The Braves suffered a scare this afternoon when Kris Medlen, likely the team's Opening Day starter, left his start against the Mets (video link) with what is being diagnosed as a forearm strain. He will be evaluated further tomorrow morning. Manager Fredi Gonzalez told reporters, including David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (video link), he's hopeful. "Keep our fingers crossed. But I feel a lot better after talking to our medical people. We might be OK." Medlen, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2010, has been dominant for the Braves. O'Brien notes the right-hander's ERA since the 2012 All-Star break is second only to Clayton Kershaw among pitchers with at least 250 innings pitched in that period and he's won three of the past eight NL Pitcher of the Month awards while no other pitcher in baseball has won more than one over the same span. O'Brien opines losing Medlen for any significant amount of time could be a blow to the Braves' chances of defending their division title, unless they make a move to acquire another proven top-of-the-rotation type of starter mentioning Ervin Santana. If Medlen is sidelined, the Braves could stay in-house and insert both veteran Freddy Garcia and left-hander Alex Wood into the rotation with Gavin Floyd, who has received good reports on his rehab from his own Tommy John surgery, expected to be ready in May.
Elsewhere in the National League on the first day of Daylight Savings Time (except in Arizona):
- New Cubs manager Rick Renteria does not see competing in the NL Central "as a daunting task" despite being the only division to send three teams to the playoffs and his own club coming off four consecutive losing seasons, writes the Chicago Sun-Times' Gordon Wittenmyer. Renteria also sees similarities between the NL Central and the much-praised AL East. "So my thing is, quite frankly, we have a body of players that we’re trying to help form into a team, and that if we can do certain things and take certain actions that we have just as good a chance of competing in our division as some of those teams in the [AL] East have done in the past."
- Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Times examines the players on the bubble of making the Padres' 25-man roster, including recent waiver claim Alex Castellanos.
- The Rockies have renewed the contracts of all their pre-arbitration eligible players, according to the Denver Post's Troy E. Renck (via Sulia). Last month, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes reported agents were unhappy with the Rockies' salary formula for these pre-arb players, which spawned a feature article by Zach Links detailing how teams determine salaries for such players.
Yeah, either way Braves won’t make a move. It doesn’t make sense to pay more whether FA or trade when they have plenty of options and depth and haven’t given up that first round pick.
Well that video link shows almost the same reaction Medlen had when he went down in ’10. But here’s to hoping it’s nothing serious
braves should have traded for David Price a long time ago
Why give up what you would have to give up for him when y’all are a very strong internally
Trading with the Rays is a good way to get fleeced. Be careful what ya wish for!
Just let it go already
Braves do not have the pieces to make that trade. Their farm is way down, especially at upper levels, which is usually all that the Rays are interested in.
Last time the Braves got someone from the Rays, it didn’t turn out so good.
Last time the Braves got someone from the Rays, it didn’t turn out so good.
Could flare the rumors of Jeff Samardzija to Braves back up if Medlen is out at all.
Well that’s silly to say when the Braves are strong internally
Not saying that’s what’s going to happen. But there have been rumors in the pass about Braves maybe being interested in him. But I do agree with you, its unlikely
I’d say highly unlikely, now if the Cubs are floundering at the trade deadline I see Samardzija being moved, but
still not to the Braves.
Of course if the Cubs don’t sign him, he has a good first half, and if the Cubs are out of it they will be trading him in July
Do you think the Braves are strong internally?
With Alex Wood, Freddy Garcia, and Gavin Floyd outside and looking to get in the rotation, yes I would say they are very strong internally!
I wouldn’t trust Freddy Garcia and Gavin Floyd lol
Freddy Garcia would still hit the rotation first, then Alex wood and then Gavin Floyd, but not knowing the extent to the Medlen injury at this point could make this whole conversation a mute point.
don’t forget Hale, but I’m not confident in any of them save Wood
Also Beachy is a question mark right now.
The Braves might have to make a move.
Hopefully Medlen’s ok, he’s really underrated and a class act.
Very true about Medlen, class act let’s wait and see what happens should know by mid day tomorrow.
Mute point huh?
or maybe a moot one.
not sure if serious
That’s just about the worst collection of rotation depth of any good team in baseball. They are not strong internally.
You keep saying they’re strong internally… Floyd won’t pitch until at least the end of May, Garcia is a wild card, and Wood hasn’t thrown a full season yet… though all 3 combined could get you 200 +/- innings, admittedly, but the whole thing now looks like a house of cards.
Meanwhile, Minor is a little behind (could actually start year on DL). Only other guy with ML experience on the roster is David Hale.
>>I think we’re now finding out the cost of not paying Tim Hudson $11m
The Cubs were asking for Jason Heyward or Justin Upton. What a joke.
I’m rooting for Medlen to heal up nicely. He has the makings of a fine pitcher for many years to come. He’s one of the handful of underrated guys I always try to watch.
I’m just tired of the braves being cheap they seriously need to lock up a true ace.
Did they not just lock up a fledgling ace and several other key components in the last month, say Thank you John Hart!!!!!!
$280.7MM committed and you’re “tired of the braves being cheap”. I’m guessing you won’t be going to many games to help pay that bill.
“O’Brien notes the right-hander’s ERA since the 2012 All-Star break is second only to Clayton Kershaw among pitchers with at least 250 innings pitched in that period”
That is so misleading especially since you only need about 63 IP/year to cover 250 IP in 4 years. Talk about arbitrary variables. He was out pretty much all of 2011 and a reliever/spot starter in 2012. The rest are quite good but not stellar.
All-Star game 2012 is not 4 years ago!!!!!!!!
Haha wow I definitely did. I got this mixed up with something on SNY which quoted “since 2010” and I thought this was the same reference. Serves me right for glossing this over.
He was a reliever for most of 2012 by design, after coming off of TJ surgery. And while his 2012 record as a starter only encompasses only 83.2 IP, it was in fact, stellar.
As a starter, since the All-Star break (these numbers do not include a relief appearance in August 2013, and are from Baseball Reference):
42 GS, ~278 IP, 2.46 ERA, 239 K (7.34 K/9), 56 BB (1.81 BB/9, 4.27 K/BB). I’d say that’s pretty stellar, as well.
I think “Citizen” missed something in this one?????
If you make it minimum 400 innings and since 2010, he’s still second to only Kershaw if that makes you feel better.
‘That is so misleading especially since you only need about 63 IP/year to cover 250 IP in 4 years.’
This is misleading. DOB was refering to the last yr and a half of baseball, which is a nice chunk of playing time. I don’t think he meant it was the end all be all, but its worth mentioning to give some perspective on how integral he is to the rotation. thats all he was trying to do and in that sense i think it was completely valid. losing medlen would be huge.
Pre-Arbitration Rockies don’t even get a cost of living raise? Denver can be a pricey real estate market. Well, I guess if you shop at Aldi and take the bus you can make it.
Denver is expensive, yes, but a half-million dollars for a season of baseball will certainly allow a rookie to buy a new Camry and rent a nice apartment. This doesn’t even take into account possible signing bonuses. They’ll manage; it’s only for a year.
You did get my sarcasm, right?
If you can’t live very comfortably on 500,000 for 9 months of work you have problems.
Yeah they did locked up a few players but at this moment we don’t have a true ace . maybe one day Julio will be our true ace but we wont know until it happens.idk about y’all but i wanna win now .
I would say bide your time, new stadium coming, core players will be much better, you will compete until then look for 2017 as your year
GO BRAVES!!!!!!!
won 96 games last yr. most of the team isnt going anywhere for a very long time. no idea why it’d take them until ’17 to recover from losing medlen.
The Cubs will be very good soon, but they’ll finish in last in 2014.
Their prospects are all position players. They’re seriously hurting for pitching. Not sure how good they’ll be unless some better pitchers start showing up on FA lists.
The Cubs rotation as it stands is not awful. It could potentially be decent/good with rebounds from Edwin and Jeff. Their minor league pitching prospects are not as bad as people make them out to be. The perceived ‘lack’ of pitching talent comes from the shadow that the mega position player prospects cast on the rest of the system. There are definitely some good arms in there that will hit the majors and contribute in the next 2 years.
I agree with you, I think the Cubs have a pretty strong system when it comes to bullpen arms and the starters are getting better led by Kyle Hendricks and CJ Edwards
Their prospects are all position players. They’re seriously hurting for pitching. Not sure how good they’ll be unless some better pitchers start showing up on FA lists.
I love Renteria’s positive attitude before the season, but sometimes you should say nothing…if he seriously thinks he has any chance to compete in the NL Central the Cubs are in for a loooooong season with him making decisions.
I Dont even think 4th place is a realistic goal…they are last place bound.
It’s just “coach speak”. Would you expect him to come out and say “we might as well not come out of the club house this year”? He knows it will be another rough year, but cant come out and say it.
It’s just “coach speak”. Would you expect him to come out and say “we might as well not come out of the club house this year”? He knows it will be another rough year, but cant come out and say it.
santana has spent his career proving he isnt a top of the rotation arm… so of course it makes sense DOB thinks hes a top-of-the-rotation arm.
Dennis Lin, the Padres beat reporter for the San Diego paper, works for the “U-T”, the Union-Tribune, not the Union-Times.