Bryce Elder disasterclass vs. Brewers should be the final straw for Braves

Coming into the year, the Atlanta Braves had two ace-level pitchers, one solid starter and two big-time question marks.

The ace level pitchers are obviously Spencer Strider and Max Fried. The two question marks, believe it or not, were Reynaldo Lopez and Chris Sale. Both Sale and Lopez have exceeded expectations, but coming into the year, nobody knew how they would pan out.

The solid starter was Bryce Elder, who was coming off an All-Star season in his rookie year. Elder was supposed to be the third starting pitcher on this team and many expected him to make quite a big jump.

He has done quite the opposite, regressing into a shell of what he was last season.

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Bryce Elder's seven run outing vs Milwaukee should be the final straw for Atlanta

Elder began the season with two excellent outings, allowing two runs in 12 innings to begin his 2024. He was then crushed for seven earned in two of his next three outings raising his season ERA to over a 6.00. The Braves opted to send him down to Triple-A in order to find himself again.

A month later he was back in the big leagues thanks to more and more injuries to the Braves pitching staff. Since returning, he's made five starts and two of them have looked solid, one has looked okay and two have been utterly horrible.

In his July 20 start against the Cardinals, Elder yielded six runs on eight hits over five innings.

On Tuesday night, Elder was crushed for seven earned runs on eight hits and two walks over 3.2 innings.

This should be the final straw for the Braves who won't be able to compete down the stretch with Elder on the bump.

The Braves are better off giving this spot in the rotation to one of their top prospects like Hurston Waldrep or AJ Smith-Shawver. Atlanta just can't keep sending Elder out there to get crushed. I mean, the right hander has allowed six or more runs in 40 percent of his starts this season. It's absolutely ridiculous.

Atlanta is far too talented of a team to be losing games because the starter isn't competitive. They don't need their pitchers to be dominant, world beaters. They just need them to compete and keep their lineup in the game. Elder hasn't done that.