The Braves aren’t giving Julio Teheran an extra day because it could enhance his chances of making the All-Star team, but interim manager Brian Snitker does believe Teheran deserves to be an All-Star for the second time in his career.
Teheran had his start bumped back from Thursday to Friday to give him an extra day of rest just because the Braves think he can benefit from it, given his first-half workload and recent home games in what has been an intensely hot early Georgia summer.
“We’re extending (Teheran) pretty good every time he goes out there, any time we can give him an extra day it’s not going to hurt us at all,” Snitker said.
Mike Foltynewicz will come off disabled list and start Thursday’s series opener against the Marlins, after being on the disabled list four weeks with bone spurs in his pitching elbow. He made one rehab start and was originally scheduled to make another Thursday, but injuries to other starters led the Braves to scrub that plan and activate him.
“The thing is he’s healthy, feeling good,” Snitker said, adding that Foltynewicz would probably be on a limit of about 90-95 pitches. “We’ll just kind of let that play out as it is. But he’s good to go.”
Teheran has a 1.72 ERA and .169 opponents’ average in his past 13 starts, averaging nearly seven runs per game in that stretch and working eight or more innings in three of his past four starts. Before Wednesday he was second among major league starters with an 0.89 WHIP (walks-plus-hits per inning pitched), ninth in ERA (2.46) and 11th in innings (106).
He’s on pace to top the career-high 221 innings he pitched 2014, when Teheran made the All-Star team. He pitched 200 2/3 innings in 2015, his second-highest total.
“If he keeps going like this I’m sure he will (surpass 221 innings),” Snitker said. “So whenever we can give him an off day or an extra day, I think we will.”
Bumping Teheran to Friday means he will have two starts before the All-Star break instead of three. If he’d stayed on schedule and pitched Thursday, he would’ve had two more starts July 5 at Philadelphia and July 10 at Chicago (White Sox) in the last game before the break.
But with his start moved to Friday, he would presumably make only one more start before the break, on July 6 at Philadelphia. That would surely increase Teheran’s chances of being named to the National League All-Star team, since All-Star managers choose pitchers they know will be rested enough for their teams to permit them to pitch in the All-Star game (July 12).
The only deficiency in Teheran’s All-Star statistical resume is won-lost record (3-7), but most who in the baseball industry and those who cover it are increasingly in agreement that a pitcher’s record is an unreliable measure of performance as it depends too much on other factors, with run support a major contributor.
Teheran has received the worst run support among major league starters at 2.72 runs scored per nine innings that he’s pitched.
“You start looking at All-Star pitchers, he is one,” Snitker said. “The only thing that’s not there is his won-lost record, and he can’t control a lot of that, what goes on. He takes it an inning at a time and has been about as good as you can get.”
The Braves aren’t moving his start back a day for All-Star consideration, but rather to do what they can to keep him strong throughout what is shaping up as a career-best season for the 25-year-old Colombian.
“It’s not just the arm, too, it’s your whole body,” Snitker said. “Legs, core, everything. If you can have that extra rest … because there’s going to be times when you’re not going to be able to do it, so when we can, I think it’s a good idea to do that.
“This heat’s been different than the last two or three years I can remember around here. Just the day in, day out. We’ve had that (mild) day or two, but this (heat) has been kind of consistent, and we’re not even in July yet.”
Teheran is one who’s not been affected by adjustments in his rest between starts in the past. He’s pitched well on extra rest this, including his last start Saturday when he pitched eight scoreless innings against the Mets on two extra days’ rest. He had one extra day of rest to starts before that one.
“When they’re going seven, eight, nine innings every time, I don’t think that hurts them at all to have that (extra rest),” Snitker said. “I remember what Bobby (Cox) said one time, he would talk to (Greg) Maddux about (getting extra rest) and he’d say, ‘You think I’m going to forget how to pitch?’”
