Mike Minor says Rotation or Trade

I’m not sure when you guys will be reading this due to the site maintenance and my own problems of accessing the site but I want to give you my opinion on Mike Minor and his now dubbed “ultimatum” quote.

"“But after a month or two, somebody’s got to go [when Hudson returns],” Minor said. “Overall, it’s not really – it’s about making the team, but if … I can control my third pitch and have a decent fourth pitch, then there’s no reason I shouldn’t pitch in the big leagues somewhere. If they don’t have room for me here, then there’s no reason they shouldn’t trade me or just do something with me.”"

Read the full article here.

My initial reaction was, “Well, he’s right. I mean he has earned a spot in the rotation hasn’t he? Why should it be a problem for him to say it?” I thought it was a good thing that he showed some grit and confidence.

After letting it simmer a bit more, and reading some things other people said about it—specifically Kent Covington of Braves Wire—I realized that there was no point in Minor saying what he did, and it can only hurt him.

The Braves organization has been one of class for a long time now, and they are not going to put up with him saying something like this. It would be one thing if he was Chipper, or McCann but he is essentially a rookie who hasn’t done anything in the majors.

He’s a great pitcher and in my opinion should be given a spot in the rotation but does that give him the right to tell the press that? No, absolutely not. If anything Minor has just added more pressure on himself to perform well and that is the last thing we want for a guy who is supposed to throw a ton of innings for us in 2012.

In baseball, rookies are supposed to keep their head down, work hard, and do what it takes to win games. Quite honestly all players should go through the season like that. Jason Heyward was a great example of this. He was struggling and instead of opening his mouth and complaining about playing time or injuries he worked his tail off.

I doubt we will hear anything else like this from Minor, at least while he is with the Atlanta Braves. Let’s see if he can back up his talk in Spring Training. I surely hope so.