OFFICIAL FALLING AXE PREDICTION THREAD

BJ#1FAN said:
It's safer to go with quality pitching than hope your offense can outscore the other team every game.
Click to expand...

How far has that gotten us this year? We have the 4th highest fWAR of any team in the NL, Cubs are 3rd. Pitching is great, but if you can't score runs you're not winning games.
 
zitothebrave said:
How far has that gotten us this year? We have the 4th highest fWAR of any team in the NL, Cubs are 3rd. Pitching is great, but if you can't score runs you're not winning games.
Click to expand...

Our pitching hasn't been great.

Minor was inconsistent for a long time.

Harang was constantly playing with fire.

Santana had cold streaks.

Teheran and Wood you could argue pitched great but didn't get any run support.

Not to mention our bullpen minus Kimbrel has not been as dominant as it has been in recent years, which is exactly why we haven't won the close games.
 
Braves are 5th in the majors in ERA and the starters have the second most innings pitched in the majors. I would say a 3.35 era overall is pretty great.
 
Other variables of note... offense has been down this year league wide.

Besides Kimbrel and the flashes of Simmons, who else did you guys feel comfortable with coming out of the pen? Walden could look dominant, and then look awful. Carpenter was a mess for most of the year. Avilan regressed. Varvaro was surprisingly somewhat dependable.

Harang probably helped our innings pitched since whenever he got bombed Fredi left him in there to save the bullpen. Julio and Wood definitely have helped our innings pitched categories, they just have been unlucky with run support. Then of course we know Minor struggled for the entire first half it seemed.
 
BJ#1FAN said:
Other variables of note... offense has been down this year league wide.

Besides Kimbrel and the flashes of Simmons, who else did you guys feel comfortable with coming out of the pen? Walden could look dominant, and then look awful. Carpenter was a mess for most of the year. Avilan regressed. Varvaro was surprisingly somewhat dependable.

Harang probably helped our innings pitched since whenever he got bombed Fredi left him in there to save the bullpen. Julio and Wood definitely have helped our innings pitched categories, they just have been unlucky with run support. Then of course we know Minor struggled for the entire first half it seemed.
Click to expand...

Nobody but Walden, and he had his hiccups, too. I think he needs regular work to stay sharp, but is an injury risk with too heavy a workload.

I am not a particular fan of Carpenter, but he's an acceptable piece if used appropriately. I don't know what to make of his season. Most of his numbers are pegged exactly to what he did in 2013, but he gave up a lot more hits and runs. He was in the zone more, batters swung at more strikes, and hit the ball harder (LD% up). His BABIP-against was up, like 80 points. Good luck last year, bad luck this year, or a guy with a straight fastball who was on the plate too much, or couldn't spot his stuff in the zone?

Varvaro is a fine back of the 'pen guy.

If Simmons is healthy, he helps a ton. Losing him was one of the little things that killed us this year, IMO.

Chasen Shreve, or Shreven Chase, or Jason Threve, or whatever his name is, looks like he might be a player.

Even with some question marks in the bullpen, pitching wasn't our problem this year.
 
BJ#1FAN said:
Other variables of note... offense has been down this year league wide.

Besides Kimbrel and the flashes of Simmons, who else did you guys feel comfortable with coming out of the pen? Walden could look dominant, and then look awful. Carpenter was a mess for most of the year. Avilan regressed. Varvaro was surprisingly somewhat dependable.

Harang probably helped our innings pitched since whenever he got bombed Fredi left him in there to save the bullpen. Julio and Wood definitely have helped our innings pitched categories, they just have been unlucky with run support. Then of course we know Minor struggled for the entire first half it seemed.
Click to expand...

Braves had a solid pen.

Kimbrel is dominant, Carpenter and Walden have been excellent, Varvaro has been solid, Russell has been excellent since coming over, Thomas was excellent when he was up, Simmons was excellentwhen up, Shrieve was excellent, Hale sucked and Avilan sucked, But Avilan is likely a blimp, he's either hurt or just had a bad year. I think our pen is very strong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top