Braves Sporting a Venafro

The Braves signed free-agent reliever Mike Venafro to a one-year contract. Venafro appears to be the sort of refuse on which the Braves have consistently built their bullpen, including the excellent 2002 version. Venafro joins Ray King as the only proven left-handed relievers in the Braves' bullpen.

Venafro may prove more of a challenge than most of Leo Mazzone's reclamation projects. Here are his stats over the his career:

Year	   W	   L	   SV	HLD	BLSV	  ERA	WHIP	K/9IP	K:BB
1999	3	2	0	19	1	3.29	1.24	4.87	1.68
2000	3	1	1	17	1	3.83	1.51	5.11	1.52
2001	5	5	4	21	4	4.80	1.37	4.35	1.04
2002	2	2	0	15	--	4.62	1.59	3.89	1.14
Total	13	10	5	72	6	4.06	1.40	4.63	1.34

Those are far from great numbers, especially the walks. Add to that the fact that Baseball Prospectus calculated Venafro's Adjusted Runs Prevented at -4.7, meaning that he allowed almost 5 extra runs over an average pitcher in his 47 innings pitched.