The Braves have not hesitated to shuttle relievers back and forth between the majors and minors this year.
I'd like to see Greg Smith brought up. He would give the pen a second lefty and allow Avilan to be used as our regular 7th inning guy.
He has reverse splits this year but that is a small sample BABIP driven thing. For his career and in 2014 he has done better against lefties. Career minor league OPS against lefties .709 versus .766 against righties.
The BABIP number against lefties is high this year, which gives him reverse splits. But if you look at strikeout and walk rates, he is doing better against lefties as usual: 8.0% strikeout rate and 1.2% walk rate. Those are very good numbers. Unlike many of the bullpen guys we've called up this year, he throws strikes. But use him mainly against lefties. His strikeout and walk rates against righties are not nearly as good: 4.0% and 2.0%. His 2014 strikeout and walk data (bigger sample) when he was in AAA in the Phillies system are similar. I think this guy can help us as a second lefty. With the usual caveat that he is put in situations to succeed (i.e., does not have to face many righties).
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Originally Posted by nsacpi
