Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 11, 2008
The Danger of Old Pitchers

Tom Glavine's elbow breaks down, putting 3/5 of the Braves projected starting rotation on the disabled list. Smoltz, Glavine and Hampton are by default turning the Braves into a young team. Old rotations can be pretty good, providing they stay healthy. That turned out not to be the case with the Braves.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:55 AM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The thing about old rotations is any competent team has a backup plan, since old starting pitchers are likely to miss time with injuries (especially Hampton & Smoltz, both virtual locks going into the season to get hurt). The Braves did not and do not have a real backup plan. They are too busy crafting PR strategies to convince their fans they are broke.

What a waste of all those great young position players.

Posted by: Matt Davis at June 11, 2008 03:07 PM

How completely out of touch.

Chuck James, Jeff Bennett, and Buddy Carlyle were are all "backup plans" coming out of spring training. All are replacement level or better. It's one thing to have a backup plan for a couple guys missing a few starts. But how can you have a backup plan for your number 1 starter going down for the season? What, were they supposed to get Jake Peavy and stash him in Richmond?

Posted by: mravery at June 11, 2008 04:10 PM

Yes. An old rotation is a risk, but it has upside. You can't stash a backup rotation in AAA. They've just had a few unlucky years.

Posted by: patsen at June 11, 2008 04:26 PM

Oh, and Jair Jurrjens was scratched from tonight's start: he sprained his ankle walking down the steps after last night's loss.

Which leaves Tim Hudson and... yeah.

Posted by: mravery at June 11, 2008 07:06 PM

I hope somebody asks Glavine whether he feels "devastated."

Posted by: Steve H at June 12, 2008 08:30 AM

Everybody except fanboys and John Schuerholz knew Smoltz and Hampton would be spending some quality time on the DL this year. Chuck James is OK. Bennett and Carlyle stink, and they are certainly not "above major league average".

They could have had Colon for $1M. I got pilloried for bringing up Colon a month ago on Braves Journal. It's still true that notwithstanding the pretend financial problems of the Braves, they could have afforded that.

Or they could have quit drafting a bunch of 17 year old flamethrowers from down the road when they know they will need pitching sooner than that.

Posted by: Matt Davis at June 12, 2008 03:29 PM

Sorry mravery, you said they (James, Bennett, Carlyle) are replacement level, not above average.

James is above replacement level, probably. Bennett and Carlyle are probably at or below RL.

But replacement level STINKS. You will never contend if you come into the season likely to get 400-500 innings of replacement level starting pitching. Which is what we have here. Which was foreseeable and preventable.

As a Braves fan, I know well that local Braves coverage is pathetically anachronistic and deferential, so criticism of the Braves is never welcome, but this isn't bad luck. It's old fashioned bad management.

Posted by: Matt Davis at June 12, 2008 03:33 PM
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