BS Report: No New Pitchers for the Braves; Hawks: Waiting for Kuminga
On Tuesday afternoon, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the Atlanta Braves had no interest in Chris Bassitt, a free agent pitcher who signed a few days ago with the Baltimore Orioles. And they did not have interest, at least at this point in time. And Lucas Giolito, another free agent who is out there on the market. That was shocking news considering the situation the Braves are now in. The Braves say their rotation starts with four pitchers for sale Spencer Strider, Grant Holmes and also Reynaldo Lopez. All four of those pitchers had injury issues last year, and it is not the most stable situation. Then there is a competition, the Braves say, for the fifth starter spot, mainly with Bryce Elder and with Joey Wentz. Well, those two are mainly fifth starters, and if they have to be pushed up into a larger role, the Braves are going to be in trouble.
Why are the Braves not interested in acquiring a starting pitcher out there on the market, either through a trade or free agent? And let’s be honest now there’s still time for them to change their mind. But the news that they were not interested in Chris Bassitt, who looked like the perfect candidate, a pitcher who had averaged 176 innings over the last five seasons, or Lucas Giolito, a pitcher who may have been like for one year, maybe ten, $12 million, makes no sense.
The only explanation is the Braves are being cheap. Now, they all say our payroll is going to be in the top 6 or 7. What are you talking about? But remember, you have to look at the revenues the Braves are making. I would like for the Braves to be in the category of top five for revenues and payroll. How much of the revenues the Braves are making with the city they have built in North Atlanta? Are they putting toward the payroll? Last year that was 17th. That needs to be better.
Also tomorrow, the Hawks get back in action for the second part of the season. They have 26 games remaining and they are four games out of the 500 mark under all the turmoil that they’ve had with all the changes in the injuries and the roster going from one direction to the next. We hope to see Jonathan Kuminga make his Hawks debut on Thursday against Philadelphia. He was acquired before the trade deadline from Golden State. He is a 23 year old player who was the seventh overall pick in the draft five years ago, and has just kind of got untapped potential. He got into kind of the doghouse in Golden State with Steve Kerr and never really able to reach his potential.
He played very well last year in the playoffs against Minnesota for the Warriors. But again, he’s just kind of been stuck in Golden State, so give him the opportunity to see what he can do in these final 26 games this season. It will be interesting to see how head coach Quin Snyder uses Jonathan Kuminga and how he will play Kuminga with Jalen Johnson, and also maybe some time with Kuminga and Zaccharie Risacher that will be interesting.
Kuminga is mainly a power forward, which of course that’s what Jalen Johnson is. But they’re a little bit different players. I mean obviously Johnson can bring the ball up and kind of be the point guard. So we’ll see how they worked out. But it’s a very interesting situation. Kuminga has a lot of talent. A lot of people think he’s got very good potential moving forward. If he gets the opportunity. So the Hawks will give that to him. That’ll be the main thing to watch for the Hawks in the final 26 games of the regular season, and whether or not they can make the playoffs.
