Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 58, down under
The Atlanta Braves have had a few players from Australia over their history, but none with the personality of their reliever from down under.
When the place you call home is known as “down under” and you are also a submarine pitcher, you nearly have to have an impressive sense of humor just to survive. Luckily for the Atlanta Braves, Peter Moylan always possessed that.
It almost didn’t happen for Moylan and the Braves, however. The Minnesota Twins, who are known for their scouting in Australia, signed Moylan in 1996 when he was a teenager. He pitched two seasons in the Twins organization, but he was released in 1998.
Moylan returned home to Australia, and in 2006, the Atlanta Braves signed the guy throwing from such a low arm angle, starting the 27-year-old at AAA. Moylan got a few cups of coffee in 2006. After opening 2007 in AAA for a week, he was up to the majors for good.
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The 2007 season was an incredible one for Moylan. In his first full season, he put up an ERA of 1.80 over 80 games, tossing 90 innings, with a 31/63 BB/K ratio. Incredibly 12 of his 31 walks were intentional. The heavy workload took a toll on Moylan’s arm, and he only pitched in 7 games at the big league level in 2008.
He returned to pitch two more seasons of 80+ appearances, and then he struggled again with injury for two seasons before the Braves let him leave via free agency after the 2012 season.
Moylan returned to the Braves after missing the entire 2014 season due to injury. He then spent 2016 and 2017 with the Kansas City Royals, tossing 79 games in 2017.
Moylan returned again to the Atlanta Braves in 2018, essentially the Braves boomerang at this point. While he wore #30 this season and his first call-up in 2006, but otherwise, his other time with the Braves was in uniform #58.
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Over 9 seasons as a member of the Atlanta Braves, Peter Moylan has pitched in 356 games, tossing 299 1/3 innings. He’s posted a 2.80 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, and a 132/238 BB/K ratio.