Braves

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@CarrollRogers
#Braves optioned RH Mike Foltynewicz to Gwinnett and recalled IF Daniel Castro from Gwinnett. Castro hitting a combined .330 in AA and AAA.

@BravesReddit
Foltynewicz last 3 starts: 0-0 15.2IP 8.04 ERA. Opponents hitting .403/.434/.667



Just guessing, but I expect a starter to called up to start Friday.

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At what point do results matter more than potential?

I think folty will be a very good reliever. Out of the pen, he'll become more of a fastball-curve or fastball-slider guy. I hope I'm wrong, but I like fried, wisler, and Jenkins better long term as our starters.

Certainly not in their first years in the majors.

Folty would be an insane reliever. But he has better stuff than anybody else in our farm system, and it's really not that close. We would be doing a disservice to the entire organization not to see if he can reach his potential as a starter. He can be moved to the pen at any point if it doesn't work out.

But I've seen enough from him this year to believe he can absolutely get there. He has elite velocity and seems to be adding some movement to his fastball, a plus curveball that he needs to continue to command better, and a developing slider that could be plus as well.

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Certainly not in their first years in the majors.

Folty would be an insane reliever. But he has better stuff than anybody else in our farm system, and it's really not that close. We would be doing a disservice to the entire organization not to see if he can reach his potential as a starter. He can be moved to the pen at any point if it doesn't work out.

But I've seen enough from him this year to believe he can absolutely get there. He has elite velocity and seems to be adding some movement to his fastball, a plus curveball that he needs to continue to command better, and a developing slider that could be plus as well.

Yeah, he has great stuff. Strasburg has the best stuff of any nat too and he's what their 4th best starter. Stuff is great, but it doesn't always equate to best pitcher. I hope he's the 2nd coming of smoltz, but I think he'll come closer to Kimbrel. I think he and shae Simmons will be a very formidable back end of our staff in '16-'17

[smootness]

Yeah, he has great stuff. Strasburg has the best stuff of any nat too and he's what their 4th best starter. Stuff is great, but it doesn't always equate to best pitcher. I hope he's the 2nd coming of smoltz, but I think he'll come closer to Kimbrel. I think he and shae Simmons will be a very formidable back end of our staff in '16-'17

?

Strasburg has battled injuries, especially this year. He still gave them 3 great years in a row in his first 3 from 2012-2014, to the tune of 11.8 WAR. No one would suggest putting Strasburg in the pen.

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?

Strasburg has battled injuries, especially this year. He still gave them 3 great years in a row in his first 3 from 2012-2014, to the tune of 11.8 WAR. No one would suggest putting Strasburg in the pen.

Strasburg >>>> folty

And even when Strasburg was pitching well the last few years, you could argue Zimmermann, Gonzales, and fister were better even though not the same stuff. My whole point was stuff alone doesn't make great pitchers. See Juan Jamie

[smootness]

Strasburg >>>> folty

And even when Strasburg was pitching well the last few years, you could argue Zimmermann, Gonzales, and fister were better even though not the same stuff. My whole point was stuff alone doesn't make great pitchers. See Juan Jamie

The Nats have a lot of great pitchers with great stuff. Strasburg is one of them.

I'm not arguing that Folty is great right now, or that he definitely will be. I'm just arguing that he can be, and has a better chance than Perez to be, so pulling the plug on him as a starter would be premature and short-sighted.

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The Nats have a lot of great pitchers with great stuff. Strasburg is one of them.

I'm not arguing that Folty is great right now, or that he definitely will be. I'm just arguing that he can be, and has a better chance than Perez to be, so pulling the plug on him as a starter would be premature and short-sighted.

In no way am I saying we should pull the plug on folty starting. We should try banuelos, folty, wisler, fried, Perez, Jenkins, hursh, and winkler as starters, but not all are gonna make it here as starters. By '17, I like these 5:

Miller
Wood
Fried
Jenkins
Teheran/wisler

I just think folty will get passed. I think folty is gonna blow people away out of the pen. When they move him, I think they'll cut him down to mostly 2 pitches and tell him to just air it out on fastball (no reason to hold back pitching 1 inning)

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Ciriaco has played for a banged up Simmons the last 2 days and played well. He's 5-8 with 3 rbi's and 2 doubles. I think he wants to stay up

[Really Clark?]

Ciriaco has hit well. Uribe swinging it good lately. Good night for Wood and as bad as the pen has been Masset has pitched well the last 7 games he has been in. Hopefully that trend continues.

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Ciriaco has hit well. Uribe swinging it good lately. Good night for Wood and as bad as the pen has been Masset has pitched well the last 7 games he has been in. Hopefully that trend continues.

Masset with 7 straight scoreless appearances.

Jim Johnson with 5 straight scoreless appearances.

Hopefully we've got our 7 (Masset), 8 (Johnson), and 9 (grilli) set now. Use avilan as lh specialist and cunniff as rh specialist if needed. Aardsma still has a 0.00 era after 4 appearances.

I think this pen could be decent if vizcaino and mckirahan perform well when they return.

[Really Clark?]

Masset with 7 straight scoreless appearances.

Jim Johnson with 5 straight scoreless appearances.

Hopefully we've got our 7 (Masset), 8 (Johnson), and 9 (grilli) set now. Use avilan as lh specialist and cunniff as rh specialist if needed. Aardsma still has a 0.00 era after 4 appearances.

I think this pen could be decent if vizcaino and mckirahan perform well when they return.

Hopefully it starts to settle. Nice NL play to plate another run. Gomes with a walk, Peterson sac bunt, single by Maybin. Now if Maybin has finally figured out how to hit with his defense, Hart will have some nice choices and pieces to put together some deals.

[BoomBoom]

Yeah, he has great stuff. Strasburg has the best stuff of any nat too and he's what their 4th best starter. Stuff is great, but it doesn't always equate to best pitcher. I hope he's the 2nd coming of smoltz, but I think he'll come closer to Kimbrel. I think he and shae Simmons will be a very formidable back end of our staff in '16-'17

guys with great stuff often take longer to learn to pitch rather than throw, due to getting results all the way thru the minors just off their stuff, unlike most pitchers. think Smoltz and Clemens.

[Really Clark?]

guys with great stuff often take longer to learn to pitch rather than throw, due to getting results all the way thru the minors just off their stuff, unlike most pitchers. think Smoltz and Clemens.

Until Smoltz got to AAA for a full season in the Braves organization he didn't get by with just stuff. His stuff got him promoted but he struggled at over 5 era at AA and his initial AAA bids were horrible. As were his K/9. Now Clemens blew right through but you could say his college career took care of a bunch of that. By the time both were 22 they were established and in control. Now I'm not saying Folty can't or won't get there, I think he will but he is behind the curve I those two and after just one year they were set in the majors. As far as his first 70 MLB innings, they look similar to Smoltz and hopefully next year he sticks like Smoltz did but Smoltz did not blow through the minors blowing people away.

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@DOBrienAJC
#Braves Freeman to miss Thurs with R wrist sprain. Got injection tonight, says hopes to play Fri

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I think we still need bullpen help if we really want to try to be competitive this year. The guys we have are just too volatile. Honestly, the fact that we've had several consecutive scoreless appearances out of guys like Masset just makes me worried they're about to blow up.

Vizcaino and McKirihan will certainly help. I'd like to see Banuelos come up and pitch out of the bullpen later in the year, and we have some decent minor league options we can still try out.

And I've been saying all year that I want us to go ahead and move Hursh to the pen to see what we have there. I just don't think there's any way he makes it as a starter.

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Grant McAuley @grantmcauley
#Braves have optioned INF Daniel Castro back to @GwinnettBraves and recalled OF Eury Perez from Gwinnett.


Still no word on tomorrow's starter

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DOBrienAJC
#Braves will announce Friday starter later tonight. I'd expect it to be Wisler.

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@BravesReddit
In his 2015 debut Arodys Vizcaino has 2 strikeouts and a groundout through 1IP. 20 pitches (15 strikes)

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Theres hundreds of reasons why fredi should be fired, but not taking up for his players should enough of one. Why does fredi always sit on his butt when his players are taking issue with umps?

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@DOBrienAJC
Wisler to start Friday for #Braves

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I'm excited. Really like this kid. He'll be matching up with a tough pitcher (deGrom) though