Alex Anthopolous spoke to Craig Mish of Sportsgrid about when Mike Soroka might be ready to return to a big-league mound. Anthopolous suggested he’ll be more-or-less ready in April, and though it sounds like he isn’t likely to be on the opening day roster, joining the club before the end of the season’s first month appears likely. That’s great news for an Atlanta rotation that’s looking better by the day. Max Fried remains at the top of their projected pitching staff, while Ian Anderson continues to look the part of a Major League hurler. In the meantime…
- Huascar Ynoa, Kyle Wright, and Bryse Wilson continue to compete to be Soroka’s understudy. Because of the way the schedule shakes out, the Braves could open the season with a four-man rotation of Fried, Anderson, Charlie Morton, and Drew Smyly. But one of Ynoa, Wright, and Wilson would still likely make the team in that case as a long-man out of the pen, writes MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. All three young pitchers have some experience in that role, but Ynoa, in particular, has struggled somewhat pitching deep into games, which the Braves are monitoring closely this spring, writes Bowman. If the Braves prefer Ynoa as a couple-innings-at-a-time-type arm out of the pen, that could bode well for his chances to make the opening day roster.
- The Cardinals, meanwhile, might be without yet another starter when the season opens. Manager Mike Shildt put Kwang Hyun Kim in the same camp as Miles Mikolas concerning their readiness for opening day. Kim missed his most recent start after his back tightened up on him during a bullpen session, per MLB.com’s Jeff Jones (Twitter links). There’s not much concern long-term regarding Kim’s health, but there are now a couple of open rotation spots behind Adam Wainwright, Jack Flaherty and Carlos Martinez. John Gant is the favorite to nab one of those two spots, with Daniel Ponce de Leon, Jake Woodford and Johan Oviedo among the candidates to start games early in the year.
- The Cardinals have come to terms with 24 pre-arbitration players, per Jones (via Twitter). This is notable because it means they didn’t have to renew anyone’s contract, an option that teams retain under the current arbitration system. While pre-arbitration players don’t have the right to arbitration yet, they do still have to come to terms on a new deal each season. In cases where an agreement can’t be made, the team can unilaterally renew a player’s contract. The Cardinals had had to renew contracts in the past for Flaherty and Jordan Hicks, and while it’s hard to quantify long-term damage, it certainly paints a poor portrait of team-player relations. It is a good sign, in this case, that the Cardinals found common ground with all of their pre-arbitration players.
I’m rooting for Wilson to finally start showing the success he showed in the minors. Kid use to put video game #’s up, then he gets to the majors almost too fast, and everything slowed. I think he can still be a legit long term niece for us
Agreed
All I need to know is game 4 of the NLCS
I think part of the problem is that he hasn’t been given a consistent shot. He’s only appeared in 15 total games in the past 3 seasons and has been constantly bouncing back and forth from AAA to the major league roster.
I’m not hating on Fried, but didn’t he have a really good stretch in 2019 then ended up with a 4.00 ERA. He showed great stuff in 2020 but im not completely sold on him. I just remember him having a good stretch then was meh and ended coming out of the pen
Staying healthy and the increased velocity is what changed his tide he’s been putting up elite numbers since the middle of 2019. Fried has had a lot of issues with blisters and they finally figured out a method for him to not tear up his hand.
Ah, ok thx for info. As a Nats fan I hope he does fine but when we face him I hope the bats show up. Lots of talent with him and Soroka
Yeah, like when Smoltz went 2-7 with a 5.48 ERA before figuring a few things out at the Major League level in his rookie season.
You write this in a aggressive tone. I’m not completely sold on 11 starts. I also got news on the comment above so take a chill pill
I’m not reading any aggressive tone in slowcurve’s comment.
Probably not, just looks aggressive to me. The Yeah makes it seem aggressive. Probably just overreacting
*an aggressive tone.
How can words typed have a tone?
Agressive tenor then.
You’re talking to my guy in the wrong tone. Do it again, I’ll stab you in the face with a soldering iron.
Does your mother sew? Get her to sew that!
Fantastic movie.
He actually had a really bad June and July in 2019 and a pretty good August and September. He had one appearance from the bullpen in September and that was it.
None of that means I disagree with your assessment, though. I’m not sold on Fried either. He needs to do what he did last year again and spread over a full season. He may very well be a TOR but for now I’m just not comfortable saying he’s better than a no.3 and I’m a huge Fried fan.
It’s really not uncommon for rookies to run out of steam toward the end of their first full year. That’s what happened with Fried in 2019.
Sadly 2020 he still didn’t pitch a full season, but he’s going to be a really good pitcher.
Edit
I stand corrected after reading a comment above. It was a bad June and July 2019. Well whatever. I’m still on the Fried will be good bandwagon either way
If you look at all of Fried’s starts (which as fate would have it, I recently did) in 2019 he’d consistently have about four good starts and one or two clunkers each month. Overall numbers can sometimes be misleading that way. Personally, I’ve always thought his ceiling to be higher than Soroka’s but even if you disagree on that, I still think Fried is properly cast near the top of a playoff rotation.
SITTING ON A PARK BENCH
“Snots running down his nose’
Sorry, I jumped a line to the good part.
I have yet to see Huascar Ynoa do much of anything outside the 4 scoreless innings in the NLCS in 2020.
Yeah I’m not sure why they don’t stash him in AAA he’s too inconsistent but I will get him a little hope considering how the Braves have handled him jumping up and down from MLB to AAA and switching between relief and starting. It’s a lot IMO for a 23 year old. I really question how AS handles pitching prospects. Lots of up and down lots of rotating starter to relief on multiple guys let alone consistent time in one place. They just need to give guys a shot at one thing and see how it goes. None of the top prospect pitchers have gotten fair chance to hold down a spot.
*Really question AA’s handling of pitching prospects
@FredMcGriff. He hasn’t done much while starting but has around a 2.0 era out of the pen. Not sure if this is just bc they have never really decided where they want him to pitch and he’s not stretched out of it he is more suited for the long relief role.
Can never have too much pitching.
Soroka is over rated. He’s good no doubt. But if that’s your ace rolling out against scherzer or degrom or Bauer….meh. Got to do better than that to win a WS
Well Sherzer and De Grom are HOF type pitchers. And Soroka 1 career playoff start 7 innings 2 hits and 1 run. And he could have possibly put them over the top in the playoffs. But the dodgers are better anyways
Unless Degrom pitches until he’s 45 I wouldn’t include him in hall of fame. Hes a 38 career WAR pitcher at the age of 32 already. He’s gonna have to Bartolo Colone the last half of his career to make it
He’s not overrated at all and he’s not our Ace…Fried is for now, Anderson will be before too much longer. Soroka is a 2-3 that virtually every team in the league would love to have.
I love Soroka, and have from the start, but let’s face it, he has injury issues of one form or another from his first day in the majors. He has yet to take that ace mantle because of that. Ian Anderson is the closest thing we have to an ace.
You’re comparing a guy who’s had one single full MLB season under his belt to a guy who finished top 5 in Cy Young voting in 7 seasons in a row, a guy who put up the second lowest ERA in a single season since the turn of the century in 2018 and has back-to-back Cy Young awards and a guy with the 6th highest fWAR since 2018. Of course he’s not going to look as good compared to them, but that doesn’t mean he’s overrated. Plus, an important part to winning a World Series is having pitching depth, not necessairly having one singular ace. Ian Anderson and Max Fried looked fantastic last season. Any team would kill for a rotation headlined by Soroka/Fried/Anderson.
Case in point….the last time Bauer was on the mound (playoffs last year), he was matched inning-for-inning by Fried, and the Braves won the game.
Indeed, and the only time Bauer even made it to the World Series he gave up 8 runs in 13 and a 2/3rd’s innings during that run.
Yeah, he’s over-rated like Greg Maddux….
More I look at it, the more I realize the Braves have a handful of wildcard/X factors. Soroka’s health, Morton’s health, and how far do Freeman/Ozuna come back to earth
They can probably handle one of those going poorly, but if 2 or more go badly, it could be interesting in the NLE
Of course if Riley breaks out or a young pitcher comes up Ian Anderson style, that can backfill some production. But I think it’s fair to say there’s a couple Qs with them
Freemen has always been in the mvp talk so not sure he’ll regress much. As a Braves fan I feel ozuna is the biggest question mark I’m curious which ozuna bat shows up. Personally I think the soroka injury is being over stated yes it was a decent injury but he’s also been doing baseball activities for months. I’d handle soroka with a pair of white gloves still but the way he pitches I’m not too concerned.
Freeman’s 2020 wRC+ was 187, his previous high was 152 back in 2016. He will almost certainly regress in 2021.
Every team has question marks, but those you listed are not the big ones for the Braves in my opinion. As BIF mentions, Freeman is as consistent as they come, Soroka is already fully healed from his injury, and we have some of the best starting pitching depth in the majors. The things that give me heartburn are: how quickly can pache develop into the everyday CF we need him to be? Will Acuna develop some more consistency over 162 games? Will Riley turn the corner? Can Darnaud stay healthy? Who is our closer, and will Snit actually stick to one when we figure it out? Our pen was a massive strength for us last year, it could easily be our biggest weakness this year if a couple things bounce the other way on the plinko board of luck. But again – every team has these questions….that’s why we play the games!
And I agree whole hardly with your comments phnxdark23. We all have question marks going into the season. The 2020 season seem like an extended spring training situation. Alex A. Has done a good job so far, Freeman is steady, Ozuna is at last 75% of what he was last year, figure out third base (IMO Carmargo is not the answer), and yes our bullpen was awesome in 2020. But nothing has been done there. I hate saying it but letting Mark M. Get away could hurt, don’t believe Greene is the answer any any cheap price.
I believe the Atlanta Braves are World Series-bound this year. This organization has made a lot of the right moves over the past few years. Especially being very patient with their young pitching and maintaining depth. I don’t know if Ozuna repeats his season from last year, but still like the overall makeup of this team. They have plenty of trade capital should they decide to bid on available talent down the road. All I hear about is the Dodgers. The Braves nearly had them last year, and since we are gonna play 162 and have fans in the stands ….. Good reason to believe the Dodgers in a non-60-game season revert to their “always manage to fall short in the playoffs ways”. Let’s stop putting the Padres in this discussion. They are a level below both the Dodgers and Braves. The Padres will not score against the Atlanta pitching staff. I recommend pitching around Tatis/Machado …… Nobody else in the Padres lineup can hit Atlanta pitching. Nobody! Not Tommy “Strip Club” Pham. Not the dude from Korea. Not Austin Nola. And Definitely Not Eric Hosmer or Will Myers …. Hosmer and Myers ….. Lol …. The overall Padres lineup is weak! Pitch around the Big 2 and you have nothing left.
As far as I can see, the only person who has brought the Padres into this discussion is you.
Live a little. Tons of weird things consistently occur in short series. Biancalana, lemke, devereaux, ray knight…
> it sounds like he isn’t likely…appears likely
All in the same sentence.
Bottom line….Not a surprise the Cardinals starting pitching is a problem ….when they rely on starters with an injury history or are unproven as a major league starter.
Cardinals need to trade that toxic child Flaherty. He has no intention of staying with the Cards.