Sean Newcomb has to this point fallen wanting the excessive expectations he’d set popping out of school and through his first years of professional ball. Drafted fifteenth general by the Los Angeles Angels in 2014 out of the College of Hartford, the 31-year-old left-hander has a document of 28-28 to go along with a 4.50 ERA and a 4.38 FIP over 454 1/3 profession huge league innings. He’s at present making an attempt to revive his profession. Now along with his fifth group after signing with the Boston Purple Sox as a minor league free agent over the winter, Newcomb made the workforce out of spring coaching — accidents to a number of Purple Sox hurlers performed a task in his doing so — and he’s since taken the hill six instances. Over 5 begins and one reduction look, the Massachusetts native has a 4.24 ERA, a 2.61 FIP, and a 27.5% strikeout price in 23 1/3 frames. All three of his selections have been losses.
His second main league season recommended stardom was in his future. Traded from the Angels to the Atlanta Braves as a part of the Andrelton Simmons deal in November 2015, Newcomb went on to make 30 begins in 2018 and log a 3.90 ERA over 164 innings. In June of that 12 months he was featured right here at FanGraphs, with yours actually writing that the hard-throwing southpaw was “quickly establishing himself as among the best pitchers within the Nationwide League.” A month later, he got here inside one strike of notching a no-hitter. Then issues began going within the fallacious route. Newcomb not solely landed within the Braves bullpen in 2019, he had a stint in Triple-A. From 2020-2024, he tossed simply 98 2/3 huge league innings whereas toiling for 3 totally different groups. His ERA over that span was 6.66 ERA.
Flip the clock again to March 2015, and Newcomb was ranked no. 2 on our Angels Prime Prospects checklist, behind solely Andrew Heaney. What did Newcomb’s FanGraphs scouting report seem like on the time? Furthermore, what does he give it some thought all these years later? Wanting to seek out out, I shared a few of what our then prospect analyst Kiley McDaniel wrote, and requested Newcomb to answer it.
———
“Newcomb was the Hunter Dozier of the 2014 draft, a participant that golf equipment favored greater than the media consensus had them, partly as a result of groups weren’t certain in the event that they had been the one workforce that had him so excessive, so that they stored it fairly quiet.”
“I believe a giant a part of it was my popping out of the Northeast,” Newcomb replied. “That made me a bit of extra of an unknown, however I did type of have an concept that I used to be going to be a first-rounder. I talked to all 30 golf equipment. I truly thought there was an opportunity that I used to be going with the fifth choose to Minnesota.”
“Sources have indicated that the Mariners in all probability would’ve taken Newcomb with the sixth choose if Alex Jackson wasn’t there.”
“The Mariners, after which there have been the Blue Jays, who had two picks [no. 9 and no. 11], and the Mets [no. 10],” recalled Newcomb. “I didn’t assume I used to be going to get previous the Mets. However a number of issues occurred, like Kyle Schwarber going greater than anticipated [no. 4 to the Cubs]. I’d truly performed with Schwarber for 2 years on the Cape, so I might have been shocked had he not been a excessive choose. I’m not stunned that he’s had an ideal profession.”
“The issues scouts like a lot about Newcomb are simple to see: he’s enormous, athletic, left-handed, has a contemporary arm (New England multi-sport child).”
“That was all the time type of the attraction,” Newcomb stated. “In faculty, I solely went as many as 90 innings one time. It was 72 the 12 months earlier than. That was the majority of my pitching profession.”
“Sits 91-94, hits 97, and exhibits stunning pitchability contemplating his background.”
“I used to be low- to mid-90s,” Newcomb stated. “And yeah, I suppose I had just about an equal background so far as soccer and baseball. I additionally performed first in addition to pitched. Pitching wasn’t all the time my focus, however I had a fairly good concept that it was what I’d find yourself doing. As soon as I went to school, I absolutely devoted to that.
“I’d talked to a whole lot of totally different faculties for soccer,” added Newcomb, who’s listed at 6-foot-5 and 255 kilos. “I solely had a few D-I faculties that had been considering me for baseball. In soccer, the seems had been extra like third-string tight finish, however they had been higher-level faculties. There was Boston School. There was Rutgers, North Carolina State, Purdue. It was each sports activities for Purdue. They had been the one ones who took me severely for baseball apart from Hartford and Belmont College.”
“Newcomb has good management, really feel for sequence and a repeatable supply, however he’s nonetheless engaged on the finer factors of pitching and consistency with command and crispness to his stuff.”
“I all the time had a superb fastball, good curveball,” Newcomb stated. “I used to be in a position to get away with simply chucking the ball in faculty. In professional ball, I positively needed to polish some stuff.”
“The uncooked parts are right here for an ace if he could make all the required changes and keep wholesome.”
“I’m nonetheless adjusting to all that,” Newcomb replied with a smile. “Ten years later. I imply, I positively need to go on the market and be a superb starter. I’m 31 and nonetheless making changes, nonetheless including pitches, nonetheless studying the best way to get hitters out persistently. I look as much as guys like Charlie Morton. He’s a dude who… he by no means actually scuffled in his 20s, nevertheless it wasn’t till he was 32 or 33 that he grew to become a extremely good pitcher. Possibly I’ll change into [a left-handed Charlie Morton].”
——
Earlier “Previous Scouting Stories Revisited” interviews might be discovered via these hyperlinks: Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Stop, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Matthew Liberatore, Max Scherzer.