Born Fried

All of us were going crazy about Mike Soroka last year, and then 2020 comes around, Soroka gets hurt, and sure enough we were talking about the wrong young Braves starter the whole time.

The 2020 Braves rotation is weird because it negates most of the 2019 rotation. Folty and Teheran are gone, Soroka is hurt, Newcomb is relieving, and Cole Hamels is still on the mend. Only Fried has really repeated his 2019 success, and he's...technically the ace right now, with a 6-0 record, a 1.60 ERA, 43 strikeouts and a 2.7 WAR, which would propel him to the top of Cy Young talks if Yu Darvish wasn't a thing this year. 

The rest of the rotation is beginning to come around, actually. Robbie Erlin and Josh Tomlin are holdovers from the 'see if this works' era, and they're fine. Ian Anderson is off to a really nice start, with 2 breathtaking appearances and 14 Ks. Tommy Milone is also a fine starting option for them, and his second start today was a lot better than his first. Huascar Ynoa is a decent option, but will probably be phased out if this formation works. And the bullpen is finally performing as expected, with Shane Greene, Mark Melancon, A.J. Minter, Tyler Matzek, Darren O'Day and Will Smith all in good form. 

 The lineup is already performing like the playoffs are on the line. Adam Duvall and Marcell Ozuna are red-hot, Acuna is back and hitting well, Freeman and Swanson are doing great contact work, Travis d'Arnaud is hitting well despite declining as a defensive catcher, and Nick Markakis and Tyler Flowers are doing solid bench work. 

This is better than the Braves' 2019 team that was silenced in the postseason by St. Louis, as there's more power, more bullpen action, and more general x-factor. This is a very outwardly good team, and they might be one of the best in the league. I just hope for their sake that this translate to postseason success and not another pantsing in October.

Coming Tomorrow- I figured the Dodgers knew something by sending this guy to Minnesota. Evidently they didn't.