BS Report: The Pitching Situation – a Big Fat Mess

Back on June the 7th. The Atlanta Braves were 45 and 21. They were nine and a half games in front of the Philadelphia Phillies. Today, as they start the All-Star break, they are only two games up after going ten and 19 since June, the seventh in their last 29 games. The lead that was comfortable in May and in early June has disappeared.

Of course, it’s been a combination of the offense falling back and the starting pitching being absolutely awful. The last time a Braves starting pitcher got an out in the seventh inning, so went six plus
That is awful. The stay the rotation right now is obviously in flux. You’ve got Chris Sale, who’s very dependable, but if the playoffs started today, what in the world were the Braves do right. All of Lopez is looked better in his last three start since returning to the rotation. But how far can he go? How can he hold up?

A year after having shoulder surgery and missing the entire season? Bryce Elder has been awful in the last seven games. Now. He had a stretch like this a year ago where he had an E.R.A. Just under nine and an 11 game stretch, he rebounded to have a surprise E.R.A. In his final seven games of the season. Can he do that again?

Well, they really need him too. Then you have Grant Holmes, who is not able to really go past five innings. Martin Perez is on the injured list. Spencer Striders on the injured list. AJ Smith-Shawver is coming back at some point. He had a rehab assignment on Sunday with Triple-A Gwinnett, but he did not do very well and they do not need to rush him.

He’s coming off Tommy John surgery on his elbow. The last thing you need to do is rush him back. He needs to spend at least three more weeks down the minor leagues, getting more rehab work to pretty much have his spring training. So then you have Spencer Strider, who’s hurt. He’s not due back until late August. And even if he comes back, what exactly is he going to be?

Is he going to be able to come back in the rotation, or might he have to go to the bullpen? This is highlighting the major problem in the Braves, an area that was okay in the first six weeks of the season, and then you could slowly start to see it fall apart there in mid-May. And then again since early June.

It’s just been a big, fat mess. So it’s probably going to take Alex and Top, the general manager of the Atlanta Braves, to go out and have a couple of trades, and I say a couple because I don’t know if one starting pitcher would be enough. They may acquire Tarik Skubal, who of course would be a rental from the Detroit Tigers, who is a free agent at the end of the year.

But even after you acquire him, if you’re able to do it, which will be a lot of teams that will want to do that, is that going to be enough to. The Braves actually need two starting pitchers from another team compared to only one? Well, they’ve got to evaluate what they have, what they may get back in return.

There are rumors that Spencer Swallow might start rehabbing soon, but again, part of the problem with these injured pitchers like Schwalbe, Hawk and Strider and Smith, Chava Perez even. All right, well, you got to get him back. And then when you get him back, what are they going to be? That’s a problem. And the problem with the pitching staff is what may be the most biggest question mark for this team, as you now start to think, with 67 games left, what can they do if they make it to October?

They got to make it first. They got a lot of games left for the Phillies, the Mets, the Marlins and the nationals. So they got to worry about that in these final 67 games. But even if they get to the playoffs, will that pitching be enough? That is a question that Alex and Thomas is going to have to answer in the next couple of days, before the start of the second part of the season on Friday.