Top Atlanta Braves Storylines To Watch Before The Trade Deadline

The Atlanta Braves currently lead the the NL East Division, and have for a while. With just over a month until the MLB Trade Deadline, here are a few of the emerging storylines.

A far more likely trade would involve late inning relief pitching for a bullpen that has a mixed bag of reviews this season.

Some arms have shined. Dan Winkler and Shane Carle have pitched brilliantly when called upon. In 29 games, Winkler has struck out 40 batters while surrendering 8 walks. That’s one walk for every five strike outs. When batters do make contact, it’s usually at one of the seven guys behind him. His .165 opponent batting average and 0 home runs lead the Braves bullpen. Meanwhile, Shane Carle has looked almost as good. He’s given up a couple of home runs and doesn’t have nearly as many strike outs, but he forces guys to make contact and bake outs with a .206 batting average against him.

If Winkler and Carle could go out every night, the Braves would be confident in their bullpen’s ability to hold a lead.

Arodys Vizcaino has recovered from early season blown saves to post a 1.82 ERA and 15 saves. While he sometimes still gets himself in trouble with a lack of control, he has managed to pitch himself out of tough situations.

Unfortunately, not all the Braves relievers have fared as well.

Sam Freeman, Peter Moylan, Luiz Gohara and A.J Minter have had their share of rough outings.

Minter and Gohara are still figuring out big league hitting. In particular Gohara has only played 7 games for the Braves. While both guys have flashed fantastic stuff on the mound, they both need to work on control. How the two of them mature and adjust over the next month could dictate whether the Braves look for a big name late inning reliever or look for bargain deals on mid inning relievers.

Based on the play of Freeman and Moylan, the Braves will be on the hunt for at least on more sure arm reliever. For the number of innings each man has pitched, they have given up too many hits which have resulted in runs.

With the Nationals acquiring their own big name reliever in Kelvin Herrera, there’s more pressure on the Braves to pull the trigger on a trade. Will they give in and trade for a Zack Britton? Or go for a lesser touted commodity like Richard Bleier? Or will they maintain the status quo?

That all depends on how well the pen pitches between now and August.