What will Braves do with Alex Wood?

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http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/d...ind-for-alex-wood-call-it-the-chris-sale-plan




DANNY KNOBLER
Baseball Insider


What will Braves do with Alex Wood? Call it the Chris Sale plan
May 30, 2013 3:16 pm ET

The Braves have a definite plan for Alex Wood, the 22-year-old left-hander out of the University of Georgia who will join their bullpen Thursday.
Call it the Chris Sale plan.
The Braves believe Wood can help them out of the bullpen now, as Sale did for the White Sox in the final two months of the 2010 season and through 2011. Then they believe Wood can successfully transition back to the rotation, as Sale did when he became a 17-game winner with the White Sox last year.
For now, the Braves need Wood in the bullpen, in large part because of the injuries to lefties Jonny Venters and Eric O'Flaherty. Venters and O'Flaherty both needed Tommy John surgery, and were lost for the season, leaving the Braves with only a single lefty (Luis Avilan) in their bullpen and without dependable set-up men in front of closer Craig Kimbrel.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez has been pushing for the front office to promote Wood, and Tuesday night he got his way. The original plan had been to wait for a few more weeks, but with the bullpen struggling and with the bullpen needed for seven innings Wednesday after Kris Medlen was knocked out of the game early, the Braves made the move now.
Wood's numbers at Double-A Mississippi were outstanding (1.26 ERA, 57 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 57 innings), and his funky delivery makes it hard for hitters to pick up the ball. The Braves believe he can pitch in the late innings, and could even pitch the seventh and eighth innings on some nights to get them to Kimbrel.
That's pretty much what Sale did when he pitched in the bullpen for the White Sox two years ago. The next season, he made the All-Star team as a starter.
Now the Braves hope Alex Wood can follow the same path.

 

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http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/...tebook_id=50860826&vkey=notebook_atl&c_id=atl

6/17/2013 12:08 A.M. ET
[h=1]Wood to start in doubleheader vs. Mets[/h][h=2][/h]By Mark Bowman and Eric Single / MLB.com
ATLANTA -- Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez confirmed Alex Wood will make his first Major League start during the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader against the Mets at Turner Field. Gonzalez made the announcement after Sunday night's 3-0 win over the Giants.
When approached by reporters, Wood said he had not yet been informed by the coaching staff. But the 22-year-old left-hander said he was looking forward to the chance to match up against the Mets' Matt Harvey.
"That should be pretty fun," Wood said. "I like a challenge."
Wood has tackled many of the challenges that have faced him since the Braves selected him in the second round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft. He quickly became one of the organization's top prospects and made eight dominant starts for Double-A Mississippi this year before getting his first call to the Majors on May 30 to strengthen Atlanta's bullpen.
Wood has not thrown more than 36 pitches in any of the six relief appearances he has made since coming to the Majors. His most recent start occurred May 25, when he tossed seven innings for Mississippi.
This is not an ideal situation for Wood to make his first career start. But the Braves did not have many other attractive options after learning Friday that right elbow inflammation would prevent Brandon Beachy from making this start. It would have been his first since undergoing Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery last June 22.
"We'll take it an inning at a time [with Wood]," Gonzalez said. "He's a guy that throws the ball over the plate. It hasn't been that long since his last start -- I think it's been right at three weeks or so -- but we'll play it by ear. I don't want to put a pitch count on it, I don't want to put an inning count on it. Whatever he gives us, he gives us, and then see what we got there."
Not surprisingly, Wood did not seem too concerned about his potential endurance. He was just thrilled to learn he is going to get a chance to start after spending the past couple of weeks acquainting himself to the foreign relief role.
"It's one of those things where you're still throwing," Wood said. "Being in the 'pen is just a different kind of in shape. But at the same time, I've been starting for two months. It's not one of those things where I can go nine. But the pitch count should be where I could still go five or six [innings]."
Gonzalez said the Braves will bring a pitcher up from the Minor League ranks to serve as the 26th player that both teams will be permitted to use during the doubleheader. This pitcher would provide some insurance in the event that Wood compiles a high pitch count that forces him to make an early exit.
Wood had a 1.26 ERA in 10 starts for Mississippi before getting his first call to the Majors at the end of May. He has allowed three earned runs and five hits in 7 2/3 innings since joining Atlanta's bullpen.

 

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Congrats on 1st mlb victory!!!

rookie alex wood (1-2) earned his first career victory, allowing six hits, three runs and one walk while striking out seven in seven innings.

 

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http://www.rantsports.com/mlb/2014/...g-to-be-the-real-deal-for-the-atlanta-braves/

[h=1]Alex Wood Proving To Be The Real Deal For The Atlanta Braves[/h]April 6, 2014 7:31 pm EDT by Steven Whitaker
Getty Images

Well, winning two out of the three first games against the division rival Washington Nationals will be considered a success for the Atlanta Braves. Dan Uggla hit the ball hard almost every time he went to the plate, Justin Upton got his average a little closer to .200 but most of all, the starting pitching was awesome.
In the series finale, Alex Wood showed the Braves that he was going to be able to pick up any slack the team has and improve his game through the season. For his second straight start, Wood went seven innings while only giving up four hits to the Nationals. Ian Desmond did hit what would turn out to be the game-winning run, but Wood held the Nationals’ offense to a 0.57 WHIP and held his season ERA at 1.93.
While he probably won’t be this good for an entire season, Wood is showing that he has the quality stuff to make him a No. 2 or No. 3 pitcher in this Braves rotation. Without one bad inning in each of the two starts he has had, he may have only given up 2-3 hits and possibly only the two runs that were due to home runs. His problem seems to come from the fact that he wants to get ahead of hitters and puts fastballs down the heart of the plate early in the count. When he does that, major league hitters are going to get hits and get any pitcher in a hole quickly.
If he continues on this stretch, the Braves are looking to have what will be a quite solid rotation that includes Julio Teheran, Mike Minor and Ervin Santana rounding out the top four in the rotation in no particular order. Pitching the way he has, he has a chance to make a name for himself toward the top of this rotation and MLB this season.


Read more at http://www.rantsports.com/mlb/2014/...l-for-the-atlanta-braves/?0obGTjklY87o0IhP.99

 

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Nice little run Alex:


”It was a pretty beautiful game, for sure,” Wood said.



He extended his career-high scoreless innings streak to 25 1/3, longest in the majors this season. The left-hander began the season in the bullpen and has capitalized after getting a chance to fill in for some of the Dodgers’ injured starters.

”I definitely feel confident now,” Wood said. ”The consistency of my stuff has been there and that’s where my confidence is coming from.”

Wood (6-0) struck out eight and walked two.

 

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7-0

Left-hander Alex Wood remained unbeaten by pitching four-hit ball over eight innings, leading Los Angeles to a victory that extended their domination of Cincinnati. Wood (7-0) lost his shutout when Devin Mesoraco homered in the eighth. He's the first Dodgers pitcher to get so deep into a season without a loss since 1985, when Orel Hershiser made his first 11 starts without a loss, according to STATS.

 

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I think he has no hit stuff tonight !!!

 

[Knightrofins]

^ hope so. Have a heavy play on the under. Thinks it’s 7.5 -125

 

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^ hope so. Have a heavy play on the under. Thinks it’s 7.5 -125

good work knightro!!

 

[Knightrofins]

good work knightro!!

thanks

nothing like sleeping during a big play and waking up seeing that you won!!

 

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thanks

nothing like sleeping during a big play and waking up seeing that you won!!

id prefer not to watch many a game where I play the UNDEr.