Atlanta Braves Could Give Ryan Weber His Shot

An Odd Path to the Majors Could Continue for Under-appreciated Weber

As the 2015 Summer wore on and the Atlanta Braves continue to fade… okay, “fading” would have been an improvement… the team continued to rotate pitchers through as if there was a shuttle bus idling outside the stadium to cart them back and forth to Gwinnett County.

Primarily, this was seen in the relief pitching corps since it seemed that hardly anyone could get through an inning unscathed by walks or runs.  At the same time, though 10 different starters were used, too, as even the veterans – Eric Stults and Trevor Cahill – couldn’t seem to get anything done.

There was one September call-up who did make an impression.  If he repeats that this Spring, then the planets could be aligned to allow him to make the rotation… and then finally get a chance to show what he can do.

A Re-introduction

Ryan Weber is my dark horse candidate to be that fifth rotation member come April, behind Julio Teheran, Bud Norris, Matt Wisler, and Williams Perez.  He got his shot in September, and despite 2 hiccups in 5 outings, showed that the challenge wasn’t above his pay grade.

Weber is a Florida native, born in the shadow of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.  He’s 25½ now, and has worked his way through the farm system at an accelerating pace since being drafted by the Braves in 2009’s 22nd round.

When pitchers come into the system, they are not given a lot of innings per outing, but it’s often a ‘game by committee’, with multiple pitchers scheduled to throw during each minor league contest.  Thus Weber, not really being groomed as a starter, was effectively lumped in with the ‘rest of the bullpen’, getting an occasional start, but just as often not.

Somewhere along the way, somebody noticed that he wasn’t walking a lot of hitters.  In fact, his extrapolated walk rate was almost always under 2 per nine innings.  In 2012, Weber began to get more starting assignments – 11 in Low-A ball, 5 more in High-A.  In 2013, that rose to 15 in 22 outings.

In 2014 and 2015, though, Weber started to run into pitchers with perhaps more promise in the organization… and they were getting the starts.  Nonetheless, he kept throwing and in 2015 had his ERA under 3.00 through 100 innings at AA and AAA… while still keeping runners off the bases.

That got him his shot for a September call-up… despite only 9 starts to that point.

Next: Off to a Good Start... and More Starts