Atlanta Braves: Mike Foltynewicz Monday Start Review

After seeing the stats from Michael Foltynewicz‘s start, I wanted to take the time to watch his start as it was very different than his previous starts on the stat sheet.  I watched the archived game on milb.tv and wrote up a quick review of his start on Monday for the Gwinnett Braves against the Norfolk Tides of the Baltimore Orioles organization:

First inning – Missing glove side with the fastball often. Good finish on the breaking pitch and good deception on the change (only saw one, but it got a called strike)

Second Inning – Shaky control with Walker. Missed two strikes due to missing glove side on the first two hitters. Good recovery on Jayson Nix after nearly blowing up the game by getting a strikeout. Short armed the pitch that was flared for the game’s only run. Missing low frequently trying to figure out the zone from the ump (seems narrow and middle, nothing high or low or on the edges)

Third inning – Still trailing arm side on his fast ball. Good location up and down, however. Nice job adjusting Reimold’s eye level in the first at bat of the inning. Good changeup to Chris Parmalee, but went to it three pitches in a row. Changed Parmalee’s eye level on that at bat well and got him to golf a low pitch for an easy fly out.

Fourth inning – Good eye work on Walker to start the inning, going high fastball twice before a low-breaking curve got him to fly out weakly. Good defense off the mound with Clevinger’s swinging bunt. Really ticked up his control and velocity against Jayson Nix for the strikeout to end the inning.

Fifth inning – Got Urrutia under a pitch well after a few foul balls off of fastball/slider combo pitches. Much better connection with the glove placement of his catcher in the first at bat. Did twist his waist like he was either sore or tiring the first pitch to the second batter and got a line out to the shortstop with poor command to Almanzar. Janish went after the first good pitch he saw and popped it out.

Sixth inning – Reimold hit a ball on the nose, but right at LF Adonis Garcia. Beautiful curve “late” into the game to Alvarez to start off the second batter in the inning. Folty got a called strikeout on Alvarez on a pitch he wanted around the second inning. I did note that Folty had more issue keeping his over the top slot with lefty Parmalee at the plate, and this led to a double. Great comeback with a good four-pitch mix on Christian Walker to get the inning-ending strikeout after Parmalee’s double.

Seventh inning – Struck out the first two hitters on big time heat, touching 97, per the broadcast going along with the video. Urrutia fouled off a couple before grounding out. Very little hard work in the inning.

Eighth inning – Great down and in movement on his one-pitch out to Almanzar, who grounded out weakly to short. He got Paul Janish to fly out to short left, but Garcia dropped the ball. Folty at that point seemed to dig deeper, consistently running the ball up 96+, registering even 99 to the batter after Janish. Reimold swung at 96, 99, 97 up in the zone for his strikeout. I do wonder if Folty knew he was done after the 8th regardless, as he has ramped up his velocity in other starts in his last inning. He did completely ignore Janish at first, giving him a good jump to steal second. The final strikeout looked like a cutter to get the looking punch out at 93.

Overall Review of Mike Foltynewicz’s Start

One thing I’ve noticed about Folty in the past has been his struggle to keep his relatively high arm slot, especially when he’s trying to go for more velo and force the effort. His over-the-top look to his arm slot gives him some deception and brings a lot of late break to his fastball. If he can hold that delivery, he could have results like this much more often. The arm side run on his fastball is well and good, but missing his catcher’s mitt often to the arm side is still concerning. He was certainly the benificiary of a lineup who knew his power fastball and jumped often on the first fastball in the zone and didn’t often make good contact. A definite positive for Folty was that he rarely got to get right back out there as the Braves had baserunners frequently, yet never pushed a run across, and Folty never seemed to let the lack of run support affect his demeanor on the mound. I will say his build looks much smaller than listed. I’d put him about 6’1-6’2 and 180-190 instead of the listed 6’4, 200. Even with a “smaller” frame, he racked up 4 of his 9 strikeouts in the last two innings.

Disclaimer – I am not a trained scout by any means.  This should not be read as a scouting review of Folty and what he is or could become.  This is one writer’s opinion based on one start. I hope you enjoyed!