bouncing back and forth<\/a> between the majors and Triple-A Gwinnett. His ERA soared to 6.52 while making just 10 big league starts in 2024, followed by an 8-11 mark with a 5.30 ERA a year ago.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Elder might’ve been done in Atlanta if not for a rash of injuries that ravaged the starting rotation, allowing him to claim the fourth slot in a makeshift group as the Braves wrapped up spring training.<\/p>\n
His performance over four starts \u2014 a 2-1 record with a 0.77 ERA \u2014 has manager Walt Weiss feeling good about his chances of remaining the rotation even when ailing pitchers such as Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach return to the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s in a really good place,\u201d Weiss said of Elder.<\/p>\n
He believes the Texan is a more complete pitcher than he was in ’23, with a diverse arsenal that helps him get by with a fastball in the low 90 mph range.<\/p>\n
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Elder has paired an improved slider with a change-up and three different fastballs \u2014 a two-seamer, a four-seamer and a cutter \u2014 to keep hitters off balance. Despite the lack of overpowering stuff, he has 23 strikeouts in 23 1-3 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll his stuff has really picked up,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cHe’s throwing the ball really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elder doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself. Better than almost anyone, he knows how quickly things can change. This time, he wants to show a bit of staying power.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve had a lot of good runs and I’ve had a lot bad runs,\u201d Elder said. \u201cMore than anything, I’m just trying to treat it like one day at a time. Just keep my stuff crisp, keep my work right, and whatever happens that day is what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Bryce Elder is pitching like an All-Star again. Considered the weak link in the Atlanta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,192,4720,58,4,659,773,35610],"class_list":{"0":"post-676747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-braves","10":"tag-bryce-elder","11":"tag-miami-marlins","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-spencer-schwellenbach","14":"tag-spencer-strider","15":"tag-walt-weiss"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116412752476915678","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}