Sunday Braves Farm Report, 6/24/2018

Mississippi catcher Alex Jackson has hit .400/.483/.800 over the last two weeks. (MiLB.com)

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 back at how the Braves All-Stars fared in their league’s exhibitions, look at the first weeks of play for the GCL Braves and Danville Braves, plus the usual transaction round-up.

Truck Farming

  • It was All-Star week for the Southern League. Three Mississippi Braves got into the game, with first baseman Tyler Marlette and designated hitter Tyler Neslony making the starting line-up. Marlette hit a solo home run in the top of the 9th for the South Division, bringing himself home with what would turn out to be the winning run of the game. Marlette also came in second place in the Home Run Derby. Right-hander Touki Toussaint pitched a perfect 3rd inning in the game, striking out two.
  • Braves pitching was also key in a win for the South Division in the South Atlantic League All-Star Game. Rome’s Bruce ZimmermannWalter Borkovich, Kelvin Rodriguez, and Freddy Tarnok each had scoreless appearances in the game, with Tarnok striking out the side in his one inning pitched. Rome outfielder Drew Waters started for the South Division in centerfield, and would score after reaching on an error, and would later draw a walk.

  • The short-season affiliates started this week, and on Wednesday night in the 2nd game of the season, Danville manager Barrett Kleinknecht employed two position players, infielder Luis Mejia and oufielder Carlos Baerga Jr. as pitchers. Baerga went two scoreless innings and got the win. On the same day in the GCL, infielder Luis Ovando was used as a pitcher. Kleinknecht confirmed that the Braves will be experimenting with making some utility players two-way players.
  • In a tweet this week, Braves prospect Patrick Weigel announced that he was throwing from a mound again after having UCL replacement last June. Weigel was a 7th-round pick in 2015 out of the University of Houston and looked poised to make his major league debut last year before he tore is UCL. Weigel is OFR’s #15 Braves prospect.
  • The Braves have now signed 27 of their 40 draft picks. Several of those remaining were recently playing in the NCAA College Tournament – SS A.J. Graffanino (8th round), RHP Ryan Shetter (9), RHP Nolan Kingham (12), and RHP Ty Harpenau (16). Also still remaining are 1st-rounder Carter Stewart and 14th-rounder Victor Vodnik, the two primary prep players drafted by Atlanta, and 4th-rounder Tristan Beck out of Stanford.

Life on the Farm

DSL: It was a 2-4 week for the Way Down Southers, but rightfielder Brandol Mezquita broke out with a  .368/.400/.474 week to pace the offense. Mezquita was the one player that was taken from the Braves by MLB sanctions in November that later re-signed with team. 18-year-old right-handed Oscar Nunez threw his second quality start in a row with a six shut-out innings on Tuesday and has a 1.20 ERA in 3 starts on the season.

GCL: The GCL Braves went 3-2 in their first week of games in which they actually keep score. The most interesting development was the use of 2017 GCL Braves Pitcher of the Year Miguel Jerez in the starting rotation, where he pitched 6 shut-out innings after only having one start in his previous 30 professional appearances. Three-year DSL veteran Filyer Sanchez started out his first GCL opening week with two good starts, allowing 1 earned run in a combined 8.1 innings. On the offensive side, 20th-rounder 3B CJ Alexander started his pro career on a good foot, hitting .400/.471/.533 with a triple.

DANVILLE: The D-Braves started the season going 2-3, with all the score being close and both wins coming on the team’s last at-bat. Justin Dean, the 17th-round from Tennessee’s Lenoir-Rhyne University, started his pro career hot, hitting .412/.474/.529 with 2 doubles. After a slow couple of games, 2nd-rounder Grayson Jenista finished strong, hitting his first pro homer and double Saturday night. 13th-rounder  Brendan Venter out of Auburn signed with the Braves on Friday and promptly homered in his first professional game that night.

On the pitching side, the biggest news was 2016 11th-round pick Matt Rowland making his much-delayed professional debut after a series of injuries including a torn UCL. Rowland allowed two runs in a 4-inning start, and he retired the final 12 batters he faced.

There was also a Ricardo Sanchez sighting. The Mississippi left-hander has been on the disabled list since April, and Sanchez pitched into the 6th inning on a rehab start for Danville on Saturday.

ROME: The R-Braves began the second half of the the season having already secured a playoff berth after having won the South Division for the first half. Rome went 1-2-1 in the short week, the tie coming on a rain-shorted Sunday contest with Lexington in a game that didn’t mean anything to either team. Right-hander Jaseel De La Cruz started that game and had his worst start of the season, allowing 4 runs in 6 innings. He followed that up with a scoreless 5 innings on Saturday against Augusta. Right Huascar Ynoa also rebounded from a tough start against Lexington last week with 6 scoreless innings on Friday, only allowing 1 hit and striking out 7.

The Rome catching tandem had a strong week, with Drew Lugbauer hitting the only home run over the last seven days and William Contreras continuing his strong season performance, hitting .353/.389/.412 with a double for the week.

FLORIDA: The Fire Frogs managed to get six games in between the rain drops, going 2-4 on the week. Shortstop Ray-Patrick Didder snapped out of what has been essentially a season-long slump by feasting on Daytona Tortuga pitching, and hit .400/.526/.533 with a triple on the week. First baseman Braxton Davidson continued his June power surge, hitting two bombs and a double this week. Those were three of only four hits Davidson had this week, but he also drew 4 walks to finish with a .400 OBP. Catcher Brett Cumberland also slugged two homers this week, and centerfielder Cristian Pache hit his 5th of the season (and his career).

Florida got good starting pitching all week, including from left-hander Joey Wentz, who pitched 4 innings of 1-hit shutout ball. Fellow lefty Kyle Muller pitched shutout innings, while Ian Anderson, Tucker Davidson, and Jeremy Walker all recorded a Quality Start. In the bullpen, right-hander Mauricio Cabrera interrupted what has been a nightmare season for him with 3 shut-out innings over two outings on the week.

MISSISSIPPI:  The M-Braves, after finishing 29-41 in the first half, had an abbreviated schedule due to the Southern League All-Star break this week.  They did go 3-1 in limited action with one game at Biloxi and three at home against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.  Catcher Alex Jackson led the way with his bat, breaking out of a lengthy slump by going 5-12 in three games with three doubles, going .417/.417/.667 for the week and 10-25 with two home runs and four doubles over his last six games for a .400/.464/.800 line.  For the first time in many weeks, Jackson has his season batting average north of the Mendoza line at .201 and now sports a .639 OPS for the season while gunning down 35% of attempted basestealers.

The starting pitchers only allowed two earned runs over twenty innings this week, led by Kyle Wright‘s best home start of the season.  Wright went seven innings, giving up one earned run on seven hits while striking out eight and walking none for the first time this season.  Michael Mader pitched six shutout innings for the week, one inning in a relief appearance and five shutout innings in a Saturday night start.  Reliever Corbin Clouse had two scoreless one-inning outings, netting a win and a save in the process, extending his scoreless June.  

GWINNETT:  The Stripers went 4-3 this week at Durham and at home versus Columbus and Toledo.  Wes Parsons was the standout starting pitcher this week, tallying two wins in as many starts by allowing only two runs over 11.2 innings.  He scattered ten hits while striking out seven and walking four.  Kolby Allard notched another quality start, toughing out three runs and two home runs over six innings while striking out eight.  Recently promoted Jacob Webb allowed only one run over three appearances and 3.2 innings while striking out six and getting a save.  Highly touted relief prospect Evan Phillips endured his roughest outing of the season on Thursday, allowing three hits, two walks and three runs in an inning of work.  He blew the save opportunity, but got the win when Dustin Peterson had a walk-off single in the 9th inning.

Danny Santana was having a big week for Gwinnett before being called up to Atlanta, he was 8-18 with four doubles and three RBI, amassing a .444/.474/.667 line.  OF Michael Reed continued to impress by going 8-25 with a home run and four RBI, tallying a .320/.393/.440 line.  Reed did generate a red flag by striking out twelve times on the week.  Dustin Peterson had a walk-off basehit as described above and went .320/.393/.360 on the week, while light-hitting infielder Tyler Smith had 4 extra-base hits including 2 home runs and hit .389/.421/.889. The rehabbing Ronald Acuña Jr. was 0-6 with a strikeout over two games but, more importantly, came through each game healthy.

POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:

OFR Position Player of the Week, Gwinnett infielder Tyler Smith. (Karl L. Moore/Gwinnett Stripers)

PITCHER of the WEEK:

OFR Pitcher of the Week, Gwinnett RHP Wes Parsons. (Gwinnett Stripers via Twitter @GoStripers)

Transaction Round-Up

6/17/2018: LHP Luiz Gohara optioned to Gwinnett

After three mediocre relief outings since coming off the bereavement list, the Braves have pulled the plug on the Gohara-as-long-reliever experiment, sending to AAA Gwinnett to get stretched out again as a starting pitcher. In his first start for the Stripers, he allowed 2 runs in 3.1 innings pitched, but he did strike out 7 Toledo Mud Hens.

6/17/2018: IF Marcus Mooney placed on 7-day DL (Florida)

6/18/2018: OF Jackson Pokorney released from the GCL Braves

Pokorney was a a late-round 2016 prep draft pick, an two-sport start who would have seemed to be an interesting project for Braves coaches. Unfortunately injuries caused him to miss all of the 2017 season. The Braves kept him around all the way up to the start of short-season ball, but the Braves decided they had finally seen enough.

6/18/2018: Signed C Brandon Chapman as a non-drafted amateur free agent; assigned to GCL Braves

Chapman was a four-year starter for George Washington University, but went undrafted. Chapman made one start for the GCL Braves this week, collecting his first two pro hits.

6/19/2018: Signed the following draft players: 22nd-rounder C Ray Soderman and 30th-rounder LHP Mitch Stallings

Soderman was assigned to Danville, Stallings to the GCL Braves. Stallings just finished a playoff run with Duke and may take a week or more before appearing in games.

6/19/2018: RHP Jake Belinda transferred to Danville from Rome
6/19/2018: IF Luis Mejia transferred to Danville from Rome

Two guys who had been with Rome the entire first half of the season step down to help Danville. Belinda pitched to a 3.48 ERA for Rome, but was average 1.4 baserunners per inning. Mejia backed up the infield for Rome and will get more playing time with Danville, including looks on the mounds.

6/20/2018: LHP Tyler Watson promoted to Rome from Danville
6/20/2018: OF Jose Bermudez promoted to Rome from Danville
6/22/2018: OF Jose Bermudez placed on 7-day DL (Rome)
6/22/2018: IF Marcos Almonte promoted to Rome from Danville

The 25-year-old Watson essentially replaces Belinda. Watson has strikeout stuff but can have issues with control. He pitched two scoreless innings in his first appearance for Rome on Thursday.

Bermudez lasted two days before having to make a trip the DL. Almonte replaced him on the roster, a veteran minor league infielder.

6/20/2018: C Alan Crowley placed on 7-day DL (Rome)
6/21/2018: C Hagen Owenby promoted to Rome from Danville

Owenby steps up to fill out the Rome catching corps, leaving only four catchers for Danville. Somehow I’m sure they will find a way to carry on.

6/20/2018: Signed RHP Bradley Welsh as a non-drafted amateur free agent; assigned to Danville

Welsh started 14 games this year for Arkansas State, pitching to a 4.14 ERA.

6/21/2018: Traded for OF Brandon Downes from the Kansas City Royals, assigned to Mississippi

Downes helps fill in the outfield gap that has existed since Michael Reed was promoted to Gwinnett two weeks ago. There was no word on any player going back to Kansas City for Downes, so it can be assumed he was acquired for cash. Downes owns a .246/.316/.430 minor league batting line over the last six seasons.

6/22/2018: Signed 13th-rounder 1B Brendan Venter. 

 

 

 

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