What Roy Oswalt To The Phillies Could Mean For The Braves

Pending his approval, Roy Oswalt will be making 12 plus starts for the Phillies over the course of the next two months. As Dave Cameron of Fangraphs.com points out, this trade is an admission of guilt by GM Ruben Amaro for inexplicably trading Cliff Lee last off-season. The Lee trade left the team with a top heavy rotation that was hurt even further when it lost J.A. Happ to the disabled list after only two starts.

Following the Happ injury in April, the Phillies rotation looked like this: 1) Roy Halladay 2) Cole Hamels 3-5) Kyle Kendrick, Jamie Moyer, Joe Blanton. To translate this into Braves lingo, they had a Maddux, a Glavine and then three Kenshin Kawakamis. Another comparable would be the Braves’ 2007 rotation which consisted of Hudson, Smoltz and then three or four Kenshin Kawakamis. That season there was an incredible amount of pressure on the games Huddy and Smoltz started, because losing them meant there could easily be a four or five game losing streak. Both of them stayed healthy all season and pitched very well, but the team could only win 84 games, good for third in the NL East.

The Phillies’ top two of Halladay and Hamels have been in a similar situation all year but have managed to lead the team to an impressive 55-46 record prior to the Oswalt trade. Unfortunately, adding the Astros’ ace to their staff significantly improves the Phillies’ chances at catching the Braves down the stretch. Oswalt, who will essentially be replacing the mediocre Jamie Moyer, has been very good this year, with his 8.37 K/9 ratio being the highest it has been since his rookie season.

The Phillies could potentially switch to a four man rotation at some point before the season is over. Doing so would eliminate yet another horrible starter from their rotation. This combined with the return of Utley and Victorino will make them a very dangerous team. The Braves still have a 3.5 game head start, but their chances at winning the division looked a whole lot better one week ago. At that point the lead was seven games and Oswalt was still in an Astros’ uniform. Six games remain between Atlanta and Philly including the three game set at Turner Field to end the season. As Billy Wagner predicted long ago, these three games just might determine who wins the NL East.

Conrad, and Other Bright Stars on Saturday

Conrad is, as my grandfather used to say, “so clutch that the engine fell out.”  I still don’t quite get it either, but you kind of understand what he’s trying to say.  When a guy comes up in these huge clutch hits and can deliver like that… wow.  It is, in many ways, the signature of this Braves team, as I have said before.  Tonight we had some overall great performers, but Brooks Conrad, who only had one at bat, mind you, took the cake.  His second grand slam of the year (leading the majors in that category… and he’s only had a fraction of all the other players in the league), putting the Braves up 9-5.  What can you say about a guy with that kind of production from the bench?  What can you say about a team with that much production from its bench?  To me, it says that when/if the Braves finally start clicking on all cylinders (as we haven’t this entire year… someone is always doing something sub-par… this last week’s culprits have been Troy Glaus and Billy Wagner), the team is easily the most dominant in terms of overall depth and skill.  Let’s take a look at some of the other great players for tonight…

Jason Heyward:  The guy is simply the rookie of the year.  There’s just no doubt about it.  When he is playing the way that he can, there is absolutely no stopping this kid.  Some people like to point to wunderkinds like Strasburg and say that he should get the RotY, but, let’s face it, no other rookie can do what Heyward can do, and as reliably, when he is healthy.  He can field (summon up his first game after the all-star break), he can run bases (any night when you see him go from first to third on a lazy single, or when he jacks second right from under catcher’s noses), and he‘s dynamite in the batter’s box (this series in particular — he’s reached base 9 out of 10 times).  In Heyward’s last five games, his OBP is a whopping .640, and all of which were multi-hit games.  He’s on fire, and I don’t see him slowing down any time soon.  Frank Wren needs to throw up a huge contract to Heyward ASAP.  Nail him down for ten-plus years.  I don’t ever want to see 22 on another team.

Martin Prado: His leadoff home run was just great.  He easily could have had another 3-hit game if it weren’t for the nice play by the pitcher in the third.  He went through a little slump at the beginning of the second half, but it looks like Prado is back where he should be.  Three hits tonight gets his average back up to .320 (instead of the lowly ghettos of the .310′s, of course), and still 15 hits above anyone else in the NL.  He could conceivably take half a month off and still be in the lead. Think Prado is going to ease off the gas though?  Oh no.  You know why?  Because he’s so clutch that the engine fell out.

Eric Hinske: We can’t talk about clutch without talking about Hinske.  He was the hero of the game for the Braves for all of a third of an inning before Conrad’s bomb.  He only had one hit, but he made it count, driving in runs 4 & 5, and playing a huge role in the Braves victory.

Jesse Chavez & Johnny Venters:  The bullpen shut down the Fins when we needed it badly.  Had it not been for these two guys (Chavez in particular! I never thought I’d say that.) it had the potential for another heartbreaking loss.  It just goes to show you the vast chasm that seperates these two teams.  Although the Braves had a bad night last night, our bullpen got it done, setting people down with relative ease.

And now for those guys that were struggling tonight…

Troy Glaus: The guy can’t buy a hit right now.  One month he puts up prodigious, player-of-the-month type numbers, the next, nothing.  I’m losing faith in our number five man; that’s a position we can’t be in if we’re going to contend for the pennant.  I’m not asking for June numbers, I’m just asking for something to feel good about, because right now, we’re not getting any kind of production from him.

Nate McLouth: I think one more bad game pretty much shuts the gate on Nate.  He’s 1-13 since returning to the line-up, and his batting average is lower than some of our pitchers, and he doesn’t even hit the ball hard.  I don’t know if it’s all in his head or what, but right now, McLouth is looking very much like a bust, but what do you do?  There aren’t a lot of options out there.  DeJesus is hurt.  Ross is batting a puny .146 this month.  Someone like Josh Willingham might be attainable, but at what price?  We don’t want to give the Nationals too much.  There’s questions aplenty that are all swirling around the drainpipe that is Nate McLouth.  In the end, I think you sit McLouth and let Hinske, Diaz, and Cabrera platoon left and center.  It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best we have right now.

I don’t want to end this in all this prognostication, so let me say that I think that we’re coming up against two more teams to round off this road trip that I think we have the ability to play very good and take some more series.  The first games against the Nats and the Reds should be the most interesting games of the series with the old vet, Hanson, taking on Strasburg, a boy that he has already beaten once this year — but this time, it’s on his own turf.  Then we will see two young bucs — Medlen and Cueto — start the Reds series off with a bang.  The next week should be a fun one for Braves fans.

Jonny Venters and Bobby Cox Suspended

Major League Baseball has decided to issue suspensions to Braves reliever Jonny Venters as well as manager Bobby Cox for “throwing at” Prince Fielder in Saturday night’s game against the Brewers.  Venters has been suspended for four games, Cox for one, in addition to an undisclosed fine handed to Venters.

The official statement made by Bob Watson states that Venters is being suspended for “throwing two consecutive pitches at Prince Fielder” and the Cox is being suspended for “the intentional actions of Venters after a warning had been issued to the pitcher following the first intentional pitch thrown at Fielder”.  Both Venters and Cox, as expected, denied that the pitches were intentional.

There has been lots of speculation as to whether or not the beaning was intentional and as to what the provocation may have been, but as far as I’m concerned, let them play baseball.  Everything will work out, everything will be square and let’s move on with the season.  These suspensions seem a bit of a double-standard to me (Glaus was hit in Sunday’s game after a warning had been issued and no ejection was issued) and I would be saying this if it were the other way around as well.  Let them play baseball!  No one got hurt, no one was fighting.  This is just ridiculous.

Cox is expected to serve his one game suspension on Tuesday against the Padres.  It has not yet been decided if Venters will appeal the suspsension.

Billy Wagner Says No To All-Star Invite

With Jason Heyward sitting out the All-Star game, National League manager Charlie Manuel extended an invite to Braves closer Billy Wagner to join the squad.  Despite being appreciative of the offer, Wagner declined, preferring to rest his sore ankle over the break.

Wagner has been nursing a sore ankle since turning it against the Rays on June 17th.  Though only being unavailable for one appearance so far, he sees it best to give it as much rest as possible and not push it during the All-Star Game.

Although Wagner won’t appear in the game, he will still receive the recognition for being selected as an All-Star for the 7th (and likely final with his impending retirement) time.  Hong-Chih Kuo from the Los Angeles Dodgers will fill the spot instead.

I’m glad Wags got the honor of receiving a much-deserved All-Star bid and even more glad that he seems to be thinking playoffs and long-term for the Braves this season.  We’re going to need him to continue being dominant down the stretch this season.

Jurrjens’ Resurgent In Braves’ Win

Jair Jurrjens returned to the Atlanta Braves’ rotation yesterday rested and ready to do battle against the Washington Nationals. In five-plus innings, Jurrjens struck out six and allowed one run (thanks to the relief work of Peter Moylan) and knocked in the go-ahead run as the Braves took the rubber game of the series and won 4-1.

Jurrjens’ admitted to being nervous before the start after two months on the Disabled List because of a hamstring injury, but showed none of it on the mound. His fake bunt and slash RBI single to left field almost took out Ryan Zimmerman on its way to left field.

As our own Kent Covington has pointed out, Jurrjens’ hamstring injury was a blessing in disguise. In Spring Training, Jurrjens battled an inflamed shoulder and elbow. The two months on the bench gave his shoulder and elbow time to recover that simply wasn’t happening before the injury, when his fastballs were routinely in the high 80s. Last night, Jurrjens’ fastball was what Kent calls “resting” in the low 90s – indicating Jurrjens is likely not experiencing the arm issues he was before his DL stint. The other hidden blessing of Jurrjens’ injury was of course the rise of Kris Medlen as the best 5th starter candidate on the team.

If Jurrjens can stay healthy the rest of the season and be as effective as he was last night, his return from the DL will become the equivalent of pulling off a blockbuster trade for another ace. Jurrjens is probably our number two or three pitcher in this rotation, and with his return, our rotation is stronger than it was with Kawakami in Jurrjens’ spot.

All Eyes On Jair Jurrjens… Hudson’s Dominance and Heyward’s Thumb

In his latest “Fried Baseball” audio blog, Kent Covington talks about the return of Jair Jurrjens, Tim Hudson’s dominance, and Jason Heyward’s thumb. Throw in your 2 cents in the comments area below… or leave a message with your questions or comments for a future commentary at 888-669-5368 (ext.701.)

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Heyward To DL; Kawakami To Bullpen

The good news first.  Jason Heyward won’t require surgery on the thumb that has been bothering him since injuring it sliding into third on May 14th.  The bad news? Heyward has been placed on the 15-day disabled list and will have the thumb put in a cast tomorrow for a week.

An MRI this morning revealed a deep bone bruise and a strain at the base of a ligament in the thumb where it attached to the bone.  I’m not considering this to actually be bad news.  Heyward has needed the extended rest for the thumb for quite awhile and hopefully this will get him through down the stretch.  It won’t be until the extended rest of the offseason that the injury fully heals.  Matt Diaz will be activated off of the disabled list to take Heyward’s spot on the roster.

The Braves also indicated that Kenshin Kawakami would be heading to the bullpen when Jair Jurrjens is activated from the disabled list to make his first start since April on Wednesday.

Braves Up Next On The Stephen Strasburg Show

The Washington Nationals come into Atlanta tonight leading the season series over the Braves 2-1 and the most anticipated game of the upcoming series is the kickoff match this evening when rookie pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg takes the mound against Tim Hudson.  Strasburg is 4 starts into his major league career and comes to Atlanta with a 2-1 record (his loss was a 1-0 matchup his last time out).  In those 4 starts he has struck out 41 batters and allowed more than 1 earned run in a game only one time (his first outing he gave up 2 earned) and has an ERA of 1.78.

Tim Hudson’s coming off of one of his worst outings of the season where he gave up 4 earned runs in 7 innings of work to the White Sox.  Hudson is 7-3 on the season and averaging 6 2/3 innings of work per outing and has a 2.54 ERA.  He has struck out 45 and walked 37.

Strasburg isn’t unhittable; the Braves offense will just have to get going.  He’s issued 19 hits in his 4 starts this season (9 of which were in his last outing against the Royals) and has walked 5 (all in the same start).  The key to winning tonight for the Braves is to not get behind the 8-ball by not allowing the Nationals to create an insurmountable early run lead.

Just as a sidebar, and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sick of all the “future Hall of Famer”, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc talk going on every time anyone mentions Strasburg’s name in the news.  He’s pitched 4 games, people!  Yes, he’s good, I’m not denying that at all.  He was 13-1 his last season of college, he was 7-2 in the minors and he’s 2-1 so far this season.  Those numbers speak for themselves, but for someone that has been in the majors for all of 20 days, I think it’s a little early to say he has a Hall of Fame career in progress.

This isn’t just how I feel because we’re going against the Nationals and they are in the Braves division.  I’ve said the same thing about Jason Heyward this season.  Let the kids go out there, play baseball and worry about if they had Hall of Fame careers in another 20 years or so.  That’s what this game’s all about……..well that, and beating the Nationals.  Go Braves!

Kenshin Kawakami’s Last Stand

Kenshin Kawakami has taken his 0-9 record to the mound at Turner Field this afternoon in what I hope is his last start in the Atlanta Braves starting rotation.  With Jair Jurrjens hoping to take the start on Wednesday, someone has to head to the bullpen.  It’s been tossed back and forth around here about whether that should be Kawakami or Kris Medlen, but decision time is finally coming near.

Medlen’s coming off of another strong start last night, pitching 6 2/3 innings on one-run baseball.  This brings his record as a starter to 4-0 and brought his ERA on the season to a 3.15.  In the 9 starts Medlen has made for the Braves this season, 6 of them have been quality starts and the team record is 8-1.

Kawakami, on the other hand, has made 14 starts and also has 6 quality starts on the season.  The team record in those starts is 4-10.  The argument has long been that Kawakami isn’t getting run support from the Braves offense (which is somewhat true as he has received 28 runs of support this season; an average of 2 runs per game), but the big picture is that he’s just not winning games.

All things considered, I hope the game today goes well for Kawakami and that he can get a win or at least a no-decision so that he doesn’t have to leave the rotation at 0-10.  Hopefully the Braves can find value for him in a long relief role in the pen to help the team out down the stretch.  I just don’t feel there’s any choice to be made between Medlen and Kawakami based on performance.  Medlen has earned the job.

Kawakami or Medlen? The Answer May Suprise You

After posting yesterday that it was time for Kenshin Kawakami to leave the starting rotation for the Atlanta Braves, we kicked off the battle between those who say KK should go to the bullpen when Jair Jurrjens returns and those who think Kris Medlen should move back.  Browsing around the web, it seems that there are a number of supporters of each option, although, here on BravesBlast, 73% of poll takers think that KK should lose his starting job as opposed to 22% for Medlen.

In his latest “Fried Baseball” audio blog, Kent Covington addresses the flaming arrows aimed at Braves’ starter, Kenshin Kawakami, and solves the dilemma of who to send to the ‘pen upon Jair jurrjens’ return. Throw in your 2 cents and leave a message with your questions or comments for a future commentary at 888-669-5368 (ext.701.)

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Julio Teheran Is Absurdly Good

Teheran pitched last night.

7 IP. 2 H. 0 ER. 2 BB. 12 K.

Holy cow! For the bigger picture, here’s his line this year at Class A Rome and High A Myrtle Beach through 13 starts.

5W, 3L, 1.26 ERA, 78.1 IP, 17 BB, 94 K, 0.906 WHIP, 5.53 K/BB

I can’t wait to get him to the majors. This guy is absurd.

Tags: Julio Teheran, Julio Teheran 2010 Stats, Prospects
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Kenshin Kawakami: Time to Pull the Plug

Kenshin Kawakami started last night. He went 5 innings and allowed 5 runs (only 2 of them earned, thanks to a plethora of errors), and landed his ninth loss of the season. Yes, that’s right, we have an 0-9 pitcher still in our starting rotation. Which I’m OK with, because Jair Jurrjens is still going through rehab. But let’s be honest, it’s time to pull the plug on Kawakami’s time in the rotation.

Once Jurrjens returns, he gets his starting rotation slot back. That’s not negotiable. But then who goes to the ‘pen and who stays in the rotation? Chris Resop helped matters by going 2 innings last night and giving up 5 earned runs. There’s no doubt HE isn’t our fifth starter. So does Medlen go back from whence he came or does Kawakami get the boot? Let’s look at some stats stripped of their owner.

Pitcher 2 has gotten a little bit unlucky with run support, yes. But overall, Pitcher 1 is better across the board. Any of us would pick Pitcher 1 (who I’m sure you’ve figured out is Kris Medlen) over Pitcher 2. And Medlen is in his stride – he was absolutely dominant against the Twins in his last start. Medlen’s K/BB ratio (not included above) is 4.40, and Kawakami’s is 2.00. The bottom line is that Medlen is a better pitcher, more solid, and even though Kawakami has been unlucky, just a better pitcher. Medlen deserves the fifth starter slot. Period.

I’ve made the argument that we should be patient with Kawakami because we want to be able to sign other Japanese players, but I think we’ve been patient enough. It’s time to go with the best option we’ve got, and that’s not Kenshin, for all his effort.