Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Inflation and the Pitching Market
One pitch from perfection: Teheran dominant while offense responds against strong Met pitching… but is Teheran too good to trade now?
Now there’s a bit of irony for you: is Julio Teheran is pitching so well now that maybe he’s pricing himself too high for the market?
On Sunday afternoon in Queens, Teheran gave up one lone hit – literally one pitch from perfection – against a rival that came into the weekend hoping for 3 routine wins. Instead, the Mets are suddenly slumping: they’ve dropped in behind the Marlins for 3rd place in the NL East and lost 6 of their last 10.
So now what about this pitching trade thing?
Let’s talk about that on the next page, for there’s a lot to say there – and it’s pretty much what you might expect: that the price was high for elite pitching… and yesterday’s performance didn’t make that go down, either.
But before that, let’s take a quick look right now at the leading starter’s ERA chart:
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- Clayton Kershaw: 1.58
- Jake Arrieta: 1.74
- Madison Bumgarner: 1.91
- Noah Syndergaard (who didn’t have to face the Braves this weekend): 1.93
- Jon Lester: 2.06
- Johnny Cueto: 2.10
- Steven Wright: 2.22
- Danny Salazar: 2.23
- Jason Hammel: 2.26
- Jose Fernandez: 2.57
- Marco Estrada: 2.58
- Jose Quintana: 2.63
- Kenta Maeda: 2.64
- John Lackey: 2.66
- Julio Teheran: 2.66
How many of these might be available via trade? Probably none of them other than Teheran.
Quintana might be the closest to ‘available’, and has similar contractual control to Teheran, but the White Sox aren’t close to giving up yet at all. After the Shelby Miller deal ruined the trade market last December, the Marlins dangled Jose Fernandez, but everybody balked at their ransom price. Now, with the Marlins in second place (along with the second wild card position!), he’s going nowhere at any price.
Here’s a very happy Sunday box score:
Next: The Price of Admission