Paul Maholm Ready To Start Rehab; Where Does He Fit Into Braves Rotation?
By Eric Graff
Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
Paul Maholm threw a simulated game yesterday, and is ready to talk about starting a rehab assignment in his quest to come back from a wrist injury. Maholm threw 79 pitches in his 6-inning simulated game against Paul Janish and Joey Terdoslavich, and afterwards, he reportedly felt great. Fredi Gonzalez said he was encouraged by the outing. As long as everything checks out good today with Maholm’s wrist, the team will start talking about sending him out on a rehab assignment as soon as this weekend, and possibly rejoining the Atlanta rotation in St Louis next week.
This is not BAD news for the Braves any way you slice it. It is a good thing to have 6 healthy starters at this or any time of the season. It’s just a matter of how they are going to sort it all out.
One option is to go to a six-man rotation for the rest of the season. As of the start of the Cardinals series next week, the Braves will have 36 games remaining. Now, that works out great with a 6 man rotation as all of the starters would get 6 more starts the rest of the season. It would allow each pitcher to get some extra rest between starts and each starter would basically end up skipping one turn in the rotation. Theoretically, it would save each starter 5-9 innings and also give them some extra days of rest. If that was the only thing they had to think about it would work out perfect. But it just isn’t that easy. The Braves starters are used to pitching every 5 days and this could possibly mess up their routine and their rhythm for the playoffs.
Another solution is to move someone to the bullpen. Obviously Minor and Teheran aren’t going anywhere, but I guess everyone else could be fair game. This idea would solve the rotation logjam, but it doesn’t really help anyone get extra rest. Another thing to consider is that it will leave someone unhappy with having to work out of the pen instead of starting.
You could just have guys skip starts here and there and plug Maholm into those slots. This could be interesting for everyone except probably Paul Maholm, who would have quite an odd pitching schedule. Also, I don’t see too much difference in skipping a start or just going to the 6 man rotation. Seems like it could throw guys pitching schedules and routines off either way. This option does have potential though.
One thing to remember, Paul Maholm is a free agent next season and will almost certainly not be back in an Atlanta uniform. IMO if you are going to give someone the short end of the stick it should probably be him. It’s also a good thing that the Braves are able to basically experiment with this since they have such a large divisional lead.
What do you guys and gals think is the best way for the Braves to deal with this issue? Vote in the poll to let us know or discuss with us on twitter or the comments section.