Lots of teams give September starts to players not generally thought to be in that team’s plans for the season. In many cases, they are giving young minor league hurlers a chance to show their stuff on the big stage. In the Braves case, they’ll be using a journeyman veteran, in the form of Josh Collmenter, to take on the Nats on Saturday afternoon.
Collmenter is an interesting if not particularly effective pitcher. He was a 15th-round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2007, who debuted with them in 2011. His rookie season was his best: a 3.38 ERA / 3.