i think he should be getting rotation turns over fringe prospects like Bryse Wilson.
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cuz starting pitchers are more valuable...so if a prospect has a 1 in 5 chance of developing as a starting pitcher it makes sense to give him every opportunity to do so...you take the path the Braves have taken with Newk
but generally a year or half a season in the major league pen is not an impediment to a young starting pitcher's development as a starter...Earl Weaver liked to do this with his young starting pitchers...and Max Fried has said his time in the pen was good for him...so I'm fine with Touki being in the pen this year and guys like Wilson and Wright having some time there in the second half
Wow. Wilson still looks like the second best young starting pitcher the Braves have to me.
Nick: I know you guys weren’t excited about the Braves draft after day two. With the six HS picks they’ve now signed from rounds 11-19, how significantly does that change things?
12:03
Eric A Longenhagen: Somewhat, they’re adding a bunch of 35+ FV types. Depth is nice, now they need to develop those players.
That may well be the case - and I have no problem with that. I've been the one banging the drum the loudest around here for turning some of these guys into Closers and setup guys because I think they could become elite guys in those roles. I'd love to see someone like Folty/Touki/Newk in the 8th and 9th - would eliminate the need to trade pieces for a Smith or Giles, and they might be even better.
The point is, it's not a crime to try those guys out in those roles for a while to see if they take to it. If you put Newk in the 8th and Folty in the 9th and they started blowing everyone away and convincingly slamming the door on people, it's relatively easy to go out and find a #3/#4 SP to replace them if you no longer need to worry about the back end - especially when we have quite a few more arms that could turn out to be #3 types already in the system and "ready" (or close). To this point, neither has shown the first sign that you can count on them to be front of the rotation types because they're just so *amn inconsistent, so what's the harm in finding out whether they could be your late-inning answers? I think Newk could turn out to be a lot like Brad Hand if you put him in that role.
The company line was that Newk and Touki were being moved to the pen for now because they could give you multiple strong innings on days that Julio or someone else doesn't have it and can't get you through 5 or 6, and Snitker simply isn't using them for that. For me, it's the same frustration that everyone has with the way he uses/doesn't use Camargo/Culberson to sit Markakis against lefties.