By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The starting rotation for a professional baseball team going into the start of the season can set the tone for a club early on.

Some rotations are intimidating and strike fear into the hearts of opponents from the get-go. Some showcase talent without experience – potential, defined.

Look at the Boston Red Sox, for example. They have two former Cy Young award winners in David Price and Rick Porcello slotting in a two and three in their rotation behind ace Chris Sale. You think the Seattle Mariners are excited to launch their season staring down the barrels of those guns?

Washington has the same feather in its cap: Max Scherzer leads the charge with Stephen Strasburg and new National, Patrick Corbin, at his back. These are scary arms to contend with, and teams have every right to be nervous.

The Atlanta Braves, however, are sort of in the latter category but the situation with the starters is fluid.

They have already announced their starting rotation to begin the year, starting with Julio Teheran opening the season in Philadelphia.

Atlanta will follow that up with Bryse Wilson in game two of the series and Kyle Wright making his first ever big league start during the third contest.

Following that trio is Sean Newcomb getting the nod for the Braves home opener, and then Max Fried taking a turn on the mound after Julio gets his second start of the year on normal rest.

No Mike Foltynewicz and no Kevin Gausman to start the season. Both of them will miss time due to injury, though mercifully it doesn’t seem like either will be out for the long haul.

Still, beginning the year with this rotation; an Opening Day starter who will likely never live up to expectations and four kids with barely a season’s worth of a starts under their belts combined is potential trouble as much as it is full of potential.

Setting aside Julio for now, there is very little experience in the rotation. That’s not a guarantee of failure, but four kids are probably not going to make the leap all at the same time.

Newcomb knows how hard a major league season can be; just look at his second-half struggles in 2018.

If nearly the whole rotation struggles for the first few weeks of the season before the “veterans” Folty and Gausman can come back and do their thing, the Braves will be looking up from a self-dug hole that they may not be able to climb out of. Especially given the huge improvements made by nearly the rest of the NL East.

Still, there is plenty to be excited about. The two rookies (Wilson and Wright) and the two not-quite-rookies (Newk and Fried) are highly touted prospects, and the more time they spend facing Major League hitters the better chance they’ll have at developing into winning pieces on the staff.

It’s frustrating to open the season with unknowns when the knowns are injured (or sitting at home as unsigned free agents), but the talent is undeniable, and Wilson, Wright, and Fried all had very strong springs.