Ooh, my little sinker ball, sinker ball
When you gonna give it all, Mike Soroka?!
Ooh, you make the hitters run, the hitters run
Gun it coming off the mound, Mike Soroka?!
The Braves play host to the Cardinals and Michael Soroka faces off against Miles Mikolas. Mikolas has disappointed this year, carrying a. 4.65 ERA. Soroka comes in at 5.52 at the bigs, but has strung together some positive starts at Gwinnett of late. In his last 6 games, he has a 3.58 ERA and 9 BBs to 39 Ks in 32.2 IP. If AA can get that kind of production out of Soroka tonight and in future starts, the Braves will have depth upon depth entering the postseason. However, my guess is Soroka is one start and back down as the Braves will likely try to gain another year of control out of him.
Transaction a Day AA
And this…
Ben Heller takes the ride back to Gwinnett. Yonny Chirinos takes the one way pre-paid ticket to retirement, and Ehire Adrianza starts a rehab assignment on some body part that was hurt. Meanwhile, Andrew Velazquez gets picked up when the Braves have a perfectly cromulent Braden Shewmake at Gwinnett. Sometimes I feel like AA just gets bored.
Braves Lineup
Nicky Lopez gets the start tonight and with the Andrew Velazquez transaction there’s at least plausible evidence that Orlando Arcia might have tweaked something. We shall see.
They can send Soroka back down and still use him in the doubleheader on the 11th as the 10 day rule does not apply to the “extra” man for the dh. Then he could be reactivated as early as the 15th while keeping the extra year of control.
Soroka 2.0 isn’t it.
I think it’s time to let Soroka find another org.
I’ve never wanted a player to succeed so much as I do Mike Soroka. Not having seen his minor league starts, I have to wonder–is it psychological, transitioning back to the bigs, or is it that his post-surgery stuff just doesn’t play at the bigs. His pitches look very hittable to my eye. I don’t see the darting sinker he used to throw.
Sinker is sinking about six inches less than it used to; they’re trying to come up with a new pitch mix, but it hasn’t worked at the major league level so far.
McHugh continues to pitch his way off the playoff roster.
This may be the silver lining in today’s stinker. That and Olson seems to be back.
Yeah, Soroka might be another year away.
On a brighter note:
https://x.com/gostripers/status/1699213424297644458?s=46&t=_A5dHSx668X2WtFbjIu8dw
Nice job Ozzie… swing at ball 4 on 3-0 with a chance to bring the tying run up. Super selfish play by him
I had a feeling he was swinging no matter where the pitch was. Ozzie, as good as he is, is not a player you can trust to swing 3-0, and when you need one more baserunner to bring up the tying run in the 8th, no player should be swinging 3-0 there, even Acuna. Even in the best of cases, you are no better than a .500 hitter on a given pitch, but you have a 100% chance of getting on base with a walk.
100% right Stampton
I don’t disagree, Putter, but sometimes it goes this way. The Braves hit like 20 balls 100+ mph tonight and lost…get ‘em tomorrow!
as wonderful as Ozzie is, his refusal to ever take a walk can be mildly infuriating.
I think the fair question is whether or not Soroka will sign a minor league deal to stay with us, and what level of interest would he have from other teams? I agree with the sentiment that he probably shouldn’t get another major league deal.
Recap is up.