Tyler Pastornicky To Have Season Ending Knee Surgery
By Eric Graff
Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
The injuries just keep on coming for the Atlanta Braves. The Braves announced today that utility infielder Tyler Pastornicky has been diagnosed with a torn ACL in his knee and will miss the remainder of the 2013 season. Pastornicky injured his knee in a collision with Jason Heyward on a pop up in short right-field. Tyler was just recalled from AAA Gwinnett earlier this week to take over the temporary 2nd base starting role while Dan Uggla is on the DL getting Lasik eye surgery.
Phillip Gosselin was called up to take Tyler’s place on the roster. Not really sure where the Braves are going with this move. Gosselin is what I would call a career minor-leaguer. He doesn’t hit for average or power and doesn’t have speed. To me, calling up Gosselin is just a temporary move to fill out the roster while they try to make a trade. I don’t this Gosselin’s career .672 OPS in the minors is striking fear into too many opposing pitchers. I’m not even gonna post Gosselin’s other numbers up here, just take my word for it, they aren’t good.
The Braves should have called up Tommy La Stella in my opinion. La Stella has been a hitting machine in AA Mississippi this season. The 24-year-old has a slash line of .342/.413/.476/.889 this season and a career minor league slash line that is even more impressive .326/.408/.499/.907. He hits well against lefties (.322) and righties (.349) and has actually walked more times in his minor league career than he has struck out, 100 BB:81 K. As you can plainly tell, this kid can hit, no doubt about it. His defense is average at best, but his biggest problem has been staying healthy, which is something he hasn’t been able to do throughout his minor league career. La Stella has missed time the last 2 seasons with a variety of ailments, including a broken leg, strained hamstring, sore elbow and getting beaned. If Tommy could get, and stay healthy, he could be a very dangerous weapon.
Not really sure what Gosselin brings to the table for the Braves other than he can play multiple infield positions. Again, what this says to me is that the Braves are going to make a trade for a utility infielder type to fill that role for the rest of the season, then be a backup/bench bat in the playoffs. Frankly, I’m not sure I can take Janish/Gosselin starting at 2nd for the rest of the season.