Atlanta Braves: Should Julio Teheran Be Considered An Ace?
By Kit Anderson
Is Atlanta Braves’ pitcher Julio Teheran an ace?
The Atlanta Braves have a very talented young pitcher in Julio Teheran. There is no questioning his talent but it is fair to ask if Teheran is truly an “ace”? The term ace seems to be thrown around with regularity now often labeling young pitchers as well as veterans who are not truly aces. Teheran is not an ace and should not be labeled as one until he shows that he can get past the inconsistencies that he has shown throughout his career.
Julio Teheran is Atlanta’s best pitcher and when he is on a roll can match up against Clayton Kershaw or any other ace in the National League. What separates him from the group for now is his struggles a season ago as well as his inconsistencies throughout his career. He goes through stretches where he pitches deep into games and seems to have un-hittable pitches those stretches however are balanced out by a stretch he seems to hit every season where he cannot locate his fastball. Because he works around his fastball (as most pitchers do) so prominently when he is not able to locate it well for long stretches the ball gets hit a very long way more often than not.
When that happens a lot of balls get hit over the fence and Teheran struggles to pitch deep into games at all giving up a lot of runs and balancing out the ace-like performance he had been putting on. Pointing out Teheran’s struggles is not a knock on Teheran, Julio is a talented pitcher just one who has been mislabeled as an ace.
Teheran has the ability to pitch deep into games at his best and match up against any ace in the league but with that comes the inevitable one to two month stretch where his ERA will be around 5.00 and he struggles to keep his team in the game. If Teheran wants to take the next step in his career he is going to have to learn to be consistent all season long.
Regardless of whether he can improve or not Teheran is a very talented pitcher that will slot in nicely lower in the Braves rotation behind the big arms that the Braves’ farm system has waiting.