LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Tyler Flowers was asked last week for his impressions of the Braves’ array of pitchers during the first weeks of spring training. The veteran catcher named a few who impressed him including Max Fried, but Flowers started with prospect Sean Newcomb, the imposing left-hander who’d gotten lit up two days earlier by the Yankees for six hits and four runs in one inning of his spring debut.
“Newcomb stands out to me,” Flowers said. “Seems like a very simple delivery and everything, and he repeats it. I know, like the game against New York, I don’t know what was going on – man, I saw a left-handed hitter jump on a first-pitch breaking ball and hit it oppo off Newk. I’m like, what’s that guy swinging at anyway? Sometimes you see that when you get into these spring games, there’s a lot of young guys who tend to hack early, so it’s kind of tough for a pitcher to find his rhythm and everything when guys are just jumping on it right out of the game. But that guy’s got good stuff, he’s got good command.”
Not that anyone needs to make Flowers sound any smarter than he always does, but Wednesday Newcomb made those comments seem prescient.
In his second outing of spring training, Newcomb was dominant, retiring six of seven batters he faced and striking out four in two innings of the Braves’ 3-2 win against the Phillies Wednesday at Champion Stadium.
“That was really impressive,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That was fun to watch.”
Bartolo Colon pitched three solid innings for the Braves in his third spring start, allowing one hit, one run and two walks with three strikeouts and retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced. But it was the lefty 20 years his junior, Newcomb, who had the outing that generated buzz.
Legendary former manager, senior advisor and Hall of Famer Bobby Cox came out of the clubhouse smiling afterward and said Newcomb’s performance had made the whole day worthwhile, even if the Braves hadn’t posted their third win in 12 Grapefruit League games.
The Braves are hoping for big things eventually from Newcomb, 23, who’s among the top five pitching prospects in an organization bursting at the seams with young power arms. Newcomb was the key piece for the Braves coming from the Angels in the November 2015 trade that sent elite defensive shortstop Andrelton Simmons to Anaheim, but his first season with the Braves was erratic at Double-A Mississippi in 2016.
Newcomb is 6 feet 5 and 255 pounds, and the weight is distributed differently than last year, when the baby-faced Massachusetts native was a bit soft around the middle. Not now. He’s a big dude, barrel-chested and about as commanding a presence as you will see on any mound after an improved offseason workout and diet regimen.
“I’m the same weight I was last year, I guess just kind of cleaned it up a little bit, just with the offseason program,” Newcomb said. “But yeah, I feel pretty good.”
He complements a mid-90 mph fastball with a sharp curveball, and Wednesday he had Phillies hitters baffled.
“First time out (vs. the Yankees) I felt fine, I was just a little up in the zone, repeating some pitches and they were just getting after me,” Newcomb said. “But I felt good today, just back in the zone, staying quick with my motion and everything. I was pounding the zone good with my fastball so I was able to use my changeup and curveball out there.”
At Mississippi last season he was inconsistent and a bit disappointing, going 8-7 while posting a 3.87 ERA in 27 starts and totaling almost half as many walks (71) as strikeouts (152) in 140 innings. But he worked several times with then-Braves minor league pitching coordinator Chuck Hernandez, making steady progress late and capping it off with some sessions in Florida with Hernandez immediately after the season.
Hernandez was promoted to major league pitching coach in October after Roger McDowell was fired. On Wednesday, Snitker and Hernandez enjoyed watching a prized pupil apply lessons learned.
“Chuck and I were talking, because I hadn’t seen (Newcomb) a lot, but (Phillies) didn’t swing at him very good,” Snitker said. “That was different. They swung at 93 or 94 (mph) like it was 98 or 99. There must be some deception there, because they didn’t swing at that very good. Had a good breaking ball. It was just really nice to see.”
In fact, Snitker said, “That was the highlight of the day for me. That, and Boni’s catch.”
Emilio Bonifacio, competing for a bench job, raced to make a running catch in full stride on a tailing fly ball in the left-field corner to end the eighth inning with runner on base, after Micah Johnson’s run-scoring triple in the seventh inning gave the Braves a 3-2 lead.
