Atlanta Braves Spring Chop: News and notes from Hump Day

In what is probably not the biggest news of the day… Tim Tebow went 0 for 2. But there were some other things going on that might be of more interest to Braves’ fans.

The Atlanta Braves‘ bullpen is probably shaping up more quickly than even the Braves might like to see. That’s simply because some candidates have been digging themselves some holes that it might be hard to find their way out of.

Consider this: the Braves have yielded 6, 3, 1, 9, 6, and 6 runs thus far… 31 total.

These are the pitchers that have yielded all of them:

Miguel Socolovich – 6 runs
Luke Jackson – 5 runs (4 earned)
Jason Hursh – 5 runs
Shane Carle – 3 runs
Josh Ravin – 3 runs
Lucas Sims – 2 runs
Max Fried – 2 runs
Chase Whitley – 2 runs
Rex Brothers – 1 run
Sean Newcomb – 1 run
Mike Soroka – 1 run

So let’s break that down a bit…

Just three pitchers have been responsible for over half the runs allowed so far: 16 of them. Five pitchers have yielded 22 of the 31.
Starting pitchers – or those most closely associated with the initial rotation slots – have given up exactly 1 run thus far.
The leading bullpen candidates? Just 2 runs allowed (that’s counting Whitley).

What’s worse for most of those those top five guys (not counting Carle) is that their outings involved innings at the ends of games – against AA and AAA batters.

Bullpen competition

So after the first week, here’s how I’d handicap the run for (up to) 8 bullpen slots:

Vizcaino
Minter
S. Freeman
Moylan
Winkler
Gomez
Whitley
Ramirez

The next pair of candidates: Scott Kazmir and Jesse Biddle. I still don’t know how the Braves intend to handle Kazmir – if he’s pitching without injury issues, then he could be the ‘long man’ in the bullpen by fiat, which would then bump somebody with options still available… and by my reckoning, the one on that list with options (other than the Rule 5 guys) would be Minter.

There may be some tough calls coming out of this Spring.

Playing Like They Want the Job

More from Tomahawk Take

There’s two players are standing out from the crowd with their offense so far this Spring: Preston Tucker and Danny Santana.

Right now the Braves have exactly four outfielder on the 40-man roster: Inciarte, Markakis, Lane Adams, and Tucker. That would seem to give the inside edge to Tucker for the 4th outfielder slot… particularly if Atlanta doesn’t find their ‘Ben Revere type’ to handle that spot for a month or two.

But at this point, Tucker and Santana are both hitting with a purpose:

Tucker: 4 for 8, .500 (double, 3 walks, 1K)
Santana: 5 for 11, .455 (double, RBI, steal, 1K)

Did I tell you, or what?

Yesterday, we suggested here that there have been people in the ‘industry’ raising the possibility that the Braves and Josh Donaldson might be a fit.

So just one day later, Mark Bowman writes this:

"This will be an important year for [Austin] Riley, who will begin the upcoming season with Double-A Mississippi or Triple-A Gwinnett. He has the potential to become Atlanta’s third baseman at some point during the 2019 season. But there’s also a chance the Braves will pursue Josh Donaldson or jump into the Manny Machado sweepstakes during the offseason."

In case you’re thinking now “but what about Riley?”, the best thing he can do is try and make the decision difficult by making himself the best he can be. That action would guarantee that he gets to play… somewhere.

Next: A horse in a different color

It could be third base for the Braves, left field, or third base for another club. Either way, if he continues to press on as a player, he’ll be just fine.

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