22-year old righty rookie starting pitcher Randall Delgado is off to a very impressive start to his major league career with the Braves. He pitched in 7 games (all starts) for the Braves this year and he is 1-1 with a 2.83 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. Delgado also pitched in 25 games (all starts) in AA+AAA-ball this year for the Braves and he was 7-7 with a 3.88 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. He came into this season as the Braves’ #3 prospect according to Baseball America and you can see why.

25-year old righty starting pitcher Brandon Beachy has really turned in a solid rookie season for the Braves. He has pitched in 23 games (all starts) for the Braves so far this year and he is 7-2 with a 3.43 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. Beachy has only given up 115 hits in his first 131 1/3 innings this year while whiffing 152 batters and walking only 37 of them. Beachy has now pitched in 26 games (all starts) in his first two years in the majors and he is 7-4 with a 3.38 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. He looks like he’s going to be a fixture in the Braves’ rotation for a long, long time.

26-year old lefty reliever Eric O’Flaherty has been quite a find for the Braves. He has pitched in 57 games (0 starts) so far this year for the Braves and he is 1-3 with a 1.02 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. O’Flaherty has only given up 42 hits in his first 53 innings pitched so far in 2011 as he is missing a lot of bats. He has now pitched in 191 games (0 starts) in his three years with the Braves and he is 6-6 with a 2.17 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. The Braves hope that O’Flaherty finishes strong this year because they are going to need all hands on the deck in order to win the Wild Card in the N.L.

23-year old righty reliever Craig Kimbrel has been selected to replace Matt Cain (pitched yesterday) in tomorrow night’s All-Star Game. Kimbrel has pitched in 47 games (0 starts) for the Braves so far this year and he is 2-2 with 28 saves, a 2.35 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. He has only allowed 30 hits in his first 46 innings pitched this year with 70 whiffs, showing just how nasty he is. Kimbrel deserves this honor and he will likely represent the Braves well tomorrow night if he gets into the game.

The Braves are sending 27-year old catcher Brian McCann, 39-year old 3B Chipper Jones, 25-year old starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens and 26-year old lefty reliever Jonny Venters to the All-Star Game next week. Lefty swinging Brian McCann was elected by the fans to start behind the plate. McCann has played in 76 games for the Braves so far this year and he is 87 for 279 (.312 avg, .897 OPS) with 32 runs scored, 14 homers, 47 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Switch-hitting 3B Chipper Jones has remained pretty healthy this year and he has benefitted from the N.L. being pretty weak at 3B. Jones has played in 74 games for the Braves so far this year and he is 71 for 277 (.256 avg, .761 OPS) with 32 runs scored, 7 homers, 44 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Righty starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens has been awesome this year for the Braves. Jurrjens has started 15 games for the Braves so far this year and he is 11-3 with a 1.89 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP. He has only given up 88 hits while walking 23 batters in his first 104 2/3 innings, so he’s throwing strikes and not getting hit too hard at all. 26-year old lefty reliever Jonny Venters is just downright nasty. Venters has pitched in 48 games (0 starts) for the Braves so far this year and he is 4-1 with 3 saves, a 1.53 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP. He has whiffed 56 batters in his first 53 innings this year and he has only allowed 31 hits, showing just how wicked he has been. This is a good group to represent the Braves next week.