Atlanta Braves Afternoon Chop: Could there be one more Bart start?

The mood around most discussions about Bartolo Colon resembles that of a wake – a lot of ‘past tense’ statements. But the Braves could be forced into one more turn with him in the rotation.

The Atlanta Braves have a delicate problem on their hands… and no, it’s really not about Bartolo Colon‘s bobblehead night coming up on Friday.

No, it’s about the schedule and it’s about pitching provisioning.

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

Last night: Bart vs. the Phillies. I don’t want to talk about it.
TUES: Jaime Garcia vs. the Phillies
WED: Mike Foltynewicz vs. the Phillies.
THUR: R.A. Dickey vs. the Phillies.
FRI: Julio Teheran vs. the Mets.
SAT: Day/Night DOUBLEHEADER vs. the Mets.
SUN: Day game vs. the Mets

Summary: no days off this week and 3 games within 27 hours; 4 games over 45 hours. Ouch.

Double Duty

Yes: baseball’s rules do provide for a 26th man to be added to the roster for double-header days, and that will undoubtedly be a pitcher. But Saturday is also Colon’s turn in the rotation.

If the Braves wanted to begin life without Colon, then here is two scenarios on how that could play out:

Plan A: Recall Matt Wisler: he pitches Game 1 Saturday. Purchase Kris Medlen‘s contract from AA – he gets Game 2 and sticks around to take Colon’s spot for the foreseeable future.
Plan B: Bring up either Wisler or Medlen and do the second game as a ‘pitching by committee’ game – 3-4 relievers are used to get through it.

But Plan A is marginal and Plan B is a bad plan. The way Julio Teheran has been throwing meatballs at SunTrust Park, you’d have to at least provisionally keep fresh arms available for Friday night… and that’s just prior to the weekend marathon.

And now let’s also throw in the possibility of an extra innings game or two between now and then. Or a blow-out like last night (5.1 bullpen innings). There’s a lot of ways that the Braves’ bullpen can be completely wiped out this week.

So with all that consider this: can you truly count on Matt Wisler or Kris Medlen to go deep into their first major league starts of the year?

Heck, Meds only has (almost) 23 innings total in 4 minor league starts… but I mention him solely because he’s at least got a body of prior work that includes substantial major league experience.

Others?

Sure: Lucas Sims, Sean Newcomb, Mike Soroka (who pitched brilliantly last night and would be good for Saturday)… all of these guys could be called upon for the weekend, but would that be wise?

SIMS – Started great for Gwinnett, but has run into a bit of a knot in May+. 18 earned runs allowed in his last 4 starts (19.1 innings) with walks (and hits) suddenly cropping up again after it seemed he’d turned a corner until after May 14. Advantage? he is at least already on the 40-man roster*.

NEWCOMB – Would be scheduled to pitch again on Wednesday, so he’s out of the cycle a bit. Would expect that once called up, the Braves would prefer to keep him in the majors for several starts… and he might not quite be there.

Walks are still an issue, but he’s also getting a lot of K’s and his ERA is 2.97. Disadvantage: not yet on the 40-man roster. But if there’s a new call-up, he’s probably the odds-on favorite.

SOROKA – Same situation developmentally as with Sims/Newcomb… don’t really want to yank the kid around going up and down. That said, he’s been close to brilliant. Went 8 innings last night – 9K, 0BB, 3 hits.

* – Note: the size of the 40-man isn’t really a hindrance right now – particularly if Colon were to be released. But once a name is added, future flexibility is reduced.

The Easiest Solution…

More from Tomahawk Take

Colon pitched at his best early in the season… and one of those ‘great’ starts came against – yes, the Mets. At least psychologically speaking, one more turn against his old team could actually work. At least for 5 innings.

Okay, yes – it’s pretty much a longshot now since he’s allowed 24 runs in his last 3 starts – but only 17 earned!

Until last night, you could almost create a landscape in which Colon wasn’t that bad, but was simply the victim of the lone bad inning syndrome. Now even that luster is completely off the rose.

So under this Plan C… Colon and Medlen are the Saturday starters, Johann Camargo is optioned to Gwinnett for yet another bullpen arm (Jason Hursh? Mauricio Cabrera?) to give the relievers… some extra relief.

Just in case.

And then next week, we all wish Bartolo Colon a fond farewell.

Next: No Decisions on Colon Yet

Normally we would include last night’s box score in this space, but you don’t really want to see it, do you?

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