Carlyle Called Up, Who Goes?

April 15, 2008 – 11:45 am

As reported by the AJC, Buddy Carlyle is on his way from Triple-A Richmond to Florida to meet up with the Braves for their series against the Marlins.  He is slated to either replace Tom Glavine should he need to be placed on the disabled list because of his hamstring, or to fill in as the fifth starter in the rotation.

With this move, someone from the bullpen has to be sent down to make room on the roster.   The Braves have not yet announced their decision on whose spot Carlyle will take, but I’m hopeful that it’s Chris Resop.  Resop, though he’s out of options and would have to clear waivers, has been a thorn in the side of the pen so far this season as far as I’m concerned.  I don’t think Jeff Bennett’s outing was bad enough to send him and we need his potential as a long reliever.

Carlyle was 0-0 through 2 outings in Richmond thus far this season with a 7.04 ERA.

UPDATE: The Braves have announced that Peter Moylan has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right elbow strain.


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Posted in Injuries, Roster Moves | 6 Comments »

Braves Drop Third Straight

April 9, 2008 – 11:39 pm

The Braves offense found its stride a little bit last night, scoring 6 runs on 13 hits.  Unfortunately, on the same number of hits, the Rockies scored 12.  After coming off of two solid wins against the Mets at home, the Braves have extended their road record on the season to 0-4 and overall to 3-6.

Chuck James was activated from the disabled list to make the start in place of the injured Mike Hampton and was feeling a bit under the weather.  His first time through the Rockies’ lineup went pretty smoothly, but the second time around he just got beat up on, giving up 6 runs in the third inning.  James left the game after the third having given up 6 runs on 5 hits, as well as striking out 5 and hitting 3 batters.  Hopefully this was just a rough start for him being sick and coming off of the disabled list and he can regroup as we head further into the season.

The offense put together a slightly better outing, but still ran into a few problems.  Two double plays and a lack of clutch hitting took away a number of the run threats that we had during the game.   Brian McCann was 3-4 with 3 RBI, including a two-run home run in the top of the 8th inning.

For the Rockies,  a pair of three-run home runs from Torrealba and Spilborghs didn’t help the Braves’ cause any in trying to snag a victory.  Chris Resop came in to pitch the last two innings for the Braves and looked awful.  5 runs on 5 hits in two innings is not something you want to see out of a pitcher in your bullpen.

The Braves and Rockies face off this afternoon in the last game of the four-game series. as the Braves try to avoid the sweep.  The Braves once again have an under the weather pitcher in Tim Hudson, who has been fighting the flu this week.  Hudson will face off against Jeff Francis for the Rockies at 3:05pm EST.


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Hampton Hurt, Braves Fall

April 4, 2008 – 1:09 am

Mike Hampton didn’t even pitch one pitch in the game, but somehow he managed to strain his left pectoral muscle and was replaced by Jeff Bennett.  Wouldn’t you know that something had to happen to Hampton? It’s like the guy is cursed.  I feel sorry for him - getting ready for his first major league start in a long while, and now he’s down with a day-to-day status.  I think we’ll see him back for his next start, if the stars align properly.

Jeff Bennett is a trooper, stepping in for the spot start in the emergency start.  He worked hard each of the last two nights and still jumped in there for the start, pitching four innings and 77 pitches.  He struck out three, walked two, and gave up two earned runs.

But the Braves saw the night turn into one much like they experienced the first two nights.  The bullpen (and a Martin Prado error) let the Pirates back into the game, and the Braves lost their third game this season by one run in extra innings.  Bobby seems to like using everyone out there - these guys are going to be tired if we can’t get some solid starting pitching and get them some rest.

Offensively, Chipper continued his hot start, going 3-5.  Reliever Chris Resop got sent to left field for Adam LaRoche’s at-bat, when Royce Ring came in to deal with him.  Resop then came back to the mound and finished his outing.  At least it was entertaining to watch.

The Braves tried to tie it in the bottom of the 10th.  Mark Kotsay hit a monster drive to dead center that was within six inches of going over the wall.  He ended with a stand-up triple.   But that counts for nothing when you can’t score him, and we didn’t.

The final score was 4-3; mark it down as a 1-3 start with all three losses by one run, two of them in extra innings.  Something’s gotta start going our way.

Next up, the Mets come to town, and Hudson will take on John Maine tomorrow.  Should be a good game - tune in here for coverage.  Look for Hudson, Glavine and Smoltz to make the starts against the Mets.  Hopefully we can get the bats going early and we should have some great games to watch.


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‘08 Roster Nearing Completion

March 29, 2008 – 7:23 am

After last night’s loss to Cleveland, the Braves further thinned out their roster, getting ready for Sunday’s game against the Washington Nationals.  Of course the most notable moves involved the ongoing battles for the limited number of backup spots on the roster.

Brent Lillibridge, impressive as he was in the first half of the spring, got sent back to AAA Richmond, where he’ll get more playing time.  I think this is crucial, since either he or Escobar will likely be trade bait before too long.  He needs to be playing all the time.  Martin Prado gets to stay in Atlanta - his first time starting the season in the majors.  Joining Prado (who played a few innings last night at first, by the way) is new acquisition Ruben Gotay, a switch-hitting contact hitter who can play second, third, and short.

In the outfield, Gregor Blanco beat out Josh Anderson for the backup job.  Anderson got out-hit by Blanco this spring (.260 to .341) and despite his speed, Bobby couldn’t find a roster spot for him.  I like Anderson though - if we have an issue mid-season with Diaz or Kotsay I’m sure we’ll see him (maybe even before Schafer, whom they might want to groom all season long).

Behind the plate, Corky Miller seems to have the backup job.  Brayan Pena is still on the roster too, but he’s out of options and conventional wisdom says he’s traded by the end of the day.  If Pena sticks around, he can pitch in at first as well.

So that leaves the five bench spots going to Blanco (OF), Gotay (IF), Prado (IF), Pena (C/1B) and Miller (C).  I’m not sure what we’ll see happen if Pena is traded - maybe Anderson comes back up?

The Bullpen is finally solid, with slots going to Peter Moylan, Rafael Soriano, Manny Acosta, Will Ohman, Chris Resop, Royce Ring, and Blaine Boyer.  I like this year’s ‘pen.  Lots of arms who have the capacity to be good pitchers throughout the season.

Jeff Bennett and Buddy Carlyle are still fighting for the pitching slot left vacant by Smoltzie, who will start the season on the DL (it’ll be backdated and he’ll only miss one start).  I’d give the edge to Bennett in this one - he’s been impressive, but Carlyle hasn’t put together a bad spring himself.

More as we hear it - our ears are to the ground today as we wait for the final moves to be made.


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Trade Rumors Circle Optionless Players

March 25, 2008 – 10:19 am

Frank Wren let loose this past weekend with a couple interesting tidbits regarding roster options heading into the season.  Firstly, there are trade talks surrounding many of the out of options players.  Secondly, the Braves have the payroll flexibility to add a player with a $3-4 million if necessary.  This puts us in a good position as Bobby and Frank finalize the 25-man roster.

Wren has said that teh Braves will take whatever player is the best fit for the team, and shop the other players around.  If the Braves don’t trade their out of options players, they’ll likely lose them on the waiver wire with no compensation.  What do other teams want with our leftovers?  Let’s break it down by player:

Brayan Pena

Corky Miller looks to be the favorite to win the backup catcher position, leaving Pena without a place.  He’s a switch hitter and can play first and third as well as outfield, which will make him in demand and valuable to other organizations.

Scott Thorman

Thorman has at times shown power potential that is interesting to some teams.  I’m really not sure what we’d be able to get for him - he’s not been very successful (putting it lightly) in his time in the big leagues, not to mention this spring.  He’s hitting .140 this spring.

The bullpen is congested - seven spots are available, but five of them appear to be spoken for.  Soriano, Moylan, Acosta, Bennett, and Ohman appear to be locks.  This leaves Blaine Boyer, Royce Ring, Chris Resop, and Tyler Yates competing for two spots.  Ridgway will likely get sent to AAA as he still has options left.  Boyer and Resop have been impressive and likely are the leaders for the last two spots (Resop has averaged a strikeout per inning, and Boyer has a 2.25 ERA in seven outings).  This leaves Yates and Ring.

Tyler Yates

Yates has been unimpressive so far this spring.  He’s walked 10 in 7 innings.  He’s also given up 7 hits.  But he’s a steady arm and will likely settle down once the season is moving.  For a team that needs depth in the bullpen, he could be an important addition.

Royce Ring

Royce Ring has immediate value to many bullpens because he’s a lefty, and left-handed specialists are in short supply.  This is the same reason the Braves may keep him - if they want another lefty to join Ohman, they may not want to wait for Mike Gonzalez to get healthy mid-season.  We’ll see what happens - he’d be useful to a lot of teams out there.

For one, I appreciate that the Braves are leaving enough room in their finances to be able to spend money going into the season.  I also appreciate that Wren isn’t just going to ship our guys through waivers and hope they make it to the minors.  We won’t know the magnitude of the goings on until the trigger is pulled on the trades, but as we hear it, we’ll report it.


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Posted in Roster Moves, Speculation | 4 Comments »

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