Weird things happen when you play Major League Baseball in the state of Tennessee. Eli White becomes the Colossus of Clout at Bristol Motor Speedway.

And against my better judgement, I am going to be all-in on once-promising prospect Hurston Waldrep for the rest of the season.

He pitched quite well in his first 5.2 innings of the season on Sunday afternoon vs. the pretender Cincinnati Reds.

Waldrep allowed three hits and one earned run in his first action with the Atlanta Braves this year. He walked two batters, while striking out four.

The former first-round pick out of Florida in the 2023 MLB Draft struggled mightily with his control and command during his brief but atrocious tenure in the Majors last season. Clearly, he has worked on refining his uptempo delivery into something he can replicate.

Maybe I have a blind spot to this, but if Waldrep does prove to be the promising pitcher coming out of the Minor League system like Spencer Schwellenbach and AJ Smith-Shawver were not that long ago, then I can get behind it. Both other notable pitchers looked like lost puppies in their first few starts for Atlanta.

Schwellenbach found his groove last season. Smith-Shawver looked the part earlier this year.

With so many arms down for the count in Atlanta, could Waldrep’s emergence be a pleasant surprise?

Hurston Waldrep showed he could have staying power in Braves rotation

When it came to Waldrep’s promise coming out of Florida two years ago, he was thought to be a high-end starting pitcher with great velocity and tremendous off-speed stuff.

Again, the upside was always there, but none of that seemed to matter during his first two starts with the Braves last season. He looked completely overwhelmed and unprepared in those moments. It left an awful first impression.

So far that reason, I will continue to be a wait before I see it sort of guy when it comes to these top prospects. The hype is insurmountable with some of these players. We put too much pressure on them. They did not ask for it, but here we all are.

That being said, I will always be in favor of people picking themselves up by their bootstraps and finding ways to be successful in their endeavors.

Let me put it to you this way. If Waldrep, or really any Quad-A pitcher for that matter, continues to pitch well for the Braves down the stretch in the midst of their lost season, then I would argue for them having a chance to make the rotation next year.

In down years for any franchise, these are the time where opportunities present themselves and you can really earn the respect of your teammates.

I am rooting for Waldrep to achieve all he can with the Braves over these next several weeks or so.