Re-Balancing the Pitching Staff

[nsacpi]

We started the season with a rotation of 4 righties (Sanchez, Teheran, McCarthy, Folty) and one lefty (Newcomb), and a bullpen of 6 righties and 2 lefties (Minter and Freeman)

Not surprisingly, Freeman got burned up in those early weeks. If your rotation skews righty, the other team will tend to stack their lineups with lefty hitters. This means that there will be a lot of situations in the middle innings where the pen will be asked to get one or two lefty hitters out. It was a fairly significant mistake in roster construction not to balance having 4 righty starters with more lefties in the pen.

When Biddle got called up, the load on Freeman was lessened. Due to their reverse splits, neither is a situational lefty. But having two choices helped even out the workload some.

Now we have a true situational lefty in Venters, which will even out the workload even more. I'm hoping that the presence of Venters in the pen will allow Biddle to be used mostly as a high leverage guy (probably in the 7th inning).

Perhaps as important we are bringing Fried back into the rotation. Having a second lefty in the rotation will balance things even more in terms of who in the pen will be called upon for key situational matchups in the middle innings.

These are subtle things that should have been analyzed and fixed weeks ago. But better late than never.

[Southcack77]

We started the season with a rotation of 4 righties (Sanchez, Teheran, McCarthy, Folty) and one lefty (Newcomb), and a bullpen of 6 righties and 2 lefties (Minter and Freeman)

Not surprisingly, Freeman got burned up in those early weeks. If your rotation skews righty, the other team will tend to stack their lineups with lefty hitters. This means that there will be a lot of situations in the middle innings where the pen will be asked to get one or two lefty hitters out. It was a fairly significant mistake in roster construction not to balance having 4 righty starters with more lefties in the pen.

When Biddle got called up, the load on Freeman was lessened. Due to their reverse splits, neither is a situational lefty. But having two choices helped even out the workload some.

Now we have a true situational lefty in Venters, which will even out the workload even more. I'm hoping that the presence of Venters in the pen will allow Biddle to be used mostly as a high leverage guy (probably in the 7th inning).

Perhaps as important we are bringing Fried back into the rotation. Having a second lefty in the rotation will balance things even more in terms of who in the pen will be called upon for key situational matchups in the middle innings.

These are subtle things that should have been analyzed and fixed weeks ago. But better late than never.


The front office did a poor job with the bullpen this offseason and has done little to address it even after finding themselves unexpectedly in the hunt.

Venters is a nice flyer to take at no cost, but the truth of the matter is we don't know exactly what he is at this point in his career given a sample of 14 IP. What we do know is that he's not shown the same kind of K rate vs L as in his prime and much of the numbers in that tiny sample might just be attributable to a very low BABIP.

So it's far from known whether the Braves have acquired a dependable lefty specialist, but they have indeed acquired someone who will be utilized in that role. Let's cross our fingers, shall we?

[Carp]

If I recall reading it correctly, it was reported that Venter's is still generating a 70 percent ground ball rate against lefties, which is right in line with his peak numbers. As long as he isn't overused, he should be fine.

[nsacpi]

The front office did a poor job with the bullpen this offseason and has done little to address it even after finding themselves unexpectedly in the hunt.



Agreed. There is an anti-Snitker meltdown whenever he brings in Freeman from the pen and something bad happens. That whole situation is mostly on the front office for not doing a better job of roster construction.

[jpx7]

Agreed. There is an anti-Snitker meltdown whenever he brings in Freeman from the pen and something bad happens. That whole situation is mostly on the front office for not doing a better job of roster construction.

False flag op, setting up Snits to fail, clearing the way for clearing the deck this offseason. Barely even qualifies as four dimensional.

[nsacpi]

False flag op, setting up Snits to fail, clearing the way for clearing the deck this offseason. Barely even qualifies as four dimensional.

please explain to the gdt denizens

[CyYoung31]

Agreed. There is an anti-Snitker meltdown whenever he brings in Freeman from the pen and something bad happens. That whole situation is mostly on the front office for not doing a better job of roster construction.

I criticize the move before it happens. Is it too much to ask for Sam Freeman not to be the 1st guy out of the pen in a high leverage situation every ****ing night? I think we can do a lot worse than Freeman, but he’s certainly not a great pitcher or high leverage arm, especially after Snitker has ran him into the ground so far this season.

And it was even more ridiculous last night when you had a rested pen and better options.

[Acuña’s Bat Flip]

I criticize the move before it happens. Is it too much to ask for Sam Freeman not to be the 1st guy out of the pen in a high leverage situation every ****ing night? I think we can do a lot worse than Freeman, but he’s certainly not a great pitcher or high leverage arm, especially after Snitker has ran him into the ground so far this season.

And it was even more ridiculous last night when you had a rested pen and better options.

Even more ridiculous than Dave Roberts challenging the call at 2B in an 8-2 game with two outs in the ninth if you ask me!

[nsacpi]

I criticize the move before it happens. Is it too much to ask for Sam Freeman not to be the 1st guy out of the pen in a high leverage situation every ****ing night? I think we can do a lot worse than Freeman, but he’s certainly not a great pitcher or high leverage arm, especially after Snitker has ran him into the ground so far this season.

And it was even more ridiculous last night when you had a rested pen and better options.

The options to face Joc Peterson in the 7th were not great. I guess Biddle would have been the least bad one. I think though Biddle's role now is to come in with the lead in the 7th.

With the addition of Venters, I think this is how the pen shakes out now.

9th with a lead: Minter
8th with a lead: Winkler
7th with a lead: Biddle
Situational lefty: Venters is option 1 and Freeman option 2
Situational righty: Carle is option 1 and Moylan is option 2
Sacrificial lamb/long man: Jackson or Phillips. I assume the other is sent down or released when Venters is activated. Carle and Freeman also can go multiple innings when the situation requires.

I detect an attempt to have the starters throw an extra 5-10 pitches in the past few weeks. Should help the pen.