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. This week we look at the who could make up the short-season Danville Braves, look at the affiliates and find one that has clinched a post-season berth, plus the usual transaction round-up including a scary injury in Gwinnett.
Danville Braves Preview
Tuesday marks the start of the season for the stateside short-season leagues, which includes the Gulf Coast League and the Appalachian League. The Braves’ Appy League affiliate in Danville the previous three seasons has featured teenage talent such as Mike Soroka, Austin Riley, Joey Wentz, William Contreras, and Drew Waters in key roles as they took some of their first professional steps before getting full-season assignments in Rome the following year.
The 2018 Danville Braves look to be quite a bit different after a draft that was overwhelmingly focused on college talent. Most of the starters for Danville will be in their early twenties, and while there may not be the same prospect aura around the team, that should make for a more competitive squad overall.
That said, quite a few draft picks expected to eventually play in Danville still haven’t signed with the Braves due to their college teams still playing in the NCAA tournament. This includes Washington’s A.J. Graffanino, Texas Tech’s Ryan Shetter and Ty Harpenau, and Texas’s Nolan Kingham whose teams have advanced to the College World Series double-elimination brackets. Other players such as Auburn’s Brendan Venter and Duke’s Mitch Stallings were still playing last weekend. The upshot is that Danville will be seeing a trickling of additional talent as the season progresses through to the July 6 signing deadline.
The Danville opening day roster has not been released yet, but here is my educated guess as to what it will look like. I expect the roster to be released Monday, and I will update this with any changes.
Infielders: 1B Griffin Benson, 2B Greg Cullen, 3B Brett Langhorne, SS Marcos Almonte; 2B Kelvin Josephina, 3B Michael Mateja, IF Nicholas Shumpert, 1B Nicholas Vizcaino, IF Luis Mejia
Benson got first shot at first base for Rome, but gave way to Austin Bush. He will likely get most of the reps until Venter signs. NCAA batting champ Cullen should get most of the time at second base, but will be spelled by 2017 Rome starter Josephina. Langhorne and Mateja could split third base fairly evenly, with Langhorne also likely seeing looks elsewhere in the infield. Free agent acquisition Almonte will likely handle shortstop until Graffanino signs on the dotted line. Shumpert is set to start his second tour of duty with Danville and can back up all over the infield. This has a chance at being a good defensive unit, especially for the Appalachian League, especially once Graffanino joins.
Update 6/18: Big 1B Nicholas Vizcaino was moved up from the GCL roster and will take PT at 1B with Benson.
Update 6/19: IF Luis Mejia was transferred from Rome, where he had been playing in a reserve roll all season. He’s another player that can play shortstop.
Outfielders: LF Justin Dean, CF Andrew Moritz, RF Greyson Jenista; OF Jose Bermudez, OF Henry Quintero, OF Carlos Baerga
Second-round pick Jenista will be expected to supply much of the power on the team, with Dean and Moritz high OBP table-setters. Bermudez is a good defensive sub, and Quintero is an older Cuban player who spent the last two seasons in the DSL hitting well.
Update: 6/18: OF Carlos Baerga has been added as another outfielder. Yes, he is the son of former Cleveland star Carlos Baerga.
Catchers: C Hagen Owenby; C Rusber Estrada, C Logan Brown, C Victor De Hoyos, C Ricardo Rodriguez, C Zack Soria, C Ray Soderman
As of now, it looks like Danville will juggle four catchers on the 35-man roster. Owenby is a 2017 hold-over that hit well until he ran out of steam. He’ll be pushed by 2018 draftees Estrada and Brown. De Hoyos is a defensive specialist who has played two seasons in the DSL. This position may see some upheaval during the course of the season. The team may want to eventually promote org vets Ricardo Rodriguez and Zack Soria, and there’s another 2018 draft pick, Oregon’s Ray Soderman, who may still sign with the team.
Update 6/18: As suspected, Rodriguez and Soria have been added to the roster and Brown and De Hoyos are staying behind in Orlando to play in the GCL.
Update 6/19: 22nd-round pick Ray Soderman has now signed and has been added to the Danville roster, giving the team five catchers.
Starting Rotation: RHP Trey Riley, LHP Jake Higginbotham, LHP Tanner Lawson, LHP Dilmer Mejia, RHP Matt Rowland, RHP Jose Montilla
Honesty compels me to say that this rotation is largely guesswork and may not resemble anything like what will actually occur. Riley, Higginbotham, and Lawson were 2018 draft picks, with 5th-round Riley possessing the most interesting “stuff” of the three. Mejia pitched out of the rotation and the bullpen for Danville last season, and has made three emergency spot starts for Florida and Rome in 2018. Rowland was an 11th-round pick out of Cobb County’s Pope High School back in 2016 but has been stalled by injuries including a UCL replacement. This group should be supplemented by other draft picks as the season progresses including Kingham, Stallings, and perhaps 4th-round pick Tristan Beck.
Update 6/8: 20-year-old right-hander Jose Montilla, who split time last season between the DSL and the GCL in his first season of pro ball, has been added to the roster. He could step into the rotation.
Bullpen: LHP Tanner Allison, LHP John Curtis, LHP Connor Simmons, LHP Tyler Watson; RHP Cameron Kurz, RHP Zach Daniels, RHP Zach Seipel. RHP Keith Weisenberg, RHP Brooks Wilson
Another squad that will see it’s ranks swell as more picks sign, the Danville bullpen is an interesting mix of relatively older arms. Curtis, Simmons, and Weisenberg return from last year’s team where they were largely effective. Allison will make his Danville debut after spending 2017 in the GCL and pitching 24 innings for Rome this season. Kurz, Daniels, Seipel, and Wilson are the draft newcomers, and all were the closers for their respective schools. Tyler Watson is a free-agent acquisition out of the Mariners organization and at 25 years old is by far the veteran of the team.
Update 6/9: The relief corps will be bolstered by RHP Jake Bellinda, who had pitched for Rome though the first half of the season.
Life on the Farm
DSL: The Way Down South Braves went 2-4 on the week, with questionable pitching being the primary culprit for results. Braves starting pitchers had a 7.54 ERA, with only three-year DSL veteran Javier Ciriaco turning is a quality performance (4 innings, 2 hits, no runs, 5 strikeouts).
17-year-old second baseman Eliezel Stevens continued to stand out at the plate, this week only getting 5 hits but 4 going for extra bases and while walking six times for a .200/.385/.450 batting line. Top 2017/18 international signee outfielder Asmin Bautista also took advantage of opposing pitcher wildness and hit his first professional home run, going .214/.429/.571 on the week.
ROME: Rome clinched first place in the SAL South Division for the first half and a spot in the SAL playoffs as second-place Augusta suffered through a 10-game losing streak. Augusta’s misfortunes came at good time for Rome, who is mired in a four-game losing streak themselves just as they clinched, and the team went 3-5 on the week. The typically strong Rome bullpen got roughed up some this week, pitching to a collective 5.57 ERA. This wasted some fine starts this week as Huascar Ynoa, Bruce Zimmermann, Odalvi Javier, Jasseel De La Cruz, and emergency starter Hayden Deal all turned in winning efforts.
The offense has been on fire the entire month of June, but finally seemed to let up on the gas after the team clinched on Thursday, only scoring six runs in the last three games. Third baseman Jean Carlos Encarnacion continued to swing a hot bat however, hitting 5 doubles and 2 home runs this week and going .379/.419/.759. Outfielder Isranel Wilson has been in a groove himself and went .360/.407/.560 with a homer.
FLORIDA: The Fire Frogs went 3-2 on the week, with one game postponed and the week shortened by the Florida State League All-Star break. The Fire Frogs finished the first half of the season with a 28-35 record.
There were several encouraging happenings in the pitching department, including the return of Joey Wentz to the rotation. Wentz only went 2.1 innings and 42 pitchers, allowing a run and striking out two, but it was his first trip to the mound since May 11. Tucker Davidson and Kyle Muller also turned in fine starts this week, with Davidson tossing 7 innings of shutout ball against Bradenton. The bullpen was lead again by Justin Kelly and Troy Bacon, who combined for 5.2 shutout innings. This week also saw Josh Graham post two dominating appearances, striking out 6 in 3 innings without allowing a hit, a very welcome development in what has been a disappointing season to date. Ian Anderson however had to leave his start this week after only pitching 2 innings due to a high pitch counts and laboring with 7 baserunners.
The offensive renaissance of Braxton Davidson carried over this week as the first baseman hit two more homers, though he went 1-for-10 to finish out the week. All-Star Brett Cumberland was the offensive star of the week, hitting .357/.333/.714 with a home run. A shout-out also this week to reserve outfielder Shean Michel, who hit his first professional home run of his career.
MISSISSIPPI: Runs continue to be hard to come by for the M-Braves and the team went 2-5 on the week, scoring 1 or fewer runs in 4 of those contests. Saturday’s game was the ultimate in frustration as Braves pitching, lead by righthander Enderson Franco‘s 7 innings, shut out the usually hard-hitting Biloxi Shuckers for 9 innings. Unfortunately, the Braves couldn’t push a run across the board themselves until the top of the 10th, and Biloxi scored twice in the bottom of the 10th against an overtaxed Chad Sobotka to take the 2-1 win.
The Braves got sterling efforts out of all of their starting pitchers this week, including two solid starts by righty Bryse Wilson and a 10-strikeout start from Touki Toussaint. The bullpen was mostly shaky however, with blow-up outings from recently promoted righty Sean McLaughlin and recently demoted lefty Phil Pfeifer. Left-hander Corbin Clouse however extended his scoreless June.
Offensive stars were few to come by this week, but by far the most encouraging development was catcher Alex Jackson‘s strong performance in four games. Jackson hit .385/.529/.923 with two homers in those four games, hopefully breaking what has essentially been a season-long slump for the big California backstop.
GWINNETT: The Stripers had a strong 4-2 week against Norfolk and Durham, with an excellent all-round effort from the pitching staff, who pitched to a collective 1.86 ERA in the six games. Lefty Max Fried put in his best start of the season, pitching 7 innings and striking out a career-high 11 batters. In the bullpen, the recently promoted right-hander Jacob Webb got his AAA career off to a good start with two scoreless outings.
Outfielders Michael Reed and Danny Santana kept up their torrid June production. For Reed, he now owns a .417/.541/.625 batting line since his promotion to Gwinnett and his hitting .340/.470/.527 for the year combined AA and AAA. Reed has strongly pushed himself for consideration of a spot in Atlanta the next time the team finds itself in need of a 4th outfielder. All Santana did this week was sock 4 home runs and steal 2 bases while hitting .385/.414/.885 for the week.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
6/11/2018: Signed international amateur free agent pitchers Joselin Vallejo, Roddery Munoz, Carlos De La Cruz, and Ronaldo Alesandro
The current signing period ended on June 15, so these were last-minute additions. The new period will start on July 2, with the Braves once again limited to signing bonuses no greater that $300,000. The following season is when MLB sanctions kick in, and the Braves will have no bonus pool, limiting them to bonuses no greater than $10,000. Carlos De La Cruz becomes the fourth De La Cruz in the organization.
6/11/2018: Signed the following draft players: 10th-rounder IF Brett Langhorne, 11th-rounder LHP Jake Higginbotham, 23rd-rounder RHP William Woods, and 26th-rounder LHP Zach Guth
6/12/2018: Signed the following draft players: 17th rounder OF Justin Dean, 20th-rounder 3B C.J. Alexander, and 35th-rounder C Logan Brown
6/12/2018: 3B Kevin Franklin released from Danville
6/12/2018: RHP Ramon Taveras released from the GCL Braves
The short-season schedule starts on Tuesday, and the rosters will continue to fill in as more drafted players sign. Franklin was a player-to-be-named from the Reds in the Brandon Phillips trade. He hit .161/.200/.196 for the Fire Frogs in limited action in 2017 and didn’t get a full-season affiliate assignment all year. Tavares had pitched in the Braves for 4 seasons, never advancing beyond the complex leagues.
6/12/2018: RHP Jasseel De La Cruz actived from the 7-day disabled list (Rome)
De La Cruz was very impressive in 4 starts from Rome in April before going on the disabled list with an undisclosed ailment. De La Cruz picked up right where he left off in his Tuesday start, allowing one run in five innings in a win over Greenville.
6/14/2018: Signed international amateur free agent C Kevin Pena and pitcher Leonardo Vagas
6/12/2018: Signed the following draft players: 7th-rounder RHP Brooks Wilson, 15th-rounder 2B Greg Cullen, 19th-rounder RHP Zach Daniels, 21st-rounder LHP Tanner Lawson, 25th-rounder 3B Michael Mateja, 27th-rounder RHP Zach Seipel, 31st-rounder OF Gabriel Rodriguez, 33rd-rounder 1B Mason Berne, 36th-rounder LHP Victor Cavalieri, 37th-rounder RHP Alex Camacho
6/15/2018: RHP Josh Ravin placed on the 7-day disabled list (Gwinnett).
Ravin was brought in to close out a game with the Durham Bulls, and the first pitch thrown to the first batter was hit back into his face. Ravin suffered five facial fractures and a concussion. Ravin spent a short time with Atlanta in April, but he’s been lights-out for Gwinnett. Ravin has not allowed an earned run as a Striper, striking out 30 batters an 18.2 innings and earning 4 saves.
6/16/2018: RHP Luke Jackson elects to become a free agent
After being designated for assignment by the Braves for the second time this year and passing though waivers, Jackson exercised his right to turn down the Braves assignment and declare free agency. Jackson was acquired before the 2017 season from the Texas Rangers for right-handed pitcher Tyrell Jenkins and minor league left-hander Brady Feigl. Jackson pitched to a 4.66 ERA over 56 innings for Atlanta in 2017 and ’18.
Ed. Update: Just as this report was posting, the Braves announced that they have re-signed Luke Jackson to a major league contract and optioned LHP Luiz Gohara to AAA Gwinnett.
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