Atlanta Braves new lefty Tommy Milone: a deeper look at the new arm in town

If you watched Tomlin’s starts, you’ll know what the Atlanta Braves may expect from Milone.

Milone teases batters with the fastball and tries to put them away with offspeed, changes to RHH, sliders to LHH. When they start looking for the offspeed pitch, he’ll sneak his 86 moh heater by them.

At his best, Milone screws up a batter’s timing and forces them to pop up or chase a bad pitch. On a bad day, fans can get a couple of souvenirs.

Historically Milone gives up slightly more fly balls than Tomlin, but this season the ratios are about the same. Milone’s given up five homers in 29+ innings over six starts, and Tomlin four in 22+ innings over three starts.

That’s a Wrap

As we found out with the trade for Gausman and O’Day, rumors about the Braves’ involvement in trade talks are usually incorrect. No one suspected Anthopoulos would trade for Josh Tomlin’s left-handed clone, a veteran pitcher who won’t panic and should give a team five innings most days without allowing the opposition to blow a game open.

What the trade didn’t do is provide a significant starting pitcher to follow Fried in the rotation, capable of starting a postseason game against a quality lineup. Maybe that’s asking too much in a year fraught with stops and starts, injuries, home games played away, and teams losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

I noted last night they needed two starters to give the team a chance this season, and Anthopoulos told reporters he’s still talking to other teams, so perhaps there’s another addition in the offing.

The Atlanta Braves chartered a jet to get Milone to Philadelphia in time for him to start tonight’s game. Other than J.T. Realmuto, who is 3-6 with two doubles and a homer against Milone, and Juan Segura 0-5, none of the Phillies have faced Milone, which should give him an edge tonight.