Second Month in Review, Part 2: The Pitching

Pitching MVP & LVP of the Month:

MVP: John Smoltz - apologies to Rafael Soriano.

LVP: Chad Paronto - apologies to Mark Redman and Anthony Lerew.

The month of May further proof that the biggest blow to our season so far is still the loss of Mike Hampton. The Braves were really relying on him to slot into that third spot in the rotation and take a lot of pressure off of guys like James, Cormier, or Davies. Perhaps the additional burn from the Hampton injury is the guy that was supposed to "replace" him. As we unaffectionately called him, the "Plug" was finally released this month after two horrid outings in his return from "injury."

But the road bump that he created in the rotation has yet to be smoothed out. After Smoltz and Hudson the rest of the rotation still suffers from inconsistency and inexperience. The guys we tried to plug in to the Plug's role, Anthony Lerew and Buddy Carlyle, proved that they were not quite ready to perform consistently at the major league level. Lerew was quite a disappointment, especially after his first start which gave us such a sense of hope that the kid had finally figured it all out. And while Carlyle pitched well in his first start, but couldn't escape from trouble. Combined, the trio of Redman, Lerew, and Carlyle has zero wins and seven losses on the season through the end of May. (Since then, Carlyle has been able to pick up the first win from that spot in the rotation.) One has to think that a healthy Mike Hampton would have been able to fare better than that. If he or another pitcher were able to win half of those games how much closer would we be to the Mets in the National League East race?

Not all of the starting pitching is bad though. Tim Hudson continues to pitch well, although he has slipped a bit from the unhittable stuff he displayed in April. Where he left off, John Smoltz stepped in and became a real force in the rotation. In May, Smoltz trotted out to the mound and threw five straight quality starts (six straight if you go back to April), winning four games and losing a close one. His numbers for the month are more than impressive: 1.66 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, only 35 hits in 38 IP, 6 walks verses 35 strikeouts. And this impressive month was topped off with an especially sweet 200th career win - perhaps the high point of the month for the Braves.

Much like the starting rotation the bullpen has been a story of great success and great failure. The real disappointment has been Chad Paronto. He was so good this spring and through the early part of April before going on the disabled list, but he has not been the same pitcher since returning. One has to think that something is still not right with Chad as he earns the LVP of the month with a balmy 10.24 ERA, including a 2.38 WHIP (6 walks plus 17 hits in just 9.2 IP). In the 13 games he made an appearance in (which is far too many for a struggling pitcher coming off the DL) he gave up runs in 6 of them, but in 4 of the 7 games where he didn't surrender a run, he only appeared for a third of an inning (one batter).

On the flip side of the bullpen was our big three who all pitched great. With Bob Wickman (0.00), Rafael Soriano (0.77), and Mike Gonzalez (1.35) all sporting ERAs under 2.00 and a combined 8 saves and 5 holds. The real standout was Soriano, who was virtually unhittable in May. After a 4.38 ERA in April, due to just two bad outings, Soriano allowed only one run in May, which was one of only two hits he allowed the entire month! He went nine straight appearances without giving up a hit and only walked one. Rafael Soriano essentially threw a no-hitter for most of the month of May. From the 4th to the 28th he threw 9 2/3 IP with 0 H, 1 BB, and 11 SO.

Mike Gonzalez was also impressive, earning two saves and two holds in seven appearances. It is unfortunate that he went down with the elbow injury, because with him, Soriano, and Wickman (who rebounded from his injury) the Braves certainly had the strongest bullpen trio in all of baseball.

The rest of the bullpen had a pretty decent month. Macay McBride came back much more effectively than he left (11 BB in 3 IP before demotion, 1 BB in 6 IP after promotion), and with Gonzo out all season he will likely fill the lefty role out of the pen for the rest of the year. Tyler Yates was effective most of the time, and was riding his fastball into the high-90's, but he also was a bit leaky on several occasions. Both Peter Moylan and Oscar Villarreal were rather effective in the month of May with ERAs of 2.40 and 2.35 respectively.

Sometimes differences are so slight in baseball, and that can be seen in the difference between the runs we scored and allowed in both April and May. In April we were 16-9 and scored 134 runs and allowed 117 (hitting 36 HR and allowing only 20). In May we were 14-14 and scored 121 runs and allowed 120 (hitting 23 HR and allowing 24). We may have been playing over our heads a bit in April, but we played like a .500 ballclub in May and that's exactly what our record says. And what if we had Hampton instead of the alternatives? I think it is clear at this point in the season that our biggest need is a "quality" starting pitcher. Be it Mark Buehrle or Dontrelle Willis or Dan Haren, or whatever other rumor might get started out there. Certainly the way that Yunel Escobar and Jarrod Saltalamacchia have played their stock is really high and should attract some buyers.