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Mike Foltynewicz: Progressing Quicker Than We Believe?

By John Buhler

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Mike Foltynewicz hasn’t had what you would consider a particularly great rookie season for the Atlanta Braves.  Folty boasts a 4-6 record in 15 starts, with a 5.71 ERA and a 1.627 WHIP.

His struggles are due in large part to his inability to find and develop that crucial pitch to complement his blazing fastball, often clocked at 98 MPH or higher.  After a pasting at the hands of the blistering hot Chicago Cubs in Wrigley, where Mike Foltynewicz surrendered 7 earned runs in his hometown at the Friendly Confines, Folty rebounded to not allow an earned run in his unfortunate loss to the Colorado Rockies last night.

-= Related: Braves Fall to Rockies 5-1 =-

I know that 7 earned runs in his last 9.2 innings of work looks pretty bad and so does not finishing the sixth inning in a start since August 3rd against the San Francisco Giants, but could Mike Foltynewicz actually be more ahead of the curve than we give him credit for?

Mike Foltynewicz’s last two outings could have devastated the young arm’s confidence, but Folty is taking it all in stride.  Last night was not his fault in the slightest.  Adonis Garcia needs to buy Mike something very nice for committing three costly errors at third base in last night’s loss to the Colorado Rockies.

-= See Also: Nick Markakis’ Strong August =-

And in Mike’s defense, the ball was flying out of Wrigley in a ‘you can’t possibly be serious!’ way in the Braves most recent road series with the Chicago Cubs.  Plus, the Chicago Cubs are a darn good baseball team and probably have the best manager in baseball in Joe Maddon.  It wouldn’t shock me to see the Cubbies win the Wild Card Game and play in a National Championship Series against the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers (they’d have to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS as the Cards will likely have the best record in the NL).

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    • What I’m getting at is that Mike Foltynewicz appears to have made the necessary mental adjustments to have success at the Major League level.  He’s swallowed his pride and seems more at ease than Matt Wisler, Williams Perez, or Manny Banuelos in the Braves latest crop of youngsters in the rotation.

    Wisler looked completely heartbroken in his demolition suffered at the hands of the Cubs last weekend.  Perez has pitched to too much contact when he’s not habitually walking batters.  Banuelos can’t seem to stay healthy and hasn’t shown the conditioning necessary to pitch in the Georgia humidity.

    So in essence Mike Foltynewicz looks better by comparison to his fellow rookies getting time in the Atlanta rotation.  Keep in mind that both Tom Glavine and John Smoltz struggled mightily in their initial years with the Braves.  Greg Maddux and his rotation mate Jamie Moyer weren’t great either early on for the Chicago Cubs in the mid-1980’s.

    I took away Mike Foltynewicz’s competitiveness as a major positive trait in his last start.  He did his part to induce potential double play ground balls to minimize damage with runners on base.  It wasn’t his fault that Adonis Garcia did a real nice job of impersonating 2010 NLDS Brooks Conrad, committing an error thrice in a game. Mike could have fallen to pieces but he stuck with A.J. Pierzynski‘s game plan to attack the zone and try to implement some offspeed stuff to keep hitters honest.

    -= See Also: Julio Teheran: Strong August, Promising September? =-

    I don’t know if Folty will ever develop a hard-biting slider or a power curveball, but I have to believe that Braves Pitching Coach could get Mike to learn how to throw a power sinker to keep balls in the infield. A downward moving two-seam fastball or perhaps a John Smoltz-esque split-finger fastball is the pitch Mike Foltynewicz needs in his arsenal.  Or could Tom Glavine come down from the booth during a home weekend series and see if the circle change could somehow work for Folty?

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    Mike Foltynewicz is still very much a long way away from becoming a valued Major League starting pitcher, but I have to applaud his want to compete at the highest level as a member of the Atlanta Braves rotation.  Though his destiny may actually be to close out games for the Braves at SunTrust Park, expect Folty to continue his audition in a starting role for the Atlanta Braves for the rest of 2015 and at least a good part of 2016.

    We’re rebuilding folks and it isn’t going to look pretty for the next several months, possibly years, but we have to have faith in what President of Baseball Operations John Hart is trying to build here for our Braves.  Though it won’t show up on the stats sheet, Mike Foltynewicz appears to have his head in the right place and that’s arguably more valuable than any sabermetric could indicate.  I’m in this for the long haul with the only baseball team that matters.  Go Braves!

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