Where does Mike Hampton fit?

Mike Hampton has probably suffered more scrutiny than any other player in Braves history, yet he is a fan and team favorite. With his contract in its’ last year and his value dropping with ever start, how does this 35 year old, injury prone pitcher fit into the Braves future plans?

It seems that Hampton may find his entire career resting on the 14 or so starts he will have this season (assuming he stays healthy.) Considering he was an MVP before coming to Atlanta and compiled a pretty impressive career record of 139-102 with a 4.01 ERA and a 5.5 K to 3.6 BB/9 ratio, should he really be looking at the end of his career? Hopefully the rest of the year will look more like his start against the Giants where Hampton looked lights out and scrapped together a win for the first time in nearly three years.

But the question here is where does Mike fit next year?

Some think that the Braves, who will be in serious need of quality starters, may try to resign Hampton as a veteran influence for what should be a very young Braves rotation. This seems to be a pretty good option for both sides as Hampton has a good relationship with the coaching staff and All-Star catcher Brian McCann. Also with starters Glavine and Smoltz likely to retire at the end of the season and Tim Hudson out for the majority of the season with an elbow injury, the Braves will likely need all the help they can get in their rotation. Jorge Campillo (7-4 2.83 ERA) and Jair Jurrjens (11-7 3.18 ERA) look to anchor the staff after posting stellar rookies seasons but then it gets fuzzy with guys like the less than impressive Charlie Morton (3-5 5.70 ERA) and Jo Jo Reyes (3-9 5.33 ERA) the options do not seem very good for Roger McDowell and the Braves coaching staff.

Then there’s the free agency option, but who would be interested in a 35 year-old injury proned pitcher? How about any of the seven teams with an ERA better than 4.50? Now take those seven and take out the AL teams because Hampton is one of the best hitting pitchers in the game, he has 15 career home runs and a lifetime .243 average. So that leaves four possibilities, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Houston, and Cincinnati. Two of these jump as more likely due to prior connections, Hampton had his break out season with the Houston Astros and saw his career start on a downward trend in Colorado. Colorado may not be very appealing to Hampton since it was the sight of two of his worst seasons. So while still an outside shot there might be a chance of Hampton moving on to Houston and hopefully riding off into the sunset on a high note.

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