Jared Wickerham - Getty Images
After dominating Gwinnett for half a season, Mike Dunn is finally getting his chance in Atlanta. After allegedly* getting into a heated argument with GM Frank Wren, most figured Dunn would be trapped in the minors until September 1st when the rosters expanded. Hopefully he'll continue his dominace in Atlanta to give the Braves another left-handed option in the bullpen and/or a trade chip at the deadline.
*The argument was reported by a blogger who heard from a "source" that they exchanged words. It still hasn't been confirmed or denied.
In 33 games at Triple-A Gwinnett, Dunn had an ERA of 1.05 and record 7 saves. He struck out 56 hitters in 42.2 innings, but also walked 22 in the same span. We all know how much Bobby doesn't like relievers who walk a bunch of guys, so Dunn will need to step up in Atlanta.
Eric O'Flaherty was placed on the 15-day DL with a viral infection that has been bothering him for days. It's not confirmed, but I can only imagine it'll be retro-active to July 9th. O'Flaherty has been great for the 2nd season in a row, and we'll need to him make a strong comeback for the 2nd half.
Dunn will be in Atlanta for tonight's game.
0 recs | 76 comments
Same production
Different player. Walks kind of worry me, but better strikeout abilities.
BenDuronio - July 15, 2010
Welcome to The Show
Glad to see Dunn finally get a chance after being passed over several times this season, hopefully he keeps pitching so dominantly.
McLouth Maniac - July 15, 2010
Argument?
How did I miss this? What’s the story?
sunking1056 - July 15, 2010
As far as I can tell, the best source for this is a commenter on this site who keeps insisting it happened, despite the lack of evidence or confirmation.
Bronn - July 15, 2010
I hadn't seen anyone here outside of repeating the original...
which was on MLBTR. Story went he was a good friend of Dunn’s or of Dunn’s close friend, and Dunn and his agent had a falling out with Wren over some supposed trade to KC, and after the falling out Wren told Dunn/agent that he’d rot in AAA. In addition to the friend, or friend’s friend bit, there was the strange idea of some supposed trade with Royals, and the general unknown commentor on a random comment thread of MLBtraderumors, all of which cast severe doubt on the rumor.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
Any sensible GM
would never tell a player he’d rot in AAA, especially when that player has a chance to improve the ball club.
BigG1392 - July 15, 2010
I wouldn't go that far...
when considering some front office personnel will pick fights with minor leaguers, oh how that franchise has amused.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/07/22/Tony.Bernazard/index.html
But yeah, that rumor in particular always seemed like a complete load of sh*t.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
Those are the Mets
That’s to be expected :P
BigG1392 - July 15, 2010
Rumor
HEYJUDE - July 15, 2010
No way argument took place
I work in the Gwinnett Braves clubhouse and Dunn is not the type of guy who would get into a heated argument with Wren. He just wouldn’t do it. This story is completely made up. Dunn is a nice guy and a goofball. He wouldn’t do that. Totally made up rumor by some idiot.
palioc33 - July 15, 2010
This.
cbwilk - July 16, 2010
Wait….what?
MBL1 - July 15, 2010
i mean, um, welcome to the show
MBL1 - July 15, 2010 via mobile
So...
This argument with Frank Wren….any actual confirmation of that, or are we still going with the comment posted by some guy whose friend supposedly heard it from a “source”.
sddbaker - July 15, 2010
Ah, I edited the story a bit.
Scott Coleman - July 15, 2010
Good,
I hate for Dunn to get stuck with this, when we have no proof it happened.
HEYJUDE - July 15, 2010
And it seems complete bs from so many angles...
one being Dunn obviously won’t be left to rot in AAA since we just called him up instead of say Ortegano, Marek, Proctor, or Martinez. So that obviously discredits the story, then there’s everything else above about it, from the inexplicable trade with KC, to the second/third/fourth hand nature of the story, to the general some random guy commenting on a website, just so many holes in that rumor that it’s amazing it’s held up for so long.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
sddbaker - July 15, 2010
I lol’d
HEYJUDE - July 15, 2010
This answers a lot of questions about the “rot in AAA” rumors. Hope he does great and this is the beginning of a great run for him.
bighop - July 15, 2010
Excited about this
EOF is a big need but it’ll be good to see Dunn finally get a chance. He looked awesome in the AAA all-star game last night. Not that I care too much what he thinks but Mitch Williams said Dunn had top-quality major league stuff and should play in the bigs for a long time.
KC Ryan - July 15, 2010
I was just happy to see that it wasn't Wagner going to the DL for that sore ankle
with all love to EOF, of course…
KoKo the Monkey (T-Bone) - July 15, 2010
Even for a short stint I'll miss EOF
But let’s hope Dunn grabs the opportunity!
SuperHeyward - July 15, 2010
Is Alex Gonzalez going to play tonight?
bravesforever16 - July 15, 2010
No word yet, but he’ll be wearing number 2.
Scott Coleman - July 15, 2010 via mobile
yay for twitter!
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
Crazy how that thing works!
Scott Coleman - July 15, 2010 via mobile
Just signed up after that article, it’s pretty legit, haha
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
Twitter is essential
Great information across it.
BenDuronio - July 15, 2010
Yep, and it’s sad cause it gets a rep of a Myspace 2.0
Scott Coleman - July 15, 2010
It's a vehicle
Twitter is qualitatively dependent on its content — and even a medium such as Myspace is similarly dependent, but Myspace represents a vehicle much more engineered to specific content (i.e., flippant 14-year-olds and indie bands).
I don’t like most people, or think that they are very intelligent; that is why I don’t read their (or any other) tweets (at least directly). This position is, however, in no way premised on some inherent quality of Twitter.
jpx7 - July 15, 2010
YESSS
Can I ask again what’s going on with Craig Kimbrel? Why is Chavez still up instead of him?
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
Pretty sure Chavez has no options left
so we don’t want to DFA him because he’s the great return we got when we screwed up with Soriano.
Bronn - July 15, 2010
Solid explanation
Thanks!
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
I don't think that's accurate...
or at least the Chavez being out of options part. I’m not sure, but I think he still has an option if we want to use it. I’ve always felt it was much more that if we’re going to pick between one or the other to appear extremely sporadically at say maybe 5-6 games of a combined 5-10 innings in an entire month, that it’s best to have Chavez in the seldom used role instead of Kimbrel, who can be in AAA getting regular appearances. If I had to pick someone to send up and replace Chavez (who I think is a bit better than his #s show), it’d probably be Proctor. But then after his long lay off, the regular work in AAA is probably better for him than the 12th man role Salary Relief is filling.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
Hasn’t Chavez gone up and down already this season? I thought options were a yearly thing, not each trip up or down.
bighop - July 15, 2010
You may be right...
you’re definitely right on options being just one per year and not needed each time they go up or down. But I wanna say you’re right on Chavez having gone down once, kind of, in that he was sent down but someone got hurt and came right back up, so he was only down for a couple hours, maybe a day or two. I’m not certain, but I think that’s right.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
resop
telemakhos - July 15, 2010
Ah yes...
that’s it. Thanks telemakhos. He was sent down for Resop, who got hurt in his first appearance that same day, and Chavez was recalled the next day.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
This kind of makes sense too…
Does KK exist any more?
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
We'll see...
seems like we’ve had a chance or two to get him in, but he hasn’t gone since he finally got that win in his last start. We haven’t really needed a long man since, but he should probably at least get some innings in. His numbers last year out of the ’pen, although not high leverage situations, were solid.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
Not to Bobby. Thats why i preferred Medlen to go back to the pen. Bobby will use Medlen in important roles. KK will rot down there, only being used in blowout situations where the starter doesn’t make it out of the third inning, which is very rare thank goodness.
10-4 - July 15, 2010
There's a point to be learned here
They didn’t call up Kimbrel or Martinez when EOF was hurt, they called up a lefty. That points to evidence that the real reason the Braves haven’t used him has more to do with having too many lefties in the pen than any “you will rot in AAA loser,” comment that FW might have disclosed. We just don’t have a use for a fourth left handed pitcher in the bullpen-there are more right handed than LH batters in MLB.
Bronn - July 15, 2010
+1
HEYJUDE - July 15, 2010
Exactly.
If it was anything else, Kimbrel or Martinez would come back up
eaheckman10 - July 15, 2010
Is Jhey coming off the dl today?
anyone know
ottie - July 15, 2010
I know that
His projected return time was tonight. Reports were that he could have played in the ASG but wanted to give it a couple of more days of rest. Apparently he was fine in BP.
BigG1392 - July 15, 2010
Thats what i heard too
but I figured we would have heard about it by now
ottie - July 15, 2010
you know bobby..i hope not..but he probably said one more day lol!
SidGlaus - July 15, 2010
Yeah I watched him take all star bp. He appeared fine then.
yondaime4 - July 15, 2010 via mobile
MLB.com
says he still needs to be cleared to come off, but that if he does he’ll be in the lineup
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
http://twitter.com/Braves/status/18625868241
BigG1392 - July 15, 2010
fixed
http://twitter.com/Braves/status/18625868241
BigG1392 - July 15, 2010
Brandon Hicks back to Gwinnett
SuperNewb - July 15, 2010
Makes sense...
with Diaz and Heyward back for the OF corners, Infante can go back to being the backup IF we need him to be and Hicks loses whatever value he had.
Mr. Sanchez - July 15, 2010
I doubt there was a confrontation between wren and dunn..
if there was dunn would have been the odd man out instead of reyes(even though keeping dunn would is the smarter baseball move) IMHO..also the AJC would have been ALL over it if there was even a spec of dust to be found there.
SidGlaus - July 15, 2010
1. About Kimbrel, they want working more often in AAA instead of only pitching once a week at the MLB level.
2. Dunn might be trade bait, so having him showcase what he has should be interesting. Nothing too serious with EFO, so I’m not worried.
ZC1 - July 15, 2010
Lineup
Prado 2b
Heyward RF
Chipper 3b
McCann C
Glaus 1b
Hinske LF
Gonzalez SS
Blanco CF
JurrjensRHP
bravesforever16 - July 15, 2010
Blanco
in CF???
I like!!!
drumzalicious - July 15, 2010
Interesting development
i doubt its a showcase for a trade . . . at least i hope not
drumzalicious - July 15, 2010
why call up Dunn
we should trade him he is gonna ruin team chemistryErihury - July 15, 2010
FW says:
trade anything that even smells like bad chemistry.
GeneParmesan - July 15, 2010
TRAYD DUNN 4 TYLER CLIPPARD HES A WINNAR
MBL1 - July 15, 2010 via mobile
no way Tyler Clippard
isnt a Bobby Cox guy
Erihury - July 15, 2010
there’s a thing called sarcasm ever heard of it?
heh heh heh
MBL1 - July 15, 2010 via mobile
i know
i was kidding
Erihury - July 15, 2010
And actually, he totally is a Bobby Cox type of guy.
cbwilk - July 15, 2010
I hope EOF gets well soon,
but Dunn should be able to fill in ably. It’s nice to have so many good arms waiting in AAA. Most teams (even contenders) are lucky to fill out their rosters with replacement level guys.
Jacob Peterson - July 15, 2010
Does any one know when Mike Minor will pitch against Buffalo?
im visitng Buffalo(family) and will go to a Gwinnett-Buffalo game, but i’d rather go to the game in which Minor pitches…any help would be well appreciated
bflobraves - July 15, 2010
Gonzalez just arrived at Turner Field…cool!
Dave_D - July 15, 2010
Team Chemistry Improving by the minuteErihury - July 15, 2010
Fredi’s here ALREADY? He’s a bit early…..
MBL1 - July 15, 2010 via mobile
That lucky man. Can you imagine becoming the manager of this team with all the young talent?
Scott Coleman - July 15, 2010
I bet manager prospects are lining up at FW’s door. But Fredi already got the job, so….
MBL1 - July 15, 2010 via mobile
I'm not as sold on Fredi Gonzalez as everyone else
But, whatever: it seems like most commentators feel his replacing Cox in 2011 is totally inevitable, so I guess I should prepare.
jpx7 - July 15, 2010
I wish Wren would tell me to rot in AAA
…tired of this real work nonsense.
BrockSamson - July 15, 2010
You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Talking Chop to post a comment.