Predicting Kolby Allard’s Debut with the Atlanta Braves

These are the Atlanta Braves players that have recently made their debuts at age 20:

2017: Ozzie Albies & Luiz Gohara

2018: Mike Soroka & Ronald Acuña

Kolby Allard will now be the fifth player to make his debut will still being just 20 years old in the past two seasons. And not a moment too soon since he turns 21 on August 13th.

Those of us at Talking Chop that love the draft and prospects talk about them constantly. We’ve been watching these guys advance through each level, going through many ups and downs. It’s like watching your son grow up before your eyes and before you know it, they are getting called up for their major league debut.

So I figured why not have a bit of lighthearted fun and see if we can predict a players debut. Maybe ‘calling our shot’ will turn into something more since there will be a lot of debuts over the next couple of years.

I’m not sure I could have predicted Mike Soroka’s excellent debut on May 1st by going 6IN, 6H, 1ER, 0BB, 5K. Well, Eric Cole probably did. Or what about Luiz Gohara looking like a mere mortal going 4IN, 6H, 6ER, 4BB, 6K back on Sept 6, 2017.

A player’s debut is no doubt extremely nerve wracking, and pretty much impossible to predict. One of my favorite Braves players, Kris Medlen, got crushed in his debut, but in the end he turned out alright.

So again, this is simply a fun exercise and should in no way define a player. Having said that, let’s see what the Talking Chop crew thinks Kolby Allard’s debut will go:

One interesting thing is that I’m probably down on Allard the most, I ranked him 17th in the top 30 while everyone else was between 10 and 14, and yet I predicted one of the better debuts for him. Another is that his debut will be against a not so good team in the Miami Marlins. Kolby Allard no doubt has a ton of confidence and that could help him clam down any jitters. All of us would love nothing more than Kolby to throw a no hitter every time out, but we also want to be realistic.

What are your thoughts? We’d love to know your predictions.