanta braves bullpen the past several seasons johnny venters eric o flaherty and craig kimbrel made up arguably the best back end of any bullpen in the major leagues they put up numbers of historical proportions and struck fear in the hearts of opposing teams that trailed the braves in the late innings but suddenly fear anger and even circumstantial doubt has clouded fan bases and management a like after the braves realized that not one but both of their elite left handed relievers were going to be lost for the season and possibly beyond due to the need for tommy john surgery people immediately began to say that fredi gonzalez miss handled his bullpen and simply over worked them and to that statement i have absolutely no argument because i think that played an enormous factor in what happened to the two star relievers bad mechanics and being over worked to me are two of the biggest factors in the requirement for tommy john surgery and the latter was certainly an issue in atlanta the past couple of seasons however we have to remember one thing outside of elite closers bullpen guys are not forever nor do bullpens stick together in the long term typically that just doesn t happen if you even look back to the 2011 season the braves bullpen in less then a season and a half as seen 3 of it s 7 core members from that year leave the team almost half the bullpen is gone from that year and we aren t even 2 full seasons removed christian martinez is on the d l and now venters and o flaherty will join him now if those 3 guys do not return to the braves bullpen this year then you now have one remaining member of the 2011 braves bullpen on your present day roster and that s of course craig kimbrel bullpens are filled with journeymen relief pitchers who are often on 1 2 year contracts again outside of elite closers none of these guys are on long term deals why because quite often they are replaceable you can mix and match sign and trade guys around to create a bullpen that is affective did fredi damage two of our best relief pitchers no doubt about it he went to the well far too many times and now that well has gone dry he needs to dip into another well that is now currently being created by management both in the clubhouse and in frank wren s office will these loses hurt the braves without question you can t lose two elite pitchers out of your bullpen and feel no affect but at the same time you can t assume that the braves won t find other pieces to plug in there to fill the void that was left by the injuries the braves can look to sing free agents that may be poking around looking for work they can make a trade by giving away a mid level prospect for some relief help they can do an inventory so to speak on their minor league system and see who may be able to fill one of these roles at the big league level as long as craig kimbrel stands strong at the back end of that bullpen then there will be a constant calming affect with all the rest of the staff confidence will continue to fester and grow within that bullpen as we welcome new guys into bigger and better roles this is an opportunity for new guys to make names for themselves and for new guys to step and replace those who have fallen at the end of the day isn t that what sports is all about by bob mcvinua written by tomahawk87 leave a comment posted in uncategorized april 21 2013 do the braves...
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