Atlanta Braves: Mike Soroka – Bret Hart of the Braves Pitching Staff
By Seth Carter
Impressive Start
Mike Soroka came into 2019 a determined 21-year-old man. I’m going to use a few stats from a seven-page profile on his 2019 season, which can be found here.
Soroka 2019 Stats
13-4 // 2.68 ERA // 1.11 WHIP // 174.2 IP // 142 K
- Soroka led the NL in HR/9
- Seventh best FIP in the NL
Among rookie pitchers over the past 20 seasons (2000-2019) with a minimum of 170 innings pitched, here’s how Soroka stacked up.
- #5 in fWAR with 4.0
- #12 in HR/FB ratio with 0.72 – he was the first player on the list from the past five years.
- #2 in ERA (second only to the great Jose Fernandez)
- #8 in FIP
- #6 in walks per nine
But is he an Ace?
Despite the incredible rookie season, analysts were not ready to anoint him as an ace. This has a lot to do with his low strikeout rates, but pitchers like Hyun-Jin Ryu and Masahiro Tanaka profile similarly to Soroka while still filling Ace-hood at various points.
An Ace is not just a fantasy term. It’s a pitcher you can depend on getting crucial outs in big moments. It’s a pitcher you can trust to step up in a big game. Soroka proved time and time again last season that he had nerves of steel.
Tim Hudson could give up three runs in the first inning, but what made him an ace was the trust that he could right the ship and give the team a chance to win. That’s an ace.
Nobody looked more like an Ace than Soroka when he took the mound against the Cardinals in Game 3 of the NLDS. Soroka went 7.0 strong innings, striking out seven and allowing one run on two hits.
By the end of the series, we were using our 20/20 vision-goggles to lament that Soroka didn’t start Game 1 so he could have been utilized twice. National prognosticators may not be sure about Soroka, but in that moment, Braves’ fans knew who our ace was.