The Major League Baseball regular season will soon be upon us and as the Atlanta Braves look to shape up their starting pitching rotation, veteran Chris Sale has looked impressive so far in his couple of stints on the mound through spring training. And while Sale has show that he may be back to his pre-injury form, Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal Constitution joined the The Steakhouse on Thursday and told Abe Gordan and John Fricke, who filled in for Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden, that he has liked what he has seen from Sale in his outings.
“I guess what I wanted to see is does the stuff still play like it once did,” Toscano told Gordon and Fricke. Toscano would go on to state that he himself had not seen Sale pitch during his 2014 and 2015 seasons in which he had two of the best seasons of his career, however what he has witnessed over the past few weeks from Sale has looked good. “When you see it come out of his hand, like the slider looks terrific, he’s still pumping 97 here and there, sitting 95, 96 when he wants in these spring games,” Toscano told Gorgon and Fricke.
And while impressed with Sale, the Braves beat writer noted that several other Atlanta pitchers have shown signs of things to come from the mound when the regular season begins, including Reynaldo Lopez, who served as a reliever for the Braves last season, however currently is considered as a potential starter this season. “So far his stuff has looked crisp, like the velocity has been there,” Toscano said of the right hand pitcher, adding that AJ Smith-Shawver has also been impressive and “really good, seems to be in just a completely in a different place in a good way in terms of where he is mentally and physically,” Toscano said of Smith Shawver.
