Triceps tendinitis prevented Cole Hamels from throwing a side session today, Braves manager Brian Snitker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gabriel Burns and other reporters. While Snitker gave no indication that Hamels wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season, the timeline cited by the skipper would seem to leave things cut very close for Hamels to make the initial 30-man roster.
“I think we’re probably a week away from seeing where things are [with Hamels]. He’s day to day now as far as when he gets back on the mound,” Snitker said. “His shoulder feels great. He said he’s going through normal things he has before in spring training. We’re probably a week away from seeing where he’s actually going to be when this thing starts.”
Since Hamels has yet to throw a simulated game or throw to live hitters, he’ll have less than a week before the Braves’ July 24th opener to get properly ramped up, going by Snitker’s “probably a week away” assessment. Hamels could be pushed back to the fifth starter’s role to give him more time to prepare, and he wouldn’t have to pitch for very long, as the club is planning to use a piggyback strategy with all of its rotation — the starter would throw around three innings before being replaced by a reliever — in the season’s early days. However, even if Hamels’ workload was limited, the team might also decide that it isn’t worth having him on the mound at all until he is is completely ready, so as to avoid further injury.
Ironically, Hamels was on pace to miss the original Opening Day, as shoulder issues kept him out of Spring Training prior to the league shutdown. He had recovered from those problems and was expected to be ready to go for the second opener prior to this latest setback. Hamels signed a one-year, $18MM deal with the Braves over the offseason to add some veteran experience and potential upside to a young Atlanta rotation. With Sean Newcomb looking like the favorite to win the normal fifth starter spot, Josh Tomlin or Kyle Wright look like the top choices to fill in for Hamels if he does miss time at the start of the season.
Tucker Davidson should get some starts. Super underrated
Probably too many guys in front of him to get any starts this season, but then again, who knows with the virus. Touki’s out for a bit (not that he had a good chance to start), but there’s still Wright, Wilson and Newcomb fighting for the last spot and Ian Anderson is waiting in the wings and he’s probably going to be better than all of them.
I don’t know if starts are going to be a worthwhile stat this year considering most teams will deploy a piggyback for the first 2-3 rotation turns. All those guys and Davidson could see 2-3 innings during the first few weeks.
I like Bryse but I think he could be used as a set up man on down the road. Ian Anderson is probably my favorite and hope he gets a shot soon. Kyle Wright will be good if he gets a fair shot I believe. I just don’t understand why nobody talks Davidson at all. He arguably has had better minor league numbers then all of them but nobody seems to bring him up in conversation or show him love as a prospect. Personally I’d rather see him in the rotation over Sean Newcomb since he showed decent stuff in the bullpen
Easy answer is he’s a 19th round draft pick that has only pitched four games above AA.
Besides ERA, his numbers really aren’t better in the minors than the other guys. Wilson and Wright both have better WHIPs and k/9 than Davidson.
I see Wright winning the 5th spot. With Smith and Touki on the covid list they’ll need Newcomb to stay in the pen. Wilson will probably be in it as well as a long reliever.
Wright is terrible, needs to be traded for anything they can get.
He’s not terrible. He had a great second half at triple A last season and was dominating in Spring Training. I think the Braves brought him up too early and you could tell that he was nervous and wasn’t executing his pitches. But with more experience hopefully that goes away, because he’s got great stuff.
@briffle I think he is terrible too. Not a fan.
Yes please.
I hope more than I can say that he can get his body right, if not this year, then next. I’d absolutely hate for a pitcher with his resume to wind up his career in an avalanche of injuries.
Braves seem to be getting all the bad luck right now.
They’ve gotten good luck the last two years. It’s bound to happen.
Luck is the residue of hard work and proper preparation, not some cosmic whim. Karma is what continually bites the Mets in the butt. Mets have been the receiving their just due for the Madoff deals the owners made for years.
Statistically speaking, not really. Run differential would have still had them winning the division
Not really. Cole was hurt for a good part of last year which is why he was a free agent in the first place. They signed an old hurt pitcher on the downside. That is not bad luck. Just a bad decision.
Not a bad decision. It was a 1 year deal
I guess you can say they lucked out with the Hamels deal and the virus. If it was a regular season Hamels would’ve missed some time at the beginning and now he’d be missing more time.
Freddy Freeman went down from the virus as well as a few others. I don’t think the Braves have been lucky.
@Metsfan..please describe the luck the Braves have experienced. If what you see is luck is putting a good, winning team together than I can see why you describe it as luck. You probably measure anything better than what the Mets do as luck. I don’t blame YOU. Being a Mets you don’t know what good looks like.
At some point you just have to stop kicking the can Krillin
Now in hindsight, yes lucky year/sign/timing with Hamels but I wouldnt want this to be the blueprint if I was an ATL fan
Hamels has a proven record, came back strong in 2019, and didn’t require draft pick compensation or a multi-year deal. Now b/c of C19, he gets a prorated portion of his 18M – honestly, we haven’t lost much. We only need a few IPs from him at a time, and there’s still time. Not that big of a deal. Hope he rubs off on Fried BP sessions though.
RunDMC exactly correct. If he can teach some of his awesome lefty change-up magic to Fried or Newk, he can have tremendous value for the Braves even if he never throws a single pitch. A young team can learn a lot from a veteran presence, and specifically, a veteran crafty lefty with a world series MVP on his resume and a history of winning.
@salary cap myth….. I agree. They don’t know what good is. They haven’t been All around good in a long time. Even the year they went to the series they didn’t strike me as some juggernaut. With all that starting pitching they should win that division every year. No excuse for the mediocrity that comes out of queens on the regular.
Most times I agree good pitching beats good hitting, until you play the Mets. How else do you explain getting an L when your rotation is always in the top 3 in the game. This has been going on for five years or so now.
Paging Mr. Hernandez
He opted out. I can’t tell if you’re sarcastic
yeah i know he did. im just suggesting that he could have been very useful in this situation.
Ahh okay gotcha was just curious. I’m a little disappointed cause I wanted to see if he had anything left
Reports during the spring said he was only topping out low 80’s… I don’t recall, but if true I’m not sure how well he would have helped out. He also just looked ok against the Orioles and Marlins B & C squads, and knowing how bad their A squads are, you can only assuming their B’s are brutal
Thank you what I’ve been saying over and over!
Why is tomlin listed as a possibility? Would they seriously give him a starters shot over all of the young guys?
He’ll get to throw plenty of innings. Just not a lot of good ones.
I don’t like this deal and everytime I hear something about Cole Hammels, it’s bad. His production is NOT better than Teheran who we let go for much less money. We paid Hamels $9 million more (prorated) than Teheran just so we can have a DIFFERENT veteran pitcher talking to our young arms? This contract is starting to feel destined to not payoff.
I would’ve much rather seen the Braves acquire Corey Kluber. I’d have been okay denting the farm system since Kluber and Hamels are making similar salaries this year. Plus the fact that Kluber has a team option after this season if he’s healthy and pitching at 80-90 percent of his Cy Young self.
I had seen more than enough of Tehran, so I’m not at all disappointed he was allowed to walk.
That said, I don’t love the Hamels deal, either. It’s only a year, so I’m not going to crush it. I’d have rather seen them spend the money on Donaldson, though. If they’d have let Markakis go, and passed on Hamels, the money is almost equal.
I understand wanting a veteran anchor for the staff. The thing is though, if he’s breaking down, isn’t he really just essentially the highest paid pitching coach in the league?
I’m with you Appalachian except for the first point.
For the life of me, I’ll never understand the hate Julio Teherán receives from Braves fans. Maybe it’s that he was once hailed as the best pitching prospect in baseball, so he’s a disappointment because he wasn’t an ace who won multiple Cy Youngs
In ever single year that he’s been a mainstay (since 2013) he’s made over 30 starts. He’s had his highs and lows but you always knew he was going to get the ball every five days and that you’d have a chance. It’s not like he was ever overpaid anyways.
I get moving on from him by reinvesting the money elsewhere but the Braves paid more money for an older, more expensive player coming off an injury because… he used to be an ace? Doesn’t make sense.
If you were a Braves fan and watched him pitch regularly you would understand why Braves fans don’t like him. I got nothing against him as a person and it’s not like I hate the guy, but he was just so wildly inconsistent.
It was frustrating to watch him constantly nibble and not attack hitters, especially as he started losing his fastball the past few years. His bb/9 the last three seasons are 4.3, 4.3, and 3.4. Too many sliders trying to get guys to chase.
Oh, and by the way, Teheran was placed on the 10 day IL four days ago and I don’t believe he’s reported to camp yet. So your whole point about Hamels being hurt and wasting money might be a moot point.
Not to mention Julio’s numbers were strongly influenced by dominating the Marlins.
@briffle…. I heard you secretly have a fat head of Tehran in your living room and he watches movies with you.
Out of all the Braves fans here App Outlaw and Mr Sans have impressed me the most.
I really respect you guys for being honest and critical of your team as it comes- You guys have a great org (especially right now) so it would be really easy to just gloat and raise your chin up at everybody but you guys are well grounded, calm , cool and collected
As a Dodger fan I find many LAD fans get very snippy anytime you ever are critical of the org. If your not on board with 30 year old Ross Stripling being a dynamo Sp2 around half the league your not a “true fan”. It can be hard finding worthwhile convos in that echo chamber arena- Keep up the good work,
You mean the same Teheran that is still MIA? Hilarious after Y-E-A-R-S of Braves fans begging to get rid of Teheran, we are at a point that we won’t him back. Even without Hamels I would have given the young arms more of an opportunity, especially now when you’re not as reliant on them going 6.
@Briffle
I am a Braves fan and I have watched him pitch regularly. This is just one of the many problems with the eye test. It’s subjective where numbers are not.
As for his issue of walking to many batters, nobody is calling him a perfect pitcher. But his ability to prevent runs has been better than average.
I don’t know what your “eye” saw but the numbers say something different.
@LOL
Your observation doesn’t make sense. The Orioles and Tigers are worse and have been worse. Does this mean the pitchers in those divisions aren’t any good?
For the last point which Briffle and DMC brought up, yes, Julio’s not reporting in. You can only make this statement in hindsight. The point that I made, that we are paying Hamels $9 million more than Teheran just to be a different veteran pitcher in our young pitchers ear still stands. For all we know at this point, the Braves won’t pay either pitcher anything.
@SalaryCapMyth
Look up Boolios numbers vs the marlins and then Vs the rest of baseball and then report back.
Didnt know you were a Braves fan….ida included you in my post above with App and Mr Sans
Thanks Rain Delay. I can see why you wouldn’t know I’m a Braves fan.
@LOL! You are arguing that Teheran benefited more from pitching to the Marlins than say, Charlie Morton did against the Orioles or Sherzer, deGrom or Strasbourg did ALSO against the Marlins. Every pitcher in every division has a last place team to face but you say Tehran’s case is different. This is YOUR argument so why do I need to go anywhere to prove YOUR point? You prove it.
So you can report back when you have compared how full time starters compare to each other when facing last place teams and show where Teheran is so much different than all the others.
Im not totally in-tune with Teheran but damn for a pitcher thats logged 7 years with 30+ starts he sure gets a lot of heat in here…I doubt theres 5 current Sps that can claim that today in all of MLB
Perhaps its the lack of frontline starters in ATl the last decade- Hes had to fill a Sp1 role when in fact hes probably more of a quality, consistent Sp3 ….. Not really his fault
Id take Teheran at 9 over Hamels at 18 7 days a week and twice on Sunday though if we are being honest
I think you are hitting on the issue, THRD. When Teheran was coming up, he got a lot of hype as the Braves next ace. That didn’t happen and so us Braves fans struggled to appreciate Teheran for what he was and apparently chose resentment for what he is not. You really do sound a lot like me when I argued with my fellow Braves fan. Teheran is a very durable, middle of the rotation arm. As you already pointed out, that durability is valuable in itself.
Braves fans that hated him also got caught up in his peripherals. For the last seven years in a row, Teherans ERA has been better than his FIP or xFIP. When your ERA is lower than your FIP and xFIP, it implies that you have benefited from good fortune. I would be okay with that if Teheran hadn’t done just that so many times. What player could be so lucky to have your ERA outperform your FIP and xFIP seven years in a row? At some point you take a step back and realize that the sabremetrics you value so much isn’t getting Teheran right.
Some of this most fans aren’t aware of because it’s very much Braves stuff but you seem to be pretty quick on your feet.
If you’ve really watched him pitch regularly how can you dispute anything I said? Does he nibble the plate too much? Does he walk too many batters? Is he inconsistent? The eye test and the numbers say the same thing about him.
All of these are facts and reasons why Braves fans have gotten tired of him.
Look at his ERA by month last season and tell me he’s not inconsistent:
March/April 5.35
May 0.98
June 5.08
July 1.48
August 3.42
September 6.56
I’m not saying he’s a terrible pitcher, but this is why fans are tired of watching him pitch for the Braves.
Hamels had a better season than Teheran last year and the big difference is the playoffs. In Teheran brief postseason experience he’s been terrible. Hamels has a WS ring, two playoff MVP’s, and a 3.41 ERA in 100+ playoff innings. The Braves needed a veteran starting pitcher with quality playoff experience.
Did you throw a fit when the Braves signed Keuchel for 13 million for only 19 starts?
“If you’ve really watched him pitch regularly how can you dispute anything I said?”
Again..this is the problem with the eye test. You may think your opinion is correct but EVERYone thinks this and there are more than just the one that you have.
But let’s look at your issue with Teheran being inconsistent. This is Kyle Hendricks month by month. The up and down month by month pitching stats doesn’t look so different from Teheran
March/April 5.33
May 1.81
June 4.42
July 2.25
August 5.20
Sept 3.41
But how about Hamels? Is he different?
March/April 3.19
May 5.19
June 1.22
August 6.33
Sept 4.80
Nope. He is at least as inconsistent as Teheran. Did you even look at Hamels month by month production before you brought it up with Teheran?
As for Teherans playoff experience, you are right when you say it is little. He has had all of 6 IP spread over 3 outings and 2 of them were bad. Sorry bud, but I’m not going to make to many solid judgements on such a short sample size. When I looked at Hamels playoff experience, he has good career numbers but his experiences have been pretty hit or miss..or maybe inconsistent?
Did I throw a fit when Kuechel was signed? No. I wouldn’t behave so emotively. Do you behave like that?
@salarycap….. thanks for the breakdown, had no idea those other guys where so up and down. I kinda like Julio…. all clowning aside. He starts a ton of games. Not everyone pans out to be a number one, but just be glad he’s solid. I’m from Baltimore and I would love to have a Tehran.
@briffle ….. why do you have a picture of some idiot on the front porch in a flannel? Not trolling I just want to know. Is it from a movie l? Is it some pop culture reference I don’t get?
Thx. Us Braves fans tend to flame Teheran more than he deserves. We all love a pitcher that can keep each monthly ERA at 3.50 and bellow everytime but those really ARE aces. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t appreciate what Teheran brings to the table.
Not saying it means anything but Hamels’ prorated salary this season is $6.66 million.
It does mean something. It 100% does.
“the club is planning to use a piggyback strategy with all of its rotation — the starter would throw around three innings before being replaced by a reliever”
Talk about taxing your bullpen. As if these relievers can handle 6 innings each game. Yikes.
Not ideal, but a lot of teams will do something like this. I imagine there will be a good deal of movement between Atlanta and Gwinnett as well.
They will also carrying extra pitchers at the start of the season
its not going to be relievers. its going to be whoever their 6th, 7th, 8th etc starters would be. long relievers in a sense, but its just like having another start run from the 4th through the 6th.
The guy is made of glass all the sudden
Its not sudden. Look at the past few years
Is it too late to return Hamels to free agency for a full refund?
I’ve never been one to put sports figures on a pedastal, but man I love me some Cole Hamels.
With the Washington Redskins name and logo change, you can all but kiss your name and stupid Tomahawk Chop goodbye!
you feel better now?
Watch it be the Atlanta freedom fighters or something super corny. 100 years from now when our great grand children look up hank Aaron they will say he played for the freedom fighters, and I’ll roll over in my grave and say that guy played for the Braves. Smh. So ridiculous. All that tradition down the commode.