Braves' Player Recap: Eric O'Flaherty

Today's Braves' recap will be on relief pitcher Eric O'Flaherty.
O'Flaherty made his major league debut back in 2006 with the Seattle Mariners. He pitched there for three years and the Braves signed him before 2009. He has been one of the Braves best signings in recent years as he has been a stellar reliever since joining Atlanta. 2011 was undoubtedly his best season as he posted as ERA of 0.98 after giving up only eight earned runs in 78 appearances, one of the lowest ERA's by a reliever in modern day history.
O'Flaherty had another terrific season in 2012 with the Braves. His only down parts to the year were giving up more runs and blowing two games. That all happened at the beginning of the season too, down the stretch his was tremendous again. His two blown games came on April 13th against the Milwaukee Brewers and May 2nd against the Philadelphia Phillies. In those two games he gave up three-run home runs to tie the game. Fortunately for him, the Braves still found a way to win both games.
As said before O'Flaherty's second half of the season was his best part of the year. In his first 36 games of the season he gave up eleven runs. In his last 28 games of the year though, he didn't allow one earned run to score. During that stretch his ERA went down over a whole run, and he was once again one of the Braves' most dominant members of it's bullpen. He finished the season with a 3-0 record, a 1.73 ERA and 46 strikeouts.
O'Flaherty will be around again in 2013 with the Braves. He will most likely be counted on by manager Fredi Gonzalez to be the bullpen's top left-handed reliever. He has shown he can pitch well in big games and he is one of the toughest left-handers to bat against in the game today. Whenever he takes the mound, Braves fans know it's usually going to be a quick inning for the opposing team.