Atlanta Braves: Are Max Fried and Mike Soroka ready to lead the rotation?

So far in this up and down 2019 Atlanta Braves season, there have been both surprises and disappointments.

Perhaps the best surprise has been the excellent work of two young Atlanta Braves starters: Mike Soroka and Max Fried.

The next question is, ‘are they ready to take the lead of the rotation?’

When acquired in the Justin Upton trade in late 2014, Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Max Fried was staggered with injuries and his progress to make it to the big league club kind of became stunted; therefore leaving him maybe as an afterthought to some.

He finally regained full health in 2018 and made a good impression late in the year, including the 2018 postseason where his outstanding curveball seemed to leave some of the Dodgers off balance at the plate.

At this point, it seems he has taken another huge step forward in 2019 and is pitching wonderfully.

No doubt, his last two starts have been subpar, but (a) he was facing the Dodgers, and (b) obviously getting hit on his pitching hand with a line drive may have put him off his game Sunday against Arizona.

Major League teams seem to be infatuated with innings pitched and that is something I can’t stand. All innings are not created equal, however.

With that being said, I’m sure the Atlanta Braves will look to limit Fried’s innings this year to a point.

Having only pitched 111.1 innings last year, one has to wonder if they will cap it off around the 150 inning mark or so this season.

This is where the depth of the Atlanta Braves pitching prospects will have to be used throughout the summer. One could argue that Fried is 25, though, and it may be time to let him loose and shine.

On the flip side, some detractors will point out that not only is his four-seam fastball velocity up this year, but all his pitches velocities are higher than his career averages.

That could put a little fear in some people who want to keep protecting his long term health and value. They could be right, but I say let him go. Time to see what we got with him.

After all, how can you shut him down with his BABIP under .300 and his sparkling 4.56 k/bb ratio? Not to mention his current RAR (Much like WAR, but Runs instead of Wins) which is 6.7.

Hey Mikey!

But Max Fried is luckily just half of the young budding pitching duo we have. Let’s look at the other in Mike Soroka.

Soroka may be a little more tricky to peg than Fried. I do think his ceiling is higher as some of you probably already knew since I have compared him to Greg Maddux in the past few days.

It may seem crazy, but Soroka is only turning 22 this year and has only made 10 career starts. I wouldn’t like it but I’m sure the Braves would probably have an innings limit or at least a neighborhood of where they want him to be at the end of this season.

After all, the most Soroka has ever pitched was in 2017 with 153.2 innings pitched that season.

It’s been a long time since we have seen someone bust out on the scene in a way Soroka has. In his first 11 starts, he has only allowed more than 1 ER twice.

He allowed 4 ER against the Giants on May 6th last season and again 4 ER on June 19th against the Blue Jays. Keep in mind, after that Blue Jays game is when he went to the then DL for the rest of the season.

I’m about to give stats for his 2019 season so far and I want you to realize how good of a pitcher we have if he stays even close to these for his career.

• Groundball % of 56%
• BABIP- .230
• SIERA- 3.71 (Skill Interactive ERA. Takes into account what a pitcher mostly cant control)
• RAR- 9.1

To continue on those, Soroka hasn’t allowed a HR in the Majors this season so far and only has a 32% hard contact rate.

These numbers are outstanding. The only one that is even a little worrisome is his walk rate is up but still at only 8.7%.

These two have led the charge so far this season. I’m still counting on Mike Foltynewicz to get back closer to his 2018 self than he has been so far.

If that is the case, the Atlanta Braves could have a pretty darn nice 1-2-3 in the rotation going forward for the rest of this year.