The Atlanta Braves pitchers show up for work Friday, reporting to spring training to prepare for the 2010 season.
They’ll bring with them an impressive balance and a dizzying amount of depth. They also carry the club’s chances at a return to the postseason.
Any and all hopes for one more October run for the franchise in legendary manager Bobby Cox’s 25th and final season in the dugout rest with this staff. Strangely, this group remains the focal point of an organization that discarded its most effective pitcher and cut ties with its two closers.
Even more strange, the overriding strength of the Atlanta pitching staff is eerily similar to the lineup’s biggest weakness.
The Braves are blessed with five No. 2 starters, an enviable collection of B-plus arms that gives them a chance against any foe on any night. The lineup is an unbalanced collection of too many No. 2 hitters, a group that lacks a surplus of either power or speed to the point that there is no offensive identity and little chance in a slugfest.
Even without Javier Vazquez, the Braves’ top starter a season ago who was dealt to the New York Yankees for Melky Cabrera, the rotation is the National League’s best from top to bottom.
Derek Lowe, who was paid ace money and delivered 8-of-clubs results, has to be better than a year ago. Tim Hudson is healthy for the first time in almost three years. Jair Jurrjens has stuff that ranks with anyone’s. Tommy Hanson has a Cy Young in his future. Kenshin Kawakami is the Braves’ fifth starter, a scenario that any other club would covet considering he had a 3.97 ERA in 25 starts.
It’s a rotation that provides results if not star power. Yes, Hanson is on track to be among the game’s elite starters, but the crew as a whole will blind opponents over the long haul more than they will dazzle them on a daily basis. And in baseball’s marathon of a regular season, that is among the most valuable assets.
The bullpen, which forever has been a hurdle during Cox’s reign, was better a year ago. Much like the rotation, subtractions have been balanced with additions and the sum seems promising.
Gone are closers Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano, a lefty-righty combination that like most finishers was an all-or-nothing proposition. They saved a total of 37 games last year and had sub-3.00 ERAs in a combined 157 appearances. They also blew 11 saves, and Gonzalez battled wildness and Soriano battled physical limitations.
Cox and Co. have aged veterans Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito at the back end of the bullpen now, and while neither still can deliver A-level stuff that matches the best of Gonzalez or Soriano, neither has the corresponding battles with the strike zone or prolonged slumps.
The rest of the bullpen appears to be increasingly strong, anchored by sidearming right-hander Peter Moylan, who pitched in a Braves-record 87 games last year.
It’s a pitching staff that requires some faith, and that’s one of Cox’s best attributes. It also will require some good fortune. An injury to Wagner or one of the starters could severely derail this pitching staff’s true strength.
They show in full numbers this week, and for the Braves, that quantity will be their best quality.