Atlanta Braves and Justin Verlander; Why It Should Happen
By Dan Horton
The Atlanta Braves have made it clear that they will pursue one, maybe two, frontline starters. One of those starters should be Justin Verlander.
The Atlanta Braves new pitching coach could help get a premier starting pitcher.
Ryan brought this possibility to table in one of his last article, noting that the Tigers are in all essence, having a fire sale of sorts. You can read about that here.
There are a few reasons I think Verlander entertains waiving his no trade clause to go to Atlanta.
For starters, Justin Verlander had a very nice comeback last year. Verlander went 16-9 with a 3.04 ERA. He tossed 227.2 innings, struck out 254 batters (that led the AL by the way), and he had a WHIP of only 1.001.
Verlander also had his highest SO/9 since 2009 with 10. Verlander also surrendered the most home runs of his career last season, giving up 30 long balls.
There’s also Chuck Hernandez. Why is he important in any of this? Well, I’ll let my friend explain:
Yes, you read that correctly. Our new pitching coach and Justin Verlander have a history, and it’s pretty darn good one.
If Verlander doesn’t make it to Atlanta, then at the least, fans should be excited to see what Hernandez can do with the staff on hand.
It would be great to have Verlander along to help Hernandez’s messages sink in.
Dreams are wonderful things. I don’t know if the Braves can pry away Verlander from the Tigers, but within this fairytale, there’s always a villain, observe:
Change of scenery or not, a move to the National League should indeed bolster his stats… and moving to the NL East could help even more with teams in ‘transition’ in this division. All other things being equal, an ERA reduction of 0.5 to 0.75 would not be surprising.
Verlander’s pitching would also add approximately 100+ more strikeouts. The Braves leader last season was Julio with 167. Verlander K’d 254. WHIP leader for Atlanta was also Julio with 1.053. Everyone else was at 1.297 or higher.
Yes, even though he did really good for Detroit last year, I think he might like the idea of moving out if the Tigers plan to get younger.
However, for the same reason he may want to leave Detroit, how open would he be to joining a young staff in Atlanta to be the “Old Man” on the staff?
There’s no question Justin Verlander makes the 2017 Atlanta Braves better. Will it happen, who knows at this point? Anything is possible.
However, with the Tigers looking to shed some salary and get younger, my dreams of having a big time pitcher in Atlanta get better.
And honestly, this potential deal includes an Upton I wouldn’t mind seeing in the seats at SunTrust Park.