Atlanta Braves Veterans Closing In On Significant Milestones
Multiple Atlanta Braves veterans are currently on the cusp of very significant career milestones. Just about all of them are possible for this season.
Even if you weren’t already getting excited for this first Atlanta Braves season at SunTrust Park, we’ve got several things for you to watch along the way. The numbers, please?
Bartolo Colon
If you didn’t know, then this Tweet informed you:
Bartolo Colon is getting after it in the Dominican Republic. He's chasing Marichal for the most wins by a pitcher from the DR. #Braves pic.twitter.com/8yBO5Z3oQh
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) December 15, 2016
Going into his 20th MLB season, Colon is indeed closing in on Juan Marichal‘s record for most wins by a pitcher from the Dominican Republic.
Colon is sitting on 233 career wins, just 10 behind Marichal’s 243. Are 10 or 11 wins this year obtainable? Certainly.
In the six seasons since missing the 2010 season with elbow surgery, Colon has averaged 13 and a third wins per. If the Braves’ offense doesn’t lay an egg every time he’s on the mound (see: Shelby Miller, 2015), then Colon could reach this milestone with the Braves this season.
Also, a fun number to track this year will be his strikeouts.
Colon is currently 135 away from 2,500. Similar to the wins, if he hasn’t lost anything from last year, then this is possible, as well.
R.A. Dickey
Dickey is closing in on two milestones: 2,000 innings pitched and 1,500 strikeouts. He’s currently at 1,883.2 and 1,341, respectively.
So… he needs 116.1 innings and 159 strikeouts. Both are possible this season, especially the innings, but I wouldn’t bet on either, especially the strikeouts.
Dickey hasn’t K’d more than 126 each of the last two seasons, even after start totals of 33, then 29.
As far as the innings are concerned, it’s tough to say. While he has pitched at least 169.2 innings each of the last seven seasons, there is a lot of competition to make the Braves’ rotation this year.
This could mean a few different scenarios playing out this season:
- Dickey spends the whole year in the Braves’ rotation (gets to 116.1 IP).
- Dickey gets traded at some point this season (then gets to 116.1 IP with another team).
- Dickey loses his starting spot, then moves to the bullpen.
If Dickey is better than expected, or the guys who are close to a call-up are worse than expected, he could see himself reaching both of these milestones in Braves’ uniform because the Braves will most likely exercise their club option on him after this season.
Brandon Phillips
Phillips is close to three career marks. For one, he’s 137 hits away from 2,000. Also, he only needs three home runs and two steals to reach 200 in each of those categories.
The home runs and steals will almost certainly get there this year– the hits are iffy.
Last season, in one of his best seasons ever for batting average, Phillips had 160 hits in 87% of the season (141 games).
If we assume Phillips is the same player that he was last year, it would still take 75% of the games (about 122 games) this season for him to reach 137 hits. With Albies almost certainly getting the call-up at some point and most likely sooner rather than later, that’s probably unlikely.
If he does get to the 2,000-200-200 marks, though, he will be only the 32nd player in history to do so. Whether he does or not, what career it’s been for BP.
Freddie Freeman
After turning in what was probably his best season yet, Freddie Freeman is now on the verge of 1,000 hits. At 949 currently, it shouldn’t be long before Freddie gets there.
The speed at which Freddie should accomplish this feat is actually quite substantial. Chipper Jones didn’t reach 1,000 hits until he was 28 years old; Freddie enters the 2017 season at 27 years old.
No, the Freddie-Chipper comparisons are never going to end.
Freddie keeps moving up the Braves’ record books– another 178 hit season like he had last year would put him top-20 in Braves’ history.
Nick Markakis
Nick Markakis has honestly had a sneaky-good career.
He’s well known in Baltimore and now Braves’ Country, but seriously – he’s so underrated.
Markakis is currently 111 hits away from 2,000 for his career and only eight doubles away from 400.
Barring injury (*knock on wooden bats*), he’ll get both this season.
Seriously though, who could’ve guessed that Markakis is top-15 for active players in both hits and doubles? Only eight other players are in both top-15’s.
Combine all of that with the fact that he’s been one of the best defensive right fielders over the past decade and it’s asinine that Markakis has never been labeled an All-Star.
Julio Teheran
Atlanta Braves
Another productive season should see Teheran logging his 1,000th career inning pitched. He’s currently at 821.1 IP, only 178.2 IP away from the mark.
After four straight seasons with at least 30 starts, there’s no reason to believe he won’t get this in 2017.
While 1,000 IP is a nice achievement in itself, this is another noteworthy one because of how quick it’s potentially going to happen. Going into his age 26 season, Teheran is the only starting pitcher left from the last time the Braves made the playoffs, in 2013. He was only 22 years old then.
He’s the perfect example of what the Braves hope their young pitchers turn into. Teheran was once a very highly regarded prospect and is now cranking out very productive All-Star type seasons every year.
Next: Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: News and More
Honorable Mentions:
Jaime Garcia: 104 IP away from 1,000.
Jim Johnson: 75 K away from 500 (realistic in 2018).
Matt Kemp: 10 HR from 250,17 SB from 200 (we’ll see…), 144 RBI from 1,000 (2018).