Where the Braves went wrong signing Bartolo Colon
The Braves made an addition to the pitching rotation in November which seemed to excite a sizable part of the fan base. It was the big, goofy looking man that had given the Braves plenty of trouble in recent years with the Mets: Bartolo Colon. The fans loved him because it was a fun and recognizable character around baseball. John Coppolella liked him because he was coming of a nice season where he somehow won 15 games for New York.
The Bartolo experiment has not worked out, and the Braves hopefully pulled the plug permanently today by sending him to the disabled list with an apparent oblique injury. Colon has the highest ERA of any qualifying starter in the majors this year at 7.78.
Colon should have been taken out of the rotation weeks ago, but the Braves did not want to admit their mistake considering they signed him for over $12 million this season. There was simply no other choice but to remove him from the five after he was rocked by the Phillies on Monday, who happen to be the worst team in baseball.
Although Colon was able to put together a nice season with the Mets last year, there was simply no reason for the Braves to give him as much money as they did. Colon was 43 years young when signed this past offseason, and is now 44. Knowing Colon throws about 90 percent fastballs with his pitches, SunTrust Park was not particularly a place that was set up to suit him favorably. However, Colon has been bad everywhere this season, not just at SunTrust Park.
Colon is simply too old to be successful at the major league level anymore. He has lost his ability to locate pitches along with his dominating stuff - which disappeared years ago.
The Braves can tell us Colon is injured, but he is heading to the disabled list because he cannot pitch anymore. They might as well throw Brian Snitker out there for batting practice tosses before they put out Colon again.
Sean Newcomb has been really good at Gwinnett so far this season, and it would be nice to seem him get a chance to work things out at the top level. Newcomb came over from the Angels in the Andrelton Simmons trade. Even Matt Wisler deserves a shot before Colon gets another one. Young pitchers can work through things and find themselves, while you are not going to see anything new with Colon. He is what he is at this point, which is a guy throwing fastballs down the middle to get crushed.
Despite paying $12 million for Bartolo, the Braves only inked him for 2017 so his contract will not tie them up too far down the road.
