In the midst of a team rebuild that is nearing its end the Atlanta Braves signed 19-year veteran pitcher Bartolo Colon to a 1-year $12.5 million contract before the season. It was their hope that Colon would be a stabilizing force in the pitching staff and be able to eat a bunch of innings to take stress off of the Atlanta bullpen. Did it work? In a word: NO.
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| Colon: 2-8 in 13 starts; league-worst 8.14 ERA |
The Bartolo Colon experiment in Atlanta has been an absolute disaster. The 44-year old went 2-8 with a league-worst 8.14 ERA in 13 starts in 2017. After 13 starts however, the Braves have seen enough, as they designated Colon for assignment on Thursday. This is a welcomed sign for Braves fans as watching Bartolo Colon pitch this year has been the equivalent of an invasive prostate exam. Okay, that's a little harsh, but make no mistake, it was bad. But this is not a piece about Bartolo himself. This is about the effect Bartolo has on his teammates.
The Atlanta Braves are overall having a good season. If you factor in the fact that they were expected to have a terrible year, the fact that the Braves are still rebuilding and the fact that their All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman was having a MVP season before fracturing his wrist in May, the Braves' 37-41 record is a bit surprising and is good enough for 2nd place in their division. But something strange happens when Bartolo Colon takes the mound-things go wrong.
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| Inciarte won a Gold Glove in 2016. |
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The Braves are one of the few teams that are playing better than their record would show. Before his injury, Freddie Freeman looked like the runaway pick for the NL MVP, Ender Inciarte is 3rd in the MLB in hits, and if he gets one hit tonight against the Oakland Athletics, he will clinch back-to-back months with 40 hits, which is no easy task. Defensively, Brandon Phillips and Dansby Swanson are a lethal combination turning double plays in the middle of the diamond. The Braves also have one of the best defensive outfields in the game, with 3 Gold Glove Award Winners: Ender Inciarte, Matt Kemp and Nick Markakis being charged with keeping the ball inside the park. Matt Kemp is have a resurgent season with Atlanta, leading the team in batting average (.309) and 12 home runs and 37 runs batted in.
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| Colon was DFA'd by Atlanta Thursday |
However, we're not talking about what the Braves are doing right, we're talking about what Bartolo Colon does to them. First, let's talk about Colon himself went wrong: He had a league-worst 8.14 ERA. That's two full runs higher than the next closest pitcher. Of the 91 runs that were scored against the Braves in games started by Bartolo, Colon himself allowed 66 of them. The team was suffering from an average of 7.0 runs/game scored against them in Bartolo's 13 starts, and Bartolo was allowing 5.1 of them. In games not started by Colon, Braves pitchers allow 4.7 runs/game. That's a significant difference. In Colon's defense, he throws strikes...A LOT of them. Too many of them. he has a bad habit of leaving balls in the middle of the plate, but this 44 year old pitcher doesn't have the velocity to get it past anyone. The result? Dinner is served. In one horrendous start on May 30th against the Angels, Bartolo Colon got through the first two innings with little issue, but then came the third inning. Colon got the first out, then the wheels fell off. Before the next out would be made, the Angels would score 9 runs off of Colon and he would be replaced, all with one out. Bartolo Colon was brought in as a veteran presence to eat up innings and save the bullpen,but he did just the opposite. In his 13 starts, he only pitched 63 innings-that's an average of 4.8 innings per start. For those keeping score, that's below the amount needed to qualify for a win. In fact, Colon only made it through 5 innings 7 times in his 13 starts and made it past the fifth inning only 4 times. Yikes!
The worst of it all was defense. Normally, the Braves are one of the top ten defensive teams in the league, but in games started by Colon, the Braves have 10 errors, most of which have come in his past few starts. Watching them play, the Braves could be charged with more errors in those games, because they've made some truly boneheaded mistakes, but discernment has been on their side. The Braves seem stupefied on defense when Colon pitches, hence the title of this piece. Thank goodness, Bartolo's reign of terror in Atlanta seems to be over, but it may have lasting effects.
What may be just as bad as the effect that Bartolo Colon seems to have on his teammates is the hangovers they seem to suffer the day after at the expense of the next day's pitcher, Jaime Garcia. Despite struggling in his last couple of starts, Garcia has arguable been the most reliable pitcher for Atlanta this season, but you wouldn't be able to tell by his record. Garcia is 2-6 on the season, but he leads the team in strikeouts and his 4.35 ERA is good enough for second on the team. However, his record can be attributed to two things. 1) Jaime Garcia has the lowest run support of any of Atlanta's starters, meaning that his offense isn't scoring for him. Scores like 2-1 and 3-1 have plagued Garcia multiple times in 2017. This can be attributed partially to the fact that the Braves averaged 5.0 runs a game for Bartolo, a number which rarely held up, so naturally, they would be tired the following day with Jaime on the mound. 2) The defense has committed 9 errors in games started by Garcia. This means that both the offense and defense seem to suffer from hangovers post-Colon.So, as bad as the Braves suffer when Bartolo Colon pitches, those troubles are Colon's fault. However, the struggles that Jaime Garcia tends to have the day after also seem to be Colon's fault. That's just plain rough.
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| Newcomb: 1.48 ERA and 21 Ks in four MLB starts. |
The good news behind all of these disparaging stats is that Bartolo is gone. Whether his 19-year career is over or he'll get another chance as a bullpen arm for another club remains to be seem, but Braves fans can breathe easier knowing that the plague known as Bartolo Colon seems to have passed. What should make Braves fans even happier is that they already have a young arm in the rotation to take Colon's spot, and he's been phenomenal. 24-year old Sean Newcomb has made four big league starts since more or less replacing Colon in the rotation and has a 1.48 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 24.1 innings.
I like to think that the only reason that the Braves allowed Colon to make one final start on Wednesday was as a tip of the cap to his long, entertaining and overall successful career. However, Colon's last start was as painful and unforgettable as the rest this season, but luckily for him, that's not how he'll be remembered. For the Braves, the future is bright and the headache is gone.
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