Brandon Beachy made his second rehab start yesterday for Rome and it was a big improvement over his first. He threw 68 pitches in 5 scoreless innings and had a much better command. Brandon gave up 3 hits and walked 1 while striking out 3. The Braves hope for him to at least make 3 more rehab starts before coming back to the Braves rotation.

Now who will be removed from the rotation to make room is still anyone’s guess. I doubt the line drive that took Medlen out of the game last night will even cause him to miss a start, so that shouldn’t really factor into the equation. Obviously Minor and Hudson aren’t going anywhere, so its down to Meds, Maholm and Teheran to make a move to the pen. With as well as Teheran has been pitching, I don’t think it would be very smart to move him to the pen since he is going to be part of the Braves rotation for the foreseeable future. I think the most obvious option is Medlen since he has done the pen before and did it very well, but I still think he is someone who will be apart of the Braves rotation for the next couple of seasons at least. That leaves Maholm, who is a free agent after this season. I’m just not sure his game really translates to the bullpen though, but being a lefty would be a plus, especially since he is really, really good against lefties.

The best part is, we are going to get to go through all this speculation for the next 3 or so weeks, so get ready. What do you guys think?

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