The Atlanta Braves have designated starter Robbie Erlin for assignment, per the team. Sean Newcomb has been added to the active roster to take his place.
Erlin’s tenure in Atlanta was short, in the grand scheme of things. He made 7 appearances, 5 starts, for a 8.49 ERA/6.75 FIP while allowing 8 home runs over 23 1/3 innings. The Braves have been desperate for rotation help, claiming Erlin off waivers from the Pirates on August 7th.
Newcomb made his debut as a starter for the Braves in 2017, but by 2019 he made himself into a valuable piece of the Braves’ bullpen. He posted a 3.16 ERA/4.24 FIP across 68 1/3 innings in 51 appearances and 4 starts in 2019. When the bottom fell out from the Braves’ rotation plans in 2020, Newcomb stepped in and made four starts to disastrous results: 11.20 ERA/7.51 FIP while walking 4 per nine innings and striking out 6.6 per nine. Despite the currently-thin rotation, the Braves plan on returning Newcomb to the bullpen, per The Athletic’s David O’Brien (via Twitter).
The Braves might see some reinforcements in the rotation shortly with Cole Hamels expected to make his Braves’ debut on Wednesday, per O’Brien (via Twitter). Huascar Ynoa, Bryse Wilson, and Newcomb can provide multi-inning efforts from the bullpen, while Josh Tomlin, Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright and Hamels take turns in the rotation. Max Fried can be activated from the injured list as early as Wednesday to join the rotation, but the Braves have not updated his health status yet.
Newcomb can’t do anything worse. Makes sense.
Thank goodness! Now bring back Folty and see what he can do.
It’s sorta comical how we wanted Folty gone and were tired of that project, but then AA’s refusal to upgrade the rotation has us almost begging to have Folty back. Kinda sick and twisted if you ask me. AA needs to go …
AA doesn’t need to go. It’s easy for you to sit here and armchair GM it, but without facts and knowledge of what’s being asked for in trades, etc – it’s just a bunch of opinions.
AA has done a great job.
Yep… AA hasn’t barely done a thing to build a championship roster aside from signing Ozuna and a couple meh bullpen upgrades.. and it took the fan base to twist his arm to get him to do those upgrades. He inherited a roster that was set up for success. All he had to do was fill in the gaps to put us over the hump. But… he set on his butt and instead got milone on a money saving deal… kinda outrageous honestly. Needs … to…. go!
How in the world he stuck around that long is beyond me.
he literally gave up at least 5 runs every outing it seemed like smh…this may say more about Newcomb progression or lack of with Erlin sticking around so long
His peripherals said he pitched better than indicated.
As a pure pen piece he’d probably be decent. But the 3 batter rule certainly hurts him.
He actually has reverse splits being better against righties.
So as a guy you bring in to face the bottom of the order and hopefully get an inning he’d have some value.
Bryse Wilson,Touki, Kyle Wright, Ynoa, Kyle Muller are ALL already better than Erlin. U could argue Tucker Davidson & Foltynewicz are better than Erlin too. All of these guys except for Erlin have Potential.
I’d much rather lose giving playing time to guys that can eventually win than pretend like we could actually win with Erlin over the stretch of a season. AA & Snitker are great but it feels like they really wasted a year of development for a lot of our Players.
Tom Glavine didnt succeed right out the gate. Even Maddux took a little bit of time in Chicago. If ur gonna give up on or take the Ball away from these young arms, It better at least be for someone better than they are. Someone much Better than Erlin. I know these guys arent Mad dog or Glavine. I think we might have at least a Charlie Morton in the system tho.
Oh man that Glavine/Maddux/Smoltz comparisons will never go away. Reassurance is always good!
Back with a different name again, lol
I hope we don’t have Charlie Morton. Can’t wait that long for them to develop into a good pitcher
LOL! Amazingly the Braves DID have him. He started in the Atlanta organization. I don’t hold that against the Braves because he was such a late bloomer but ya, that would kind of suck to watch someone like Newcomb, Folty or another prospect start producing quality seasons something like 5 years after the last time he threw a pitch for Atlanta.
That’s exactly my worry. Although waiting that long for a pitcher to develop might be a better alternative to trading them for someone in the Nate McClouth category.
So does Newcomb keep getting nuked?
Does a tree still make a sound in the woods when it falls and no one is around to hear it?
It’s amazing how low the bar is set for Braves starters. Can you go four or five innings and give up five or less runs?
Right now, if the guy gives up 3 runs over 5 innings and not all in one inning, that’s considered a huge, amazing win for the Braves. Your right… the bar is crazy low
Thanks God!!! Finally AA and Snitk do the right thing. Why a contender team still have pitchers like milone or erlin, why don’t used the farm system?? Even with some problems in this season, newcomb and company deserved the opportunitys more than those 2 leftys.
AA needs to be fired… end of story
Seriously Newcombe wasn’t consistently this bad. He would have a good start every now and than. Hopefully his time at the alternative site helped him and he is ready and pitching under control
I agree. Newcomb was basically doing what Erlin was but at least Newcomb has a higher ceiling. One of his last starts before he got sent down would’ve been completely different if a ball hadn’t popped out of Ender’s glove on a sliding catch. I think he gave up three or four runs right after that.
If you’re depending on old man Hamels……..
We really can’t blame AA for this. Not his fault good pitchers with years of control like Clevinger were not available.
If we had only picked up Bumgarner we wouldn’t be in this mess. If only we all weren’t so impressed with Acuna’s 1.088 OPS and life time OPS of .915, maybe we could actually get some value for him in a trade for a lottery ticket prospect. If only someone would have wanted these things but none of us are smart enough. =(
Umm, I can’t tell, so please help me out. Did you forget the /s??
Erlin is finally out? It’s long overdue! I didn’t understand giving him so many chances to fail when the franchise has young pitching in the fold. Even if they do worse than Erlin, at least they’d be taking something away from the experience. Erlin was only taking beatings.
You know you are desperate for help when you are claiming players off of waivers from the Pirates… and I’m a Pirates fan.
Yup. The crazy thing is The Braves have over 40 players that are better than Erlin. I’m shocked they claimed him. He basically took a spot on the active roster & 40 man roster that could have went to a much better player all year long.
Wnere is foltynewicz?
I’ve heard from my sources that he’s on a strict 3 chocolate whopper a day training regime to regain weight.
Bout time
Chocolate whoppers? Showing your age there, Outlaw. I suppose you also like Good n Plenty’s and Cup-o-gold. Kind of cutting myself with my own words, but hey, old timers stick together! =}
Wait, I’m lost? Lol! I thought they just came out after being a joke in 2018, Cap? Had Burger King done them before?
I think Cap is referring to malted milk balls.
Oh, wait, nevermind, they’re also a candy. I recognized Good N’ Plenty and made the connection. All the Burger King stuff comes up on a search. I have to say though, everything named Chocolate Whopper sounds gross- just like Erlin’s pitching. Lol. ::shudders::
@Outlaw. ROFL! So you had no idea what I was talking about at first which means the only one showing his age is me. =D
I thought we were talking about Burger King whoppers, too. They are actually selling chocolate burgers in Taiwan.
https://hypebeast.com/2020/9/burger-king-taiwan-hersheys-chocolate-whopper-burger
The Braves starting rotation is just painful to watch. I really try to have patience with developing talent. You have to give them time to develop so you know what you have but surely we could have spared some of those prospects ranked in the 10 to 20 range of the organization because that’s what some of them were going for.
It’s frustrating to watch because the Braves offense is really showing up. None of us expected it would be even better than last year so you want to see that supported at least a little even if this season isn’t worth as much as others. It didn’t have to be Clevinger or Lynn but it needed to be SOMEBODY!
I’m with you. I wanted Clevinger. I don’t know what the ask was, but it made all the sense in the world to me if it was comparable to the SD package.
To not get anyone outside of Milone though is maddening. With this offense, Minor or Walker would’ve gone a long way. I feel like AA is more comfortable sitting on his hands and just regurgitating the same lines about wanting value and flexibility. I understand those things are important, but there also comes a point where a GM realizes he needs to cash in some chips for a payout.
Some of these prospects will inevitably fail and their value will become nil.
Problem is some are saying the Braves don’t have as good of a farm from what some of our pitchers have done. I believe AA is going to wait to have more assets that have stats next year when we have a minor league season or even if they have an expanded AFL then maybe more props ta shine therefore making current assets regain value when all the prospects are playing again. Clearly some will fall off a cliff with a year off but others will shine. May be worth holding on in the long run
@SalaryCap/Appalachian:
With the emergence of Ian Anderson, Clevinger would statistically (W/L, ERA, WHIP) be the third-best ATL SP behind Anderson and Fried. If you knew Anderson was for real (he had another 7-inning 1-hit performance tonight) would you be less inclined to give up meaningful prospects for what would be your #3 or #4 (don’t forget Hamels) postseason starter? I understand the Braves 3-5 slots for the rest of September are crap, but could they possible be OK in at least a five-game postseason series with Fried, Anderson, and Hamels?
WouldSettle, I would have still done the trade. I like Anderson a lot, but he wouldn’t be my #2 postseason starter in his rookie year. Let’s say we had gotten Clevinger, I’d go with a rotation of:
1) Clevinger
2) Fried
3) Anderson
4) Hamels
We don’t yet know what we’ll see from Hamels, so I really wouldn’t want him starting twice in a 7 game series. That’s also assuming he can return. If he can’t, I’d start Newk in game 4. I’d also rather have a veteran guy in Clevinger taking the short rest starts, if it came down to that. It also sets up a R/L/R/L rotation.
Moving into next year, had we given up an OF in the trade, you could always sign an OF like Joc to platoon with Duvall in LF. So I don’t think the prospect package would be crippling as long as the ask wasn’t someone on the ML roster.
Guess we’ll see if Newcomb is less of a failure than Erlin.
Why is Tomlinson still starting games? You might as well put a five spot on the scoreboard before the game even starts anytime he is pitching
i was against moving newcomb out of the role he thrived in last year..i have always envisioned mike foltynewicz as a dominant closer for some team at some point in his career..i’m still wondering where tucker davidson is..i haven’t heard anything about him since spring training..i’m glad braves finally came to terms that they picked erlin off the scrap heap..they trotted him out there too many times as one of their starting pitchers..i always feel pure optimism anytime a player comes to braves from somewhere else..like magically being a brave will bring out the best player they can be..yankees released luis avilan former brave reliever..wouldn’t help get a starter to last 5 innings but could add another arm if braves gobble him up..braves doing what they can to make their old things seem like new things..they should let luke jackson see what happens if he opens a game..i have a hunch he would end up doing well as starter..looked like prospect SP through minors..long live baseball and happy braves and happy native american humans
I also thought that Folty could be a great closer, but he was showing enough promise as a starter to be a dominant TOR pitcher. Maybe now they can try it while he’s trying to regain weight.
For the longest, I was the only Braves fans begging for Mgmt to just let the young guys figure it out as they have more upside than the guys we keep putting in there. If we were gonna trade for better pieces because our prospects were too good, then why aren’t we playing those said prospects. Why are we giving longer leashes to the likes of Erlin and Milone than Wilson and Wright? One has upside the others don’t. Suddenly fans have come on board to my messaging after suffering for too long. My calls for AA to be fired needs to be next. The guy needs to go
It’s comical how wrong you are with choosing a profile name
Baumgartner equals NLCS. He precedes to pitch to a 7.52 ERA and sdpends a lot of time on the IL.
Acuna is still overrated. Acuna has a slash line of 279/429/640 with an OPS of 1.068
If the braves win a playoff series I’ll be right back here to tell you so.