Morning Chop: Sims, Free Agents Atlanta Braves are Sure to Ignore
At 6’4″, M-Braves Pitching Coach Dennis Lewallyn can look his staff right in the eye and tell them what they need to hear. Photo credit: Alan Carpenter, TomahawkTake.com
Expect Lucas Sims to Pitch in AFL Stars Game Tonight
With a full rest, Lucas Sims will probably get an inning of work tonight against the best of the Eastern division in tonight’s Arizona Fall League contest, which can be seen on the MLB Network and streamed via MLB.com. He’s one of 11 pitchers on the roster, but his timing is actually ideal to come in early, as his most recent start came on Tuesday.
Sims has seemed to improve with each outing so far in the desert, lowered his ERA to 2.45 in 11 innings. More importantly, the control is improving (just 3 walks) and the strikeouts are returning (11 of those). In his last six innings, he’s yielded but a single hit while walking 1.
It’s been a weird year for Sims, now 21-1/2, a 2012 first-round pick of the Braves (21st overall). He started at High-A Carolina and really didn’t fare very well (5.18 ERA with an identical BB/9ip rate). He also missed some considerable time after the team’s bus crashed in May.
Despite all that, the Braves bumped him up to AA Mississippi for the last month of the year, and he suddenly showed some improvement under pitching coach Dennis Lewallyn…the 29 hits in 48 innings was solid, though the 29 walks continued the pattern from before. Now in the AFL, there’s further signs of hope – and tonight he’s getting a well-earned reward for the work and perseverance through a tough season.