I get that Jurrjens is pitching poorly, but he has 4+ seasons in the bigs and two of them have been *really* good. It's 4 starts. This is an overreaction, unless I'm missing something.

Before his first trip to the DL last year, he was 12-3 , ERA of 1.87 and a 229/276/310 slash line against

after that he was 4-3, 5.88 and 301/376/571

Methinks he's hurt

Jurrjens debuted more than three years ago. Why doesn't he have to clear optional waivers?

Ha, the local radio guy here in KC wanted the Royals to deal Wil Myers for Jurrjens. Its amazing Dayton resisted.

Methinks he's hurt

Fangraphs has noted his velocity has been dropping.

Jurrjens has been horrific since August of 2011 (after his DL stint.) I would have pulled the trigger sooner, demoted him after his third start and moved Kris Medlen to the rotation, personally. Yes, Jurrjens has years of success behind him. But his last 10 or so starts have been Mark Redman in Atlanta bad.

Jurrjens debuted more than three years ago. Why doesn't he have to clear optional waivers?

He has options. Chipper Jones still has options too, for the record.

Jurrjens debuted more than three years ago. Why doesn't he have to clear optional waivers?

Options don't get used if you spend the entire year on the MLB roster.

But his last 10 or so starts have been Mark Redman in Atlanta bad.

That's former All-Star Mark Redman to you, bub.

The only thing the FanGraphs piece misses is the option of Medlen, who was the best "fifth starter" in spring training, and has a history of success as a ML starter himself, prior to TJ surgery.

That's former All-Star Mark Redman to you, bub.

And former All-Star Jair Jurrjens too!

He has options. Chipper Jones still has options too, for the record.

Right, but players still have to clear optional waivers if they debuted long enough ago.

From BP:

Optional major-league waivers are required when optioning a player who is more than three calendar years removed from his first appearance on a major-league roster. This procedure allows a club to send a player to the minor leagues while keeping him on the 40-man roster. Because optional waivers are revocable, players usually clear in this scenario. In the unlikely event a player is claimed, his club may not option him to the minor leagues, and any subsequent waiver request during the same period becomes irrevocable.

Surprising yet not unexpected. I figured they'd give him another start to work it out. The weather in the Mets game was so bad anyone would have struggled.

Right, but players still have to clear optional waivers if they debuted long enough ago.

I don't think anyone wants to pay Jurrjens $5M to pitch in AAA, and then have surgery when they figure out what's wrong with him.

Good! Somone needs to be punished for allowing the Dodgers to keep winning.

That's former All-Star Mark Redman to you, bub.

At the Rockies home opener, I saw a guy in a Rockies Mark Redman jersey. I really should have asked the guy, "what the hell?"

That probably was Mark Redman.

At the Rockies home opener, I saw a guy in a Rockies Mark Redman jersey. I really should have asked the guy, "what the hell?"

Maybe it was Mark Redman.

Edit: Coke to Sam.

Following up the waiver wire on this transaction:

Cory Gearrin called up for the pen (until Hudson returns from the DL.)

And apparently Yohan Flande has been converted to a starter at AAA and is destroying the International League.

At the Rockies home opener, I saw a guy in a Rockies Mark Redman jersey. I really should have asked the guy, "what the hell?"

I just assume the people with jerseys of random mediocre players got them from a game worn jersey raffle or giveaway.

Always liked Flande and thought he was some pretty decent freely available talent. No surprise at all if Atlanta is able to turn him into a useful player.

If I were to ever buy a team jersey, it would totally be like, Eli Marrero or Tim Spooneybarger or something.

If I were to ever buy a team jersey, it would totally be like, Eli Marrero or Tim Spooneybarger or something.

You just want to be on Straight Cash Homey

[12] It's pretty much a gentleman's agreement that nobody every claims anyone on optional waivers. I'm not sure it's ever been done. If it were, it'd be pretty much mass chaos.

You just want to be on Straight Cash Homey

How did I not know this existed until today?

I'd love to have a 90's A's Lance Blankenship jersey.

still the best (or worst)

A treasured possession of my childhood was a baby blue Twins jersey with Bombo Rivera's #8 on the back.

Man, I thought Tim Spooneybarger was going to be a superstar closer. That's hard to justify just looking at his stats (33 strikeouts against 26 walks in 51 innings for the Braves in 2002), but watching him pitch, his stuff just danced. He had this cut fastball...thing that darted and dived. Just knew he was destined for greatness.

He clashed with Mazzone, apparently, and got shipped out in the Mike Hampton trade.

#8?

Man, I thought Tim Spooneybarger was going to be a superstar closer. That's hard to justify just looking at his stats (33 strikeouts against 26 walks in 51 innings for the Braves in 2002), but watching him pitch, his stuff just danced. He had this cut fastball...thing that darted and dived. Just knew he was destined for greatness.

Reminds me of Juan Cruz. When he came up with the Cubs, he looked like a beast. When he was on, there was so much movement on the ball, it was unhittable. He looked like the next Pedro Martinez (who would have been a great 4th starter in the rotation behind Prior, Wood, and Zambrano). Then he just kind of fell apart at the beginning of 2002, generally pitching OK but not great, and ended up in the bullpen before the end of May with a 1-7 record. Cubs gave him away to Atlanta after the 2003 season, and he's just kind of bounced around ever since.

I was actually surprised to see his name in a box score the other day, though I don't know why - he's still just in his early 30s.

Crud. Apparently, my treasured memory isn't as trustworthy as it was 35 years ago ... but I know I wasn't wearing Glenn Adams on my back.

Pity I can't fit into my old Dan Pasqua jersey. I used to boo Paul O'Neil for taking that number.

$7 roto dollars well spent.... GrRRRRRRR....

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but somehow I managed to get 5 Braves on my roster... Jason Heyward, Jair Jurjens, Tommy Hanson, Chipper Jones, and Julio Teheran. The only other team I have even 3 players from is the Reds (Votto, Rolen, and Arroyo).

For some odd reason, my farm system reserves have always been Braves-heavy --- I had Brian McCann the first 6 seasons he was in the bigs (he started as a minor league keeper for me), Tommy Hanson is under a 3 year contact (also a minor league keeper), Julio Teheran I dealt for last July when I threw in the towel, and Jason Heyward was likewise a minor league keeper (though - I made the mistake of buying out a couple year and have him $20, $22, and $24 for the next 3 seasons... I certainly hope this hot start continues).

We'll trade Liriano for Jurrjens.

I'd snag a Benny Agbayani jersey...

I'd love to have a 90's A's Lance Blankenship jersey.

I have one. That Lance actually wore. And no, you can't have it.

If I were to ever buy a team jersey, it would totally be like, Eli Marrero or Tim Spooneybarger or something.

I have one game-used jersey: Andy Barkett's.

June of 2001 was a very dark time for Pirates fans. The team started out with a fairly crappy roster, and after a rash of injuries they were basically just calling up random warm bodies from AAA and giving them starts because they didn't have any other choice. Alex Hernandez, Tike Redman, people like that. They claimed Gary Matthews Jr. on waivers and had him starting in center field the next day.

Anyway, Andy Barkett was one of the guys who got called up in the middle of that train wreck. He was a 26-year-old 1B/OF who put up a .242/.335/.370 batting line at AAA that year, and wouldn't have gotten promoted by any other team in baseball, but they had a need and he was willing, so up he came. And then for the next month, as the other guys on the roster fumbled and stumbled and set things on fire around him, he delivered a series of nice, reasonable, competent performances. He caught balls that were hit or thrown in his direction, and didn't trip over the bases or injure himself, and hit .300 with a few walks and some doubles power. He was a refreshing island of stable, workmanlike play in the middle of an ocean of near-constant ##########.

That was the only month of his major league career, but I'll always be grateful for it, because he was one of the only things about that horrible ####### team that I could stand to watch, and I'm not sure I would've made it through the season without him. So when I saw his jersey for sale on eBay, I pulled out $35 and made it mine. It'll always have a place of honor in my closet.

I might consider a Chris Hammond jersey if I could get it with 0.95 as the number.

The last rumors out of Florida, before he washed out completely, were that Spooneybarger had some Josh Hamilton like problems that he wasn't dealing with very well.

Hell, the 2001 Pirates actually gave four starts to Don Wengert, who remains the ultimate boogeyman for Braves fans. We scare children into eating their vegetables by threatening them with a Don Wengert relief appearance.

At least the Braves got to beat up on Wengert once in 2001.

Did you know that one year Jerry Willard dropped a slash line of .348/.375/.652 on the NL as Greg Olsen's backup?

Then, according to Google, he became a world famous lutenist.

Hell, the 2001 Pirates actually gave four starts to Don Wengert, who remains the ultimate boogeyman for Braves fans. We scare children into eating their vegetables by threatening them with a Don Wengert relief appearance.

It's tough to express exactly how desperate Cam Bonifay was for arms that year. I'm going to give it a shot, though.

The Pirates had a pitcher in camp that spring named Balvino Galvez. He'd pitched 20 2/3 ML innings for the Dodgers as a 22-year-old in 1986, and had been out of affiliated ball since 1993. God only knows where they found him. It was reported that at least one scout saw Galvez's name on the roster that spring, remembered Galvez from the '80s (!), and assumed that he must've had a son who was also named Balvino Galvez who had signed with the Pirates, since original recipe Galvez had been out of circulation for so long that it was ludicrous to imagine that he was still playing. Anyway, he showed up in camp, a 38-year-old Dominican mystery man, and with the complete and utter lack of competition, he's actually in line to win a rotation spot.

So on the last day of camp, Galvez is doing a pickoff drill, and one of the coaches complains about his form, and they get into an argument, and there's much shouting and waving of arms, and Galvez throws down his glove, and walks off the mound, and walks out of the stadium, and catches a taxi to the airport, and is on a plane back to San Pedro de Macoris before the manager even realizes what the #### happened. And just like that, Galvez is gone, poof, like Keyser Sose, never to be seen again in organized baseball.

So, anyway, that's the story of how Joe Beimel made the Pirates' rotation at the start of 2001.

That may be the greatest baseball story ever written, Vlad.

I remember that Galvez story and for whatever little my memory is worth as credibility currency, it happened exactly as Vlad notes... It went from being a sort of mildly interesting, perhaps a bit heartwarming story to a sad tragic, realization that the Pirates really must be really bad to a WTF.

No offense Vlad, because I've got nothing but love for the Bucs -- but I always thought the Galvez incident was a vastly underrated prequel to next season's smash hit, Operation Shutdown.

Jurrjens has been getting BABIP'ed to death - his start against the Dodgers featured what seemed like hundreds of weakly hit balls just out of the reach of fielders - but that's the kind of thing that's going to happen when you can't throw the ball past anybody. He's always kind of struck me as a guy living near the proverbial cliff; his low-walk, low-K, hope for the best on balls in play approach works well when he's throwing in the low 90's and more or less hitting his spots. The moment he loses a tick or two off his fastball, or a bit of control, he goes from good to awful in a hurry. Kind of like Carlos Silva in that regard. Also, as a Kris Medlen fan, I'm happy to see him get a shot in the rotation.

Anyway, sorry to derail the discussion about the 2001 Pirates, which really has been entertaining. I like those stories, Vlad.

I'd forgotten about Galvez - that's how I remember it as well...

Year after year I waited for Willard to get a real shot at a job. I'm convinced he would've been a plus big league bat as backstops go, though the glove (and arm) was a problem...

Jerry Willard was the epitome of fat man catcher. He made Mike Lavalliere look positively suave back there. And since we're on the subject of the Pirates, CHICO LIND!

Now that is how you do Operation Shutdown.

It was reported that at least one scout saw Galvez's name on the roster that spring, remembered Galvez from the '80s (!), and assumed that he must've had a son who was also named Balvino Galvez who had signed with the Pirates, since original recipe Galvez had been out of circulation for so long that it was ludicrous to imagine that he was still playing.

Board Member 1: I've never heard of half of these guys and the ones I do know are way past their prime.
Cam Bonifay: Most of these guys never had a prime.
Kevin McClatchy: The fact is we lost our two best players to free agency. We haven't won a pennant in over thirty-five years, we haven't placed higher than fourth in the last fifteen. Obviously it's time for some changes.
Board Member 2: This guy here is dead!
McClatchy: Cross him off, then!

Hell, the 2001 Pirates actually gave four starts to Don Wengert, who remains the ultimate boogeyman for Braves fans. We scare children into eating their vegetables by threatening them with a Don Wengert relief appearance.

I figured it would be Joe Winkelsas. If they misbehave, you could even scream Merry Winkelsmas! at them as you gesture menacingly.

Along the same lines, I own a Ruben Quevedo jersey. It's no Balvino Galvez-makes-like-a-tree, but I heard a good Quevedo story: he was once encountered placidly touring the clubhouse wearing headphones and listening to a CD player...that he was dragging along the ground behind him (it helps to picture his face). The reason I own his shirt, though, is because of his role in perhaps the most purely enjoyable baseball game I've ever attended. Look at the names in that box score!

I have one game-used jersey

My sister put a bid on a game-used jersey for Jesse Winchester (a 4th line player when he's not in the minors) in a silent auction at the last hockey game we were at. She figured she'd be the only bidder and would get it for the minimum. Not a fan of Winchester, she just wanted a jersey.

She didn't get it. Somebody put $275 on it.

She didn't get it. Somebody put $275 on it.

Guy got outbid for Colt, Smith and Wesson.