7 Rants to “Demotion of Jair Jurrjens Leaves a Big Hole for th...”
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What utter nonsense. Hudson will be back next week. Randall Delgado is an acceptable #5 for now, but he’s backed up at AAA Gwinnett by Julio Teheran, only the top pitching prospect in the minors and judging by his recent work, ready now. Also in line Johan Flande, who has a 0.00 ERA in AAA. The Braves have great pitching depth, as all the reporters following the team closely know.
This must be a bonehead website. I’m deleting the site which linked to it — FoxSports.com — from my toolbar and sticking with mlb, espn, ajc, talking chop and first inning.
Thanks for reading, and for expressing so vividly your opinion. But I would like to point out a few things. First, yes…Hudson is “scheduled” to be back next week, which (as I said in the column) is the beginning of may, give or take. But both his age and his health are going to limit the number of innings he’s able to go. He’s not the sure thing that he once was.
Second, I would agree with you that Teheran and Flande are fine pitching prospects, but they are just that…prospects. Had either of them truly been ready to go at the big league level, they would have already made the club coming out of spring training. In any case, neither of them are primed to absolutely replace the man the Braves were counting on as their number 2 starter. Jurrjens was being looked at as a 180-200 inning, 15-20 win guy. I don’t know that either of the prospects you mentioned, or any of the pitchers I mentioned in the article are going to be able to put up those kind of numbers. Would it be nice if they could? Absolutely. But it’s not the way we wanted to kick things off. That’s all I was saying.
Thanks again!
Most teams would feel lucky to have this many options for the fifth starter role. If you believe that fifth starters are going to be consistent innings eaters throughout the season, I would say that is a little irrational. Instead we have a slew of young options that are capable of giving a quality 5-6 innings each fifth day. Add that to what appears to be the potential for huge progressions from Beachy and Minor along with the veteran craftiness of Hanson and Hudson. All things considered, I think this is one of the deepest pitching staffs in the NL.
Furthermore, I think the bullpen innings issue will be a non-starter this season. Although each of the big three (O’Ventbral) had 70+ IP last season, this season we have the luxury of using Medlen to spread out those high stress innings. Consider the possibility of a Moylan return, or perhaps a mid season move (Wren has been known to bring in bullpen help late). I would put this pitching staff up against any–which the Braves will need considering the relative strength of the Nationals and Phillies arms.
What utter nonsense. Bemoaning that Huddy won’t be ready until “early May” on a post published on April 25th.
And that ain’t the half of it. Stick to football, Hoss.
What a stupid article, about the Braves pitching. Tim Hudson is back next week against the Pirates. Why did you bring up his tommy john surgery, that was two years ago. Last year he won 16 games and was lights out.Jurrjens has been horrible, so Delgado can take his spot.Huddy has no health issues now, his back is good and he is ready to go!!Minor and Beachy have been great as well as Hanson….like that one guy said stick to covering football….or what ever you do!!
The Braves pitching situation is not all that different, Livan and Chad Durbin aside, than we thought it’d be coming into the season. They were never going to have 8 healthy guys throwing like #3 or better pitchers all at the same time, but this is why their pitching depth was and is a strength.
Jair being either hurt or ineffective (yes, even this ineffective) had to be right up there with Hanson’s shoulder as the most predictable reason we’d need to make use of that depth. I’ve been saying for years that relying on an aging Tim Hudson was another mark on the tally of the FO’s loyalty clouding their judgement, but Hudson was always inked in as the #2 guy and JJ was somewhere in the mix with the rest, with his slot written in pencil.
Unfortunately the Braves do NOT have depth or strength in either their starters or bull pen…wake up you guys. I agree with the article!