Alex Anthopoulos Discusses the Benefits of Having Veteran Pitchers

Atlanta Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos recently made an appearance on Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight Podcast to discuss the Braves off-season moves. One of the topics that was brought up was the reasoning behind trading for Chris Sale. 

When Sale is healthy, he is one of the best pitchers in the league, but that is his biggest question mark. If he is healthy, the Braves will possibly have the best starting rotation in the MLB. AA also thinks that Sale can have a bigger impact than just what he brings to the table on the days he starts for Atlanta. 

If you take a look at the Braves top prospects, seven of the top ten players are pitchers. Those young pitchers can learn a lot from experienced veterans like Sale and Charlie Morton. Here's the full quote from AA.

"A lot of our prospects are on the mound. A lot of our best young talent outside of the big league clubhouse is on the mound. Look, we've always had an infusion of young arms. Having guys like Charlie Morton and Chris Sale, I'm a big believer that players make other players around them better. It's hard to quantify. We're not asking Chris or Charlie to be anything other than themselves but who they are and the way they go about it, I think that will impact careers. I don't know how that will affect ERA, innings pitched, and work ethic, but I have seen over the years that players make others better and I think Chris (Sale) will have a tremendous part in that as well." - AA

When you think of guys like Hurston Waldrep, Darius Vines, Bryce Elder, and Allen Winans, they could use the tutelage and the knowledge from two of the best veteran pitchers in the majors. Maybe some of the traits that have made those guys so good during their careers can transfer over to our young guys.

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