The Best Young Pitcher You Haven't Heard Of

No hate for Cole, just pointing out that in a bigger market he would have already been hyped to death.

I seriously disagree that Atlanta will be in the cellar for a while. Unless you just mean for the remainder of the season. The Braves only have one serious problem - their bullpen. Their offense is solid. They have three players with more than 100 at-bats that are hitting .315 or better. They have three players with double digit homeruns, and four players with 35 or more RBIs. The starting pitching isn't as good as it's been, but with a combined 3.83 ERA, Smoltz and Hudson should be a heck of a lot better than 10-10. Their four regular starters have an ERA of 4.31 that leaves something to be desired, but that ERA is certainly deserving of a better record than 13-25. Those four starters have 14 quality starts that went for losses or no-decisions. The Braves are tied with the Royals for second in the Major Leagues in blown saves with 14. Only the Rangers have more blown saves with 17. If the bullpen had blown just HALF that number, the braves would be 37-33, good for second place in the NL East and just six games behind the Mets. With a team with a record that bad, it's easy to forget just how good they could be if that one part of their game weren't so glaringly bad. We're not talking about the Kansas City Royals, here. This bullpen is one or two good relief arms away from being a serious playoff team.

Yes. The author said: "What if this pitcher was a rookie and those nine starts were the first of his career?"

Technically he made one start in 2005.

Why do you say "technically"? Now that I look, it looks like he actually DID make a start in 2005.

It was his first 9 this year. He came up and made one emergency start last year.

Billingsley has only made one start and Gonzalez only four and neither has as good of numbers as Johnson.

I think they have better stuff and more potential.

My point wasn't about potential. It was about results right now.