Big start on tap for Elder, back home in Texas

This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman's Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

• Bryce Elder should get a chance to pitch in his home state of Texas on Saturday. This will be a big start for the rookie right-hander, who has walked 23.4 percent (11 of 47) of the batters he’s faced in his past two starts. Falling behind and issuing free passes consistently can be detrimental to guys who throw 90 mph.

• Eddie Rosario underwent a laser procedure to repair blurred vision on Wednesday. The hope is the Braves outfielder will return within the next two-to-three months and be as productive as he was before his vision became blurred this year. But above all else, the hope is the repaired vision allows him to at least resume a normal lifestyle with his family.

• When Travis Demeritte appeased a fan’s wish by hitting a home run on Tuesday night, I wondered why he can't be this year’s version of Charles Thomas. For those of you who don’t remember, Thomas came out of nowhere midway through the 2004 season and ended up producing an .813 OPS over 83 games. Nobody even knew what Thomas looked like before he arrived to debut one night in Miami.

Thomas’ career consisted of just 30 more games in 2005, but his three months of success in Atlanta netted the Braves nine seasons of Tim Hudson, as Charles was part of the package Atlanta sent to Oakland to acquire the ace right-hander.