The Braves’ pitching staff would love to switch places with Tom Brady. Their problem is over-inflation.
A team that for the past six years ranked third, third, fourth, fifth, first and fifth in the majors in ERA sits in 19th place at 4.11, which is several PSIs north of last year’s ERA of 3.38.
The Braves’ starters, accustomed to royalty status, collectively rank among the pitching peasants in every important statistical category, including ERA (15th), innings pitched (20th), batting average (20th), on-base percentage/slugging percentage (23rd) and walk-strike ratio (26th).
They also have allowed 108 walks, which ranks third most in the majors. The John Muir Trail is considering annexing the 90 feet between home and first.
The rotation’s No. 1 starter, Julio Teheran, last week pitched a game in which his team blew two eight-run leads. The rotation’s No. 2 starter, Alex Wood, has lasted only 9 1/3 innings combined in his past two outings, allowing eight runs and 15 hits. Teheran and Wood’s combined ERA last year was 2.84. This season: 4.05.
Perhaps the New England Patriots can spare a pump needle.
“This is still a young pitching staff, and because they’re young they’re going to go through some growing pains,” said Roger McDowell, the Braves’ pitching Yoda. “It probably won’t be the last time they have to overcome some struggles. Not that it’s a good thing, but it’s never a bad thing to be humbled a little bit.”
Humility. That shouldn’t be a problem right now.
The expectations for this year’s Braves were low. They have had a significant part of the roster blown up, and they’re still in the framing-and-sheetrock portion of the rebuild. So the fact they have as many wins as losses (14-14) five weeks into the season actually comes with some comfort, even if attendance would suggest about 12 people care.
The biggest surprise is that the issue has been pitching, not hitting. The Braves rank 11th in the majors in runs scored and 12th in batting average. Imagine how well the team might be doing if starters could last into the sixth or seventh inning and had an ERA below 4.03.
McDowell is here to tell you that everything will be all right. Eventually. The Braves just called up their 19th pitcher of the season, which is one more than all of last season. And it’s the second week of May. But the angels sang the other night. Shelby Miller, the season’s relative ace, threw a complete-game shutout.
The win came over Philadelphia, which is probably the worst team in the majors, but a mildly stressed pitching coach isn’t going to quibble when his starter goes nine innings and they’re lighting therapy candles in the bullpen.
“We needed that, for a multitude of reasons,” McDowell said. “It was a complete game, giving the bullpen a day of rest, and we had a starter go deep into a game. … Some of those (relievers) are being used four times a week, where in reality it should be twice.”
This hasn’t been easy on McDowell. When his pitchers fail, he feels it.
“Because I’m in charge, I’m responsible for them,” he said. “When my guys struggle, I ask myself if there’s something I should be doing to help them overcome that.”
He has needed to be as much therapist as pitching coach this season. Teheran, Wood and Miller are 24, Mike Foltynewicz is 23. Young egos and failure often don’t mix well.
“There’s going to be failure in this game. The question is: How do you get past that and do what you need to do to move forward?” McDowell said.
There’s the added pressure of pitchers knowing the team is in a rebuild, and the bullpen has suffered from losses, notably the trading of closer Craig Kimbrel. The Flying Wallendas lost their safety net.
“Feeling a weight? I’ve thought about,” McDowell said. “There’s weight on our shoulders from the standpoint of keeping us in games. We went into this season thinking, ‘OK, the pitching’s going to be great, and the offense is going to struggle.’ We haven’t struggled to score runs. You would hope the pitching would hold up its end of the bargain. But you go through those difficult periods, and you hope you’re able to grow from it.”
Stay there. He’s just getting warmed up.
“It’s like I told Julio the other day, ‘We’ve got about 25 or 26 more of these (starts). His record’s OK. But from the standpoint of getting deeper in a game, having more focus and taking that focus onto the mound — you have an eight-run lead twice in a game, I don’t care if it’s Julio Teheran or Mike Foltynewicz, our focus should be not on cruise but on getting outs.”
Feel free to read between the lines.
There’s reason to believe McDowell will get it fixed, simply because he always does. As Wood said, “Having Roger there to guide you along is big, especially for me after last week and with the shaky start I’ve gotten off to. We’re going to be fine when it starts kicking in, and when it does it’s going to be fun to watch.”
