Braves rumors: Exciting deadline plans, Brian Anderson's future, MLB Draft revelation

July is one of the more interesting months of the baseball season. July is when the MLB trade deadline heats up and deals are made. Alex Anthopoulos, the Atlanta Braves GM, is notorious for working magic at the trade deadline, making moves that drastically change the outlook of their season. This month is also when the MLB Draft takes place, adding a ton of new, young talent to professional baseball.

The Atlanta Braves are one of the more intriguing teams in the league right now as well. They're clearly one of the better teams in the league, but they have such obvious holes to fill on their roster following injuries to Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr.

Braves looking to add a starting pitcher ahead of the deadline

The most obvious place that the Braves will look to upgrade ahead of the upcoming trade deadline is in their starting rotation. They have had this glaring hole ever since Spencer Strider went down with a torn UCL. They've tried every internal option possible to fix it, but nothing has worked the way that they wanted it to.

They've tried Bryce Elder, Spencer Scwellenbach, Darius Vines, Hurston Waldrep, and AJ Smith-Shawver to try to find a replacement at that fifth starter spot. Schwellenbach has had the most success so far, sticking in the big leagues for over 40 innings so far, but if they want to make a serious postseason and World Series push, they need to upgrade here.

Luckily for Braves fans, according to MLB insider Bob Nightengale, the Braves will be pursuing a starter in the coming weeks.

"Can you spare a starter? The Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros and Atlanta are all seeking at least one more starter for the stretch run," Nightengale wrote.

Atlanta will likely be pursuing a rental option because they really don't need much of a long-term solution there. Their young prospects like Smith-Shawver, Waldrep and Schwellenbach will be in the big leagues to stay here soon. Add in Reynaldo Lopez, Chris Sale, Max Fried and even Spencer Strider and the Braves should have plenty of options to resign instead of trading for a long-term solution.

Brian Anderson's future appears murky after Braves outright him to Triple-A

Brian Anderson, the Braves utility man, is facing some tough challenges in his big-league career at the moment. Anderson, a once prized utility option that posted a 116 OPS+ in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, has been sent outright to Triple-A by the Atlanta Braves.

Anderson, 31, landed with Atlanta following injuries to Acuña and Austin Riley. He never received much playing time, recording just five at bats on the season. These five at bats were horrible though, striking out twice and grounding into a double play in one of them. That means he recorded six outs in five plate appearances.

With the Braves likely to upgrade their roster at the deadline, Anderson simply just has no place in Atlanta anymore. The 31-year-old can be replaced by a trade target or two, or by a prospect that could use the experience better than he is.

His future looks murky at the moment, as it's hard to imagine that he will be getting many more cracks to play at the big-league level. It's a hard pill to swallow, considering he once slashed .261/.342/.468 with 20 homers in a season. To see production drop off that harshly is sad to see.

Braves attack pitching aggressively on day 1 and 2 of the MLB Draft

The Braves have an obvious plan at the MLB Draft and they're not really trying to hide it whatsoever. That plan is pitching, pitching and even more pitching. And then after that, they will probably select more pitching.

With their first round pick, Atlanta landed on Cam Caminiti, a high school pitcher with a ton of upside. They then landed on a bit of a safer pick, selecting Vanderbilt's Carter Holten, a pitcher, with their second pick. Atlanta went college pitcher again with their third and fourth round picks, selecting Luke Sinnard and Herick Hernandez.

And finally, with their fifth round selection, Atlanta drafted a position player, picking a high school catcher from California, Nick Montgomery.

Since then, Atlanta has gone to five more pitchers, making their total for the draft, through 10 rounds, nine pitchers and a catcher.

This is definitely a unique strategy and approach to the draft. Maybe this could be to open up room to trade some of their other top prospects. Acquiring so much pitching makes pitchers in the Braves farm system like Drue Hackenberg and Darius Vines much more expendable to trade.

The saying in baseball goes, "You can never have too much pitching." I think the Atlanta Braves want to find out if it is, in fact, possible to acquire too much pitching.