The Atlanta Braves Pitching Staff won’t be All Right for Long

Newcomb (ETA 2017)

Coming in at 6-foot-5, 255 pounds, Newcomb’s best asset is an explosive fastball that can touch triple-digits. He has combined that with a knockout curve and a decent change-up to produce elite strikeout numbers at every stop in his minor league career  (9.8 K/9 in 34 Double-A starts, 10.5 K/9 overall).

Unfortunately, his heater has proven difficult to tame. Thus far in his professional career, big lefty has issued a whopping 4.7 BB/9.

While that’s an alarming figure, there’s plenty of reason for optimism. In addition to his impressive repertoire, Newcomb has the classic late-bloomer background. He pitched for a small college (Hartford) and grew up in the northeast (Massachusetts).

Between not facing elite competition at the collegiate level and not being able to play year-round at the high-school level, it makes sense that Newcomb would be less refined than your run-of-the-mill 23-year-old.

He will almost certainly break into the majors next season (even if it doesn’t happen until September call-ups).

Fried/Gohara/Sanchez (ETA 2018)

A first-round draft pick by the Padres back in 2012 (no. 7 overall),

Fried

once looked like a surefire top of the rotation arm. In both 2013 and 2014 he was a

consensus top-100 prospect

but his development hit a major speed bump when he went unde

surgery.

While recovering, he was traded to Atlanta (in the Justin Upton trade) and missed the entire 2015 campaign. When he finally made his Braves system debut last season, he performed admirably. After kicking off some rust in the first half, he again looked like a top prospect during the second half of the year.

Gohara, the newest addition on the list, made headlines by receiving the largest bonus ever for a Brazilian prospect. Originally signed by the Mariners, he took a while to find his footing in professional ball. Despite some early-career struggles, he looked tremendous across two levels in 2016.

There are some concerns about his conditioning (his 6-foot-3, 210 pound listing has been called about 40 pounds short by some). However, recent reports say that he’s trending in the right direction and more athletic than his build would suggest.

Sanchez, a young hurler out of Venezuela, joined Atlanta in a rare prospect-for-prospect trade. Given his age and his brief, less-than-dominant professional career, the projected 2018 ETA seems a bit aggressive.

Still, he’s always played against competition roughly three years older and talent evaluators see him as a future big-leaguer (and apparently pretty soon).

Allard/Wentz/Muller (ETA 2019 and beyond)

Prior to the 2015 draft, Allard saw his stock derailed by a back injury (stress reaction). When he fell to Atlanta with the 14th pick, they took a chance on his medicals and have been rewarded greatly.

The back issues have (for the most part) not followed him to the pros and he just completed an excellent first full season. He carved up batters at Danville before receiving a promotion to Rome. While he wasn’t as dominant there, he still flashed the potential that made him so sought after in his prep days.

Wentz and Muller were taken just four picks apart in the 2016 draft. Both were considered top 25 prospects but dropped a bit due to signability concerns. Atlanta used their sizeable draft bonus pool (and their savings from Ian Anderson‘s below-slot deal) to lure both away from high-profile college commitments (Virginia for Wentz, Texas for Muller).

Both obliterated GCL opponents in their professional debuts. Muller remained there until the end of the season while Wentz received an aggressive promotion to Danville. Both are young and raw with huge potential but they are years away from the bigs.