Coppy is on the prowl and doesn’t want to be left standing in this high-stakes game of musical chairs. But there are dangers out there.
Chris Archer, Sonny Gray, Jose Quintana. Those are the stated targets of the Atlanta Braves‘ desire to add a staff ace to lead their rotation – and their team – to that next level.
But there are issues… there always are… that have to make us all squirm a bit when considering the process.
What is that process? Glad you asked…
Who Are the “Aces”?
The boundaries of “what makes an ace” are always up for debate, but over the past ten seasons (back to 2008), these pitchers have at least been in that conversation:
- Clayton Kershaw
- Justin Verlander
- Zack Greinke
- Felix Hernandez
- Max Scherzer
- Jon Lester
- Cliff Lee
- Cole Hamels
- C.C. Sabathia
- David Price
- Adam Wainwright
- Chris Sale
- Roy Halladay
- Madison Bumgarner
After this group, you start running into pitchers with maybe a couple years’ of brilliance or those (like a Corey Kluber) that have more recently burst onto the scene.
Obviously, the kinds of names we’re discussing here are those (a) with year-over-year premium performance levels, (b) with high demand (i.e., big contracts), and (c) they are typically over 30 years old – with some exceptions noted.
The Atlanta Braves have not developed an ‘ace’ (unless you count Wainwright) since the days of Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Tim Hudson was fringy-ace material, but the Braves plucked him from Oakland as he was still emerging as a mound force. Remember that example.
Julio Teheran was perhaps going to be that next ace, but at this point – while he’s still pretty solid most of the time – the notion of him reaching that kind of level is not likely.
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