Mike Soroka, Kolby Allard Are Ready To Build On Strong First Half

PENSACOLA, Fla.—There were two reasons the Braves decided to skip Mike Soroka and Kolby Allard directly to Double-A Mississippi this season. One obviously owed to their prodigious talent. Both were highly though of enough to warrant selections among the first 30 picks of the 2015 draft, and each was impressive in their first full season as pros.

But that’s the case for a lot of players. The other factor that separated Soroka and Allard from their peers was the way they carried themselves on and off the field.

“I think we’re definitely mature,” Allard said before the Southern League home run derby. “We both have a pretty good understanding of what we’re trying to do on the field as well as not doing anything distracting off the field.”

The move from the South Atlantic League to the Southern League is obviously a large jump, but both pitchers have handled it with aplomb. Soroka finished the first half 8-3, 2.23 with 69 strikeouts against 16 walks in 76.2 innings. Allard went 4-5, 2.81 with 57 punchouts in 73.2 innings.

Those are only the superficial factors, though. There’s other, smaller things the duo had to master. They had to demonstrate ability to hold runners, the aptitude to work through a game plan and the wherewithal to handle the stress of their first full season of pro baseball.

“That’s what the Braves’ management came to us with,” Soroka said, referring to the plan to send the pair to Double-A. “They were very confident that we’d be able to learn more at this level and be more successful in the future because of it. A lot of (management) agree that age is just a number, and to jump to that level, to jump to Double-A, you have to do a lot of things right.”

That they were both able to handle such a task is owed partially to their familiarity with high-level competition. Allard, was part of the San Clemente (Calif.) High team—along with catcher and Braves system-mate Lucas Herbert—that won the 2015 National High School Invitational. Soroka was part of the Canada’s 18U National team that regularly got experience against minor leaguers during spring trips to Florida.

Experience against that kind of older, better competition helped harden their skill sets and mold them as players and prospects.

“It really helps a lot,” Soroka said. “I learned the little things because I needed to do all that when I wasn’t throwing that hard or else I would have drowned in the talent. It also helps you realize that there’s a ton of talent out there and you’ve got to work hard every day or else you’re going to be replaced.”

Allard echoed Soroka’s sentiment, and emphasized the advantages a young player can get against players a few years their senior. The experience gave them both a chance to add polish before they grew into their velocity.

“Playing older competition when you’re young obviously goes a long way toward developing later in your career,” he said. “Me and Mike both, neither one of us threw overly hard when we were 14 and 15 years old. I didn’t start throwing harder until my junior year of high school.

“So facing better competition, you’ve got to learn to pitch a little bit and I think that’s helped us down the road now when everyone’s throwing hard. You’ve got to be able to pitch, too.”

And even though the numbers the pair put up in the first half were excellent, there’s still plenty of work to do. It might not be visible in the box score, but Soroka and Allard will know it. Whether it’s developing a pitch or reading a hitter or making a mechanical tweak, there’s plenty of room to improve. Both pitchers are, after all, just 19 years old.

But they know the future is bright. They’ve seen it in themselves, in fellow Southern League all-star Ronald Acuña, and in the ways coaches scattered in Orlando during spring training to get as many eyes as possible on all the talent the Braves have stockpiled and lined up for the future.

Now, it’s going to come down to continuing to execute at each step along the developmental ladder.

“Overall, I’m happy with the how the first half went,” Allard said. “It’s nice to have these couple of days to reflect on it and have fun, but now it’s time to build on the first half and hopefully have a lot better second half.”