Atlanta Braves: Travis d’Arnaud is Sub-Zero, not a flawless victory
By Seth Carter
What will the Atlanta Braves do about their starting pitching?
The obvious problem is the pitching staff is in shambles behind the front two guys. Soroka and Fried look like hosses. They are bosses of hosses, they are hoss-bosses.
It’s all very questionable after that. Sean Newcomb has always been full of potential and had good stuff. He has also struggled with consistency and has often found himself handing out free passes like he worked at WCW in the early 1990s.
Newcomb was relegated to a relief role last season and he thrived. In his career as a starter, Newcomb has walked an unacceptable 7.9 batters per nine innings.
On the other hand, as a reliever, the big lefty has only walked 3.33 batters per nine innings with a higher strikeout rate.
His ERA as a starter is 4.15 while his ERA as a reliever he has a 3.00 ERA.
So far in two starts this season, Newcomb has an 8.22 ERA in 7.2 innings after being lit up by the Mets for six earned runs in 4.1 innings of work. The good news is he only had one walk. It may be time to move him back to the bullpen, but alas, who would the Braves start?
Today, they have Touki Toussaint scheduled to lead the charge from the mound. He’s a guy you can root for but he’s had similar struggles of his own. The Braves have to find a solution to stabilize the pitching staff or it’s going to take an offensive explosion every time we have a non-hoss-boss pitcher on the mound.
Some have thrown about the idea that they should call up their top pitching prospect Ian Anderson. They signed journeyman Jouylis Chacin who also took a thrashing last night in relief of Newcomb.