(OFR writer Matt Chrietzberg also contributed to this article)
Welcome to the Braves Farm Report, where we will take a look at the Braves farm system and look at trends and players that seem interesting, and give first hand accounts of what we’re seeing down on the farm. The focus of this week’s report is Mississippi right-hander Touki Toussaint, but we also take a look at the week down on the farm and run down the latest transactions.
Toussaint Ascending
This week the Atlanta Braves reacquired old fried Phil Gosselin, who had been put on waivers by the Cincinnati Reds. It has been a long and winding road for the 29-year-old utility infielder, who came up with the Braves and made it to the majors in 2013. Shortly after the start of the 2015 season, he was dealt to Arizona in one of the most creative deals of the John Hart/John Coppolella era.
Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart was desperate to get clear of the $14 million owed to injured pitcher Bronson Arroyo. He found a taker in the Braves, who sent Gosselin to Arizona for Arroyo and the Diamondbacks’ 2014 first round draft pick, right-handed pitcher Touki Toussaint. The thinking for Stewart is that he would need that $14 million long before he would be needing the talented by extremely raw Toussaint.
The Braves on the other had just started their rebuild, and had the time.
Fast forward three years and Toussaint appears near to paying back Atlanta for their investment. Since his promotion to AA Mississippi late July 2017, Toussaint has pitched to a 3.66 ERA/3.59 FIP, holding batters to a .208 batting average with a 28% strikeout rate. Put simply, it’s gotten very difficult for opposing batters to square up Toussaint, and the one chink in his armor has been walks. This season he has a ridiculous 31.7% strikeout rate, and he is leading the Southern League in strikeouts. His last two starts have been by game score the two most dominating starts by any pitcher in the Braves farm system this season.
On April 28, he shut down the Jackson Generals, one of the top line-ups in the Southern League this year, to one run and only three hits in 7 innings, striking out 7. His next start on May 4, he shut out the Pensacola Blue Wahoos for six innings, striking out ten batters and only allowing two hits. Best of all in the 13 combined innings, he only walked two batters.
Since his time in the Braves organization, there’s been a dichotomy between what scouts see in him and the stats he generates. He owns a 4.58 ERA across five minor league seasons, including a 5.04 ERA last season in advanced-A Florida. But underneath that ERA, there were signs Toussaint was taking big leaps in more consistently bringing his stuff into games. Under the tutelage of pitching coach Dennis Lewallyn, Toussaint has added a sinker to his repertoire of 4-seam fastball, change-up, and the big 12-6 jackhammer curveball that’s his bread-and-butter pitch. Plagued by difficulties in limiting big innings, Lewallyn encouraged Toussaint to pitch solely out of the stretch to practice making pitches as if there were always runners on, something he continues to do to this day.
The main difference for Toussaint in 2018 seems to be how much he’s leaning on the curveball. In previous seasons, the Braves encouraged Toussaint not to throw the curveball too much in order to develop the other pitches. This season, it looks like the catcher can and will call for the curveball early and often. The result, especially over his last two starts, has been befuddled hitters.
That’s not to say that he’s not working in other pitches as well (below is an example of the sinker that he started throwing last season), but he’s using them to give different looks and change eye-level before coming back to the curveball. We’ve seen lately a trend in the major leagues of pitchers with a single pitch that rates much better than other pitches utilizing it more. This trend played out on the national stage when Houston’s Lance McCullers threw nearly exclusively his curveball to stifle the Dodgers in the World Series. It seems that Toussaint’s focus has shifted from primarily development to performance.
What is this leading to? This will be the fifth week of the minor league season, and there are signs that the Braves will start moving their high-performing prospects up soon. Toussaint may be in that conversation, and I think his next few starts will be important for him to show that he can sustain a string of strong, consistent performances.
Here’s the sinker, as promised.
Life on the Farm
ROME: Rome continued their winning ways last week, going 4-2 on the week to run their record to 17-11, keeping pace with Augusta in the SAL South Division. Rome won two series against strong North Division teams, taking two out of three against Hagerstown and Lakewood. The team was lead offensively by catcher William Contreras, who batted .350/.480/.500 with a home run this week, and shortstop Riley Delgado who continued his remarkable early campaign by batting .320, running his season slash line to .347/.382/.474.
Speaking of 23-year-old college kids leading by example, left-hander Bruce Zimmermann continues to pace the Rome rotation, this week tossing 6.2 innings of 4-hit ball without allowing an earned run. That continued a streak of 18.2 innings pitched without allowing an earned run. The bullpen version of Zimmermann has been sidewinding lefty Kelvin Rodriguez, who pitched 4.2 innings of scoreless relief this week spread across three outings. The 24-year-old hasn’t allowed an earned run in 10 appearances this season, holding opponents to a .189/.259/.245 slash line.
FLORIDA: It was a mostly a good week in Fire Frog Country as the squad enjoyed a six-game homestand, went 4-2 on the week, and got strong pitching performances by the entire starting rotation, highlighted by Bryse Wilson‘s 6.2 shut-out innings against Palm Beach on Wednesday that dropped his season ERA to a ridiculous 0.34. Ian Anderson and Tucker Davidson also each had their strongest starts of the season, with Anderson striking out 6 in 5 scoreless innings, limiting Palm Beach to three hits and one walk. Right-hander Troy Bacon (mmmm… bacon) continues to be a force out of the bullpen, this week only allowing two baserunners in 5.1 innings over two appearances, striking out 8 batters.
The only major blemish to the week was a reported hand injury to outfielder Cristian Pache. Pache’s injury occurred Friday night after singling to extend a four-game hitting streak; the team has not elected to place Pache on the Disabled List, so it’s presumed not to be serious. It puts a temporary halt to a torrid two weeks for Pache at the plate, where he had been hitting .340/.380/.489, including his first home run of both the season and his pro career.
But the offense this week was paced by infielder Alejandro Salazar, who reached base 11 times on the strength of 10 singles and a walk. The 21-year-old shortstop has been converted to a utility infielder, and has been playing this season at first, second, and third base.
MISSISSIPPI: The M-Braves went 3-3 in games this week at home against Jackson and on the road in Pensacola. Although he missed a couple of games, the offense was still led by third baseman Austin Riley, who continues to toy with Southern League pitching. His slash line for the week was .467/.529/1.000, giving him a .333/.394/.677 mark for the season. He is tied for the league lead in home runs (6), second in RBI (20) and leads the league in extra-base hits (19), slugging percentage and total bases (67). Catcher Alex Jackson returned to action after missing several games, but only managed to go 3-17 with six strikeouts for the week. Jackson’s batting line for the season currently rests at .197/.315/.295.
There were several good pitching performances for the week: Touki Toussaint had a dominating start versus Pensacola as described above, but Wes Parsons did some fine work against the Blue Wahoos as well. He shut them out over six innings with a game score of 71 and only gave up two earned runs in 11 innings this week, lowering his ERA for the season to 1.61 over seven games and six starts. Kyle Wright also had a fine start this week, giving up only two earned runs in six innings. Devan Watts was the bullpen star this week, throwing 3.2 scoreless innings over three outings. In twelve A+/AA relief outings covering seventeen innings, Watts has a 3.18 ERA with a minuscule 0.941 WHIP.
The M-Braves finish up their series in Pensacola on Sunday before returning home to face the Mobile BayBears in a five-game set, then hitting the road once more to visit the Jackson Generals.
GWINNETT: The Stripers bid au revoir to veteran José Bautista this week, who gifted the team a .400/.526/.667 batting line including a home run in four games before his Friday promotion to Atlanta. That promotion comes at a difficult time for the Gwinnett offense, which also lost the red-hot Dustin Peterson to the Disabled List for an undisclosed injury. The team went 3-4 on the week, remaining in last place in the International League South Division.
The veteran bats finally started to show some life this week however, as Danny Santana and Ezequiel Carrera both hit over .300 for the week. They were joined by Peter Bourjos, who agreed to a minor league contract after been released by Atlanta last week. Bourjos should be especially helpful in with what has been mediocre outfield defense. First baseman Carlos Franco slammed two home runs, and now leads the International League in RBI.
Kolby Allard was the Striper pitching star this week, 7 innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball to stifle Indianapolis on Thursday. Lucas Sims also had a strong start against Charlotte earlier in the week, tossing 5 shut-out innings and likely leading to his rejoining the big league club on Saturday. To fill in for Sims on his scheduled start, reliever Miguel Socolovich did well in an emergency start, pitching three scoreless innings.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
4/30/2018: OF Justin Ellison released from A+ Florida
4/30/2018: OF Garrison Schwartz promoted from A Rome to A+ Florida
4/30/2018: OF Justin Smith promoted to A Rome
Ellison was a 12-rounder in 2015 with an intriguing combination of speed and power out of Western Oklahoma State, a noted JUCO baseball powerhouse. Ellison couldn’t show out consistently however, interrupting flashes of success with long stretches of non-competitive at-bats. His release opens up a spot for former Grand Canyon University standout Schwartz, who will no longer have to battle for playing time in Rome. Up from extended spring training comes another JUCO star, Justin Smith.
5/1/2018: OF Peter Bourjos signed to a minor league contract; assigned to AAA Gwinnett
5/1/2018: OF Jaff Decker released from Gwinnett
Bourjos didn’t do much to distinguish himself in his time with Atlanta, mostly acting as Preston Tucker‘s defensive caddie and if he remained on the team may have helped Brian Snitker get the single season major league record for double switching. Alas, that dream is over as Bourjos was released with the promotion of Ronald Acuña. Bourjos remains a top-notch defensive outfielder, and he neatly replaces Jaff Decker, who though spring training and the first month of the minors didn’t demonstrate much of anything.
5/3/2018: IF Phil Gosselin claimed off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds; assigned to AAA Gwinnett
With Charlie Culberson out of options and a likely attractive defense-first bench option for a lot of teams, the Braves grabbed Gosselin when he was placed on waivers by the Cincinnati Reds. Culberson seems likely to be designated for assignment once Dansby Swanson returns from his DL stint; if Culberson is claimed on waivers by another team, Gosselin will provide good AAA insurance if the team needs another glove-first infield option.
5/4/2018: OF Dustin Peterson placed on the 7-day DL for Gwinnett
5/4/2018: OF Xavier Avery activated from the 7-day DL for Gwinnett
This DL stint interrupts a .349/.404/.674, 3 home run hot streak for Peterson, another injury set-back that has plagued the young outfielder’s career. It does however provide an opportunity for Xavier Avery to rejoin Gwinnett, where he had a very solid season in 2017/
5/4/2018: IF Taylor Murphy signed to minor league deal, assigned to extended spring training
5/4/2018: LHP Dan Lietz signed to minor league deal, assigned to extended spring training
Murphy and Lietz are former draft picks from the Indians and Blue Jays organizations respectively. Murphy was playing with AA Akron earlier this year before his release, and may represent an option for Mississippi in case of an imminent Austin Riley promotion.
Rumors and Conjecture
Unconfirmed reports have Florida’s Bryse Wilson and Mississippi’s Austin Riley moving up a level this week after four weeks of the minor league season. Both have demonstrated conclusively that they are not challenged at their current levels, and there are openings at the next rung in the organizational ladder. Wilson could join a Mississippi rotation that has had left-hander Michael Mader, who was moved to the bullpen exclusively last year, make several starts recently. Riley of course would play third base for Gwinnett where José Bautista just completed a two-week tune-up before being promoted to Atlanta.
This is pure conjecture, but I would guess that Bruce Zimmermann would be in line for his own promotion to potentially back-fill the Fire Frogs rotation. It’s clear that Zimmermann’s advanced command and 80-grade mustache are too strong for the South Atlantic League. Once right-hander Jasseel De La Cruz comes off the DL, the Rome squad would still have five strong starters with Kyle Muller, Odalvi Javier, Huascar Ynoa, Alan Rangel, and De La Cruz.
Finding a replacement for Riley in Mississippi would be a little trickier. Travis Demeritte has played almost exclusively in left field this season to get him on the path of a possible super-utility role in the major leagues, but he could easily come back to the infield with Florida outfielder Jared James, a 2017 M-Brave who was bumped down to Florida to start 2018, coming back up to the ‘Sip. If the team wants to continue the Demeritte-as-outfielder experiment, Alejandro Salazar could get the bump up, with Salazar, Alay Lago, Luis Valenzuela, and Daniel Lockhart holding down the three infield skill positions in some combination, or the Braves could deploy the recently signed Taylor Murphy.
In any case, if Riley wasn’t already the favorite to be the Atlanta starting third baseman in 2019, pencil him in now. A move to AAA makes the 21-year-old just a breath away from the Show, with no long-term third base option ahead of him. Despite stated resistance to pushing top prospects through the organization as quickly as his predecessors, Alex Anthopoulos has called up two 20-year-olds, Ronald Acuña and Mike Soroka, to the majors when they demonstrated they were ready. Don’t be surprised if he does it again with Riley.
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