Baseball Guru
12-20-2001, 08:00 PM
By Mark Bowman
MLB.com
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves were one of the few teams that Albie Lopez found success against during the 2001 season.
Next year, he won't have that opportunity.
Instead, the right-hander, who finished last season with the World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks, will be wearing a Braves uniform during the 2002 season. The club and Lopez came to terms on a one-year deal on Thursday afternoon.
"We've had some interest in him since last year," Braves Assistant General Manager Frank Wren said. "We kept an eye on him this year when he pitched against us because we saw a guy that can help us."
Lopez won both of his regular-season starts against the Braves during the 2001 season. On July 15, while pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he allowed just one run on seven hits in seven innings.
Almost one month later, Lopez was in a D-Backs uniform and at Turner Field threw seven scoreless innings while allowing two hits in Arizona's 9-1 win.
Between Tampa and Arizona last year, Lopez combined for just nine wins. In Tampa, he was 5-12 with a 5.34 ERA in 20 starts. On July 25, the D-Rays shipped him to the D-Backs.
In 13 starts with the D-Backs, he went 4-7 with a 4.00 ERA. He lasted just three innings in his lone Division Series and NLCS starts. During the World Series, he tossed just one-third of an inning.
Lopez first appeared in the Majors as a member of the Cleveland Indians in 1993. He stayed in the Cleveland organization through the 1997 season before being taken by Tampa in the 1998 expansion draft.
In 252 Major League games, he is 42-52 with a 4.75 ERA. The 2001 season marked the first time he was used exclusively as a starter.
With the Lopez signing, the Braves now have six candidates to fill the five slots in their starting rotation. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Kevin Millwood, Jason Marquis and Odalis Perez had appeared to be the likely candidates to fill out the rotation.
There have been reports that the Braves were shopping Millwood. However, the team has not confirmed those reports.
"This just gives us more options," Wren said of the Lopez signing. "We are still looking at some things. But there is nothing on the radar screen right now."
With Lopez's lack of success in the role of a full-time starter last year, there is still a chance he could be used in a middle-relief role. His finest season was 1998, when he appeared in relief 54 times for the D-Rays and was 7-4 with a 2.60 ERA.
Mark Bowman is the site reporter for AtlantaBraves.com and can be reached at bowman.mark@worldnet.att.net.
MLB.com
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves were one of the few teams that Albie Lopez found success against during the 2001 season.
Next year, he won't have that opportunity.
Instead, the right-hander, who finished last season with the World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks, will be wearing a Braves uniform during the 2002 season. The club and Lopez came to terms on a one-year deal on Thursday afternoon.
"We've had some interest in him since last year," Braves Assistant General Manager Frank Wren said. "We kept an eye on him this year when he pitched against us because we saw a guy that can help us."
Lopez won both of his regular-season starts against the Braves during the 2001 season. On July 15, while pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he allowed just one run on seven hits in seven innings.
Almost one month later, Lopez was in a D-Backs uniform and at Turner Field threw seven scoreless innings while allowing two hits in Arizona's 9-1 win.
Between Tampa and Arizona last year, Lopez combined for just nine wins. In Tampa, he was 5-12 with a 5.34 ERA in 20 starts. On July 25, the D-Rays shipped him to the D-Backs.
In 13 starts with the D-Backs, he went 4-7 with a 4.00 ERA. He lasted just three innings in his lone Division Series and NLCS starts. During the World Series, he tossed just one-third of an inning.
Lopez first appeared in the Majors as a member of the Cleveland Indians in 1993. He stayed in the Cleveland organization through the 1997 season before being taken by Tampa in the 1998 expansion draft.
In 252 Major League games, he is 42-52 with a 4.75 ERA. The 2001 season marked the first time he was used exclusively as a starter.
With the Lopez signing, the Braves now have six candidates to fill the five slots in their starting rotation. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Kevin Millwood, Jason Marquis and Odalis Perez had appeared to be the likely candidates to fill out the rotation.
There have been reports that the Braves were shopping Millwood. However, the team has not confirmed those reports.
"This just gives us more options," Wren said of the Lopez signing. "We are still looking at some things. But there is nothing on the radar screen right now."
With Lopez's lack of success in the role of a full-time starter last year, there is still a chance he could be used in a middle-relief role. His finest season was 1998, when he appeared in relief 54 times for the D-Rays and was 7-4 with a 2.60 ERA.
Mark Bowman is the site reporter for AtlantaBraves.com and can be reached at bowman.mark@worldnet.att.net.