May 17, 2010Derek Lowe and Jair Jurrjens finally looked human... plus the bullpen looks atrocious... plus the injuries continue to pile up... plus the hitting cooled off a good bit... it all adds up to a nine game losing skid for the Atlanta Braves.
The Braves were outscored 71 to 28 over the nine game span against St. Louis, Cincinnati, Arizona, and Los Angeles. The three straight sweeps over the last week cost the Braves 5 games in the standings, dropping them into third place with a 16-16 record.
It's easy to see there is lack of performance from the relief corps- they rank dead last in ERA (6.65) among the pens in the National League. Outside of Joe Nathan no one is having a good start to the season. General manager Jobo Foster has indicated he's considering bringing back Danny Herrera who is doing very good down in AAA Gwinnett (2.31 ERA, 0.94 WHIP). Some in the Braves front office are urging patience, saying that the arms in the pen are talented enough to come around. They going to need to do that and soon or some of those veterans (Linebrink and Moehler, in particular) may find themselves released, as their seems to be little market for them.
Also starting pitching is a concern as Tim Hudson (2-4, 8.46 ERA) and Tommy Hanson (1-1, 6.13 ERA) are not giving what the Braves need out of their fourth and fifth slots. If they cannot turn it around soon, Gwinnett hurlers Aaron Poreda (1-0, 1.88), Charlie Morton (3-0, 3.23) or Jorge Campillo (0-3, 2.95) are all clamoring for attention from the big club.
The injury bug bit yet another outfielder, namely Gorkys Hernandez who had replaced the injured Jordan Schafer in centerfield. Hernandez (0 HR, 2 RBI and .231 BA) strained a hamstring which will cost him at least a month on the disabled list. The Braves will be bringing up Jonathan Van Every (8 HR, 14 RBI, .314 BA, .443 OBP, .709 SLG in AA) to play center until Schafer can return.
42 year old Matt Stairs is just not producing as a left-handed pinch hitting. In 13 plate appearances he has one walk, no hits and nine strikeouts. Could the Braves be thinking of promoting 21 year old Cody Johnson (10 HR, 24 RBI, .269 BA, .349 OBP, .546 SLG) to fill that LH pinch hitter role?
Certainly Atlanta is a better ball club than the last week has shown. How they bounce back from this disastrous week may be an indicator of how good they could be. But will it be good enough to run with the horses in Florida and New York? The Marlins and the Mets continue to play above .600 winning percentage and sit first and second in th NL East.
No comments:
Post a Comment