Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: who can be trusted of late when it’s late?

Yesterday afternoon ranks as one of the worst losses of the season and begs the question:  who in the bullpen is capable of getting hitters out?

Forget the playoffs for a while – the Atlanta Braves truly were taken to the woodshed by the Red Sox in this series… and that’s been an unfortunate pattern lately.

Honestly, the starting pitching has mostly held up its end of the bargain.  The hitters have been about the same as usual – excepting (lately) when run-scoring opportunities are readily available.

But the bullpen… that has not been what we’d like to see.

In the past 2 weeks (small sample sizes alert – but that’s always going to be the case for relief pitchers), the bullpen is official throwing to a 3.12 ERA.  You might be surprised at that (I was).

When reducing that span to the last 7 days, the number jumps to 4.56.  That’s less surprising.

Let’s look at a few individual performances:

DAN WINKLER

Dan Winkler was at the epicenter of Wednesday’s earthquake, facing 4 batters, yielding 4 hits and 4 earned runs.  This was clearly an aberration.

How long had it been since he had given up 4 hits?  In a single 2018 outing?  Never.  In fact, before yesterday, you have to go back 10 appearances before finding 4 total hits allowed.

That gets us back to August 11th.  The last time he was charged with a run was on July 31st (15 appearances prior).  The last time he’d given up more than 1 run was on July 5th.

Dan has had a handful of bad outings (2 runs or more allowed).  But this was unusual.

JONNY VENTERS

Jonny Venters was charged with 1 earned run yesterday, though it was a situation in which he allowed 2 of Winkler’s runners to score and then Brad Brach allowed 2 of his (with an error involved) to score.

But in scanning Venters’ logs, this was still only the second time he had allowed a run since becoming a member of the Atlanta Braves… dating back to July 27th.  For him, you have to go back to June 6 to find anything resembling a truly bad outing.

So this was also a painful sequence that doesn’t normally happen.

A.J. MINTER

I have some more concerns about A.J. Minter.  In his last 13 appearances, he has only had 3 ‘clean’ innings (no hits, no walks, 3 batters faced).  Those came against the Mets, Marlins, and Pirates.

Wednesday was unusual as he was called upon in the 8th inning… well, really it was out of some desperation at that point.  But even here, he walked the first batter he faced.

Minter had been lights-out in the minors, but his rise to the closer role may have come too quickly (and that’s why Arodys Vizcaino had been serving in that role up until his injury).

On top of that, he’s up to 54 innings now – easily the most he’s thrown as a pro… plus they aren’t easy innings:

• 2018 pitches:  929
• 2017 pitches: 653
• 2016 pitches: 580

Yesterday got him to 36 pitches.  That could wreck him – and the bullpen – for multiple games as the Diamondbacks are looming.  Wednesday is going to be a difficult pill to swallow for multiple days to come.

Now finally… the pitcher everybody seems to love to despise:

SAM FREEMAN

This tweet is an example… yet not nearly the only one that expresses such sentiment whenever Sam Freeman makes an appearance:

Well, since returning (August 20th) after nearly a month of being shut down, here’s Freeman’s cumulative line:

More from Tomahawk Take

• Atlanta Braves 2012 Top Prospects Review: Zeke Spruill
• Braves News: Atlanta extends Sean Murphy, pitcher reunions, more
• Atlanta Braves: Six Braves prospects that could debut in 2023
• Braves News: Braves sign Sean Murphy to six year, $73 million deal
• Braves News: Braves re-sign Stephens, Will Atlanta extend Max Fried?, more

6 appearances

5.1 innings

4 hits

1 walk

6 strikeouts

Yes – he’s one of the few to have zero runs allowed.  So there.

Look – the bullpen is going to be continual problem for the rest of the year… and “rest” (the other major definition of the term) is going to be a key part of how pitchers are utilized down the stretch.

That will especially be true for the Arizona series since it took a lot more arms than expected to get through the game Wednesday – regardless of the actual result.

But you can expect a bit more of Sam Freeman in that series… because he’s throwing very well right now.