After a red-hot start, the Braves have cooled off considerably over the last month, playing .500 baseball. The sky isn’t falling, but some valid concerns have arisen.
The starting rotation is paper thin following the injuries to Max Fried and Kyle Wright. Although, recent performances from Jared Shuster have alleviated that issue a bit, and Michael Soroka is starting to look more like himself in Gwinnett.
The Braves also have a couple of stars that are severely underachieving. AJ Minter, who was arguably the most dominant left-handed reliever in baseball last season, currently sports an unsightly 7.36 ERA and has accrued -0.8 bWAR. On the offensive end, Michael Harris II is 0 for his last 22 at the plate, dropping his batting average to .163 and OPS to .486 on the season.
Both of these guys are much better than they’ve performed early this year, and Michael Harris II has also dealt with a couple of minor injuries, causing him to miss some stretches. I would wager both of them eventually figure it out and become critical cogs in the machine again. But if there were one to be more concerned about than the other, who would it be?
We discuss on the latest episode of SportsTalkATL below.
You can find SportsTalkATL on the Fox 5 Streaming App every Monday-Friday from 9:00-10:00 PM. Segments like the one below can also be found on our YouTube channel.
—
Photographer: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
You must log in to post a comment.