5/12/15 Braves @ Reds

[Julio3000]

Trading Craig Kimbrel has to have an effect some how.

The pen has been brutal, but it would be a different story if Grilli and Johnson were 7th/8th inning guys and everyone else's roles were adjusted accordingly. That may make it so we take it on the chin a few times, but that's where we are. Hopefully we'll spend that money wisely. Go get 'em tomorrow.

Pena has always been able to hit the ball with the fat part of the bat. There was no place for him in Atlanta, but I'm not surprised to see him stick in the bigs.

[Braves1976]

The pen has been brutal, but it would be a different story if Grilli and Johnson were 7th/8th inning guys and everyone else's roles were adjusted accordingly. That may make it so we take it on the chin a few times, but that's where we are. Hopefully we'll spend that money wisely. Go get 'em tomorrow.

Pena has always been able to hit the ball with the fat part of the bat. There was no place for him in Atlanta, but I'm not surprised to see him stick in the bigs.

Yea, I haven't said a lot on that particular trade because how that trade turns out won't be told till I see how we spend that money.

[chop2chip]

The pen has been brutal, but it would be a different story if Grilli and Johnson were 7th/8th inning guys and everyone else's roles were adjusted accordingly. That may make it so we take it on the chin a few times, but that's where we are. Hopefully we'll spend that money wisely. Go get 'em tomorrow.

Pena has always been able to hit the ball with the fat part of the bat. There was no place for him in Atlanta, but I'm not surprised to see him stick in the bigs.

Yeah. The common misperception was that we replaced with Kimbrel with Grilli. We actually replaced Kimbrel with Kohn, Cornely, Perez, etc. Johnson, Martin, Grilli, and Avilan have done okay.

[Braves1976]

James Russell a bullpen arm we miss that we gave away for nothing. He is doing well with Chicago again, but he did well with us last year too. He also has been fine with his velocity, hitting 90 mph tonight including on a strikeout of Duda a few mins ago.

[chop2chip]

James Russell a bullpen arm we miss that we gave away for nothing. He is doing well with Chicago again, but he did well with us last year too. He also has been fine with his velocity, hitting 90 mph tonight including on a strikeout of Duda a few mins ago.

To be fair, I liked Mckirran before he got suspended. I doubt we would have carried three lefties and I'm fine with Russell being the odd man out of that trio.

[Braves1976]

To be fair, I liked Mckirran before he got suspended. I doubt we would have carried three lefties and I'm fine with Russell being the odd man out of that trio.

I wasn't sure about the kid, partly since Fredi didn't seem to have any idea of his reverse splits. But either way Russell is a good reliever and given his track record vs righties last year I'd still not just release him.

[MadduxFanII]

Russell's got a career 107 ERA+ and a 2.56 K/BB ratio. His reverse splits and lack of dynamite stuff make him kind of a difficult piece to fit in the puzzle, but we really weren't in a position to give away bullpen arms. It's one thing to trade guys as part of a re-build, but DFAing Russell achieved nothing. He's not going to be a part of the next good Braves' team, but you need someone to get outs in a re-building year.

[Braves1976]

Russell's got a career 107 ERA+ and a 2.56 K/BB ratio. His reverse splits and lack of dynamite stuff make him kind of a difficult piece to fit in the puzzle, but we really weren't in a position to give away bullpen arms. It's one thing to trade guys as part of a re-build, but DFAing Russell achieved nothing. He's not going to be a part of the next good Braves' team, but you need someone to get outs in a re-building year.

The only thing releasing Russell and Wandy did was give us 4 million of the 5.5 million needed to waste on Cahill..

[sturg33]

Well those who complained about Fredi not pitching Grilli in the 9th in a tie game can be happy now.

And I bet Simmons is super pissed at himself for messing that up.

I am happy. Kudos to Fredi for evolving

[Millwood1Hitter]

I am really super exciting about Folty....if he somehow can harness that stuff and control it.....WOW! Hopefully he can stay healthy because I really really really am starting to get exciting to see how it all comes together with all these high upside arms.

[thethe]

I am really super exciting about Folty....if he somehow can harness that stuff and control it.....WOW! Hopefully he can stay healthy because I really really really am starting to get exciting to see how it all comes together with all these high upside arms.

Baseball will always be about pitching and those that have it will typically do better than those that don't. Not all the time obviously but I'll take my chances with top flight power arms.

[stpeteirish]

That's why I don't mind if we lose this year when it's guys like EY that serve as the root.

I thought Folty was tremendous. His line looks ugly but he turned it around. That's very important to see from a young pitcher.

There a bright side of this the most recent loss. Folty handling that lineup in that ballpark. His best start so far

[UNCBlue012]

It was a good and bad game and though the outcome makes me want to scream, there was more good than bad.

I'm incredibly happy for Folty and I hope he can continue to grow, cause he could be special. I think he has the tendencies to be a bulldog one day.

Something has to happen with the BP, it's cost us about 6 "easy" wins this year. I'm sure management expected something like this when Walden, Carpenter and Kimbrel were all traded, but man.

[MadduxFanII]

Something has to happen with the BP, it's cost us about 6 "easy" wins this year. I'm sure management expected something like this when Walden, Carpenter and Kimbrel were all traded, but man.

If you think about it, we actually traded away or released an entire bullpen. Kimbrel, Walden, Carpenter, Shreve, Varvaro, Hale and Russell isn't a bad-looking unit by itself, and we got rid of all those guys. Now, most of the moves to get rid of those guys were reasonable, and a lot of them are struggling- Kimbrel's getting kicked around a little, Walden is hurt, Varvaro's been DFAed, Carpenter's numbers are unimpressive and Hale isn't even in the bigs. But you don't trade away that many arms without suffering a bit.

I do think we might well end up seriously regretting losing Shreve.

[UNCBlue012]

If you think about it, we actually traded away or released an entire bullpen. Kimbrel, Walden, Carpenter, Shreve, Varvaro, Hale and Russell isn't a bad-looking unit by itself, and we got rid of all those guys. Now, most of the moves to get rid of those guys were reasonable, and a lot of them are struggling- Kimbrel's getting kicked around a little, Walden is hurt, Varvaro's been DFAed, Carpenter's numbers are unimpressive and Hale isn't even in the bigs. But you don't trade away that many arms without suffering a bit.

I do think we might well end up seriously regretting losing Shreve.

I agree, Shreve was a guy I was huge on. I wasn't against the overall trade, but I hated losing him. He would be huge in this BP right now.

[Tapate50]

I agree, Shreve was a guy I was huge on. I wasn't against the overall trade, but I hated losing him. He would be huge in this BP right now.

Harang huge?