After seven smooth starts this season for the Low-A Burlington Bees, the Angels’ top draft pick last June, Sean Newcomb, pitched in his first game for the High-A Inland Empire 66ers on Saturday and impressed those who witnessed his performance. The six-foot-five left-hander went five innings, walked one batter, and struck out seven others. He gave up just one run, and it came in the fifth inning when the lead off batter hit a spinning triple into right field, which was manned that night by Eric Aguilera, the 66ers’ regular first baseman who was making his first appearance of the year in the outfield. Newcomb almost squelched the threat, however, when he got a ground out and a strike out on the next two batters, but the fourth man to bat that inning hit a soft liner over the infield to score the runner from third base.
Said his pitching coach, Matt Wise, after the game, “He’s as advertised. I could gush over all three of his pitches. He had a plus fastball. He had a plus curveball. He had a plus changeup. You’d be hard pressed to find stuff better than that in the minor leagues.”
His catcher that night, Stephen McGee, agreed. “I thought he was real good back there. I thought everything was working for him, even his changeup. He was in the zone, he was commanding his pitches, all three, elevating when we needed him to in order to kind of change their eye level. He had a really good game. He looked comfortable up there too, first start in a new league and everything.”
Newcomb was the only one who failed to give his performance an A. “I felt like it was pretty smooth sailing,” Newcomb said. “I’d give up myself a B-minus because that one run scored. I had a walk, missed a few pitches. I definitely could’ve done better, but I am happy with it. It was a good way to break into California and be out here.”
In eight starts now this year, Newcomb has a 1.83 ERA, a 1.25 WHIP, and 52 strikeouts against 20 pitches. He only has a 1-0 record to show for his eight starts, but that is a function of management taking it easy on his arm at the start of the season. He averaged 4.9 innings per start at Burlington, and on Saturday, he only threw 85 pitches. 66ers manager Denny Hocking addressed this after the game by saying, “As an organization I’m looking at ‘Ok he got his feet wet.’ Now next time we can stretch him to that 105-pitch mark.”
The next time should be this Thursday at San Manuel Stadium in San Bernardino when the 66ers take on the Dodgers’ High-A team, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.
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