Now that Orlando Arcia has seemingly been given the keys to the SS position to start the season, the biggest question left to answer in Braves Grapefruit League play is who starts the season as the Braves 5th starter.
One of the strengths of this year’s Braves team is undoubtedly its major league ready starting pitching depth. We’ll likely see most/all of the likes of: Ian Anderson, Michael Soroka, Bryce Elder, & Kolby Allard. Coming into the season it wouldn’t have been absurd to say this was the pecking order. This alone would be considered good 5th starter depth. But all of these pitchers have either already been demoted to minor league camp or will start the season on the IL.
The two candidates left vying for the 5th rotation spot are a pair of quickly rising lefties: ’20 first rd pick Jared Shuster, & ’21 third rd pick Dylan Dodd. It is the rise of these two, who two months ago would’ve likely been at the bottom of the pecking order in the list above, that takes the Braves starting pitching depth from good to elite.
Who ya got?
Shuster is currently ranked as the Braves #1 prospect. I feel he currently profiles as middle of the rotation ceiling. His fastball is good, not great, as is his command of it. When he locates his plus secondary offerings, he cruises. When he doesn’t, he grinds. His current spring line is: 18.2 IP, 1.45 ERA, 18 SO, 0.59 WHIP.
Dodd, because he only has one full year of pro ball under his belt, is just now cracking the top 10 of Braves prospect lists. But there were Braves insiders who saw him traverse three levels last year who weren’t surprised that momentum has carried over and throughout Grapefruit League play. I think he projects a bit like a left-handed Bryce Elder 2.0. His stuff is better than Elder’s, featuring four seam fb that touches 96-97, but the secondary offerings seem to currently lack what might be considered wow-factor by scouts. His trademark is a hard-nosed aggression that isn’t afraid to attack the strike zone relentlessly- something true of Elder as he was ascending the minors before he got away from it after his fb began getting hit in the majors. His current spring line stands at: 18 IP, 2.00 ERA, 20 SO, 1.06 WHIP.
With so much depth, it may behoove the Braves to play the hottest hand in regards to their 5th starter spot. They’ll assuredly want to feature Anderson and Soroka at points if they’re performing to their ceilings. If that is indeed the strategy, it’d seem to point to Shuster to start the season, who also has the benefit of having more minor league experience than Dodd. Regardless, both pitchers have positioned themselves to make their debuts at some point this season. Proving there are still some promising gems in the Braves last-ranked farm system.
Thanks for joining the team, Matt! Great start and looking forward to reading more from you! Welcome the newbie, Braves Journalers!
NIce one, Matt. I’m with you and expecting Shuster to get the nod.
Welcome, Matt K. I was thinking that Wright’s regular season debut could be delayed more than a week, and if so both Shuster and Dodd may get starts for the big club in the early going. But today Kyle tossed 57 pitches in four innings. He gave up a couple of dingers but I’m guessing he won’t miss more than one turn in opening week. So I’ll agree that Shuster gets the nod over Dodd. Either way, we’ll see both in ATL this season for sure.
And a belated thanks to Matt L for the great work in launching the new-look site.
Thanks Matt, and welcome.
I think they can afford to put only one on the 40-man roster and Shuster makes sense since he will be Rule 5 eligible next year and Dodd has another year beyond that. If they want to add Dodd, too, then they’ll have to drop someone like Tonkin. I also still wonder if there’ll be a late Spring surprise AA has waiting for us.
Can we get the Twitter feed back?
On it.
Thanks, all. Happy to be here and looking forward to a promising season!
“Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.” hasn’t been working for me yet.
me either
I?ll forward to Matt L.
This is a test to see if I can comment on my phone. So far I have only been able to comment on my computer. I?m almost certain it?s operator error/ignorance.
While we are noting issues, I have only been able to comment on my computer. I can’t get comments to show up when I enter them on my phone. I imagine it’s operator error/ignorance, but I thought I’d bring it to your attention, Matt L. Thanks!
Hmmm… I only see comments from blazon, Sam Hutcheson and iheartemmastone, but I’m often accused of living in the past.
@tfloyd Starting a tech support thread here for you. You’re having the problem on mobile only? Based on your description, it sounds like you might have a “content blocker” on your device. If it’s an iPhone, you may have an app that blocks ads and comments and such. Could that be the case?
I just posted an almost incredibly amusing reply to tfloyd above which seems to have been swallowed as well. (But this comment posted fine… maybe something to do with depth?)
@JonathanF (Testing out tagging which may or may not work in this comment). There is a good chance the missing comment was unfortunate timing as I was tweaking something. Can you try it again? Even if it just says something like testing for Matt. Thanks!
Success! (But then I edited it and it seems to have died again…)
I am almost incredibly amused at this turn of events.
Thanks, Matt. I don’t believe that I have a content blocker on my iPhone. At least, if I do, it doesn’t block a lot of content that I’d rather not see. 🙂
It allows me to type in my comment, but when I submit it doesn’t show up on the site. If I try to repost the same comment, it tells me that it’s a duplicate that I’ve already posted.
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