Ian Anderson made return to the mound for AA Columbus

Coming into the season, the Atlanta Braves were really hoping Ian Anderson would put a rough couple of years behind him and earn a spot in the Opening Day rotation.

That didn’t happen. Anderson’s control continued to plague him, and his secondary offerings did not show any improvement during Spring Training. That led to him being traded to the Angels, where he struggled to the tune of an 11.57 ERA over seven games out of the bullpen.

Los Angeles quickly designated him for assingment, and Anderson found himself back in the Braves organization. But the porous performance continued on the farm, as he posted a 6.10 ERA and averaged nearly eight walks per nine innings over eight starts with the Gwinnett Stripers.

Then, Anderson disappeared for a bit. His last start came back in the middle of June, as he was placed on the 7-day Injured List. He made his return last night for the Columbus Clingstones, and unfortunately, it was more of the same.

Anderson made it through just 1.2 innings on 57 pitches. He did somehow only manage to give up one earned run, despite walking five batters compared to just one strikeout.

Still 27-years-old, perhaps there’s a path back for the former Braves postseason legend. Baseball has a funny way of working itself out, but this is not something that’s going to happen overnight. He has a ton of things to work on to get back to the major-league level.

First and foremost, Anderson has to learn how to throw strikes again, but he also has to start missing more bats. Walking a lot of guys without being able to generate whiffs is a recipe for disaster, something Anderson knows all too well from his performance over the last several seasons.