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le he s also a lefty which would give us a 2nd left hander to compliment mike minor ryan dempster i m staying in the n l central as i zoom in on the ace of the chicago cubs dempster is 35 years old so he certainly brings a veteran presence to the mound he s 0 1 thus far but like bedard has been a victim of poor run support a guy who has posted a 0 95era should have at least one win but that s just my opinion this is another guy with an impressive walk strikeout ratio at 29 9 the cubs have struggled thus far and i don t see them having that big of a turn around over the next few months would they be willing to trade dempster for a couple of prospects brandon mccarthy switching over to the a l now this is another pitcher that i think could help bolster our rotation down the stretch mccarthy will turn 29 in july just a few weeks before the trade deadline so he certainly has a better age angle then the other two pitchers i ve mentioned mccarthy is 2 3 but still holds an impressive era of 2 96 the a s offense isn t exactly explosive so he s isn t the beneficiary of outstanding run support by any means texas appears to be the clear cut favorite to win the a l west and i doubt the a s have enough to compete for one of those 2 wild card spots they have unloaded guys such as trevor cahill and gio gonzalez for prospects to attempt to rebuild so mccarthy might be the next to go let me know of some other names that you guys think could be of interest to frank wren and the braves i d love to hear some feedback by bob mcvinua written by tomahawk87 1 comment posted in atlanta braves mlb rotation tagged with braves pitching april 24 2012 jj heads to aaa generally it s a very unusual sight to see your 2 pitcher in your rotation get optioned down to aaa before the first day in may but that s exactly what happened to jair jurrjens now i say 2 pitcher loosely as we still need to see how hudson does in his return which should hopefully be by the end of this month fredi gonzalez has made mention of april 29th or the 30th against pittsburgh for being hudson s return to the rotation which as a side note is a nice time to bring him back as the pirates are severely struggling to score runs right now might be a good chance for hudson to get settled in and have a nice first start however the issue at hand isn t about tim hudson jair jurrjens has been a big disappointment to many this season he s currently 0 2 with a 9 37era that just isn t going to get it done for any team any where never mind a team that s trying to contend for a division title does all of this surprise me honestly yes and no does the fact that jurrjens is struggling out of the gate surprise me not entirely and it really shouldn t be a complete shock to anyone else either this blog is not about throwing a ton of stats at you however in certain circumstances stats are the best way to prove a point and paint a clear picture that s why stats are so coveted around sports jair jurrjens pitched through the month of aug and that was as far as he went last year before going on the disabled list for the entire month of sept in the month of aug 2011 he pitched to the tune of a 1 3 record with a 6 17era that s really the last memories we have of jurrjens he hasn t pitched into the 7th inning of any game since the braves played the pirates on july 27th 2011 so it s been awhile since we ve gotten quality innings out of jair as well so from that perspective i can t say that i m shocked by the results jurrjens has posted so far this year it s pretty much a continuation of where he left off last year he s certainly lost some velocity he s not hitting his spots maybe he doesn t completely trust that knee of his it could be a lot of different things what does surprise me is that they are optioning him down so soon yes he s gotten hammered and i know fans are all about instant results and don t have any patience for struggling but we do have 4 other quality guys in the rotation that are throwing the ball pretty well hanson beachy and minor right now are the big 3 of atlanta delgado is 4 and jurrjens is 5 if you aren t happy with jurrjens being your 5th best starter then by all means option him down that s what the braves did by doing this they are taking immediate action which is good but they are also forcing a result he who hesitates is lost well the braves certainly didn t hesitate this is now a critical part of jurrjens career he s past the babying stage that some of the other starters are still in you treat a 21 24 year old pitcher much differently then you do a 26 year old however i ve also heard the term braves veteran starter jair jurrjens on numerous high light shows to me this comment isn t fair jurrjens is in no way shape or form a veteran pitcher there aren t many places where a 26 year old starter is considered a veteran but unfortunately for jair atlanta is one of them when you are 26 and the 2nd oldest pitcher on your staff that puts a little extra pressure on you the pressure to excel your development jurrjens could go somewhere and be the youngest pitcher on a veteran staff that would create a completely different out look on the situation bottom line is the braves are a pitching rich organization and with hudson due back in less then a week there was no reason not to pull jurrjens out of the rotation he wasn t giving them the best chance to win he wasn t pitching deep into games he just over all wasn t presenting the braves with a lot of value do i think they pulled the plug a little too soon yes i do i think they should have waited for hudson to get back to the majors see if his true veteran presence could have affected jurrjens in a positive way and also to see how affective he will be the other guys in the rotation are throwing the ball well like i said so i don t think it would have hurt to give jurrjens a couple of more starts no we don t want a repeat of derek lowe but it s still april another aspect of the transaction that surprised me was how adamant fredi gonzalez was about keeping jurrjens in the rotation he had said on a few occasions that it wouldn t be jurrjens who would be lifted from the rotation when hudson came back it was almost certainly going to be delgado if the move down to aaa doesn t help jurrjens then the braves will most likely have to cut ties with the young right hander he will have little to no trade value at this point and they certainly don t have any interest in having him pitch through his struggles in the majors by bob mcvinua written by tomahawk87 leave a comment posted in atlanta braves gwinnett braves rotation tagged with braves jair jurrjens pitching rotation november 14 2011 pitching rich or digging for gold the atlanta braves are an organization that prides themselves in their great pitching how does the saying go pitching wins championships right well not always the rotations that consisted of john smoltz greg maddux and tom glavine only produced one world series championship granted the the teams of that era were always very competitive as they would win 14 straight division titles while making several trips to the fall classic itself pitching to this day is still the staple of the braves organization frank wren prides himself on his young arms that consist of minor beachy teheran and delgado all of those guys have great potential the key word that i m going to stress here is potential i m in no way bashing any of the young arms we have in our system there s a chance that we could have a future ace in there however there s very slim chance that we are going to hit a home run on all 4 of these guys it s just not likely to happen so in a more realistic sense we re looking at maybe 2 of the 4 being in the rotation for the long term the issue that a lot of these guys have is that they are strikeout pitchers which i know fans and scouts both love however it puts a huge burden on your pitch count and that s why these guys have struggled to get past the 5th inning thus straining our beloved bullpen the rotation that appears to be set for many years to come does have a few wrinkles in it i m not in any way trying to push a panic button but it s just something that as a blogger i have to point out now in a few years i could be proven completely wrong but i m not as sold on the braves rotation as i once was here s why to win a division title it s going to take a 5 man rotation to get the job done granted there are various degrees of pitching levels as a 1 starter should be a lot more talented then your 5 starter however it will take a complete rotation to get it done as you will need consistency from 1 5 lets dig a little bit deeper into the braves rotation tim hudson right now he s the ace i won t listen to anyone who tells me otherwise if there s a must win game tomorrow i m giving hudson the ball and until someone else steps up he s are guy however he s currently 36 years old and will turn 37 before the all star break of next season how much longer can we really rely on him look at derek lowe when you get past 35 your potential to just lose it happens it s a natural occurrence in the game of baseball age will catch up with you eventually how many more years of tim hudson do we have left is the question 1 or 2 more after this year tommy hanson hanson has a lot of talent yet he still struggles to dominate he has a horrible time controlling base runners and every team in the national league is well aware of this he s coming off a serious shoulder issue that s not a guaranteed safe return for mr hanson another thing is that his throwing motion is begging for further injuries down the road if he can t stay healthy then the braves might have to let him go sometime in the next 2 or 3 years it s a proven fact that teams will not wait around forever and if hanson can t get it together then he will be gone jair jurrjens after you complete this post you might think twice about trading jj because i certainly have jurrjens has the ability to be dominant but again like hanson he s battling injuries health is what counts in sports i don t care how good you are if you can t stay healthy to be honest i think jurrjens has shown more dominance in his time with the club then hanson has if i m taking one or the other on the spot it s jurrjens without question but frank wren has him on the trade block and he s bound to get plenty of activity as he s only 25 years old there s a very good chance that he could be gone in the next few weeks derek lowe lowe was absolutely terrible last year and i m glad that he was traded however he did occupy a full time rotation spot last year and his spot is now currently empty it needs to be filled by someone immediately not to mention he was looked at as the non official 2 guy at the start of the season and some might have argued him to be the ace as he did pitch opening day this takes away from our depth as someone will need to fill that void right now as we look at the above mentioned 4 pitchers you have to be thinking the same thing that i am none of them are a guaranteed part of the braves future rotation not in the long term i should say in a couple of seasons hudson will be retired lowe is already gone jurrjens might be traded in the next couple of weeks if not days and hanson has shoulder issues to contend with minor beachy teheran and delgado a ton of talent in these 4 guys however they are not the first pitching prospects in the world to have talent and not all of them amounted to as much as teams hoped they would again all of these guys could end up being absolute studs that possibility exits however it s not likely lets be realistic and say over the next 2 years maybe 3 that we get 2 quality pitchers out of this group they may be the only ones left out of this once deep crop of great pitching if hanson doesn t come back healthy and jurrjens is traded you are looking at putting beachy or minor in the 2 spot in the rotation that s the same issue we had in sept when things fell apart i like beachy and minor to be worked in at 3 4 at the highest middle of the rotation guys right now not ace material it s to no fault of their own because they lack experience but why throw them to the wolves frank wren needs to look into a guy like cj wilson trade prado to the tigers for delmon young as it has already been discussed that gives us our power bat in left field use the remaining money to bring in wilson he s 31 years old and wants a 5 6 year contract that does several things for atlanta win now we are developing young talent in this organization which is great but we want to win now we re more then capable of being 90 win team right now the fan base doesn t want to see us finish in 2nd place for the next 2 or 3 years it just wont be acceptable by saying we can develop players and not win now puts us on the same level of the kansas city royals you groom players that may or may not pan out and then before you know it you can be rebuilding for 10 years this is not a rebuilding team lets do the best we can to win now while developing the young guys it s a perfect balance ease the young guys in if you have hudson and cj wilson in the rotation then you are looking at putting beachy in the 3 spot or possibly the 4 spot minor would be 4 or 5 that s perfect they can get an entire season worth of work in without putting so much pressure on them to be the guy by bob mcvinua written by tomahawk87 leave a comment posted in atlanta braves n l east pitching rotation tagged with braves off season pitching rotation september 5 2011 why 2011 could end differently 2010 was a great year for our atlanta braves we had been absent from the playoffs since 2005 and just making the postseason was a great feeling the expectations this year are very different for this team at least they are in my opinion last year making the playoffs was a victory in itself and we were happy to be back in the mix of competitive ball clubs this year i m looking for a world series to come to atlanta is this a far fetched dream or is it a very possible reality lets take a closer look and see how this years team compared to last years playoff squad i think by the time you get to the end of the article you ll see that we do have some distinct advantages that were missing last season 1 derek lee played 1st base during last years playoffs yes derek lee has a great glove over at 1st base and made a great scoop play to save us game 2 in san fran although he had some good moments with the glove lee was basically shut down at the plate derek lee had just 2 hits in 16 at bats against the giants giving him a horrible batting average of 125 he struck out 6 times and didn t drive in a single run i d be willing to take bets that freddie freeman can hit over 125 and manage to drive in more then 0 runs at the plate derek lee was brought in to bring some pop to the offense but it really didn t turn out the way frank wren had hoped it would freeman gives us a much better chance to win his...