The Braves made me very happy on Saturday, and it definitely had nothing to do with the 10-0 pasting the Pirates put on them. I was ecstatic when I learned that Blaine Boyer had been designated for assignment. Boyer has been terrible for a long time now. Here are his numbers from 2008-2009:

Year W-L ERA G IP H ER BB K WHIP
2009 0-1 40.50 3 1.1 3 6 3 2 4.500
2008 2-6 5.88 76 72 73 47 25 67 1.361

If you take his 2008 numbers as a whole, they don’t look that bad (except for the ERA). When you focus on his second half, however, his slide becomes readily apparent.

Month W-L ERA G IP H ER BB K WHIP
July 0-1 7.82 15 12.2 16 11 3 9 1.500
August 0-0 7.94 14 11.1 11 10 3 14 1.235
Sept/Oct 0-0 21.60 4 3.1 8 8 4 5 3.600

The Braves’ record in games in which Boyer appeared from July-October was 11-22. Fortunately, for Braves fans (and Boyer?) he was shut down in September and didn’t pitch after September 17th. In his defense Boyer had an outstanding spring with a 0.87 ERA in 10.1 IP over 9 appearances. Unfortunately, those games don’t count.

If Boyer clears waivers, he’ll most likely be assigned to AAA. If another team claims him, they can have him.