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The Braves seem to have the present Anthony DeSclafani Jersey , the future and a contingency plan all covered when it comes to third base. It’s a far cry from where they were just two years ago."Ever since Chipper Jones retired after the 2012 season, third base has been one of those spots on the Braves’ roster where you figure that they always could have done with some sort of improvement. After Chris Johnson BABIP’d his way into a career year in 2013 and promptly returned to earth in 2014, the Braves have had to make do with Adonis Garcia during the initial years of the rebuild and then Johan Camargo forcing his way into the lineup as a reliable if unspectacular starter as the Braves got relevant again. However, the arrival of Josh Donaldson means that (should he remain healthy) the Braves can once again count on good-to-great production from their third baseman in the lineup. That’s a big relief as far as 2019 is concerned but it also brings up some interesting questions when it comes to the Braves and their future at third base. The main question is what happens if Donaldson stays healthy, plays at the level that he’s accustomed to and plays himself into convincing the Braves to actually open up their checkbook and sign him to an extension following 2019. While it’s absolutely understandable to be skeptical of the Braves (or any baseball team, really) actually spending money on players, let’s say that this best-case scenario actually takes place. What happens with Austin Riley?Well, as Anthony quickly touched on in his latest post, the Braves are trying to see if Riley can provide anything as an outfielder. This is also relevant to this year’s team as well since it’s possible that Riley will be ready for the bigs at some point this season. Obviously Riley won’t be playing third base if Donaldson is playing well, so the best way to get something out of Riley at the moment would be if he could play another position.Assuming they find out that they can just stick him in a corner outfield spot actually utilize him as an outfielder, that would be pretty big if Austin Riley makes it to the bigs and can hit right away. That would be a huge boon to the big league roster as a whole and give the Braves even more of a boost to an offense that already figures to be pretty good this season. The Braves really don’t have much to lose in this situation. If Donaldson is indeed successful and has a stranglehold on third base, that still wouldn’t block Riley from making it up to the majors as an outfielder. If Donaldson is unsuccessful, then Johan Camargo could be called upon to hold down third base (again) until the team decides that it’s time to see what Austin Riley can do at third. Atlanta will either have a consensus top-10 third baseman, a perfectly capable third baseman or a top-10 third base prospect at their disposal and that is quite a lovely position to be in. Third base is not really a huge problem for the Braves right now and that’s a far cry from where they were not too long ago. 2015 saw the Braves use nine different players as third basemen Adam Duvall Jersey , 2016 saw them use eight and then they returned to using nine different third basemen in 2017 and that included Freddie Freeman volunteering to play third base (and not being too bad, at that). Those were truly dark days and it appears that the Braves have finally come out of the valley of darkness when it comes to third base. Granted, the Braves will be hard-pressed to return to the level of stability that they had when Chipper is around. You really don’t need me to tell you that it’s extremely difficult to replace a first-ballot, near-unanimous Hall of Famer. The years that the Braves spent trying to figure that out is testament to that. For now, it appears that the Braves are in a good spot when it comes to the hot corner. There are still legitimate questions about Josh Donaldson’s health, Austin Riley’s versatility and where Johan Camargo fits into all of this. Those are good questions to have, as opposed to “Can Freddie Freeman really play third base?” As long as the Braves don’t have to ask that particular question of themselves again, then third base has finally returned to being a spot of strength for them. The Pirates are more of a contact-oriented team, but will that slow down Matthew Boyd’s sky-high strikeout rate?"We are only three starts into Matthew Boyd’s 2019 season, but between some very noticeable changes he made in 2018 and an absolutely sky-high strikeout rate to start the current year, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to say that there is something very real going on with the 28-year-old lefthander.The only question left at this point is: how real? We can safely say that Boyd will not continue to strike out 40 percent of the batters he faces this year, and his FIP will eventually move north of 1999 Pedro Martinez. But, assuming he stays healthy, he also seems like a fair bet to put up his best season to date Michael Lorenzen Jersey , with career-highs in innings pitched, strikeouts, and many other statistical categories (Fun fact: if he makes 30 more starts, Boyd only needs to average 4.3 strikeouts per outing to eclipse his previous career high).We will likely make this comparison a few times throughout the season, but Boyd’s slider-heavy breakout is similar to that of Patrick Corbin. The Nationals’ new $140 million man upped his slider usage more gradually, but his jump in whiff rate on that pitch from 2017 to 2018 is similar to what we have seen through Boyd’s first three starts. Where Boyd will regress comes elsewhere; he currently has a gaudy 17.2 percent whiff rate on his four-seam fastball, which is basically peak Aroldis Chapman territory. We may see a slight uptick in whiffs on Boyd’s fastball this year as more hitters focus on the off-speed stuff, but no, that rate will not double from last year’s 8.39 percent.His challenge this time? A Pirates lineup that has been much better at making contact than the three others he has faced so far in 2019.Pittsburgh Pirates (8-6) at Detroit Tigers (8-7)Time/Place: 6:40 p.m., Comerica ParkSB Nation site: Bucs DugoutMedia: Fox Sports Detroit, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio NetworkPitching Matchup: RHP Joe Musgrove (1-1, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Matthew Boyd (1-1, 2.60 ERA)Game 16 Pitching MatchupPitcherIPK%BB%FIPfWARPitcherIPK%BB%FIPfWARIf any of the players the Houston Astros sent to Pittsburgh were going to help the Pirates “win” the Gerrit Cole trade http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-cliff-pennington-jersey , it would have been* righthander Joe Musgrove. The 26-year-old drew headlines last spring because many projection systems predicted he would equal Cole’s production in 2018, let alone in the several club-controlled seasons beyond that.That... didn’t happen, but it’s not exactly his fault. Musgrove put up a respectable 2.2 fWAR in 115 1鈦? injury-riddled innings, with an ERA that was a bit higher than his FIP. He saw his strikeout rate dip ever so slightly, but he cut his walk rate to an excellent 4.7 percent despite logging a career-high innings total in 19 starts.Musgrove appears to be healthy this year, and it has shown up in his early season numbers. His strikeout rate has jumped to 27.3 percent in the early going, though he has only managed a slight bump in his swinging strike rate (up to 12.7 percent). His slider usage has returned to nearly 30 percent, where he sat in his final season with the Astros. He is also mixing in his changeup more than before, mostly as a put-away pitch against right-handed hitters. The results? About the same as last season, when he managed a gaudy 26.9 percent whiff rate on his change-piece.Velocity-wise, Musgrove isn’t quite where he has been in previous seasons. It seems to be a bit of a concern, though not one that has sidelined him (or even slowed him down, really) so far this season.*Sorry Pirates fans, but it’s safe to say that the Cole deal is already an L.Key matchup: Pirates hitters vs. left-handed pitchingWe are still less than three weeks into the 2019 season Scott Feldman Jersey , so many numbers still need to be taken with a grain of salt. This potentially includes Pittsburgh’s poor numbers against left-handed pitching; through 14 games, the Bucs are hitting just .216/.286/.284 against southpaws. Their 61 wRC+ against lefties is the fourth-lowest in baseball so far, and they own MLB’s third-highest strikeout rate against lefties.But remember, the samples at this point in the season are still quite small. Three of the top five teams in that previous link are the Yankees, Indians, and Blue Jays — the three teams Boyd has already faced this year. Either he has been very fortunate to face teams that can’t hit lefties... or his early season performance is largely skewing this particular statisticI’m betting on the latter, but that doesn’t mean the Pirates can’t be had by a good lefty. Of the three lefties they have faced so far, two have worked at least seven innings while striking out 11 hitters — former Tigers division rival Jose Quintana and the very man we compared Boyd to above, Patrick Corbin.PredictionBoyd gets the Tigers back in the win column with another dominant performance.