Atlanta Braves and Brian Snitker are using left-handed relief pitcher Sam Freeman way too much
By Jeff Schafer
Freeman is getting shelled recently, but it’s not his fault
I’ll start this article off by saying I’m a big fan and supporter of Atlanta Braves left-handed relief pitcher Sam Freeman. He’s a quality arm out of our bullpen, BUT he’s being freakin’ overused by manager Brian Snitker.
Many on social media fault Snitker for his bullpen management. It’s becoming so apparent it’s hard to look away. Now, I get it. I’m sure it’s extremely difficult to manager a ball team, let alone a bullpen. The revolving door of arms that you somehow have to rely on eight (sometimes seven) guys in key situations.
You can tear their confidence down to nothing one night and the next night have to count on that same arm to get tough outs.
It’s a dream position to be a manager of an MLB team, but at the same time I’m not sure I’d want to be in that position. It’s easy for us to sit back on our couch just to scream and type our thoughts or things we’d do differently. So this is my outlet to vent a bit.
Freeman is a very capable of getting big outs in big situations. He proved that last year and early this season. I think he’s just getting worn out already.
Just getting worked in many ways
The 30-year-old has already appeared in 14 out of the 21 games for the Braves. That’s the most of any pitcher on the ball club AND the most of any pitcher in the entire MLB.
If the lefty continues down this path — the math isn’t exact, but close — he’d be making close to 110 appearances.
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Freeman has pitched 9.2 innings, has given up eight runs (six earned runs), off only five hits and 10 walks. The walks is where he’s getting killed out and a tired arm could be a reason for all those walks.
In his last five appearances, he’s walked eight batters and has gotten only seven outs!
That’s an insane stat!
In his first nine appearances, he walked two batters and got 22 outs!
The appearances are stacking up for all Braves relief pitchers though. Carle, Minter, Moylan, Vizcaino and Winkler have all appeared in 10 games. And everyone but Moylan has recorded more “innings pitched”, but we all know that stat doesn’t include the guys you don’t get out.
Yesterday, after the Reds vs Braves game, manager Brian Snitker addressed this situation. He told the media that he acknowledged the Braves need to give Freeman a break.
YES, please let’s give him a few days off and he’ll be back to being sharp! Unless something else is wrong with the lefty.
The most appearances the seven-year veteran has made in a major league season has been 58…which was in 2017 with Snitker at the helm.
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So where do we go from here? The Braves play the Reds three more times before heading to Philadelphia and then New York. My hope is that the Braves don’t get crazy with Freeman and DFA him (don’t think they will) or come up with a strange injury to give him 10 days off.
The ideal situation would be that our starters get deep in these next three games against the Reds so we don’t have to us our bullpen up. If Freeman can get the next three days off, that would be great.