Atlanta Braves: Can Anthony Swarzak sustain this run of success?

There is no question that the best move, maybe in all of baseball, during the 2019 season was when the Atlanta Braves acquired Anthony  Swarzak.

When the Atlanta Braves traded for Anthony Swarzak the bullpen was in a really bad place and ranked among the worst in baseball.

But since acquiring the 33-year-old veteran, the Braves bullpen has been one of the best in baseball.

Since coming over from the Mariners for Jesse Biddle and Arodys Vizcaino, Swarzak host given up just 1 earned run on 7 hits and 6 walks over 16.2 innings with 20 strikeouts.

Before the trade, he had given up 11 runs (8 earned) on 14 hits and 8 walks over 13.2 innings with 17 strikeouts.

The strikeout rate is right on par with where it’s been the past couple of seasons, but he’s done a better job of limiting the walks since being traded to Atlanta.

His BB/9 of 3.8 with the Atlanta Braves is still not great, but when you’ve only allowed 7 hits in 16.2 innings, it kind hides those walk issues.

But is this run of success an aberration, or is it sustainable for Anthony Swarzak?

Obviously, I don’t believe he’s going to pitch to the tune of a 0.57 ERA the rest of the way for the Braves. There will be a natural regression.

But that doesn’t mean he still won’t be a lockdown setup guy the rest of the season.

Just two seasons ago he posted a 2.33 ERA in 77.1 innings, which is lower than his season ERA in 2019 of 2.67.

So one could say that maybe he can keep up this pace for the rest of the year.

I’ll take a stab at the advanced metrics here.

According to FanGraphs, Swarzak’s hard-hit percentage has dropped from 48.7 percent with the Mariners this year to 37.1 percent with the Atlanta Braves.

That 37.1 percent is still higher than his 2017 total 28.2, so again, there are signs that his success is sustainable.

Swarzak features a nice fastball in the mid-90s and a slider will a lot of late drop in the upper 80s.

If you can control those two pitches, you can get big league hitters out.

The biggest question for Swarzak going forward is whether or not he can control those two pitches.

A lot of his problems at the beginning of this year and last year were because he was walking too many batters.

He’s never been a guy that gives up a ton of hits or home runs, but as we Braves fans know, walks always come back to bite you.

There is almost no way Swarzak continues to hold hitters to a .127 average with a  BABIP of .176. But as long as he continues to limit the walks, he’ll be an effective reliever in the Atlanta Braves bullpen.