Atlanta Braves news and notes from Wednesday
Owen Murphy is getting Tommy John surgery and that is an interesting case study for the Braves’ recent organizational draft strategy of investing more in pitchers than hitters. Of course, part of this is due to their long-term contracts with many position players that decreases their need for new position-players, but it has been a seemingly clear strategy. Many of their draft picks (Schwellenbach, Ritchie, Murphy, Phillips, Maier, Burkhalter, probably some more) have and/or are now expected to missed significant time due to injury. Such is the nature of pitchers.
If the organization can expect to still produce enough quality position-players (or use pitching prospects to trade for them) and then extend them, thereby extending their usefulness to the team, then investing in quantity of pitching prospects makes sense, as they can be used to both trade away and it is more likely that some of them will survive the high attrition rate and make it to the majors. On the other hand, however, the argument could be made that since position-players are more stable and valuable assets, the team would be better served attempting to develop a quantity of them and then trading them for major league ready pitching as needed. Both approaches have some merits and there are confounding factors such as organizational development ability for each type of player, prospect quality available to the organization in the draft and IFA, among other things. It is interesting to see how this strategy has worked out for Atlanta and continues to work out as the prospects develop.
Braves News
Arguably the most impressive Braves’ prospect this season, Owen Murphy will be getting Tommy John surgery.
Garrett put together an introduction to Spencer Schwellenbach’s profile, in anticipation to his debut Wednesday.
The Braves added a noteworthy former Athletic who was at one point a potential trade target to the organization on a minor league deal.
Ray Kerr will start Thursday’s game, pushing the rest of the rotation back a day, which is especially useful for Reynaldo Lopez and Chris Sale.
Spencer Schwellenbach had a solid debut outing, but perhaps had too long of a leash and the offense cannot overcome anything right now, as the team lost 7-2.
The Braves optioned Jimmy Herget to make room for Spencer Schwellenbach on the active roster, and filled their last free 40-man slot with the right-handed prospect.
MLB News
Alek Manoah will get an MRI regarding his elbow soreness that caused him to leave Wednesday’s game early. This continues a rough couple of years for him.
Speaking of the Mets, they placed their $100 million reliever on the IL with a shoulder injury in the season immediately following him missing a season due to injury.
The Red Sox are placing Tyler O’neil on the IL with knee inflammation, as the outfielder has started the season well.