Braves release minor league pitchers Kevin Gunderson and Cody Railsback.
From a Bill Shanks Tweet
Not Gundy! That makes me sad, I always rooted for Gunderson.
about 2 years ago
gondeee
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Gunderson always had solid #s...
his move seems a bit surprising. I always thought he might eventually make it up as a middle reliever. Strange they cut him outright, even with the #s crunch we seem to have with minor league arms.
You're biased
..because of his and your name. =)
I always find it sad when they release minor leaguers that never bloomed…
If you check some of his older tweets, they also cut Eric Barrett, Derrick Himpsl, and Clayton McMillian. My Spring Training trip is always weird, because this inevitably happens, guys I talked to a week ago, guys I like a lot, end up getting cut a week after I get home. I really hope these guys are able to catch on somewhere else or at least give indy ball a try for a while. One of the guys I went to college with got cut by the Phillies too. This is a crappy week as a minor league baseball fan.
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Was there problems...
with Gunderson we didn’t know about? Hada he just not improved like the FO hoped? His cut seems pretty odd considering his age, and the #s he had posted in his career so far. Maybe it’s the pessimist in me, but I keep thinking there has to be something more to this story than a simple #s crunch and lack of upside. For a guy who’s 25 and put up the consistent numbers he did as he rose through the ranks I just can’t get why he’d be let go.
and he's a lefty too...
hard to think he didn’t even have trade value. Someone will pick him up, and I hope we don’t look back with regret on letting him go.
Personally, I’ve never been that enamored with Gunderson. I think he was 6th on our relievers list, which says a lot about what gondeee and yodaime14 think of him, since I didn’t even rank him. He’s a really little guy (realistically about 5’8" 160), so stamina is an issue. You can see that he only hit 50 games once in his career so far, in his three full seasons he averaged 48 games and 54.3 innings, which are fine but don’t exactly indicate a guy who you’re going to be able to count on every night. He has a very herky-jerky delivery which tended to get away from him and lead to control problems. He averaged 3.7 BB/9 for his career, which isn’t far off of the 4 per he posted in 09. That’s way too many walks for a reliever, and was a huge part of his problem. Another big thing was his fastball, which sat between 94 and 96 in college, never seemed to get above 92 as a pro. That’s still great for a lefty, but without control, and for a guy who was used to being a power pitcher, it was an issue.
Frankly, I think the loss of Railsback, who’s had his career derailed by some injury issues, including mono, who can get the ball up as high as 98 when he’s healthy, is a much bigger loss.
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by cbwilk on Mar 29, 2010 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Sometimes there are players that I can’t break away from my initial impression of them, and I was instantly impressed by Gunderson several years ago. I probably kept rating him high far after I should have dropped his prospect status, but that was probably more a case of me rooting for him that accurately rating him.
I hear you. We all know my ratings of guys are based on how much I personally like them more than I should be. I didn’t like Eric Campbell, so I didn’t rate him, and that turned out to be right, but I did like Jon-Mark Owings and I rated him 5th on the RF options and he got cut back in November. I definitely get the early love for Gunderson, anyone who watched him pitch in the College World Series would have loved him.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
What is the point of releasing these guys? They are still young and performed at least decently last year. And why do we keep a guy like Marek on our 40 man roster? An enigma indeed.
There are only so many roster spots. We can look at the numbers all we want, but the Braves coaches have been watching these guys every day of their careers and their front office guys have much more knowledge about them than we can ever hope to. If they cut them over somebody else, they had a good reason. In recent history I can only think of one guy the Braves cut out of the lower minors who’s even remotely done well afterwards, and that’s Garret Jones, who was cut after three so-so seasons with the GCL and Danville. But his story is the rarity, and a testament to his work ethic, not the norm.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
I didn't know we had Garret Jones at one point.
He did better than “remotely” well. I picked him up in my fantasy league after his first five or so homers last year, and he was a fantasy stud for the rest of the year.
Even so, your point is well-taken.
I was only 12 when Kent Hrbek stole the World Series.
by Cooper'sTown on Mar 29, 2010 9:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Garrett Jones...
the same Garrett Jones on the Pirates? No way. I had no clue we had him in our system at one point.
"(Jason Heyward) is like the Grim Reaper -- you know he's going to get you, you just don't know where or when." 3/26/2010 -- The future arrived.
by Scott Coleman on Mar 29, 2010 11:20 PM EDT up reply actions
99-01. He and Adam LaRoche shared 1B and DH duties for Danville in 00. After he was cut Garrett hooked on with the Twins, which is incredibly rare because usually when a guy is cut out of Rookie ball he’s just done. He worked his way up and made his ML debut with the Twins in 07, after learning to play some LF and RF, and then popped up again this last year when he played so well for the Pirates. Again, not a knock on the Braves front office but a testament to Garrett’s personal work ethic. Still, as much as I like him, I wouldn’t bet on a repeat in 2010.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
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thats awsome
good for him. and yeah, i dont expect similar numbers in 2010, but just that he made the Bigs is good enough.
"(Jason Heyward) is like the Grim Reaper -- you know he's going to get you, you just don't know where or when." 3/26/2010 -- The future arrived.
by Scott Coleman on Mar 30, 2010 12:11 AM EDT up reply actions
Oh absolutely. It was a story enough when he did it in 07, but getting back a couple years later and having a fantastic half season was just great. I hope he can repeat it, even if I’m reasonably skeptical.
I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it: https://www.createspace.com/3407939
www.dropoutproductions.com
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