Braves top prospect should get another opportunity to start after successful season debut

Spencer Strider going down with a season-ending injury is something that the Atlanta Braves cannot fully recover from. There is no other pitcher like Spencer Strider. Even if they make a big trade deadline deal, they won't be getting a pitcher as talented as Strider in return.

Losing Strider is only part of the issue. That injury forced everyone else in the rotation to move up a slot. While they've all pitched well, the Braves haven't gotten much out of the No. 5 spot in their rotation. Alan Winans and Darius Vines weren't great in their cups of coffee, and Bryce Elder struggled mightily.

With Atlanta running out of options, they turned to their top prospect, A.J. Smith-Shawver, to take the ball for Thursday's series finale against the Chicago Cubs. Smith-Shawver had been struggling for AAA Gwinnett, but the Braves still gave him a shot. It's safe to say he pitched well enough to earn another look.

AJ Smith-Shawver does enough in his season debut to earn another Braves start

Smith-Shawver was able to keep a talented Cubs team off the board. Sure, Braves fans would love for Smith-Shawver to be more economical with his pitches and go deeper into the game, but the bottom line is he kept the Cubs off the board. Run prevention is the name of the game and Smith-Shawver excelled in that one regard.

For a season debut and the sixth start of his MLB career, it's really hard to think too negatively when his biggest issue was not getting deep enough into a game against a good opponent.

Obviously things can be improved upon, but you'd have to think that holding this talented Cubs team scoreless into the fifth inning has to lead to another start coming his way, right? I mean, what's the alternative? Going back to Vines?

There were more positives than negatives to take away from how Smith-Shawver looked on Thursday. With that in mind, Atlanta would be foolish to not let their No. 1 prospect get another turn in the rotation. Perhaps he can find a way to work deeper into games and make Alex Anthopoulos think long and hard about keeping him in the rotation for the long haul.