Atlanta Braves: Young pitchers hitting a wall?

The Atlanta Braves rode their tremendous young pitching to competing through the first half of the season. They may need to lean on reinforcements and the offense to finish the year.

The theme throughout the Atlanta Braves rebuild has been pitching, pitching, and when that’s done…more pitching! However, as the season’s worn on, perhaps the 2018 Atlanta Braves are finding that more than just young arms will be required to get to the postseason!

Early on this season, the theme was consistent – the young Atlanta Braves pitching had come into their own and were establishing the Braves as a legitimate threat in the National League for not just 2018, but also beyond!

The young arms were producing tremendously as well. Through the end of May, here are some of the young pitchers’ lines:

• Sean Newcomb, 62 2/3 IP, 2.73 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 11.5% BB, 24.6% K
• Mike Foltynewicz, 60 IP, 2.55 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 11.4% BB, 27.1% K
• AJ Minter, 21 2/3 IP, 3.74 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, 13% BB, 22% K
• Shane Carle, 30 IP, 2.10 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 6.5% BB, 17.9% K
• Daniel Winkler, 23 1/3 IP, 0.77 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, 6.9% BB, 39.1% K
• Jesse Biddle, 17 IP, 3.18 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 10% BB, 22.9% K

However, the numbers since aren’t as great:

• Sean Newcomb, 57 IP, 3.79 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 11.7% BB, 20% K
• Mike Foltynewicz, 58 1/3 IP, 3.55 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 8.5%, 29.2%
• AJ Minter, 21 2/3 IP, 2.08 ERA, 0.65 WHIP, 3.8% BB, 37.2% K
• Shane Carle, 22 1/3 IP, 3.22 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 12.5% BB, 20.5% K
• Daniel Winkler, 20 IP, 5.85 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 5.6% BB, 21.1% K
• Jesse Biddle, 24 IP, 1.88 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 12.6% BB, 26.3% K

On average, that’s an increase of 0.88 in ERA across those six pitchers. This is why the added arms of Brad Brach, Jonny Venters, and Kevin Gausman were so important at the deadline.

Even more important will be how manager Brian Snitker utilizes his young pitchers the rest of the season. While many were frustrated to see Mike Foltynewicz out with just 89 pitches against the Mets on Thursday night, that was one of the big positives from last night.

Now the challenge will be handling the bullpen. With plenty of excellent arms at AAA, it will be incumbent on Snitker and Alex Anthopoulos to ensure arms are shuffled between Gwinnett and Atlanta to provide bullpen depth to keep innings off of the prime young arms.

So what do you think? Could the Atlanta Braves be headed for a rough finish to the season with their young arms, or will the depth of the organization give them protection enough to keep everyone healthy?