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 was a busy week with player movement, trades, and other intrigues.
Transaction Round-Up
We’re mixing things up today because the biggest news on the farm this week was the trades and promotions of prospects, so the venerable Transaction Round-Up gets it’s over-the-fold spotlight.
7/30/2018: RHP Kyle Wright promoted from Mississippi to Gwinnett
Last season’s first-round draft pick moves to just one step away from the majors. Wright had done is best pitching in July; in four starts he’d thrown 27 IP, 20 H, 7 ER, 7 BB, and 21 SO, good for a 2.33 ERA and and even 1.00 WHIP. A ridiculous amount of rain dumped on the Atlanta metro area this week held Wright’s AAA debut back to Friday, where he threw 5.2 innings of no-hit ball, albeit walking 4 and hitting a batter.
7/30/2018: RHPs Lucas Sims and Matt Wisler and OF Preston Tucker (Gwinnett) traded to Cincinnati for OF Adam Duvall
Nothing much to add here than what I wrote on Tuesday, except that this opened up two 40-man roster spots. This trade also opened up room in the rotation for Wright and right-hander Bryse Wilson (see below).
7/30/2018: LHP Mitch Stallings promoted to Danville from the GCL Braves
Stallings was a starter for Duke and had pitched a lot of innings while helping that team in the NCAA tournament. He should get some spot starts or long relief assignments about once a week through the end of the season, then be in the mix for a starting assignment in Rome or Florida next season.
7/31/2018: LHP Kolby Allard promoted to Atlanta from Gwinnett
8/1/2018: LHP Kolby Allard optioned to Gwinnett
It was only a spot start, and for awhile it looked like it was going to be postponed by rain, but the first draft pick of the rebuild made his major league debut and gutted out five innings of soggy baseball. With the Braves facing a stretch of 22 games in 20 days starting on Tuesday, it seems likely Allard will have another opportunity or two.
7/31/2018: OF Michael Reed optioned to Gwinnett
The addition of Duvall meant that Reed was sent back to Gwinnett. Reed only got into 4 games, but was able to record his first major league hit since 2016. Unless there’s an injury before then, expect Reed to be back when the rosters expand in September.
7/31/2018: RHP Evan Phillips (Gwinnett), C Brett Cumberland and LHP Bruce Zimmermann (Mississippi), and 3B Jean Carlos Encarnacion (Rome) traded to Baltimore for RHPs Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day
Brent Blackwell wrote extensively about this trade here. By my account, this trade was only the second time in four years where prospects were traded for major league assets, the first being last year’s trade of third base prospect Juan Yepez to the Cardinals for first baseman Matt Adams.
8/1/2018: RHP Wes Parsons promoted to Atlanta from Gwinnett
8/2/2018: RHP Wes Parsons optioned to Gwinnett
A rainout robbed Parsons a second opportunity to make his major league debut. Look for Parsons to get more opportunities in the coming weeks.
8/1/2018: RHP Bryse Wilson promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
As pointed out by friend of OFR Tommy Poe on the Walk-Off Walk blog this week, for all of the conversation earlier this year about the new regime being more conservative with pushing prospects up the organizational ladder, in practice that doesn’t seem to be the case. Wilson gets his second mid-season promotion, essentially following the same path as Ronald Acuna last season. Wilson earned it by pitching to a 0.84 ERA in 32.1 innings during the month of July.
8/1/2018: OF Cristian Pache promoted to Mississippi from Florida
8/1/2018: OF Drew Waters promoted to Florida from Rome
8/1/2018: OF Justin Dean promoted to Rome from Danville
Two of the top position player prospects in the system get to work their craft against tougher competition. Pache has improved at the plate all season, culminating in a .311/.347/.500 July with 3 home runs and earning the opportunity to try AA pitching.
Waters likewise has proven himself against Sally League pitching and clearly was ready for the next challenge, hitting .315/.370/.478 with 2 home runs and 9 stolen bases last month. Amazingly both Pache and Waters have yet to turn 20 years old yet.
This opened an opportunity for center fielder Justin Dean to get his shot at low-A Rome. The 21-year-old 17th-rounder has demonstrated solid all-round tools as well as leadership while with Danville.
8/1/2018: C William Contreras promoted to Florida from Rome
8/1/2018: C Alan Crowley activated from 7-day DL (Florida); transferred to Rome from Florida
Contreras has hit well in Rome all season, but he found another gear in July, hitting .300/.370/.625 with 5 home runs and earning the opportunity for advancement. If there was any question before as to who the top catching prospect was in the Braves system, there shouldn’t be anymore.
Crowley is an organizational catcher who will play behind Drew Lugbauer and Hagen Owenby in Rome.
8/1/2018: LHP Phil Pfeifer promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
8/1/2018: RHP Josh Graham promoted to Mississippi from Florida
8/1/2018: RHP Walter Borkovich promoted to Florida from Rome
8/1/2018: RHP Brooks Wilson promoted to Rome from Danville
Fallout from the inclusion of Evan Phillips in the Gausman trade meant promotions for four relievers. For Pfeifer and Graham, this represents a return to teams they started the season with. Both seemed to right their ships and will now see if whatever adjustments they made will continue. For both however, this has been a disappointing season after getting invitations to big league spring training.
Borkovich had settled in as the top reliever of what has been an outstanding Rome bullpen and this is in some ways an overdue promotion. Wilson had pitched in 8 games with Danville to a 1.32 ERA after being selected in the 7th round of the 2018 draft.
8/1/2018: 3B Michael Mateja promoted to Rome from the GCL Braves
Mateja had been raking in the GCL to the tune of .364/.533/.568 in the month of July. The 25th-rounder out of North Central College in Naperville, IL can also play second base and in the corner outfield spots. This move back-fills the Rome roster in the wake of the Encarnacion trade. Danville’s CJ Alexander may have been in line to move up to take that spot, but he is recovering from an injury that had kept him out for almost two weeks.
8/4/2018: OF Dustin Peterson activated from 7-day DL (Gwinnett)
8/4/2018: C Jonathan Morales transferred to Mississippi from Gwinnett
Peterson was hitting .297/.360/.451 in July before hitting the DL. He out for exactly 7 days before returning with a 3-for-5 night and a defensive highlight yesterday.
Morales joins the depleted Mississippi catching corps which was down to Carlos Martinez and Sal Giardina after the Cumberland trade.
8/4/2018: RHPs Matt Hartman and Mason McReaken assigned to Danville
Danville got reinforced with two non-drafted minor league free agents. Hartman pitched sparingly for Arizona for two seasons before transferring to Westmont College in California. While there he pitched to a 1.63 ERA in 7 appearances (6 starts) before tearing his UCL. Hartman completed his rehab a few months ago and was playing in the wooden bat California Collegiate League when the Braves came calling.
McReaken pitched his junior and senior seasons with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, but went undrafted after pitching to a 6.21 ERA in 33 innings. McReaken was a star in the wooden bat Northwoods League after his junior season however, and that’s likely where he caught the scouting eyes of the Braves.
The two newest D-Braves made a good first impression on Saturday, with Hartman getting the start in the second game of a doubleheader and allowing only 1 hit in 4 innings while striking out 8; McReaken pitched a perfect final frame of the game to earn the save.
Life on the Farm
DSL: The Braves went 2-4 on the week to continue a disappointing season. The team is now 15-37 on the year, the second worst record in the DSL. The team as a whole is somehow only hitting a combined .198/.316/.265 on the season and this week the offense was especially bad as no regular hit over .222 on the week. This ruined a fairly good week for the pitching corps. 19-year-old DSL vet Eudi Asencio lead the team with a 5 innings of shutout ball against the Royals on Wednesday.
GCL: The GCL Braves aren’t faring much better than their Dominican counterparts. This week the team went 1-5 to drop their overall record to 15-21, the fourth worst mark in the league. Lefty Miguel Jerez continues to be a standout however, pitching 5 scoreless innings in a start this week to lower his season ERA to 2.49. Former infielder Alex Aquino seems to be making progress in his conversion to pitcher, and he’s gone 5.2 innings over his last 3 appearances without being scored upon. Lefty Lisandro Santos was transferred from the DSL in late June, but had his first scoreless outing on Wednesday, pitching a 3-inning start.
The team did get some standout offensive performances, led by OF Trey Harris who went 4-for-11 with a double, a homer, and 4 walks. Harris quietly had a breakout month in July when he posted a 158 wRC+ for the month, third best in all Braves affiliated ball.
DANVILLE: The D-Braves went 3-3 in a rain soaked week that had the team play two doubleheaders to make up for postponements. The overall record is 23-20, and they are in third place, 4.5 games behind front-running Princeton with 25 games remaining in the schedule.
The rain created havoc with the starting rotation, but left-hander Dilmer Mejia put in another good outing, pitching a 5-inning scoreless start to help Danville take one from Princton. Fellow southpaw Jake Higgenbotham joined with starter Tanner Lawson and Mitch Stallings to throw a 2-hitter against that same team, lowering his season ERA to 0.87. The offense struggled this week for the most part, though catcher Ray Soderman went 4-for-7 with a double. Third baseman CJ Alexander, who had been out of commission since July 20, returned to the Danville line-up on Thursday.
ROME: The Romans went 2-3 on a week that saw two rain-related cancellations and one postponement. Rome is now 19-22 and 3 games back of Lexington in the current standings. Of course Rome has already clinched a playoff berth by winning the first half but many of the star players from that first half team such as Bruce Zimmermann, Huascar Ynoa, Kyle Muller, Walter Borkovich, Brandon White, Drew Waters, Isranel Wilson, Jean Carlos Encarnacion, Riley Delgado, and William Contreras are no longer with the team.
This week saw a breakout from infielder Brendan Venter, how went 6-for-18 with 2 doubles and 2 homers. Venter has moved from first to third to back-fill the absence of Encarnacion, so his surge has come at a good time. Catcher Drew Lugbauer hit two homers as well, and outfielder Greyson Jenista knocked in 6 runs this while hitting .316/.381/.421. Outfielder Jefrey Ramos only got 1 hit this week, but walked 6 times, increasing his total walks for the season by 30%. Newcomer Justin Dean went 5-for-10 with a double in his first A-ball action.
The starting pitching was rough this week, in some ways likely effected by weather disruption. Lefty Kelvin Rodriguez was a star out of the bullpen again, throwing 2.1 scoreless innings over two appearances, bringing his season ERA down to 1.90
FLORIDA: For a change, the Fire Frogs were not the most weather-disrupted team in the organization this week as the rain that affected Danville, Rome, Gwinnett, and Atlanta avoided the west coast of Florida, where the Frogs were visiting Charlotte and Fort Myers. Unfortunately they may have been better off with some inclement weather as the team went 0-6 on the week, dropping them to 14-24 and in last place in the FSL North Division.
The highlight of the week was right-hander Ian Anderson‘s 7.2 inning, no-hit start on Wednesday. The former 1st-rounder walked only one and struck out 5 in the 100-pitch performance. The Frogs would carry the no-hitter into the 11th, but would end up losing the game to Charlotte 6-3. Righty Walker Borkovich, who has spent the majority of the season pitching in high-leverage relief situations for Rome, was given his first start of the season in his first appearance with Florida and fired off 5 scoreless innings on Saturday. Lefty Kyle Muller also had a strong start, allowing only 1 run in 6 innings while striking out 7.
The starters didn’t get much help this week from the bullpen or the offense, where only outfielder Jared James (.391/.417/.478) consistently hit all week long. Catcher William Contreras however brought his hot bat from Rome with him, and has gone 3-for-8 with a double and 2 walks in 3 games with the Frogs.
MISSISSIPPI: The M-Braves went 4-4 in a home stretch against Birmingham and the beginning of a long road trip at Chattanooga. The team is 22-20 on the season, 7 games back of division leader Pensacola with 27 games remaining. The roster faced a lot of turnover this week with the promotions of pitchers Bryse Wilson and Kyle Wright to Gwinnett and the trade of Bruce Zimmermann and Brett Cumberland to the Baltimore Orioles, among others. Due to these moves, the starting rotation was severely depleted this week. Enderson Franco stepped up in throwing two terrific starts this week, totaling 14 innings while giving up only two runs on six hits and one walk while striking out 13, and carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning against Birmingham Reliever Josh Graham got off to a good start after returning from Florida, pitching 3.1 scoreless innings over two appearances while Corbin Clouse got a win and a save in three scoreless outings. Clouse struck out six in four innings while only giving up one hit and two walks. Adam McCreery also had a big week, striking out eight over 3.1 shutout innings in two games.
The hitting was generally lacking once again as the M-Braves were held to exactly one run in four different contests this week. The offense did get a boost mid-week with the addition of outfielder Cristian Pache, who was 5-for-16 with a triple and an outfield assist. Shortstop Ray-Patrick Didder continued his fine work at Mississippi, going 7-for-21 with a double, triple, home run and five RBI while also playing standout defense. 2B Alejandro Salazar had another big week as well, going 9-for-25 with two doubles and three RBI.
GWINNETT: Gwinnett had a perfect week, going 4-0 as most of their road trip to Durham was rained out and playing no games between Tuesday and Thursday. The offense took charge this week, scoring 29 runs over their four games. 2B Luis Marte was 6-for-15 with a double, triple and an RBI, outfielder Danny Santana was 5-for-17 with a double, home run and six RBI and Carlos Franco was 6-for-18 with three home runs and six RBI. 3B Austin Riley was only 2-for-14 on the week, but both hits were doubles and he drove in four runs.
The starting pitchers did fairly well this week in spite of the staff giving up twenty runs in four games. Luiz Gohara led off the week, giving up three runs over 5.2 innings but struck out ten and walked no one. Touki Toussaint followed that up on Monday by giving up just one run over five innings of work. The new-look staff kicked in on Friday with Kyle Wright pitching 5.2 hitless innings before his control completely left him in the sixth inning. He finished by giving up two runs on four walks. Bryse Wilson finished up the week with a win on Saturday in his AAA debut by giving up six runs with three home runs over 5.1 innings while striking out eight.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Mailbag Q&A
Thanks to members of the Outfield Fly Rule Facebook group and fans on the Twitters for questions! As you can imagine after a big week like this last one, there were a ton of questions.
Q: With the emergence of Camargo, do you think the Braves could part ways with Austin Riley this offseason to improve the big league club? – J. Aumen
A: This has been a popular topic of discussion as Johan Camargo has emerged as one of the steadier offensive players in the Atlanta line-up. The answer is that anyone can be traded, and Camargo’s emergence as at least a league-average major league third baseman allows the team some flexibility. That said, both Riley and Camargo are athletic enough for other positions as well. I can see a scenario where maybe doesn’t replace Camargo at third base, but Nick Markakis in right field.
Q: Can you provide a report on all the first round picks in the system? – M. Young
A: That might be good for a full feature someday. For now, how about a list?
Nick Markakis, 2003 (BAL)
Charlie Culberson, 2007 (SFG)
Ryan Flaherty, 2008 (CHC)
Rex Brothers, 2009 (COL)
Mike Foltynewicz, 2010 (HOU)
Jesse Biddle, 2010 (PHI)
Luke Jackson, 2010 (TEX)
Kevin Gausman, 2012 (BAL)
Max Fried, 2012 (SDP)
Travis Demeritte, 2013 (TEX)
Jason Hursh, 2013 (ATL)
Sean Newcomb, 2014 (LAA)
Touki Toussaint, 2014 (ARI)
Braxton Davidson, 2014 (ATL)
Dansby Swanson, 2015 (ARI)
Kolby Allard, 2015 (ATL)
Mike Soroka, 2015 (ATL)
Austin Riley, 2015 (ATL)
Ian Anderson, 2016 (ATL)
Joey Wentz, 2016 (ATL)
Kyle Wright, 2017 (ATL)
Q: Could Kyle Wright have some type of impact at the major league level this season? Do you believe Ray-Patrick Didder could be a useful player all around the diamond for the braves in the near future? If the Braves call up Austin Riley in September, do you see him getting everyday at-bats at third with Camargo shifting over to play shortstop? – M. Farr
I would be surprised if Wright was called up this season, mostly because I don’t believe the team will want to use up a 40-man roster spot for him. On the other hand, Touki Toussaint will need to be protected this off-season anyway, so there’s no harm in giving him a spot since he’ll need one before the Rule V draft anyway. Also, Touki is simply ahead of Wright right now in terms of command and control.
I do believe Ray-Patrick Didder will be a major league player. His speed and versatility will make him valuable, and from what I saw last night in Chattanooga, he’s really improved at shortstop.
If Riley is called up, they’ll work him into the line-up on occasion, but unless there’s an injury somewhere I don’t see Snitker disrupting the line-up too much.
Q: Who do you think in the organization has the best chance of being an “ace” pitcher? – B. Kronowksi
First you have to define what is an “ace”, given that everyone seems to have a different definition. My personal definition is a pitcher that it super-elite, the top 0.5% of league pitchers. For me the only aces right now are Boston’s Chris Sale, Washington’s Max Scherzer, Cleveland’s Corey Kluber, Los Angeles’s Clayton Kershaw, and the Mets’ Jacob deGrom. Pitchers like Justin Verlander, Luis Severino, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, Noah Syndergaard, and Aaron Nola approach that level and could be considered “aces” by others with little argument from me.
So here’s the top 5 candidates that, in my opinion, could possibly achieve that kind of level.
- Touki Toussaint
- Ian Anderson
- Sean Newcomb
- Mike Foltynewicz
- Mike Soroka
Q: Should the Braves re-sign Nick Markakis to a short term deal to allow Drew Waters to be brought along more slowly? – J. Campbell
The Braves should not go into 2019 with a projected starting outfield of Ronald Acuna, Ender Inciarte, and Adam Duvall. Nick Markakis would certainly be a good target in free agency, but there are several other good outfielders available.
Regardless, Drew Waters shouldn’t be a consideration when making deals this offseason. He will play and advance for as long as he proves himself. That same goes for Cristian Pache, who could force himself to Atlanta at some point next season.
Q: With Camargo playing so well, do you see Austin Riley moving to the outfield next year, or should the Braves re-sign Nick Markakis for a short-term deal? – A. Rathjens
Related to a couple earlier questions, yes I could see Riley move the outfield and being successful. However, it’s not a sure thing that Camargo is better defensively at third than Riley, it’s not a sure thing Markakis would accept a short-term deal given the year he’s having, and it’s not a sure thing that Riley would be ready offensively at the start of the season. As Yoda, or possibly Casey Stengel would say, “Always in motion is the future”.
Q: Alex Anthopoulos is enjoying a nice honeymoon period, and appears to be doing an overall excellent job, especially considering the situation he inherited. At this early juncture, do you have any significant concerns or grievances with how prospects have been handled by the front office? – J. Harris
A: None in particular. The only nitpick I have is with the yo-yoing of pitchers like Lucas Sims, Matt Wisler, and to a lesser extent Max Fried and Luiz Gohara to and from the bullpen in Atlanta to the rotation in Gwinnett and back again. If the organization believes a pitcher will likely mostly help the club out of the bullpen, I feel like they should be pitching out of the pen in Gwinnett to get them acclimated to the role.
Q: How long before we see CJ Alexander break into the Atlanta top prospects lists? – D. Short
A. He’s already appeared in the OFR and Talking Chop mid-season top 30s, and just missed cracking Jason Woodell’s over at Prospects1500 so he’s at least popped up on local radar. National pundits tend to be cautious about getting too high on rookie-ball standouts without significant pedigree. For example, local talent evaluators were keyed on Ronald Acuna long before most national prospect watchers had figured out that he was special.
Q: Is Touki Toussaint actually going to be a productive starting pitcher? We’ve long been salivating on that curve of his, but how close is he to mastering a pitch mix that’ll play at the highest level? Also, with Cumberland out the door, what is the current state of our catcher pipeline? – P. Tapley
A: Yes, Toussaint’s pitching mix of two-seamer, curveball, change-up, and sinker will play in the majors as a starting pitcher.
William Contreras is the catcher to which we should pin our hopes to. Unfortunately, he’s likely not going to make his major league debut until 2020, so the Braves will likely have to look outside the organization if they want to improve the position next season. Alex Jackson may have a role before 2020, but his performance drop-off this season has been very concerning. After that there’s Drew Lugbauer, Lucas Herbert, and Jonathan Morales in roughly that order. All of them have their own very different strengths and weaknesses and none are top prospects.
Q. When are you going to call your mother? Also, will Toussant get a call up this year? – B. Harris
I was only recently made aware that my phone can be used for outbound calls. Also, Touki could be called up literally at any point for either a spot start or to be used out of the bullpen. I’ll go out on a limb and say this Friday.
Q: Best defenders at every position? – N. Lyle
Among just the Braves minor leaguers, I’d go:
C- Lucas Herbert, FLA
1B – Carlos Franco, GWI
2B – Alejandro Salazar, MIS
SS – A.J. Graffanino, ROM
3B – Austin Riley, GWI
LF – Dustin Peterson, GWI
CF – Cristian Pache, MIS
RF – Izzy Wilson, FLA
P – Touki Toussaint, GWI
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