I think in the thread it was ububba who mentioned missing the start of this bizarre 6:05 start. Well, I did also. I had seen it “on the web,” but forgot. So, around 6:40 I remembered and tuned in. It was 10 to 1. It was the top of the third inning. I was glad I had not been watching. And, thereafter, I watched almost none. Yes, I shirked my duty to dutifully report on this debacle.
This time, rather than Robespierre, maybe it was Jane Addams acting. Taking the incorrigible youthful offender away from the scene of the crime to reflect in the bucolic setting of Gwinnett County. For whatever reason, despite occasional flashes and what appears to be “good stuff,” Sean Newcombe is about as useful to a major league baseball team as screen doors on A NUCLEAR SUBMARINE. the old joke on that doesn’t account for the fact that old school subs had to surface almost once every day and maybe if you were off Guadalcanal you might need screen wire to hold back the mosquitoes. The Braves held back Greasy Cheese Thingies less effectively than a properly poised digestive tract.
So, in the first 2 innings, Phil Gosselin, Rhys Hoskins, and Bryce Harper had already scored twice. So that is 6. Another 4 individuals joining in during that inning made it 10 to 1. Robbie Erlin served as a long man and gave up 2 more in 2 and 2 thirds. Thus lowering the runs given up per inning pitched from 7 to below 1. Progress is a beautiful thing to see.
Later on, Snit subbed out a lot of the regulars. Well, the irregulars mounted a fairly impressive uprising in the 9th. Got 7 back. But, when you move win probability from 99.99 to 99.25 that doesn’t exactly thrill the heart. That may have generated some offensive spark in the irregulars, but who really believes that?
Onward to the Bronx Good Touki better hide Bad Touki or it could get ugly.
— Tad, “Jinx”
Amazing how prescient Tad was — they released that album the year we went worst to first and played the Twins in the World Series, and predicted Sean Newcomb two years before he was born!
The problem with Newcomb as I’ve been led to understand it is his delivery. It lacks consistency in every conceivable way. It’s believed that Newcomb really has no control over where his pitches will end up unless in the catcher’s mit counts as a location. Based off his pitch charts, I am thus inclined to believe the arm delivery inconsistency theory.
@1, bold move summoning the name TAD in these parts. I wonder if he enjoyed last night’s contest.
Jayson Stark on Phillies vs Braves bullpen this season:
The #Phillies bullpen now has a 10.66 ERA when leading.
Their incomprehensible stats when pitching with a lead: 15 ER, 23 hits, 5 HR in 12.2 IP.
#Braves bullpen when leading: 0.56 ERA, 2 ER in 32 IP.
Newk has a full run and a half difference between starting and relieving. That doesn’t tell us the full story, but man, that’s a big difference. I don’t know what’s going on that he can put together 1 or 2 good innings but can’t put together even 3 or 4 if he’s the starter. If he can’t repeat his delivery, you’d think that would have continued to be an issue in his 55 or so relief innings last year. I bet he’s down in Gwinnett getting ready to be a reliever. Very frustrating. I’m glad they gave him a shot, but he got 4 starts last year, he got 4 this year, and off he goes.
Gee, I wish I could go to the game tonight…
#1
I never thought there would be a day when I considered grunge (or techno) to be quaint… but here we are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0l-Oqabipk
Nonetheless, TAD was actually a really good live band.
Locked down in a Philly hotel, or stay here and hit? We might see a lot of 9th inning fireworks this year.
@2
That’s on him then. He is 27 years old and should be able to repeat a delivery that works. That or the Braves are just too dumb to have caught it.
Soroka, Hamels, King Felix, Folty and Newk- That’s a whole rotation lost.
Free Ian Anderson!
My excitement about the season has waned a little bit. We just don’t have the horses in the rotation. To Smitty’s point, we’ve just lost wayyyyy too much out of the rotation. The offense and bullpen are really going to have to carry this team through the regular season, but the lack of quality starters will be our undoing in a postseason series.
So, not to belabor the point, but we should probably trade for a starter or two.
Honestly, Touki and Wright both pitched pretty well in their most recent starts, so if anything, I might feel slightly better about our rotation now than I did a week ago? Maybe? Obviously that’s subject to one or both crapping the bed in their next start. But if you put any emotional capital into Newcomb getting it turned around as a starter and so were devastated by this bloodbath, that’s kind of on you IMO.
In any case, we need to trade for somebody.
@5 Could be smoke and mirrors. His numbers from 2018 to 2019 are not incredibly different. His FIP was actually a bit worse last year.
having looked at video of Newk’s delivery I don’t see all that much inconsistency there. it’s his balance that is shockingly bad. If you watch him in slo-mo you will see that he needs to continuously make adjustments to his plant foot and ankle during the delivery. Most guys are just ‘plant and move forward”, but Newcomb usually has sideways shimmy going on. I don’t believe balance issues go away, so I am reluctantly throwing in the towel on this one.
The most deceptive thing about Newcomb is that his overall numbers average out to something decent. Like, we ought to be able to just leave him in the rotation this year if nothing else has changed about him. Last night was just a case of getting absolutely tatoo’d for seemingly no apparent reason (pitchfx doesn’t offer much of an explanation except that the fastball got obliterated). How does it differ from his previous two starts? I’m not seeing it.
I said at the beginning of Newk’s return to the rotation that they ought to let him throw until his arm flies off. Let him regularly make 120 pitches when he isn’t surrendering 6 or more runs.
I read somewhere on DOBs blog today that Folty has not yet thrown off the mound since he’s been moved to Gwinnett. He’s still long tossing.
Why? Would anyone know?
Honestly, if Newk were just a 5th starter, I’d be fine with treating him like that. The thing is, he just doesn’t work as a traditional starter — the guy who is supposed to get the first 18 outs of the game or so — because he so often fails to complete five innings.
I’d rather see him used in a bullpen game scenario. I wish we’d try a lot harder to make a kind of opener-longman-longman model work for us. I feel the same way about Wilson and Wright. If they can figure out how to throw three innings then maybe they can grow to the point that they can figure out how to throw six.
But I don’t want to see Jo-Jo Newcomb start ever again. Yesterday was pretty close to the yips; the ball he plunked Bryce Harper with was clearly one where he had absolutely no idea where it was going, and it wasn’t the only pitch of the inning where he missed his spot by feet rather than inches. No more forever.
We have some opener options with Tomlin, Wilson, Weigel, maybe Newk, maybe even Folty, maybe Tucker? I don’t think Snit has a choice not to go with openers. And I like our chances.
Touki and Wright had a good and one okay start. We cannot really count on them at this point.
Tonight may be a little rough for Touki.
@15 August 23rd, 2018.
That’s the last time Newk was allowed to throw over 100 pitches.
They’re keeping all these guys on very short hooks. 80 pitches after 3 IP is a surefire way to exit with 4 or fewer innings under this crew.
While I agree with you regarding Newcomb, he will regularly give you 5 provided you let him throw more than 100 pitches to get there.
@17
I think there are people who still think they shouldn’t have let Newk go for that no-hitter a couple years ago. That throwing over 130 pitches in that game screwed him up for the rest of the 2018 season or something. In reality, he was just having one of his random fantastic games (hasn’t happened yet this year, but used to happen occasionally) and afterward, he went back to what he normally is.
The early pulling of effective starters drove me absolutely up a wall last year, especially before the trade deadline deals. It was like, you have a guy who’s throwing great. Nobody down in the bullpen is capable of throwing as good as the guy you have in right now. But you’re gonna take him out and lessen your chance of winning because he has 90 pitches and there’s a general understanding that hitters hit pitchers better the third time through? That is a general rule of thumb, not to be applied religiously when your bullpen is complete garbage.
This year, our bullpen seems to be really good. I’m still always a fan of letting starters go longer, but it’s at least not criminally stupid this year to go to the bullpen a little bit earlier.
https://sideline-sports.com/2020/08/11/atlanta-braves-starting-rotation-fix/?fbclid=IwAR2U2Q1ww66UZpWYiLA6gUagGVXdsQQVo3Cyt9CBAVnvDZgIOm4jjsW3zkw
I was dubious about the source, but I think these are about what your options are. In fact, I’d be looking at doing all 3. Call up Davidson when you don’t burn a year, use Tomlin as a piggyback, and trade for an innings eater from Cincy.
Does anyone know anything about Cole Hamels?
@19
He’s currently long tossing and is supposed to throw off a mound for the first time by the end of the week, according to reports by the beat writers a few days ago. Obviously, who knows what’ll happen when he actually starts throwing pitches again?
@19
Yeah, Hamels waived at his neighbor and his arm fell off.
Hamels has apparently been cleared to start throwing on flat ground. if that does well, he’s thinking about a bullpen session on Friday. In other words, he’s scheduled to have his arm amputated or something.
Great minds, @20 and @21
@19 My understanding is that Hamels was placed on the 45-day IL and isn’t eligible to come off of it until the last two weeks of the season.
@23
He’s eligible to return the first week of September.
New thread (and Game Thread) brought to you by Jonathan F.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2020/08/11/how-about-a-no-hitter-game-thread/