The Atlanta Braves bullpen is finally coming together
After a rough start after the trade deadline, the Atlanta Braves bullpen acquisitions are finally starting to turn a corner.
A lot of people in the media thought the Atlanta Braves won the trade deadline after bolstering their bullpen with Mark Melancon, Shane Greene, and Chris Martin.
Early on that certainly didn’t seem to be the case as Greene, who was brought over to be the team’s closer, blew a save in his first appearance with the Braves and took the loss in his second appearance.
He blew another save on August 10 and gave up 7 earned runs in his first six games with Atlanta.
After a scoreless outing to start his career with the Atlanta Braves, Martin gave up 6 runs over his next five appearances.
Melancon was very solid for the Braves to start not allowing a run in his first four appearances after the trade deadline. But in his first save opportunity with the Atlanta Braves — it wasn’t technically a save situation as they were up four — he gave up four runs and the Braves ended up losing in extra innings.
He bounced back for a save his next time out, but then almost blew another 6-2 lead as he gave up a pair of runs to the Mets before Jerry Blevins came in to bail him out.
But over the weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers, we really saw all three pitchers settle in and pitch like they’re capable.
Martin threw two scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts while not allowing a hit or a walk.
Greene has thrown three straight scoreless innings while not allowing a hit or a walk with 4 strikeouts.
And Melancon got back-to-back saves against the Dodgers allowing just 1 hit and striking out two.
It’s a small sample size, but it gives us hope that maybe the bullpen is about to settle into place now that everyone knows where they stand.
High leverage relievers
Shane Greene came over with a lot of confidence and a 1.18 ERA pitching in high leverage situations for a Detroit Tigers team that wasn’t going anywhere.
It feels like he got humbled a lit bit pitching in high leverage situations for a playoff team.
He’s started to settle into the setup role, which is I where I think he actually belongs.
Melancon has been really good for the Atlanta Braves since coming over outside of those two blowups against the Mets and Marlins. But his stuff looks electric and he’s the right person to close games for this team.
He has the most experience of this group and he’s pitched in postseason games. I think him taking over that closer role will allow everyone else to settle in and feel comfortable in their roles.
Since the trade deadline, Luke Jackson has given up just 1 earned run in eight outings. However, just one of those eight outings was a clean outing.
Still, I think Luke has settled into that setup role and has been really good. I still trust him in high leverage situations in the seventh and eighth innings.
You can also throw Martin into this group and it’s really just between him and Jackson as to who is available to throw the seventh that night. I think it’s a toss-up between the two in this role.
Situational relievers
Sean Newcomb has been Brian Snitker‘s top reliever out of the bullpen against lefties even though lefties (.270) have a much high average against him this year than righties (.247).
Newcomb has really struggled the past month giving up 10 earned runs in his last nine outings. Eight of those runs came off home runs.
Blevins has been much more effective against lefties this year as they are hitting just .159 against him. But Blevins never needs to face righties as he struggles mightily against them.
Based on that, I think Blevins is our best situational lefty late in games, while Newcomb is best as a middle innings lefty specialist who can also give you multiple innings if needed.
The job that Anthony Swarzak did for the Atlanta Braves when coming up is one of the best and biggest performances this team has had all season.
He came over during a time when the bullpen was at its lowest and steadied the ship.
The righty gave up just 1 earned run in his first 21 appearances for the Braves, including 17 straight scoreless outings.
He then struggled at the end up July giving up 6 runs in three outings after dealing with an injury, but he’s settled down since then and has been great as the Braves situational righty.
Swarzak is capable of facing both righties and lefties and pitching an entire inning, but he’s held righties to just a .224 average this season.
Long reliever and next in line
I was really sad that Bryse Wilson didn’t a chance to pitch out of the bullpen for the Atlanta Braves when he was recently called up.
But I also understand Snitker not wanting to throw him into that situation against the Dodgers.
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Still, I think Bryse is going to be a huge asset out of the bullpen for the Atlanta Braves down the stretch and possibly even in the playoffs.
Josh Tomlin is that eighth man in the bullpen right now and the team’s long reliever. He’s done an outstanding job for the Atlanta Braves all season and deserves to stay on this roster through the regular season.
But if Bryse, or any of the other young arms for the Braves, comes up in September and shows some dominance out of the bullpen they will definitely replace Tomlin on the postseason roster.
I think it will be a similar situation with what we saw from Chad Sobotka last year. He came up and was lights out and the Atlanta Braves carried him on the postseason roster.
Bryse is that guy for me right now, but it could also turn out to be Kyle Wright, Patrick Weigel, A.J. Minter, Touki Toussaint, Ian Anderson or Sobotka himself.
As Alex Anthoupolus said recently, they’re going to take the 25 best guys. Whichever relievers are pitching the best down the stretch will be who they take into the postseason.
Next. Crucial week ahead. dark
Feelings on the bullpen change quickly — as we know — but I feel really good about where this bullpen is at right now.