<img alt="MLB: Atlanta Braves at San Diego Padres" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tw-esaeEADNvJprcvQJPgfjqnok=/0x0:5605x3737/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74006018/usa_today_25810185.0.jpg">
Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
The young pitcher had some major flashes, but struggled with command in his first outing. Now he will hope to find a little more consistency and help the Braves find their second win of the season. AJ Smith-Shawver had some major flashes, but struggled with command in his first outing. Now he will hope to find a little more consistency and help the Atlanta Braves find their second win of the season.
His splitter was genuinely absurd, with almost unheard-of arm-side break at the velocity he throws it. He threw it 27 times in his first outing, with an absurd 71% whiff rate. His splitter rotates at only 1100 RPM and has some horizontal seam-shifted wake in addition to the induced break. It looked like a truly elite pitch against San Diego. His fastball had some nice movement to it as well, and his curveball shape seems entirely viable. The killer for AJ in his first outing was command. He really struggled to throw strikes and when he did throw strikes, they were often not well-located.
He was bailed out by getting an absurd amount of whiffs on his filthy splitter, but he will need to be able to throw strikes with some level of consistency to reach his potential. His stuff looked the part of a good major league starter in his first outing and he is still young and new to pitching, so hopefully the command will come. It should help that the Marlins have an extraordinarily impotent lineup, so perhaps this can be a confidence-building outing for him.
On the other side, the veteran Cal Quantrill takes the mound for Miami. Quantrill primarily throws a four-seamer, splitter, cutter, and curveball, with a few other pitches sprinkled in once or twice a game. Quantrill was once a solid fourth starter, but has more recently been a serviceable innings-eating fifth starter. He doesn’t strike many batters out, but he can viably start games on a consistent basis in MLB.
On paper, I would like to say that this is a slight-to-moderate pitching advantage to Atlanta, but we need to see more consistency in general and in throwing strikes from AJ Smith-Shawver before we can say that definitively. This game most likely depends on what version of the Atlanta offense shows up, although the Marlins may be bad enough that it hardly matters. If the Atlanta offense that features five all-star level bats, with multiple MVP candidate level players, plus a promising rookie in Drake Baldwin can show up and play to their talent, this is definitely a game Atlanta should win, with the caveat of baseball variance.
If the Braves offense that showed itself much of the time out west this season and much of last season, with bad luck and underperforming stars shows up, this could very easily be a tough game with an unproven prospect like Smith-Shawver on the mound. Let’s hope we get more of what we saw yesterday from Atlanta’s bats against a less impressive pitcher than the Marlins features Friday.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Saturday, April 5, 7:15 p.m. EDT
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: FanDuel Sports South/Southeast, Gray TV
Streaming: MLB.tv, FanDuel Sports App
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
<img alt="MLB: Atlanta Braves at San Diego Padres" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tw-esaeEADNvJprcvQJPgfjqnok=/0x0:5605x3737/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74006018/usa_today_25810185.0.jpg">
Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
The young pitcher had some major flashes, but struggled with command in his first outing. Now he will hope to find a little more consistency and help the Braves find their second win of the season. AJ Smith-Shawver had some major flashes, but struggled with command in his first outing. Now he will hope to find a little more consistency and help the Atlanta Braves find their second win of the season.
His splitter was genuinely absurd, with almost unheard-of arm-side break at the velocity he throws it. He threw it 27 times in his first outing, with an absurd 71% whiff rate. His splitter rotates at only 1100 RPM and has some horizontal seam-shifted wake in addition to the induced break. It looked like a truly elite pitch against San Diego. His fastball had some nice movement to it as well, and his curveball shape seems entirely viable. The killer for AJ in his first outing was command. He really struggled to throw strikes and when he did throw strikes, they were often not well-located.
He was bailed out by getting an absurd amount of whiffs on his filthy splitter, but he will need to be able to throw strikes with some level of consistency to reach his potential. His stuff looked the part of a good major league starter in his first outing and he is still young and new to pitching, so hopefully the command will come. It should help that the Marlins have an extraordinarily impotent lineup, so perhaps this can be a confidence-building outing for him.
On the other side, the veteran Cal Quantrill takes the mound for Miami. Quantrill primarily throws a four-seamer, splitter, cutter, and curveball, with a few other pitches sprinkled in once or twice a game. Quantrill was once a solid fourth starter, but has more recently been a serviceable innings-eating fifth starter. He doesn’t strike many batters out, but he can viably start games on a consistent basis in MLB.
On paper, I would like to say that this is a slight-to-moderate pitching advantage to Atlanta, but we need to see more consistency in general and in throwing strikes from AJ Smith-Shawver before we can say that definitively. This game most likely depends on what version of the Atlanta offense shows up, although the Marlins may be bad enough that it hardly matters. If the Atlanta offense that features five all-star level bats, with multiple MVP candidate level players, plus a promising rookie in Drake Baldwin can show up and play to their talent, this is definitely a game Atlanta should win, with the caveat of baseball variance.
If the Braves offense that showed itself much of the time out west this season and much of last season, with bad luck and underperforming stars shows up, this could very easily be a tough game with an unproven prospect like Smith-Shawver on the mound. Let’s hope we get more of what we saw yesterday from Atlanta’s bats against a less impressive pitcher than the Marlins features Friday.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Saturday, April 5, 7:15 p.m. EDT
Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA
TV: FanDuel Sports South/Southeast, Gray TV
Streaming: MLB.tv, FanDuel Sports App
Radio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan
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