Help from Gwinnett?

nsacpi

nsacpi

Expects Yuge Games
Although the construction of the major league bench and bullpen have been shambolic, the front office has assembled a fairly useful collection of players in AAA. I'm not going to focus on the real prospects in AAA in this thread, but rather the guys who could be useful contributors from the pen or the bench if promoted to the majors.

There are several guys in the pen who have put up very good strikeout to walk numbers so far (small sample caveat applies) and in some cases have a track record that suggests they could be solid major league relievers. Those include:

David Hernandez (9 Ks, 2 BBs)
David Peterson (9 & 3)
Jason Hursch (9 & 2)
Kevin Chapman (9 & 1)
Jason Motte (6 & 1)
Luke Jackson (6 & 1)

There are a couple others who might be able to help but so far have not put up impressive strikeout to walk ratios. Of the above, Chapman is the only lefty. I believe Chapman, Hernandez and Motte are out of options. Hursh and Jackson are on the 40 man roster and the others are not.

Hernandez has been the closer for Gwinnett and I would guess he will be called up at some point in the next month or so. There is a spot in the pen that so far has been "shared" by Roe/Hursh/Jackson/Blair. Roe is on the DL and is also I believe out of options. Given the choice I think Hernandez is the one of that group most likely to help us at the major league level.

As for the bench, there is a case to be made for an almost complete restructuring. I would keep Jace. And I think having the third catcher has worked out well so far. I would send down Bonifacio and D'Arnaud and bring up Xavier Avery and Lane Adams. Our lefty pinch hitters would be Jace and Avery. From the right side we would have Adams and whoever is not catching that day.

I'm open minded about eventually bringing up Howard, but he needs a few more weeks.

It is a shame that the major league team has had to make do with a sub-optimal bench and pen during the first month of the season. But the ingredients are there in Gwinnett for an upgrade.
 
When is Cabrera gonna be healthy? Replace krol with him.

When AJ minter comes back, I'd like to see him replace EOF
 
msstate7 said:
When is Cabrera gonna be healthy? Replace krol with him.

When AJ minter comes back, I'd like to see him replace EOF
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Haven't seen a recent update on Cabrera. Minter pitched one inning on April 11th and nothing since. It looks to me that both might be out for a while.

I think the plan had been to activate Cabrera as soon as he was ready. Roe was the placeholder until he was ready. There might have been some reluctance to call up Hernandez, since they might have had to send him down via waivers once Cabrera was ready.

I do think we should have two lefties in the pen. I'm fine with Chapman and Minter once he is ready. But we should try to avoid an unbalanced pen with just one lefty. Just like we should avoid an unbalanced bench, which has resulted in Bonifacio getting too many at bats against righty pitching.
 
Speaking of forgotten men. We also have Kyle Kubitza--an unusual combination of high walk rate, high strikeout rate and high BABIP. The guy had a BABIP over .400 for a whole season (over 500 PA's) in AA a few years ago.

He is up to his old tricks with a slash line of .333/.421/.485 helped substantially by a .435 BABIP.
 
Wisler is called up...what?

I thought the reason to have Wisler and Blair at AAA this year was to get them right. In other words, let them work on their mechanics, get them into a normal routine, build confidence. Apparently, ATL is playing the pull them up, send them down with the 2 of them.

We have several other qualified relievers in AAA (as mentioned above in this thread) so why Wisler.

The 1 thing that has gone as planned, is the starting rotation in Atlanta is eating innings. They are averaging ~6IP per game which includes the beginning of the year and a 3.2IP Folty snow storm. Save Wisler for starting.
 
Not in Gwinnett, but Hwang is down in AAA for the Giants. He supposedly has several opt out dates in his contract if he isn't in the majors. His current line over 65 PAs in the PCL isn't amazing (.295/.338/.377), but surely he is an upgrade for this roster if he does indeed opt out.
 
I don't mind us trading him. He's a one-year rental. But he could have helped our pen this year.

Part of the reason I don't mind is that there are some others in Gwinnett who I think can come up and help the major league pen. But Hernandez was the one who right now could help us the most. Its interesting we brought up Wisler. I think the better move would have been Hernandez, and if not him Hursh or Motte. Just because I think Wisler still has a chance of panning out as a starter. At some point you close the books on him as a starter if that doesn't happen. But that should not be this year imo.
 
The only rational logic is that they are NOT expected to pitch for ATL. they are literally last resort if we have a couple back to back long extra inning games. Blair went back to AAA presumably so he wouldn't miss a start. Wisler will likely do the same thing. I would not be suprised to see them do a flip flop thing a good bit this year.
 
TheBravos said:
I would like to know that myself. Seems like the last target date I heard was early May, but very little news.
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Bowman just called him a candidate for 60-day DL in the context of a 40-man roster thread, so I'd say May is not likely.

Also, this sounds like progress:

[tw]856874645156499456[/tw]
 
nsacpi said:
Haven't seen a recent update on Cabrera. Minter pitched one inning on April 11th and nothing since. It looks to me that both might be out for a while.

I think the plan had been to activate Cabrera as soon as he was ready. Roe was the placeholder until he was ready. There might have been some reluctance to call up Hernandez, since they might have had to send him down via waivers once Cabrera was ready.

I do think we should have two lefties in the pen. I'm fine with Chapman and Minter once he is ready. But we should try to avoid an unbalanced pen with just one lefty. Just like we should avoid an unbalanced bench, which has resulted in Bonifacio getting too many at bats against righty pitching.
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Bowman said Cabrera could be back as early as next week
 
I'd like to think the Hernandez deal is good news because it suggests we are still looking ahead rather than trying every little thing we can to compete in 2017.
 
mqt said:
I'd like to think the Hernandez deal is good news because it suggests we are still looking ahead rather than trying every little thing we can to compete in 2017.
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I read somewhere that the trade of Hernandez was strictly due to an opt out clause may 1st. Basically, they knew he would not be in ATL before then, so get some cash or PTBNL instead of him just walking May 1st..
 
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