Atlanta Braves Decide to Skip Next Blair Start

Atlanta Braves Decide to Skip Next Blair Start

According to David O’Brien the Atlanta Braves will skip Aaron Blair’s next start and maybe more.  Blair was ineffective in his first start back from AAA against the Giants last Sunday giving up five runs in four innings, three on home runs.

Blair’s Promise Remains Unfulfilled

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, Blair was the Diamondbacks first round selection in the 2013 draft – 36th overall.  Following a 2014 when he split time between A , A+ and AA finishing  with a combined 3.56 ERA, 1.143 WHIP he was a universal choice as one of baseball’s top 100 prospects. He continued to perform well in 2015 when he split time between AA and AAA posting a combined 2.92 ERA and 1.196 WHIP and retained his spot in the top 100.

Prior to the 2016 season he came to the Braves along with Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte for Gabe Speier and Shelby Miller and was assigned to Gwinnett. He made three starts there allowing three runs in 19 IP earning a call up to the Braves on April 24th.

Rough at the top

He made five starts including a six inning two hit, one run performance against the Cubs on April 29th. Following that he made a five inning three run start against his old team but his next two starts weren’t good and the Braves sent him back to Gwinnett.

He made one start there – three innings, one run – then returned to Atlanta on May fifth when injury attacked the rotation. His next six starts saw him allow 2, 6, 2, 6, 3 and 8 runs in 29 1/3 innings which comes out to an 8.28 ERA and a 1.670 WHIP walking 17 and striking out 21.  That earned him a trip back to Gwinnett to work things out unfortunately he didn’t.

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