Braves Roster Moves Saturday
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves call up relief pitcher David Carpenter. Photo Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
This morning the Braves put infielder Blake DeWitt on the 15 day DL with back pain and called up RHP David Carpenter from Gwinnett to take his roster spot. Dewitt saw little action since being called up when Freddie Freeman went on the disabled list. Freeman went 0-3 in his rehab start yesterday and is eligible to return on Monday. Baseball Prospectus (membership required) gave this evaluation of him last year.
"Carpenter is a converted catcher who looks like a major-league relief pitcher. He tops 95 mph on occasion and keeps things simple with a tried-and-true fastball-slider combination. He will have to reduce his OBP allowed from .372 to keep getting chances, but his minor-league WHIPs have been good, and considering Carpenter hadn’t pitched in a full-season league until 2009, there’s much more room for growth than most relievers his age."
Originally drafted by the Cardinals in the 12th round of the 2006 rule 4 draft. He was traded to Houston in 2010 for Pedro Feliz. In two years with Houston he appeared in 64 games throwing 67 1/3 innings and compiling a 4.55 ERA and a 1.709 WHIP. He was traded by the Astros along with J.A. Happ and Brandon Lyon to the Toronto Blue Jays for Francisco Cordero, Ben Francisco and an assortment of minor leaguer players. He threw 2 2/3 inning in three games for Toronto last year with an uninspiring 30.38 ERA and a 3.750 WHIP. His minor league numbers are more encouraging.
In three AAA seasons (46 games, 56 2/3 innings) he has a respectable 2.38 ERA, 1.182 WHIP and 13 saves. He has a very nice 8.7 K/9 ratio and a 3.44 K/BB ratio to go with it. While he has a two seam fastball he uses it sparingly as the chart from Texas Leaguers shows he relies on the slider and four seamer. The movement from shown explains a why he manages a 46.1% GB rate and 0.5/9 homerun ratio.
| Type | Count | Selection | Velocity | Vert. | Horiz. | Strike | Swing | Whiff | Foul | In Play |
| FF | 384 | 63.1% | 94.3 | 8.69 | -5.68 | 69.0% | 53.4% | 10.7% | 22.4% | 20.3% |
| SL | 206 | 33.8% | 85.1 | 2.03 | 4.6 | 63.1% | 45.1% | 15.0% | 16.0% | 14.1% |
| CH | 17 | 2.8% | 83.3 | 0.01 | -0.18 | 41.2% | 29.4% | 5.9% | 0.0% | 23.5% |
| FT | 2 | 0.3% | 90.8 | 7.62 | -7.28 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
With Luis Avilan questionable and no long man in the pen since Cristhian Martinez went on the DL, Carpenter adds another big arm to the Braves roster.