Allard will skip High-A and begin the season in the rotation at Double-A Mississippi.
There are a couple factors at play here. First, Allard is the Braves' top pitching prospect, and is a very advanced arm for his age (19), so the Braves obviously think he can hold his own at Double-A, despite having only logged 60.1 innings at Low-A last year. Secondly, the Braves are absolutely loaded with starting pitching prospects in the lower levels, and this opens up a spot in the High-A rotation that wouldn't have been available if Allard made a normal progression. The Mississippi rotation of Allard, Max Fried, Patrick Weigel, Mike Soroka and Matt Withrow will be one of the best in all the minors.