TOT - The End of Beweber

Ryan Weber was a non-prospect, but he still had a few moments of greatness that had people believing he could be more for the rebuilding Braves.

Transaction of Today...November 2, 2016 - The Seattle Mariners selected Ryan Weber off waivers from the Atlanta Braves.

Sometimes, it's good to remember where you came from. It grounds you. Helps you appreciate the progress you made.

For former Bewebers out there - you know who you are - the progress the Braves have made from those dark rebuilding years to now is really something to marvel at.

Bewebers, a take on Beliebers, or fans of Justin Bieber, existed for a short amount of time in 2015 and into some of 2016. They were fans who believed that Ryan Weber could be more than anyone thought he was capable of being. And to the man's credit, he has appeared in every baseball season since getting called up in 2015 so he must be doing something right.

Ryan Weber was born in 1990 in central Florida. In 2008, after graduating from Clearwater Catholic High School, he was a 12th-round pick from the Philadelphia Phillies. He ultimately passed on joining the Phils and cost himself quite a bit of green when the Braves came calling a year later in the 22nd-round. Maybe he preferred to be closer to home?

Weber had a largely unremarkable run in the minors. His best season prior to 2015 was probably 2011 which was split between Lynchburg and Rome. In 15 games, including six starts, Weber had a 2.72 ERA over 49.2 innings. A pitch-to-contact guy, Weber never lit up the radar gun. But he could throw strikes and that, my friends, would soon become a skill badly needed in Atlanta.

In 2015, the stars aligned for Weber. He solved Mississippi after getting his head beat in there a bit the previous season. In eleven games, including three starts, he had just a 2.73 ERA. He continued the good times in Gwinnett. In 73.1 innings, he had just a 2.21 ERA. Sure, he was striking out just 4.3 per nine, but the BABIP Gods were a fan of Weber's work and the results supported that.

To provide context for those of you lucky bastards who just took the rebuilding years off, the 2015 Braves were bad. They were real bad. Williams Perez, Matt Wisler, Eric Stults, and Manny Banuelos made a combined 53 starts for the team. Brandon Cunniff had the third-most appearances out of the bullpen. Sugar Ray Marimon appeared in 16 games. Things were just terrible day-in and day-out for the Braves. Except for Kelly Johnson. That man was great.

But overall, this team was desperate for any potential infusion of youth and a non-prospect looking good was worth a gamble. Funny thing was than Ryan Weber wasn't even the top pitching prospect named Ryan to get a look. That was Ryan Kelly who, I'm willing to bet, you're wondering if I made up. I didn't. He didn't pitch well, either.

When rosters expanded, Weber eventually got the call to sub for Wisler. Weber's opponent? The same Phillies he had turned his back on several years before. He matched up with a rookie Aaron Nola and nearly matched the future ace. After six innings, he left with a 2-0 deficit. He allowed just four hits, walked one, and struck out two. But his lineup, led by cleanup-hitting A.J. Pierzynski, couldn't muster any offense and bullpen struggles led to a 5-0 defeat.

Nevertheless, Weber earned another chance. He'd work into the seventh five days later against the Mets. He even left with a 3-2 lead with two runners on and one out. This game would end in a 10-7 loss in ten innings for the Braves because, good gracious, this team was terrible. But like a champ, Weber shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'll just have to do this myself." Next time out, he met up with the Phillies again and dazzled over seven innings, allowing just two hits and one run. He walked a pair and struck out five. But the Braves couldn't figure out Jerad Eickhoff and Weber left with a 1-0 deficit. However, Freddie Freeman delivered a two-run double to score Nick Markakis and Pedro Ciriaco in the 8th to take Weber off the hook. He didn't get the win, but he definitely gave the Braves a chance to get the victory and they won 2-1.

Weber's next start, we don't need to talk about. Okay, the Marlins scored seven off him in two innings. Moving on, in Game #159 of the season, he took the ball against the Nationals still searching for an elusive first victory. But like so many times before, Weber pitched well enough to win only to get bested by Stephen Strasburg and let down by an Adonis Garcia error that led to a pair of unearned runs off the bullpen. In seven innings, Weber K'd 10! He only allowed five hits. Unfortunately, one of them was to Clint Robinson and it went over the wall. Why anyone would pitch to Robinson is the true mystery here.

As the 2015 season ended, Braves fans had little to be excited about. The team lost 95 games. Only two other NL teams had a worse ERA. No NL team scored fewer runs. The revolving door of starters were an abysmal failure. But four of Ryan Weber's five starts were tremendous and there was something there. Bewebers everywhere said the Braves had a diamond-in-the-rough. He could throw strikes on a team that walked the second-most hitters in the NL. And sure, nerds pointed out that he didn't strike out anybody, but tell ten Nationals that! Weber was going places!

That place was to Gwinnett to open the 2016 season. No biggy - the Braves would fix that soon enough. All Weber did was toss 8.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to open the season prior to being called up a few weeks into the 2016 campaign. In his first game back in the bigs, Williams Perez left with an injury in the fourth innings with one out. Weber got the call and shut down the Dodgers over 3.2 innings, allowing three hits and a run while striking out four. The Braves rolled for an 8-1 win behind a 4-for-4 day from Tyler Flowers. Yeah. Tyler Flowers.

The biggest takeaway was that Ryan Weber finally got his first major league win! Sure, he was still in the bullpen, but it was only a matter of time until he finally got his shot to start again and held down his spot like the rock he was.

You just needed to Bewebe.

Unfortunately, that wasn't to be. His next two appearances were both ugly outings with a combined eight runs in four bullpen innings. He was cast back to Gwinnett. Outside of two scattered appearances in June, he remained in Gwinnett for much of the next three months until getting back into the mix around the trading deadline. Two scoreless outings followed before another trip to Gwinnett, but the demotion wasn’t as lengthy this time. In mid-August, Weber was up to stay. In his first six outings, all out of the pen, Weber allowed just two earned runs. Nearly a year to the day he made his first major league start, he earned a start in Washington. He was plastered pretty good.

Weber would make just one more start and two other appearances the rest of the month. In 16 total outings for 2017, he carried an ugly 5.45 ERA. He didn't walk many batters, but also gave up a bunch of homers. Even his most ardent Bewebers moved on. The dream had died. After the season, on this day in 2016, the Braves waived Weber and he hooked up with the Mariners.

Since then, he has appeared for Seattle, Tampa Bay, Boston, Milwaukee, Seattle again, and even the Yankees this year. In 2021 alone, he pitched in just four games despite pitching for three different teams. While the Bewebers have all disappeared, Weber's dream to stick in the majors never seems to fade. He picked up his first major league save this year, allowing a run in 10.2 innings. But since he only struck out three, it wasn't surprising that the Yankees didn't retain him. He's currently a free agent and will likely look for another major league team for the 2023 season.

So, maybe he didn't become the control-artist diamond-in-the-rough some hoped he would be after 2015. But you got to remember that we Braves fans were desperate to believe in anyone and who better that a guy who squeezed every last ounce of talent out of his right arm he could just to get to the majors? Sure, better prospects would arrive and as would the winning the last five years have spoiled Braves fans with. But during a dark rebuild, Weber was a short-lived ray of light that made things a bit more fun and for that, I am grateful.