Elder Statesman

 

While not the most injury-bitten team in all of baseball, this slightly-clobbered Braves team has some really weird aspects to it. Like the outfield, consisting of Ronald Acuna, Eddie Rosario and...Sam Hilliard, who's surprisingly playing pretty well despite being cut from the Rockies after all those years. Or how, with Fried, Wright, Soroka and Allard all out [which...is the entirety of their farm pitching options circa 2018ish], the Braves have played Gwinnett Striper Roulette, bringing up Dylan Dodd and Jared Shuster to race for the 5th rotation spot, then bringing them both back down when neither of them had it.

Basically, the Braves are dealing with a 4-man rotation right now, with the element of Dodd and Shuster still being there when the rotation swings again and the potential to bring Soroka up any day now considering how well he's pitching in Gwinnett. What has stopped me from being worried about the remaining arms being a weaker Spencer Strider, a rehabbing Kyle Wright and a clearly-39 Charlie Morton, is Bryce Elder. Elder was ready last year, had some impressive starts down the stretch, shut-out the Nats in September and then, for the purposes of seniority, did not make the postseason roster. They honestly could have used him.

It was a surprise to me that Elder missed the Opening Day roster due to the Dodd/Shuster experiment, but it didn't shock me at all to see him in Atlanta eventually. Appropriately, Elder's been the Braves' best pitcher, leaving today's nearly-waterlogged battle with Kansas City with a 1.53 ERA, 17 strikeouts and, admittedly, Elder's first three earned runs of the season. I wasn't expecting Elder to rid himself of the beard that he made his initial MLB appearances with last year, but maybe a more clean-cut look is the way to go, and he's certainly made his presence known now. 

It is really nice that the Braves' rotations have worked like this, where they all put in consistent work but every year somebody new, like Max Fried in 2019 or Kyle Wright last year, breaks out and commands the spotlight before returning to consistent work anyhow. This seems to be Elder's year, and he's making the most of it. It'd honestly brilliant if Elder, Fried, Strider, Soroka and Wright could all be healthy and dominant at the same time, let alone Ian Anderson if he ever recovers properly from all that wrist movement. But even if the Braves have to keep relying on depth and only using a few of those guys, they seem to know what they're doing, and they definitely can supplant these arms with a consistently great roster. 

By the way, mostly forgiven about the Grissom thing, the fates seem to have righted themselves and Grissom seems to be finding the ball alright. 

Coming Tomorrow- A guy I figured would retire with my team.