Atlanta Braves bullpen woes
By Fred Owens
Not in Minter condition
A.J. Minter can’t seem to find a happy medium
Through May 1, he had a 1.98 ERA through 13 2/3 IP striking out 12; he also walked 10. He obviously took that to heart and worked to cut down the walks. Unfortunately that made things worse.
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On May 2, he moved from being wild and walking hitters to being wild in the zone and giving up hits. Since then he’s made 10 appearances, walking three and striking out 10 but giving up 17 hits including a home run. Batters feasted on him to the tune of a .415/.457/.512/.979 line with a .533 BAbip.
The ninth belongs to
Arodys Vizcaino remains designated closer. He strikes out 9.13 per 9 and walks 3.97 per nine but SIERA sees Vizzy’s 2.38 ERA as lucky suggesting it should be 3.93 while DRA likes him a little betters at 3.11.
In high leverage situations Vizcaino ERA jumps to 5.40 as hitter smack him around at a .250/.351/.438 rate. That’s high for a closer. By comparison Jeurys Familia has 4.50 ERA this year, Sean Doolittle a 2.57, Brandon Morrow 2.70, Josh Hader 1.94; you get the idea.
Conclusions
The bullpen would look a lot better if they didn’t have to use the marginal performers so often; that’s down to starters not making it into the sixth inning.
Manager Brian Snitker hinted last week the Atlanta Braves are considering using Luiz Gohara in the bullpen. With Mike Soroka returning to the rotation soon, that makes a lot of sense.
Gohara isn’t stretched out so three innings looks his limit and he isn’t getting any work while taking care of mom. When he returns he’ll get some time at Gwinnett to shake off the rust. The need to shore up the pen and availability of other starters make the probability of him being a reliever this year high.
Vizcaino should not be the closer, he’s to inconsistent and his high leverage numbers have never been lower. This is who he is, and his profile screams setup man.
Winkler is better in every way, his stuff is nasty and he has no fear. When Vizzy melts down again and he will, it should be the last time.