Dan Kolb
 

Drop this joker. Now.

He couldn't get any 3 of us out in order twice in a row. He's a glorified set-up man at best, I wouldn't be surprised to see closer-by-committee any day now.

I posted this in the 2005 season thread earlier:


So when do the Braves officially admit they screwed up by getting a closer with very little history of performing consistently well and below average walk and strikeout ratios? Kolb was basically decent for a year and a half as the closer on a bad team. He hasn't even pitched 100 inning combined the last 2 years. And he's already walked more guys this year than all of last year. In fact, he's only had one year with anything approaching an acceptable BB/K ratio (2003).

What a disaster.

Chris Reitsma anybody?

Adam Bernero has been pitching awfully well thus far this season, and Mazzone claims to like what he sees there.

He's a reach... but if you're in a position to do some speculation for saves for your fantasy team, he wouldn't be a ridiculous guy to go pick up.

I think Bernero has been too valuable in long relief to see him moved to closer (he was even being considered as a possible 5th starter to fill in during Thomson & Hampton missed starts).

With that in mind, I'd say that Sosa & Reitsma are the more likely bets, even though Bernero has pitched best of the bunch. Heck, I wouldn't be shocked to see John Foster get a save chance before long.

He can't be any worse than Danny Graves and/or Ryan Wagner...

I sure hope they do something soon. I just have a hard time imagining a guy as a closer if he cant strike anyone out. A closer is brought in at times when a strikeout is a must..and these guys who average 1 strikeout every 2-3 innings..just arent closer material to me.

That being said, I dont like Reitsma either. He seems to always be on the verge of blowing up.

I think if the braves had a decent closer, they might have the best record in baseball. Thats quite a feat, considering their outfield of Jordan and Mondesi. Mondesi needs to go, too. With the good start for the braves, i would like to see them go young in the outfield.

I'm willing to trade Brad Lidge to any team that can provide the Astros with a player who can actually hit the ball...

If we had more of those, we wouldn't be so worried about the bullpen.
But we could make you a nice deal on Mondesi, he'd fit right in with the current 'Stros lineup ;)

Lidge for Furcal. Done and done.

That trade sounds good to me. A leadoff hitter who strikes out a lot and doesnt walk is frustrating.

Done.

(From rotoworld):

Dan Kolb - R - Braves


Dan Kolb is getting bounced from the closer's role in favor of Adam Bernero, manager Bobby Cox indicated today.
Kolb had put together a string of scoreless innings until blowing his third save last night, but he never actually looked very good while doing it. He'll be used in middle relief for now. You can hold on to him and hope he gets his job back, but you'll probably want him benched for now. May. 18 - 3:04 pm et

That was a bit quicker than I had imagined.

Cox and Mazzone have had experience with good closers gone bad. Mark Wohlers and John Rocker come to mind. Perhaps they have learned when to cut bait.

awesome! I cant believe they moved that fast. Excellent news.

Lidge for professional hitter Julio Franco.

Franco replaces the DL'd Bagwell and he's huge in Texas. HUGE!

Hell, why not Lidge for Kolb. Kolb can probably hit 5th in the 'stros lineup.

Of course you'll wanna put him at first to replace Bagwell. Wouldn't want Kolb to have to throw very much.

Maybe Kolb was the best they could get this off-season, and they made the trade with some hesitation. Now that their worst fears/suspicions are confirmed, they act decisively.

Octavio Dotel should be available in July; perhaps Billy Wagner as well. They'll have an opportunity to get better. They'll find their Juan Berenguer or Alejandro Pena somewhere...

Ha! They must have read my post. I'm sure that's it. Thanks, Bobby.

Btw

Who the heck is this Derek Turnbow guy and where did he come from? I never heard of him til about a week into the season, and then I see him on the tube throwing 99 mph fastballs by major league hitters.

Danny Kolb is fine if he keeps the ball on the ground. I figured he would be fine moving to Atlanta and Leo Mazzone. Two years ago when Kolb got the closer job he was throwing from 96-98 MPH. I'm not sure what his strikeout rate was but the next spring he experienced some discomfort or something and eventually went back to around 93 MPH with a good hard sinker. He was excellent in the first half and struggled in the second half. I honestly didn't think Kolb would struggle in Atlanta, I figured his arm would fall off given his injury history.

As for Derrick Turnbow, he was one of the first players last year that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs while with the Angels. The Brewers picked him up off waivers and Mike Maddux made a few mechanical adjustments. He used to have a very violent delivery a la Ben Weber and Maddux had start from the stretch and deliver the ball a little more smoothly. The results have been great so far. Just another gem that GM Doug Melvin and pitching coach Mike Maddux have dusted the dirt off from.

Personally, I think Mike Maddux is one of the best pitching coaches in the game.

Fuck Danny Kolb.

You'll have to stand in line most likely, hitters have been doing that to him all season.

Kill him and put us out of our misery. :)

As a Nationals fan, I kinda like the guy :p

Rumored that the Braves are interested in Austin Kearns. Which means since he is young he will be the next Paul Konerko once he leaves Cincinnati.

Who would we get for him? Who would the Bravos trade?

I dunno Shorty, I'm not sure how much the Braves have left to trade. Most of it will be in the starting lineup tonight.

I'd do Furcal for Kearns straight up

Before throwing away Nick Green, so would I. Now? I dunno.

That would be insane. I wouldn't trade Furcal for 2 Kearns.

How about two Kerns and a Ken Griffey rookie card?

Braves 2B Marcus Giles was perturbed about being left out of the lineup, especially with Chipper Jones on the DL and the Braves struggling to score runs. "I don't know what's going on," Giles said. ...

I have a bad feeling I might be able to guess what's going on :(

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!! (Sorry, channelled Vader There).


Holy cow, they would NOT trade Giles, would they?

He was almost traded (according to various rumors) at least once times during the off-season, at one point he was being included in the Hudson deal.

Wilson Betemit made his first start at second base, fueling speculation the Braves could be showcasing him for a trade.


That sounds like a better plan. I have a sinking feeling your right though, Jon.

Now Betemit for Kearns I might live with pretty well, but I have a hard time seeing the Reds going for that.

And I'd have a hard time wanting to give up much more than that. Kearns is striking out in 1/3 of his AB's this year. That's the last thing a team that has the 5th most strikeouts in MLB needs to add to fix a struggling offense.

He was just on Jim Rome today talking about how he wants to be in Atlanta his entire career and looks forward to big brother Brian coming over next year when he's a FA to play with him.

Now this would be a wrench in that plan.

Betemit is supposed to have lots of potential right? I mean, I still see Kearns being a .290, 30 HR guy

Betemit was suppose to be the prize of the Atlanta farm system (like ranked the #1 prospect in their system for a couple years).

I heard during a Braves telecast recently (might have been Don Sutton) that those rankings then dropped Betemit and so did his production. I believe the phrase used by Sutton was if you have mediocre expectations for your child, the child will only shoot for mediocre.

:mad:

I came here to bump this thread, but I'm not at all surprised that someone beat me to it.

:mad:

At what point can you tell it's time to shoot a horse to put it out of it's misery?

We past that point in April, but when you have no payroll budget and no way to off load his (I believe it is in the 3.4 million range), you're stuck.

Ok, but why do we keep sending him out there with the game on the line?

Because somebody has to throw the ball?

I mean, seriously, as bad as he is, he's not that much worse than some of the other options.

Let's see: Bernero got himself sent to the minors, Grybowski got himself sent to Texas, Powell & McBride just got here so I'm not sure they really count yet (since we don't know how their presence will affect Kolb's usage), Sosa can't close or even pitch 7th/8th innings regularly since they never know if he'll be needed to start, Foster is the designated lefty specialist, Colon was sent back to the minors & might be an option but he may still be a starter more than a reliever. Blaine Boyer is a probably a better option, but otherwise there's only Reitsma (who is getting the bulk of the work anyway) & Brower, who has been surprisingly (to me at least) effective.

Games allowing a run (in last 10 appearances)
Reitsma 1/10 (but 5 runs in 2 outings prior to that)
Brower & Foster 2/10
Kolb & Boyer 3/10

As bad as Kolb is, and he truly sucks beyond any doubt at this point, I think the bigger problem is the bullpen overall; Kolb is just one (big) part of the problem.

edit to add: Something else that I'm starting to think may be a factor is something that I've heard talked about more this year on Braves radio & tv than I ever recall hearing before -- how Cox talks with the relievers pretty much everyday, basically polling them about who can go that night & who can't. One thing we aren't privvy to is how often Kolb gets called on because other guys have said "I don't think I've got anything for tonight".

Atlanta has always done a good job of understanding that most relievers are fungible- and this year, to some extent, they've gotten unlucky.

I guess you could call it a crapshoot

I hate this f*cking fatso. I'd deep six him so fast his head would spin.