Christian will be grabbing the Series Preview, but I wanted to touch on a few pieces of Braves News and an oddity on the roster.

Braves New: Michael Soroka and Justus Sheffield Dazzle in Starts this Week

Yes, it would have only been 7 innings, but it would have been 7 glorious innings as Michael Soroka started the 2nd game of a double header for the Stripers and had 2 outs in the 7th and gave up a home run, losing both the no-hitter and the shutout. While it was a real gut punch, Soroka looked like…well, like Soroka again. He controlled the zone, mixed pitches, and was sitting 94-96 with his fastball. As I’m sure our game thread will cover, AJ Smith-Shawver has been optioned to Gwinnett and Dereck Rodriguez has been recalled. Rodriguez is just a space filler should the Braves need someone to eat a few innings as he will no doubt be optioned soon and rumor mill is that Soroka will be getting the start.

Soroka was not the only former solid starting pitcher to shine for Gwinnett as Justus Sheffield threw 6 innings of 2 hit, 0 run baseball on the 24th. It was a nice turnaround after getting shellacked his first 2 AAA outings. There’s still talent here and I hope that the Braves can, once again, find lightning in a bottle.

Braves News: AA Continues to Play Russian Roulette

While I haven’t really thought much about it, I realized late last night that the Braves still have Chadwick Tromp on their active roster, leaving the infield with 0 backups, unless you count Travis D’Arnaud or Eddie Rosario (I don’t). While it’s a low % chance that someone would get injured, it’s odd that AA wouldn’t option Tromp back and bring up an infielder. When the day comes for Tromp to be optioned, it will be the 3rd time and 5 is the max in a year before a player has to be outrighted off the 40-man. It’s still an odd choice as I cannot imagine anyone in the Braves org is sitting around thinking that Tromp is an invaluable piece.

Last but not least, Charlie Culberson made his way back to AAA unharmed and will likely get the call back to the bigs when Tromp gets optioned. So…in short yes, his dad got screwed on Father’s Day, but his son will be just fine riding the pine for 1/2 million.

Edit: According to Bowman, Charlie elected free agency, but that hasn’t been officially reported by the Braves. I’m guessing Bowman is right, and Charlie is really, really dumb as the Braves were likely his only chance to make big league $ again.

Join us at the Bar to answer this week’s Bar Question of the Day and to chat about this piece.