Atlanta Braves: What the Debut of Sean Newcomb Means to the Franchise
By Jason Evans
The Atlanta Braves had top pitching prospect Sean Newcomb make his debut yesterday. What does this mean for the franchise moving forward?
Back in June of 2013, the New York Mets played the Atlanta Braves in a doubleheader. The Mets had Matt Harvey pitch in game one and Zack Wheeler make his major league debut in game two, as the Mets were going through their rebuilding process.
While the Mets swept both games of their doubleheader yesterday with the Braves, Atlanta may have had a similar moment yesterday with their debut of one of their top pitching prospects in left-hander Sean Newcomb.
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Newcomb was impressive yesterday, going 6.1 innings with the only run being unearned due to a throwing error by him. He struck out seven, walked two and gave up four hits.
Newcomb is the Braves number five prospect according to mlbpipeline.com. Newcomb was 3-3 in 11 starts in Triple-A with a 2.97 ERA, and he struck out 74 in 57.2 innings. He was one of the main prospects in the trade with the Los Angeles Angels for Andrelton Simmons.
The main thing that Newcomb represents is the next phase of the Braves rebuilding program. In the past year, they’ve had Dansby Swanson come up, who will be the guy at shortstop. They got Ender Inciarte in the same trade with the Diamondbacks, and he’ll be their centerfielder for years to come.
The Braves, however, are going to be built on their pitching. While young pitchers like Aaron Blair and Matt Wisler haven’t proven themselves yet and Mike Foltynewicz looks like he’s starting to put it together a little bit, Newcomb is the first of the Braves next wave of prospects to come up, especially in the pitching department.
Of the braves top 30 prospects, 16 of them are pitchers. If Newcomb continues to pitch well, even when Bartolo Colon comes back, there is really no reason for Colon to take that spot back. Newcomb should be given the chance moving forward to be in the Braves rotation.
The next arm up could be Lucas Sims, who’s 18th on the Braves top 30 and is already on the Braves 40-man roster. The 23 year old is 5-3 with a 3.65 ERA and is coming off an eight inning, three hit performance.
In Double-A, the rotation consists of Max Fried, Kolby Allard and Mike Soroka along with 19 year old outfielder Ronald Acuna, who’s hitting .336.
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While the Braves may have lost twice yesterday, the next stage of their rebuilding plan began and that is what’s more important.