House That Hank Built
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Atlanta Braves: Is there an ace in cards?

By Matthew Browning

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 26: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets heads back to the dugout after he struck out Ozzie Albies #1 of the Atlanta Braves in the eighth inning on September 26,2018 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 26: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets heads back to the dugout after he struck out Ozzie Albies #1 of the Atlanta Braves in the eighth inning on September 26,2018 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 26: Kyle Wright #73 of the Atlanta Braves delivers a pitch to Michael Conforto #30 of the New York Mets in the eight inning on September 26,2018 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 26: Kyle Wright #73 of the Atlanta Braves delivers a pitch to Michael Conforto #30 of the New York Mets in the eight inning on September 26,2018 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Sure: the Braves are loaded with pitching.  Yet something still feels like it’s missing, even viewed from that vault.

The focus throughout the Atlanta Braves’ painful rebuild was about pitching, because as the old adage goes “you can never have too much pitching.” While that certainly might be true, a team (most of the time) needs a frontline, go-to, and shutdown ace to be successful.

Look at the teams still alive in the playoffs:

The Brewers are the outliers here, but they have assembled such a crazy-good bullpen that the lack of an ace isn’t as much of a factor.

As things stand now, the Braves rotation for next season would be Mike Foltynewicz, Kevin Gausman, Sean Newcomb, perhaps Mike Soroka and/or Touki Toussaint and then a whole slew of possibilities.

Do you see an ace on that list?

Probably not right now.

Don’t get me wrong, Folty had a tremendous year and has emerged as a POTENTIAL ace real soon. But with a team that won 90 games this year and has the resources to drastically improve the club, it’s time to stop talking about potential.

Let’s be real, though. There are really only 10-12 true aces in baseball (that might be kind) and none are about to be free agents (even if Kershaw opts-out, I see no way he leaves the Dodgers).

So who can be had?

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