Tag: Tom Glavine

Billy Wagner May Keep The Mets From The Playoffs

Atlanta Braves relief pitcher Billy Wagner (R) is congratulated by catcher Brian McCann after Wagner's 400th save of his career at their MLB inter-league baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Atlanta, Georgia, June 25, 2010. McCann also hit hit the game winning home run. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsOk, this is going to hurt. My theory is as follows:

Billy Wagner, who is currently having a great year, could be in a position to kill the Mets chances at the playoffs.  Here are Wagner’s stats… His ERA is ridiculously low at 1.27, he’s 5-0, 55K’s, 19 saves and 3 blown saves. He’s obviously still throwing heat!

How is our closer doing? K-Rod has a 2.57 ERA, 2-2, 52K’s, 20 saves and 4 blown saves. Not too bad. Most teams would love those numbers from their closer.

Pitching wins championships and Atlanta is proof of that. If you don’t remember those dominate Atlanta pitchers of the 90’s, let me refresh your memory:

A Braves pitcher won the Cy Young Award almost every year during the 90’s:

1991 – Tom Glavine
1993 – Greg Maddox
1994 – Greg Maddox
1995 – Greg Maddox
1996 – John Smoltz
1998 – Tom Glavine

But this time around we don’t have to worry about facing three Cy Young’s in the same rotation. I believe the combination of Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey could match Atlanta’s top two of Tim Hudson and Derek Lowe. The bottom three pitchers of each rotation are also doing very well and these two pitching staffs are pretty evenly matched. Continue reading “Billy Wagner May Keep The Mets From The Playoffs”

Report: Braves Release Tom Glavine

NEW YORK - APRIL 22: Tom Glavine #47 of the N...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting today that the Braves released Tom Glavine after he threw six scoreless innings in the minors yesterday. He’s recovering from minor elbow and shoulder surgeries in the off-season.

Apparently, the Braves told him that they’re releasing him because his velocity is down. Velocity is down? When did he ever have velocity? It sounds like a low-class move on the surface but I’d like to hear Frank Wren’s side of the story.

I never liked Glavine on the Mets just because he was an iconic Brave when he got here. But he deserves better than this from the Braves. I’ll be curious to see what the Braves bloggers have to say about this.

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Glavine, Braves Top Mets 6-1

You won’t read this here very often: the Mets scored their only run of the game on a Luis Castillo home run. How about that?

The most disappointing thing about this game is how well Tom Glavine looked. John Maine couldn’t keep up with him. The Mets scored their only run in the first inning and left the bases loaded. They never mounted a threat after that.

Maine only made it through four innings giving up four runs on eight hits and three walks. Scott Schoenweis relieved him in the fifth and then Aaron Heilman let things get out of reach in the seventh inning. Brian McCann hit a two run homer off Heilman. He just can’t figure out how to get through a clean inning.

They’ll do it again tonight at 7:00pm with Claudio Vargas going against Jorge Campillo.

Box score

Video Highlights

On Deck: Mets In Atlanta Play Two

New York Mets (22-19) at Atlanta Braves (22-21)   1:00pm and 7:00pm

First game: John Maine (5-2) vs. Tom Glavine (1-1)

Second game: Claudio Vargas (0-1) vs. Jorge Campillo (0-0)

TV: SNY    Radio: WFAN  (both games)

What to watch: The Mets play four games in Atlanta over three days before moving on to Colorado. The best part of the road trip will be getting a chance at revenge on Tom Glavine in the first game. John Maine hasn’t given up more than two earned runs in a game since his first start on April 5th. Claudio Vargas was terrific in his first start against Washington on May 14th. He didn’t deserve a loss. Now that Pedro is joining the team in Atlanta for a bullpen session, Vargas is just keeping Pedro’s seat warm until he gets back.

Braves Change Rotation

I took this photo on June 5, 2007 Photo personnelle prise le 5 juin 2007Image from WikipediaThe Atlanta Braves decided to bring John Smoltz back from the disabled list tomorrow to face Johan Santana in the finale of the two game series. This is the second good pitching matchup of the short series.

Smoltz has been bothered by soreness in his 40 year old shoulder. He’ll be 41 on May 15th. Tom Glavine will pitch in Denver now on Monday night.

I have to wonder if this has anything to do with Glavine being a former Met. He’s been around long enough not to be bothered by something like that. And he’s had the experience of facing the Braves with the Mets. It is curious though that the Braves choose to make the change at the last minute like this.