Atlanta Braves Opening Day countdown: 62, young fireballers

The Atlanta Braves have been bringing up elite young pitchers throughout the last 25-30 years, but some of those arms are just a bit more electric than others.

While guys like Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine are impressive pitchers to have in the rotation, electric arms like Mark Wohlers and John Rocker have also grabbed the attention of Atlanta Braves fans over the years. In recent seasons, the number 62 has been worn by two arms with incredible electricity, Mauricio Cabrera and Touki Toussaint.

Mauricio Cabrera

Cabrera was signed out of the Dominican Republic by the Braves, and he had an electric arm throughout his development, but he struggled significantly in the rotation with his control. Moving to the bullpen full-time in 2015, Cabrera battled through injury that season and showed well in the Arizona Fall League as well, grabbing headlines with velocity up to 102 MPH.

The 2016 season was Cabrera’s high point. He spent his minor league time with AA Mississippi, posting a 3.21 ERA over 33 2/3 innings with a 22/35 BB/K ratio. He pitched tremendously well in the major leagues after he was brought up midseason to join the bullpen.

Cabrera posted incredible averages in his time in the major leagues, using his fastball over 71% of the time, but that made sense, as he averaged over 100 MPH on the pitch, sporting a 101.2 MPH average on his four-seam fastball and a 100.5 MPH average on his sinker. That allowed his sweeping slider in the mid-80s to play up.

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Many fans were enamored with the velocity and Cabrera’s raw numbers, as he posted a 2.82 ERA over 38 1/3 innings with a 19/32 BB/K ratio. However, the flags were already there, including the high walk rate 11.7% and low strikeout rate of 19.8%, especially for a hard-throwing reliever.

Those warning signs came to fruition in 2017 as Cabrera walked more than he struck out over 45 innings. He followed up by opening up 2018 with an 11.03 ERA over 31 innings in high-A with 41 walks and 27 strikeouts before the Atlanta Braves released him.

Touki Toussaint

Working with a 4-pitch mix, Toussaint featured a mid-90s four-seam fastball and sinker, a mid-80s split finger, and a mid-70s curveball in his debut with the Atlanta Braves in 2018. His major league time produced a 4.03 ERA and 1.35 WHIP with a 21/32 BB/K ratio over 29 innings.

Toussaint has struggled with his control at times, but he had a breakthrough in 2018 in the minor leagues, as he went from routinely over 10% to 9.4% in 2018. Atlanta Braves fans are hoping to see that continue to improve in 2019, especially when considering the past history of his uniform number!