Good Article on Medlen by Jayson Stark

I agree that Medlen is a #2. Minor on the other hand I consider an Ace and a stopper that can matchup with the likes of Kershaw and Wainwright. Should the Braves make the playoffs again this year, Fredi better start Minor in game 1.
 
AUTiger7222 said:
I agree that Medlen is a #2. Minor on the other hand I consider an Ace and a stopper that can matchup with the likes of Kershaw and Wainwright. Should the Braves make the playoffs again this year, Fredi better start Minor in game 1.
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Minor is a solid #2.
 
Minor or Medlen either one could be our ace right now however they are just keeping the seat warm for Teheran
 
Medlen isn't an ace unless you're talking about the sad label of staff ace that many people tried to pin on Russ Ortiz a decade ago.

I would say Medlen is a 2. As is Minor as is Julio (at least right now for those 2) He pitches like an ace for a few months, then a 4 for a few months and a 2/3 for a few months. Overall he's one of the 50 best starters in baseball.Nothing to sneeze at at all. Our rotation strength comes from our top to bottom strength as long as we don't let Freddy Garcia pitch in the majors unless someone is hurt. Pretty much every pitcher we have who I'd consider a viable starter (Minor, Medlen, Julio, Beachy, Wood, and Floyd) is an above average pitcher.
 
I think Medlen gets the knock for being an ace because the two abysmal postseason starts he had... on our staff I'd still take him to go up against any other pitcher.
 
Also, Medlen struck out the side in the first inning of both the Wild Card and Game 1 of the NLDS... it set the tempo so well and energized the crowd so much... until our defense choked on him twice. :Sad:
 
We haven't had an ace in a while. If you go by the 20 best starters by FIP in 2013, the list is:

Harvey, Kershaw, Sanchez, Wainwright, Hernandez, Fernandez, Scherzer, Burnett, Lee, Liriano, Price, Bumgarner, Latos, Sale, Strasburg, Greinke, Colon, Ryu, Hamels, Fister

Minor is #29, Medlen is #37 and Teheran #45. It wouldn't take much improvement for those guys to get into the top 20. A half a strikeout per nine innings increase or half a walk per nine innings improvement is the kind of step they need to take to become elite. Of course, that is not as easy as it sounds.
 
nsacpi said:
We haven't had an ace in a while. If you go by the 20 best starters by FIP in 2013, the list is:

Harvey, Kershaw, Sanchez, Wainwright, Hernandez, Fernandez, Scherzer, Burnett, Lee, Liriano, Price, Bumgarner, Latos, Sale, Strasburg, Greinke, Colon, Ryu, Hamels, Fister

Minor is #29, Medlen is #37 and Teheran #45. It wouldn't take much improvement for those guys to get into the top 20. A half a strikeout per nine innings increase or half a walk per nine innings improvement is the kind of step they need to take to become elite. Of course, that is not as easy as it sounds.
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Well, there are 30 teams so if Minor was the 29th best pitcher in baseball then that technically made him an ace last year. Granted he's certainly way down the list of aces.
 
I'm under the impression there are only 10 "true aces" in MLB. Every team doesn't have an ace by default. The Braves, unless/until someone takes a step the next level, do not have one of those.
 
Dalyn said:
I think he is a very good #3.
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I think you're on crack.

If you look at his work since entering the rotation, he's a clear 1. I'm willing to entertain the notion that he ain't that good, but to rank him 61-90 when his ERA is 2, you're just being critical. Probably prejudiced against short people.
 
I really kind of love the fact that Fredi decided to illustrate Medlen's weird, quirky, fun-loving nature by saying Kris might "pop into the clubhouse one day on a skateboard."

Gonzalez added, "And then break into the Bartman. That dude is totally radical."
 
He's not 6-4

He's not 220 lbs

He doesn't throw 95 mph heat

He doesn't have a wicked slider

He doesn't wear his cap straight

Therefore according to most he isn't an ace.

All he does is go out there and give his team a chance to win, and wins he does all the while going deep into games.

And does it efficiently.

And I agree, he's not in the upper tier along with the Kershaws and Verlanders and King Felix. But there aren't many of them out there.

But I feel confident with Meds on the mound against any of them. He may not be a top 10 pitcher, but he's definitely not a scrub either.
 
nsacpi said:
We haven't had an ace in a while. If you go by the 20 best starters by FIP in 2013, the list is:

Harvey, Kershaw, Sanchez, Wainwright, Hernandez, Fernandez, Scherzer, Burnett, Lee, Liriano, Price, Bumgarner, Latos, Sale, Strasburg, Greinke, Colon, Ryu, Hamels, Fister

Minor is #29, Medlen is #37 and Teheran #45. It wouldn't take much improvement for those guys to get into the top 20. A half a strikeout per nine innings increase or half a walk per nine innings improvement is the kind of step they need to take to become elite. Of course, that is not as easy as it sounds.
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Yeah, I wouldn't consider all of those 20 "aces."
I think being an ACE is about more than just ERA for FIP. It's how often you pitch 7+, and how often you go all the way. I'd say out of them, RIGHT NOW, Harvey, Kershaw, Wainwright, Hernandez, Lee, Price, Sale and Hamels are definitely aces. Scherzer likely is, but I want to see him do what he did last year again. There just aren't that many clearly elite SPs to me. I think Minor could be comparable to everyone else on that list. Same with Teheran. Medlen, to me, will always be a step below (not that there's anything wrong with that).
 
GovClintonTyree said:
I think you're on crack.

If you look at his work since entering the rotation, he's a clear 1. I'm willing to entertain the notion that he ain't that good, but to rank him 61-90 when his ERA is 2, you're just being critical. Probably prejudiced against short people.
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:happy0157:

Come on...

Since when is calling someone a very good #3 a negative thing to say? I like Medlen, but he is what he is.
 
And one of my favorite things about Medlen is that he is short (for a pitcher).
 
Mike Minor raises up his level of performance in big games and against the best teams. That to me is one of the characteristics of an ace. Last year when we need Minor to show up in the playoffs against the Dodgers he did just that. Dating back to 2012 the Braves are 10-2 in Mike Minor's last 12 starts against playoff teams, that includes that playoff game against the Dodgers. Minor's numbers in those starts

77 2/3 IP, 58 H, 23 R, 22 ER, 7 HR, 17 BB, 68 SO, 2.55 ERA
 
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