Atlanta Braves: how 15 years of veteran 5th starters have fared

Dice Rolls that Paid Off

Aaron Harang

• ACQUIRED:  March 24, 2014.
• AGE:  Closing in on 36

Harang was perhaps best known as a member of the Cincinnati Reds (2003-2010), but continued to bounce around through 2015.

He had a career mark of 128-143 for 8 different teams over parts of 14 seasons.  While he was a workhorse for Cincy (over 670 innings from 2005-07), he had ebbs and flows of both innings and results after that.

Harang became available as the Indians released him that Spring – allowing him to catch on with another club… that being the Braves, who were still reeling from the news that came on consecutive days a couple of weeks earlier:  Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy both lost their UCL’s, requiring Tommy John surgery and effectively starting the end of their respective (and very promising) careers.

Harang did his part to perfection:  33 starts, 204 innings and a 3.57 ERA.  He record was 12-12, but given his status as an ’emergency’ starter for the whole season… that was remarkable.

Honestly?  Cleveland went with their ‘kids’… and Harang could have helped them a bit.

Javier Vazquez

• ACQUIRED:  December 2nd or 3rd, 2008 (White Sox trade)
• AGE:  Turned 32 mid-season

This wasn’t a ‘standard’ case of acquiring a 5th starter during Spring like the others, but Vazquez fits in this group because of the circumstances… namely losing Tim Hudson to a UCL injury and having to replace that presence on the roster.

Bleacher Report pointed out that there were other reasons to need him, too:  Mike Hampton became an Astro and John Smoltz might have left the Atlanta Braves that off-season as well (he did not).

The trade was no small thing:  Vazquez and Boone Logan were obtained for Brent Lillibridge, Jon Gilmore, Santos Rodriguez, and a catcher named Tyler Flowers.

Vazquez had the reputation of a pitcher with unrealized potential:  lots of innings, lots of strikeout ‘stuff’, but results that belied those skills.

But in 2008, he put it all together.

• 219 innings
• 15-10 record over 32 starts
• 3 complete games
• 2.87 ERA

This was the only time in his career in which he held opponents under 3.24 runs per game… and he beat that by a lot.

After the season, Vazquez was traded again:  under the headline “New York Yankees Steal Javier Vazquez from the Braves”, Bleacher Report described the deal as yet ‘more reasons to hate the … Yankees’.

Boone Logan was involved again:  going to New York in exchange for Melky Cabrera, reliever Mike Dunn, and a barely 19-year-old pitcher named Arodys Vizcaino.

Vazquez started 26 games in New York and had a 5.32 ERA after throwing 157 innings.

Somehow I don’t think Bleacher Report had that one right at all.