Atlanta Braves Spring Chop: Checking up on the battles

We are now three weeks from the end of the Grapefruit League season and some minor league cuts are coming soon… so let’s take stock of the 25-man roster battles.

With the bullpen getting a bit better, the team’s record is getting better.  The Atlanta Braves are now 6-6-1 for the Florida season, and today they beat a Toronto Blue Jays club that was filled with most of their ‘regular’ lineup.

Atlanta started slowly, but really got the bats cranking in the middle innings with homers by Rio Ruiz (his first of the Spring), Carlos Franco (2nd) and Austin Riley (2nd).

In fact, most of the damage done today – including a lot of the pitching – was done by players probably starting the year in AAA.  Yet they more than held their own against a Blue Jays club that’s geared up for one more year of trying to contend in the AL East.

That leads me into the roster battle discussion, because among others, Mike Soroka is just continuing to get people out.  Today, we’ll look exclusively at pitching.

• Soroka today:  2 innings, 2 strikeouts, no walks, 1 hit, no runs.  His ERA over 5 innings is 1.80 – the result of a lone home run.  Otherwise:  2 hits, no walks, and a 0.40 WHIP.
• Matt Wisler is also pitching very well and looking like he is suddenly restarting his fortunes:  in 7 innings so far, 0.00 ERA with zero walks and 5 strikeouts to go with just 5 hits and a 0.71 WHIP.

But would either get the nod for the rotation right now?  Probably not.  Soroka is still not yet on the 40-man, and Wisler is still behind the regular starting five.  However, he’s probably moving himself into position of the ‘go guy’ at Gwinnett in case there’s an emergency.

Here’s the rest:

ROTATION

• Julio Teheran – 5 innings, 0.00 ERA
• Mike Foltynewicz – 5 innings, 0.00 ERA and drawing a lot of praise for his new approach… though he’s struck out just 1 batter thus far.
• Brandon McCarthy – wasn’t happy with his outing on Monday, but he’s still doing okay with a 1.35 ERA over 6.2 innings… he’s been pushing himself an extra inning ahead of the others to have more time to get his work in.
• Sean Newcomb.  Here’s where the battle really starts.  Which one would you pick right now?

Newcomb:  6 innings, 4.50 ERA, but just 4 hits allowed – 3 of them homers.  However, he’s walked just 2 and struck out 6.  That tells me he’s pounding the strike zone consistently and the results are the results.  I’d have to believe this is part of the plan – to keep him away from ‘nibbling’ and to build confidence in strike-throwing.

Wisler:  his numbers are above, but he’s really throwing well.

Soroka: same.. and I think he might be a tick better than Wisler, but it’s truly hard to separate these guys.

Meanwhile, Luiz Gohara – throwing live batting practice now… still no game action, but it sounds like that’s just around the corner.

The Braves don’t need a 5th starter for the 1st 2 weeks of the season, so expect 4 starters to be named and the 5th position to go to either a bench or bullpen player.

THEN THERE’S THIS:

Okay, this is a bit unusual, and does make me wonder what might be going on here.  On the one hand, there’s the fact that Alex Anthopoulos wants to be able to see first-hand exactly what he’s got in Allard – and all the rest.

Other the other hand, I just listed 7 starting pitchers who the Braves could throw into a major league game immediately without losing a step.  And that doesn’t even count Scott Kazmir, who almost has to make this team… in some role.

Are the Braves trying to assess Allard themselves for the purposes of looking at a trade?  Anthopoulos has indicated that he wouldn’t do anything big yet, but if presented with an offer he can’t ignore, then things have to be investigated.  So it’s probably nothing, but it is also a noteworthy event.

There has been no reports from Lakeland on what happened, but the left-hander had posted a 0.00 ERA in 3 innings before today; no hits allowed, but 3 walks and a K.  He had also hit a batter.

BULLPEN

More from Tomahawk Take

• Braves News: Atlanta Braves acquire Eli White from the Texas Rangers
• Atlanta Braves Swing Trade with the New York Yankees for Lucas Luetge
• Atlanta Braves 2012 Top Prospects Review: Zeke Spruill
• Braves News: Atlanta extends Sean Murphy, pitcher reunions, more
• Atlanta Braves: Six Braves prospects that could debut in 2023

Pick your favorite 8 names…

• Scott Kazmir.  Again, due to his contract and service time, he is almost forced to be on the 25-man roster.  [1]
• Arodys Vizcaino.  A lock, barring injury.  [2]
• A.J. Minter.  Has minor league options and that fact could come into play, which would be unfortunate.  [3]
• Jesse Biddle.   Has 1 option remaining, and that will likely come into play.  But he’s pitching well.
• Dan Winkler.  The Braves have carried him for 2 full seasons now… with a month of big-league time remaining until they can finally keep him (Rule 5 draft reasons), I don’t know that they stop now.  [4]
• Anyelo Gomez.  More Rule 5 reasons.  I think the Braves really like him, too.  [5]
• Peter Moylan.  Not a lock, but doing well so far.  [6]
• Rex Brothers.  Needs to start turning that barge around in a hurry.  15.43 ERA and just ugly numbers all across the board.
• Chase Whitley.  Likewise. He signed an $800K deal early in the off-season to avoid arbitration, but he could be cut early, too.  Has not pitched well.
• Sam Freeman.  Pitching very well so far… building on last year [7]
• Jose Ramirez.  Good… not spectacular, but I believe he has an option remaining, so that could be the answer at the end.  [8]
• Luke Jackson.  Almost certainly not at this point.
• Josh Graham.  Too early for him, but isn’t doing badly, either.

So there is one assignment of 8 names… and that would be a good list to carry back to Atlanta.  For the rotation… perhaps a bit more surprising just how well everyone is actually doing.

Next: Time to Launch

That’s a really good thing.