Throwing a bullpen game every week isn't sustainable

Atlanta won the series against the Mariners, but it possibly could have been a sweep if not for Atlanta dropping game two, 7-3, on Saturday night, in another bullpen game.

Bullpen games are fraught with peril, and not an easy thing to do for an MLB team. "The only risk in these bullpen games is it’s got to go almost perfect,” manager Brian Snitker said after the loss. “It’s hard to do that because you’re running so many guys out there, you don’t know when one of them might have an off day.”

The issue in this bullpen game was Michael Tonkin, who was the 2nd pitcher into the game for Atlanta after Jesse Chavez got the start and went 3.1 innings scoreless. Tonkin pitched two innings, and gave up two earned runs on six hits and two walks in his outing. Thanks to some untimely (and uncharacteristic) errors from the Braves defense, Seattle put up five runs and ran away with the game early.

For the three bullpen games Atlanta's thrown this season (game two vs Boston, game three vs Toronto, and game two vs Seattle), Atlanta's 0-3 with 16 runs scored (12 earned) across those three outings.

Could Atlanta call up a prospect to start?

Dylan Dodd would be a better option, right? Maybe even Michael Soroka?

Snitker said it wasn't that simple. "You’d like to see them go down there and string together some starts,” Snitker told the media on Saturday. “Those guys we talk about are all options, but they haven’t as of yet put together two, three or four starts in a row that you feel good about.”

Dodd and Soroka have had their moments in AAA this year, but have also struggled at times. Dodd's sitting on a 1-3 record and a 6.67 ERA for Gwinnett so far this year, owing to some blowups - six runs to Buffalo on April 28th, or seven runs to Nashville on May 9th (and then five more in the rematch on Sunday the 14th).

Soroka hasn't fared much better, with seven runs to that same Buffalo team on April 30th, but he's starting to get more efficient, with a combined seven runs across his next twelve innings.

Atlanta's got both Soroka and Dodd on pitch limits, holding them around 75 to 80 pitches in the month of May. Is it to have them ready to come up and start on regular rest in Atlanta, or just a way of monitoring and limiting their innings over the course of a season?

Jared Shuster's emergence helps

Either way, it feels like Jared Shuster's two consecutive good starts is the beginning of answering a question about one of those two rotation spots. He gave up three runs in five innings against Texas, all on three consecutive hits, the last of which was an Adolis Garcia home run. He then turned around and gave Atlanta six innings of one hit, one run ball this afternoon to get his first MLB win.

Let's hope Shuster's solidified one of those two rotation spots, because even the uber-flexible Jesse Chavez can acknowledge that bullpen games aren't sustainable for a season.

“Time will tell, but I don’t think so,” Chavez said. “I think [bullpen games] are a good stop-gap for the time being until you have the right pieces in place."

We know Atlanta's going to continue to fight, and this team will do anything for Brian Snitker. If they believe a bullpen game every fifth day is the best option, Chavez and the rest of the armbarn will give it their best.

"We have enough guys down there who can handle the job. We’re all willing to take the ball any time, any day and get as many outs as we can." said Chavez. "We just have to understand the situation we’re in now with two big guys [Fried and Wright] going down.”

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