Until there is evidence to the contrary — and a bullpen ERA of 4.90 with 11 blown saves doesn’t qualify as an argument — there are seemingly three requirements to be a Braves’ reliever: 1) Have an arm; 2) Have a pulse; 3) Have a burning desire to jog 100 yards from the bullpen to the mound for a brief appearance that probably will be followed by boos and the walk of shame to the dugout.
“I closed my Twitter account,” reliever Luis Avilan said. “So I can’t read what people say any more. If you have Twitter and you’re in the bullpen, you’re not going to see a lot of good tweets right now.”
The Braves were not expected to be good this season. So the fact that they went into Tuesday’s game against San Diego with a record of 27-30 shouldn’t start brush fires in the fan base. But continuing views of self-immolating relief pitchers has been beyond what anybody could have expected.
The most recent pile of ashes came Monday night. After starter Shelby Miller threw seven strong innings, allowing the Padres only one run, Jim Johnson (one run), Jason Grilli (one run, blown save) and Cody Martin (two runs, zero batters retired) sort of passed the torch. Like a relay race. In pitching hell.
By the time the sun came up Tuesday, the team had decided to send Martin back to Gwinnett for a second time and called up David Aardsma.
This is Aardsma’s 12th major league team. One more, and I think he gets a free set of tires.
He is the the 17th pitcher the Braves will use in relief. They still have another 104 more games to play.
Before long, Braves’ scouts are going to show up at county fairs and stand by that game where you try to knock down all six milk bottles. The first person to knock them down with one ball gets a tryout at middle relief. OK. Two balls.
The Braves signed Aardsma on Sunday, I believe off CraigsList. He pitched an inning of relief for Gwinnett on Monday. He was summoned Tuesday. There is no better illustration for this team’s level of desperation.
“I told him, ‘You came to the right team,’” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Pitch one inning at Gwinnett and you’re in the big leagues.”
We witnessed the bullpen’s alternate universe Tuesday night. The Braves rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat San Diego 6-5, partly because five relievers threw 3 1/3 shutout innings. But don’t get too comfortable. It’s one game.
The Braves used only 15 relievers all of last season. Also the season before that, and the season before that. They haven’t used this many relievers in a season since 23 walked the trail of tears from the bullpen in 2008. That season, the Braves went 72-90.
(The following excerpt from 2008 may not be suitable for children.)
Blaine Boyer (5.08 ERA), Royce Ring (8.46), Chris Resop (5.89), Elmer Dessens (22.50). But as bad as the bullpen was in 2008, that group’s collective ERA was 4.25, more than a half-run better than this year’s team.
This is at least somewhat the ripple effect of the decision to trade closer Craig Kimbrel to San Diego — or, more accurately, the decision to sacrifice Kimbrel in exchange for Padres’ willingness to throw themselves into the B.J./Melvin Jr. Money Pit of Death. The Braves also lost two relievers to failed drug tests (Arodys Vizcaino and Andrew McKirahan) and two to injuries (Shae Simmons and Josh Outman). So maybe if all of that hadn’t occurred, we wouldn’t have been subjected to Martin (5.40), Sugar Ray Marimon (6.15), Juan Jaime (6.75), Nick Masset (7.04), Trevor Cahill (7.52) and Donnie Veal (14.54).
It’s understandable why Braves executives John Hart and John Coppolella believed Kimbrel would be a wasted commodity on a potential 70-win team. But dealing Kimbrel meant Grilli and Johnson each would move up a spot at the back end of the bullpen, thereby turning the middle into … nougat.
There is no reason to believe the situation will significantly improve. The Braves won’t, and shouldn’t, spend significant money or assets just to improve middle relief. In short, this is tryout season.
“Napoleon said, ‘You know how you win a war? Money and arms,’” manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
So, yeah, Gonzalez is losing it. And he flunked history.
There is no reliever on this roster who suddenly is going to morph into a super hero, which means the lampoons from fans and cheap-shot sports columnists (guilty) will continue.
“The worst job you can have in major league baseball is to be a part of the bullpen because people are just going to talk about you when you suck,” said Avilan, who leads the staff in appearances (30) and actually has had a relatively solid season (2-1, 3.18). “When you’re doing the job, nobody is going to talk to about you. One of the first things (Eric) O’Flaherty told me was, ‘In this business as a middle reliever, you’re not going to have love from the people. You’re just going to have money and the respect of your teammates.”
Cahill said every reliever feels the heat when somebody struggles. “We’re almost a team within a team,” he said. “So when we’re struggling it takes a toll on all of us. It’s one of those times of the year when even when we execute pitches it’s a lucky hit.”
