Yes, Braves right-hander Julio Teheran lately has not looked like an All-Star starter for the Braves or even the promising rookie who immediately established himself as a legitimate major-leaguer in 2013.
No, Teheran insists he is not hurt or otherwise feeling any discomfort. Teheran tweaked his knee while dodging a sharp line drive in an April 11 start against the Mets but said he was fine by the next day.
“If there’s anything wrong with my arm, I wouldn’t want to be out there and do something to make it worse,” Teheran said Wednesday.
It’s not an injury but clearly something is not right with Teheran, the staff ace.
In his last three starts he’s 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA and .333 opponents’ average while allowing 20 hits, 16 runs (12 earned) and seven walks in 15 innings. The Braves gave Teheran an early 9-1 lead against the Nationals on Tuesday and he ended up giving up 10 hits, seven runs (three earned) and two home runs.
That makes six home runs allowed by Teheran in his past three starts. He gave up just 22 home runs in 33 starts last season and 22 in 30 starts in 2013.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez and pitching coach Roger McDowell met with Teheran on Wednesday to review his latest start and Gonzalez said Teheran assured him he’s not hurt. Gonzalez believes Teheran’s issue has been poor pitch selection.
Gonzalez said Teheran threw 41 fastballs on 83 pitches (49.3 percent) against the Nationals, a number he thinks is too low because of Teheran’s command of and variation on his fastballs. Teheran threw fastballs on 48.9 percent of his pitches three starts back against the Blue Jays and 65.7 percent against the Mets last week.
“He manages his fastball, both sides of the plate, elevates it and sinks it and his other stuff is off the fastball,” Gonzalez said. “For whatever reason in the last couple starts he’s doing it the other way around. Tomorrow when he throws his side (session) he’s got to get back to that: four-seam (fastball), two-seam and locate his fastball and pitch off of his fastball.”
Gonzalez said a bright spot from Teheran’s outing on Tuesday was that his velocity was back up to 93 mph after it had dipped to as low as 88 against the Mets.
Teheran said “the ball was flying” against the Blue Jays and he struggled to get a good grip in the cold weather at New York. He said he became predictable against the Nationals because he frequently fell behind in counts.
“I don’t want to get frustrated or look for something that I don’t have, like looking for bad mechanics or something,” Teheran said. “I’m just going to keep working and trying to get better.”
