Alex Wood

Yes and yes.

His talent is being underutilized in the pen. There is also a potential issue where if he remains in the pen this year he will not have a strong enough innings base this year to make the Braves comfortable with having him throw 200 innings next season.

The setbacks Venters has had in his recovery (hopefully just scar tissue) are also having an impact on what they are doing with Alex. It would be easier to send him back down to AAA to get stretched back out if we had another lefty in the pen.

We do have a double header against the Phillies in late June. I wonder if by then his arm will be in shape to start. It would be great for him if we had an extra innings game between now and that double header where he can go 4-5 innings.

They say these issues have a way of taking care of themselves. Meaning in this case something happens to one of our starters. But if it doesn't work out that way, I think we have to consider making a trade by the end of June or sending Alex down to AAA anyhow just to build up the innings.
 
I simply cant understand what they are doing with the guy. He has talent to be ML starting pitcher. If they are worried about innings, restrict his innings in AAA for 2-3 months and then call him up.
 
gilesfan said:
I simply cant understand what they are doing with the guy. He has talent to be ML starting pitcher. If they are worried about innings, restrict his innings in AAA for 2-3 months and then call him up.
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Actually being in the pen for a month or so is the best way to control innings. In AAA he would be pitching a similar amount of innings as a starter. The thing is he's been in the pen for a month now. I'd let it go for another couple weeks, but at that point he needs to go back to being a starter, either in the majors or AAA.

Maybe when Walden comes back, Wood will be the one sent down. We would be going with just one lefty in the pen, but that would be ok on a short-term basis.
 
nsacpi said:
Actually being in the pen for a month or so is the best way to control innings. In AAA he would be pitching a similar amount of innings as a starter. The thing is he's been in the pen for a month now. I'd let it go for another couple weeks, but at that point he needs to go back to being a starter, either in the majors or AAA.
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Not imo, but you are stretching his arm out, then sending him to the pen where he could pitch 3 days straight or he might not pitch at all for a week.

In the Minors, you could limit a start to 3-4 innings, occasionally skip a start if need be, etc. Then gradually build his arm up to withstand a full workload when it's time to call him up.
 
gilesfan said:
Not imo, but you are stretching his arm out, then sending him to the pen where he could pitch 3 days straight or he might not pitch at all for a week.

In the Minors, you could limit a start to 3-4 innings, occasionally skip a start if need be, etc. Then gradually build his arm up to withstand a full workload when it's time to call him up.
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At this point the issue of limiting his innings once he goes back to starting is a moot one. You can see this by looking at what has happened in the first two months of the season.

In April he pitched 40 innings. In May he pitched 16 innings.

The team's goal was to hold him under 180 innings during the regular season this year. There is no way he will hit that limit now if he goes back to starting say in late June. Let's say he pitches 100 innings in the second half (July-September). That would get him to 180 assuming he pitches a total of 24 innings in June. In other words we've almost reached the point where the 180 inning limit is no longer an issue.
 
nsacpi said:
At this point the issue of limiting his innings once he goes back to starting is a moot one. You can see this by looking at what has happened in the first two months of the season.

In April he pitched 40 innings. In May he pitched 16 innings.

The team's goal was to hold him under 180 innings during the regular season this year. There is no way he will hit that limit now if he goes back to starting say in late June. Let's say he pitches 100 innings in the second half (July-September). That would get him to 180 assuming he pitches a total of 24 innings in June. In other words we've almost reached the point where the 180 inning limit is no longer an issue.
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Then hence my point, what are they doing with the guy? Put him in the rotation ASAP.

I know Floyd, Santana, Harang have nice shiny ERAs and in the case of Santana making a lot of bank, but they are hired guns, Wood is a cornerstone for the next 4-5 years. (and better than those 3)
 
gilesfan said:
Then hence my point, what are they doing with the guy? Put him in the rotation ASAP.

I know Floyd, Santana, Harang have nice shiny ERAs and in the case of Santana making a lot of bank, but they are hired guns, Wood is a cornerstone for the next 4-5 years. (and better than those 3)
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Actually, the right point to put him back in the rotation if you want to hold his regular season innings under 180 is late June. I agree about Wood being a cornerstone. We should not be messing with him. He is possibly our most talented starting pitcher. We have a double header with the Phillies on June 28. That's when we should be targeting his return to the rotation. Maybe send him down to AAA for one or two starts before that.
 
Yeah, I'm confused as to why he's not back in the rotation. I like Harang and I like Floyd, but he's better than both of them by a mile. Baseball is about giving the team the best chance to win and our best chance is with him in the rotation. I understand what we are doing, but it's hurting the team more right now than helping.

I don't know what to do with Floyd and Harang and I'm not a fan of the six-man rotation. If I had to personally say, I'd say put Floyd in the BP, leave Harang in the rotation until, and hopefully he does doesn't, crap the bed and put Floyd back in.
 
Wren is holding out as long as he can to turn one of the existing starters into something for the future.
 
thethe said:
Wren is holding out as long as he can to turn one of the existing starters into something for the future.
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Also these issues have a way of taking care of themselves. I'm sure Wren doesn't want to trade one starter and have another one go down to an injury a week later. So there is something to be said for being patient.
 
I noticed in his last couple of starts that Wood labored to get through innings and threw a lot of pitches and that haunts him from time-to-time. I know a lot of guys have a variance in pitches per inning, but Wood seems to either have it or not. Don't know what that says, if anything.

Agree with nsacpi that we have an unexpected plenitude of starting pitching right now. If they feel Wood is being damaged by being in the bullpen, they should probably send him to AAA and wait for either Floyd or Harang to implode.
 
it seems like the worse Wood does the more people want to see of him. I guess the fans are a mesmerised by his funky delivery as the hitters are supposed to be. And when one of the fair hared boys screws up there's gotta be somebody in mgt "ruining" him.

relax, if he's as good as everybody seems to think he'll pitch well enough to get back in the rotation and be fresh come Sept.
 
I think getting yoyo'd back and forth has hurt him. And ya, just a bit of a rough patch. Next time he gets put in the rotation needs to be the last time he is moved.
 
He needs to be in the rotation. I'm all likelyhood limiting his innings isn't going to save his arm from injury. We need to get what we can from him now, then hopefully trade him before the inevitable second TJ surgery. After the 2015 season would be a good time. We held onto Jurrjens and Hanson too long and got an oft injured setup man out of it. I would advocate trading him before then but that would leave a very thin rotation next year.
 
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