Kris Medlen is very good.

I think the NL Cy Young goes to Beachy/Medlin. One (Medlin) basically came on when the other (Beachy) blew out his elbow, so we can count them as one guy. Combined, they win the ERA title and fall just short of Cueto on the WAR number. Oh, and screw the scouts who say RHPs must be 6' 2" or taller.

That changeup is pretty nasty when it's working.

As a casual Nats rooter, and
since my Scoresheet rival may make Medlen the key to his playoff rotatoin,

can I hate Medlen for the next month? Pretty please?

It's sort of amusing that Medlen has seen such a dramatic jump in his strikeout rate since becoming a starter. He was striking out exactly six per nine innings as a reliever this season. He's now up to 8.4 per nine as a starter.

Kris has faced a fairly punchless bunch of teams since moving to the rotation, save his (outstanding) start against the Nationals. But this is obviously quite encouraging.

He pitched so well the last time he was in the rotation, I was suprised it took them this long to put him back in. They gave Jurriens a ton of starts this year, and his place in the rotation over Medlen was puzzling to me. Of course, he never had the hype machine doing his PR and he doesn't look the part. But he has been a very effective starter for the Braves. Unless Ferdy was planning on keeping him fresh for the stretch run all along.

Well, the last time he was in the rotation was 2010, since he missed nearly the entire 2011 season after having Tommy John surgery. I don't think it was unreasonable to plan to use him out of the bullpen, especially since the Braves had a very deep rotation on paper. Then Jurrjens hit the wall, Beachy got hurt, Delgado was uninspiring, etc., and Medlen got his chance.

Also, although there's a lot of talk about how he hasn't lost as a starter in a long time, he wasn't that great his last time around in the rotation - 5-0 as a starter in 2010, yes, but his ERA was 3.86, so there was a bit of luck in his going undefeated.

It looked like the Braves were going to make this move earlier this season. Around late May or early June, they sent Medlen down to the minors to stretch him out so he'd be ready to start, and then they decided to stick him back in the bullpen instead.

Warm it up kris.

Braves avoided Strasburg like decision on Medlen...

“We knew coming out of spring training he probably had 150-160 innings, based on our organizational belief in percentage of increase in innings per year,” said Braves general manager Frank Wren, indicating it’s about 20 percent. “So we preferred to start him off in the bullpen where he could be a bridge for our starters for the first two months and then after that we would evaluate our needs, and it would allow us to have him until the end once we put him in the rotation.”

“So we preferred to start him off in the bullpen where he could be a bridge for our starters for the first two months and then after that we would evaluate our needs, and it would allow us to have him until the end once we put him in the rotation.”

"And we trotted Jair Jurjens out there instead early in the year, because we knew with his stuff, oppponents would wear themselves out in April and May running around the bases after they crushed balls into the gap, leaving them nothing left in the tank for September when the games really count."

"And we trotted Jair Jurjens out there instead early in the year, because we knew with his stuff, oppponents would wear themselves out in April and May running around the bases after they crushed balls into the gap, leaving them nothing left in the tank for September when the games really count."

Coming into the year, Jurrjens had an ERA+ of 121 in a Braves uniform, and was coming off a season with an ERA+ of 129. Most guys with that profile get a whole lot more than 10 starts to demonstrate that they're toast.

Except that lovely 5.88 post AS game ERA in 2011, fully supported by his peripherals, suggested that there was maybe a big problem.

To their credit, if it was their plan all along to do a reverse Strasburg, then kudo's, 'cause he is giving them a great stretch drive performance.

Coming into the year, Jurrjens had an ERA+ of 121 in a Braves uniform, and was coming off a season with an ERA+ of 129. Most guys with that profile get a whole lot more than 10 starts to demonstrate that they're toast.

As has been stated, he was bad for much closer to a full season. Aside from that, he always looked like a smoke and mirrors guy. He had limited movement on his pitches, an underwhelming fastball, low K numbers, low GB numbers. The only thing that made him good for so long was his flat refusal to walk anybody, which he could get away with because of command.

And for the record, this was no reverse Strasburg. Judging from Gonzalez's quotes he fully believed that Medlen was more valuable in the pen because of his "versatility."

Well, at the start of the season, Medlen was just one of nine starting options. Then Vizcaino went down, Jurrjens started (or continued) sucking, Delgado couldn't throw strikes, Minor started giving up home runs like they were going out of style, Beachy went down, Hanson completed his journey to soft-tossing righty land, and Teheran got stuck in triple A trying to figure out his curveball. But back at the beginning of the year, if you had to pick one guy that you stick in the pen as a long man, you would definitely choose the guy coming off Tommy John surgery.

So if you're going to limit a guy coming off TJ surgery to a certain number of innings, I think the reverse Strasburg is definitely the way to go. Medlen was eased back into pitching by going out there for one or two inning appearances, and now there's pretty much no issues with using him through the postseason.