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 I report from seeing the AA Mississippi Braves and the A Rome Braves, we take a look at the affiliates, and run down another busy transaction week.
Observations from the Stands
Last Saturday I was able to take a trip up to Chattanooga to take a look at Mississippi during their 5-game series against the Lookouts. Friday night I took in a game in Rome as the Braves played the West Virginia Power. Here are some observations.
Cristian Pache is a real hitter. The reports out of Florida have been very good, but it’s something else to see the progress for yourself and Pache’s progress to where he is now versus the last time I saw him live in Rome late last season is remarkable. Pache keeps his weight on the his back foot much longer through the pitch and does a much better job catching the pitch later in the zone. Fastballs that last year he would have tapped harmlessly into the infield grass are now being punished for line drives. Pache’s pitch recognition has also improved, though he still can get caught off-balance by good breaking stuff. All-in-all it was electrifying to see Pache in action again, and I suspect he’ll get strong consideration for Top 50 prospect status in many places.
Ray-Patrick Didder is a real shortstop. Didder has already proven himself to be a plus outfielder, and I had seen Didder play some second base with Florida last year and he looked uncomfortable but competent. It’s easy to see with Didder’s batting profile that the Braves would want him to play multiple positions to prepare him for what hopefully will be a major league utility role. My limited looks at him at shortstop, mostly on TV in spring training, showed a man alien to the position. On Saturday, I saw a man comfortable with all of the regular plays and capable of some outstanding plays, including ranging for a grounder into shallow left field, then throwing a bead to first to get the runner. It was a highlight-reel worthy play, reminding everyone that Didder possesses one of the strongest arms in the system. During the game Didder also went 1-4 and was hit by a pitch because of course he did.
Alejandro Salazar is worth reconsidering. Salazar signed with the Braves as a 16-year-old on July 2, 2013. It feels like he’s been around forever, but he’s a 21-year-old having success at the AA level. It’s been easy to dismiss Salazar; he’s had severe plate discipline issues, has hit far too many fly balls, has no power, and his shortstop play could go from making a circus play to throwing the ball four rows into the stands within minutes. On Saturday, I saw a more controlled Alejandro Salazar. Now playing second base, he was making all of the routine plays look easy and the non-routine plays look routine. At the plate, he’s looking like a hitter that knows his limitations and is using all fields in an attempt to keep the defense off-balance.
Jasseel De La Cruz has made some adjustments. I was pretty happy to see I was going to see De La Cruz again on Friday; the last time was back in April. After a six-week DL stint in May, De La Cruz had struggled to some degree since his return, even briefly being sent to the bullpen. While MiLB.TV is pretty good at seeing hitters, to really gauge how pitchers are doing it helps to see side and forward views. De La Cruz shows some substantial differences in his arm action versus how he looked in April. His arm action now stays quick with slider and change-ups, where before he would noticeably slow down and get longer on those pitches. When throwing his fastball, he’d almost short-arm it with a cross-the-body follow-through; now he more closely matching the action of the secondary pitches. West Virginia hitters looked consistently off-stride all day against all of his pitches.
A.J. Graffanino is also a real shortstop. In the mailbag last week, I named Graffanino as the top defensive shortstop in the system right now, and nothing I saw on Friday made me change my mind. Graffanino demonstrated good hands, a good arm, good range, and he stays calm and collected even on tough plays. The one nit to pick would be on accuracy on some throws to first, but it didn’t get him into any trouble on Friday as first baseman Hagen Owenby was up to the task of corralling everything, but the accuracy seemed to be more off the more time Graffanino had to think about the throw. De La Cruz induced 12 groundouts on Friday, 8 of them fielded by Graffanino.
Jefrey Ramos is the best hitter in the Rome line-up. Granted there’s been a lot of attrition-by-promotion lately with Drew Waters, William Contreras, and this week Greyson Jenista all promoted to Florida. That said, Ramos has elevated his approach over the course of the season in ways that aren’t necessarily showing up in the box scores. Ramos is working deeper in to the counts and letting the game situation dictate what he’s trying to do at the plate rather than swinging from him heels so much. This expressed itself in a 6th-inning at-bat where Ramos looked a pitches just off the plate to run the count to 3-1 before getting a pitch he could handle, and he crushed it.
Life on the Farm
DSL: The Way Down South Braves went 3-4 for the week. The most interesting thing to happen this week was the resumption of a July 23 suspended game. That game was started by 18-year-old Estarlin Rodriguez, who was able to resume the game on August 8 thus allowing him to pitch 8 innings, allowing just 4 hits and 1 run. Leonardo Vargas (6 IP, 1 ER, 5 SO) and Jose Olague (5 IP, 0 ER, 7 SO) also put in good starts this week.
On the offensive side, a few Braves were able to shake off the teamwide slump of the last couple week. OF Brandol Mezquita batted .273/.556/.545 with a homer this week, and 2B Eliezel Stevens contributed a .333/.500/.500 line with 2 doubles.
GCL: The GCL Braves took a three-game winning streak into the weekend and won four of five this week. The team good strong starts from Lisandro Santos, Miguel Jerez, and Luis De Jesus, but the biggest news was the professional debuts of Braves 2018 4th-rounder Tristan Beck and 13th-rounder Victor Vodnik. They each pitched a perfect inning and struck out 2.
Trey Harris hit .571/.786/.714 to bring his GCL career to a close with a bang, including his first pro home run on Thursday. First baseman Ray Hernandez continued his strong hitting, going .333/.400/.778 on the week with a double and a homer in only 10 plate appearances. Infielder Braulio Vasquez has also gotten hot, this week hitting .368/.400/.579 with a homer.
DANVILLE: The D-Braves went 5-2 on the week and have won their six series in row, closing the game between them and teh first place Princeton Rays to 3 games with 18 left to play. The team had a .373 combined OBP this week, lead by 2B Greg Cullen and his .429/.515/.643 batting line that included 5 walks and his first professional home run. OF Justin Smith hit .261/.433/.696 with 2 homers and 5 walks of his own. 3B CJ Alexander hit .333/.455/.444 on the week before being promoted to advanced-A Florida on Friday.
Starting pitcher Dilmer Mejia continued to show he is probably too advanced for the Appalachian League, throwing 6 inning of shut-out ball. Non-drafted righty Matt Hartman still hasn’t been scored upon after a 3-inning, 2-hit effort against Kingsport.
ROME: Rome went 3-4 on the week after the team lost top offensive producers Drew Waters and William Contreras to promotion, and they took another shot when outfielder Greyson Jenista was promoted to Florida on Friday. Fortunately Braves starting pitchers Odalvi Javier, Alan Rangel, Jasseel De La Cruz, and Keith Weisenberg stepped up this week and combined for a 1.53 ERA and 30 innings in 6 starts. Rangel’s 7 innings of shut-out ball on Wednesday produced an 81 game score Rome’s highest since Bruce Zimmermann matched that mark on May 17.
On the offensive side, Jefrey Ramos has stepped up his game as well and hit .320/.346/.680 this week with 2 home runs, a double, and a triple. Shortstop A.J. Graffanino hit .375/.412/.438 on the week and has been sensational since his elevation to replace the promoted Riley Delgado one month ago.
FLORIDA: Despite reinforcements from Rome, the Fire Frogs only went 2-5 on the week with a five-game losing streak bracketed by wins last Sunday and on Saturday. Ian Anderson gave the Frogs a last solid start on Tuesday, going 5.1 innings and striking out 5 while allowing just one earned run. Jeremy Walker had an excellent week, throwing two starts and only allowing a combined 3 earned runs. Right-hander Walter Borkovich‘s second Florida start resembled his first, 6 innings of 4-hit, shutout ball. On the flipside, Huascar Ynoa was blown out of his outing on Wednesday, only getting 3 outs while giving up 9 earned runs. Gunslinger Connor Johnstone rode into town and fired off 5 scoreless innings before riding back out of town again.
At the plate infielder Kevin Josephina was 6-for-15 this week with a double, but was sent to Rome to make room for 3B CJ Alexander, who has 5 hits in his first 2 games. 1B Braxton Davidson was up to his usual tricks, only getting 5 hits 23 at-bats this week, but launching 3 homers. Shortstop Riley Delgado had his best week as a Fire Frog, going .370/.433/.407 on the week while catcher William Contreras went 7-for-23 with 2 doubles.
MISSISSIPPI: The M-Braves had a 3-3 week in the middle of their longest road trip of the season through Chattanooga and Jacksonville, outscoring their opponents by a 38-33 margin. There wasn’t much to speak of among the starting pitchers in what was mainly a collection of spot starters and bullpen games due to injuries, promotions and trades. Ricardo Sanchez was knocked out in the second inning of his start when a 107 mph line drive hit off of his pitching hand. Elian Leyva had a nice fill-in start, giving up three runs over six innings while striking out seven. The best performances of the week came from new addition Kyle Muller, who won both of his starts while giving up five runs over eleven innings on just seven hits while striking out fourteen and walking just three.
Outfielder Cristian Pache continued to settle in at AA by going 8-for-25 this week while fellow outfielder Connor Lien returned from a stay on the disabled list to hit three home runs and driving in five over two games on Friday and Saturday. Leftfielder Travis Demeritte continued his up-and-down ways with an up week by going 6-for-17 with three home runs and five RBI while walking seven times to produce a .353/.542/.882 line for the week.
GWINNETT: The Stripers went 3-3 this week on what was mostly a road swing through New York (Buffalo, Syracuse). There wasn’t a whole lot of scoring on either side of the ball in these games as they outscored their opponents by a 22-21 margin. Kyle Wright (6 IP, 4 ER) and Bryse Wilson (6.2 IP, 4 ER) had decent starts this week while spot starters Andres Santiago (4 IP, 0 ER), Michael Mader (6 IP, 0 ER) and Connor Johnstone (5 IP, 2 ER) fared better. Touki Toussaint had another good outing on Sunday in what appears to be his last start before heading to Atlanta to start a doubleheader game on Monday. Touki gave up just two earned runs over six innings while striking out eight.
On the offensive side, Rio Ruiz had a good week by going 7-for-17 with a double and four walks while Dustin Peterson went 9-for-25 with a double and four RBI. Catcher Alex Jackson continued his all-or-nothing ways by going 5-for-17 with a double, triple, two home runs and six RBI. He also fanned eight times and didn’t draw a walk in those 17 at-bats. 3B Austin Riley had a up-and-down overall week, going 10-for-27, but with ten strikeouts, no walks and just one RBI. Riley’s season bottomed out with a 0-for-5, five strikeout game on Thursday, but he rebounded strongly on Friday and Saturday with a 7-for-9 stretch with two doubles and his first AAA home run since May 30. Outfielder Danny Santana had a down week in going just 1-for-24 with two walks and five strikeouts.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
8/5/2018: LHP Adam McCreery promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
8/5/2018: RHP Jason Hursh transferred to Mississippi from Gwinnett
8/8/2018: RHP Jason Hursh outrighted to Mississippi
A shuffle of two relievers that are both on the 40-man roster but are very much heading in the opposite direction. McCreery is a tall lefty with good stuff and control problems. Hursh is a former 1st-round pick with a good slider and not much else at this point. Hursh was then outrighted off the 40-man roster. Assuming he’s not added back on, this leaves him exposed to the Rule V draft in December, but considering with all of the bullpen issues Atlanta has had this summer, he was never once even brought up to keep a spot warm it doesn’t seem like the Braves will be losing sleep over it
8/6/2018: RHP Oscar Nunez placed on the 60-day DL (DSL)
The 18-year-old Nunez had been a bright spot on the DSL Braves this season, pitching in 7 games (6 starts) and earning a 1.52 ERA in 23.2 innings. No word on what the injury is.
8/6/2018: LHP Kyle Muller promoted to Mississippi from Florida
8/6/2018: RHP Connor Johnstone transferred to Florida from Mississippi
8/11/2018: RHP Connor Johnstone promoted to Gwinnett from Florida
This is the second mid-season promotion for Muller, who started the season with Rome. Muller has found some new life on his fastball, which was sitting in the mid-90s in his first start with the M-Braves.
Johnstone has pitched fairly well in a gunslinger-type roll. He’s played for some time in each of the three highest levels of the system and has done pretty well. He would make a start for Florida early in the week and then pitch for Gwinnett on Saturday and do well enough to earn OFR Pitcher of the Week honors.
8/7/2018: LHP Adam McCreery and RHP Wes Parsons promoted to Atlanta from Gwinnett
8/10/2018: LHP Adam McCreery and RHP Wes Parsons transferred to Gwinnett from Atlanta
8/9/2018: RHPs Chad Sobotka and Chad Bell promoted to Atlanta from Gwinnett
8/11/2018: RHP Chad Bell transferred to Gwinnett from Atlanta
8/11/2018: LHP Kolby Allard promoted to Atlanta from Gwinnett
On this today’s episode of “As The Bullpen Churns”… we had three pitchers make their major league debuts. Parsons was forced into action on Thursday after starter Anibal Sanchez had to leave the game after getting struck on the leg with a line drive. Parsons gutted out five innings in relief despite getting hit in the foot with yet another line drive. McCreery debuted in the same game, but both were switched out the next day with Sobotka and Bell.
Sobotka had an injury-plagued career since being drafted in the 4th round by the Braves in 2014, but when he finally made it he didn’t disappoint, opening Atlanta fans’ eyes with a 99 mph fastball and a clean 9th inning in a blowout game. Bell, a waiver wire pick-up back in May from the Tigers, didn’t get an appearance before being replaced by Allard, who gets his third promotion in 2 weeks.
8/8/2018: RHP Ian Anderson promoted to Mississippi from Florida
While the talent has always been evident with Anderson, over the last three months Anderson has also been one of the most consistently good starting pitchers in the minors, pitching to a 1.71 ERA and striking out 66 batters in 58 innings while holding batters to a .195/.267/.224 line against him since June 1. Anderson makes his AA debut Sunday afternoon.
8/8/2018: RHP Daysbel Hernandez promoted to Florida from Rome
8/8/2018: RHP Zach Daniels promoted to Rome from Danville
8/8/2018: RHP Bradey Welsh promoted to Danville from GCL Braves
Some fallout from the Anderson promotion was that the Fire Frogs were short a pitcher. Hernandez was tabbed from the Rome bullpen to re-join the Frogs. Hernandez was limiting SAL hitters to a .174/.294/.233 batting line against him.
Daniels was a 19th-round draft pick out of Iowa this year and held a 2.65 ERA with Danville, appearing in a team-high 11 games. For Welsh, this was a return to Danville after making 7 appearances with the team earlier in the year.
8/9/2018: RHP Madinson Colon reinstated from the Restricted List (DSL Braves)
8/9/2018: RHP Javier Ciriaco promoted from DSL Braves to GCL Braves
Colon was suspended a year ago for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. To make room for Colon, Ciriaco was moved stateside. Ciriaco was having a bit of a breakout in his 3rd season with the DSL Braves, pitching to a 1.76 ERA and allowing only a .175/.309/.214 line against him.
8/10/2018: OF Greyson Jenista promoted to Florida from Rome
8/10/2018: OF Trey Harris promoted to Rome from the GCL Braves
Jenista leaves Rome after five weeks and a .333/.377/.453 batting line, good for a 135 wRC+. He’ll join with outfielders Drew Waters and Izzy Wilson to help resurrect a Fire Frogs offense that has been fairly moribund all season.
Harris was a 32nd-round pick out of Missouri and an alumni of McEachern HS in Powder Springs, GA. He is hitting .308/.442/.433 in the GCL and swatted his first professional HR Thursday in a game that was suspended by rain. Speaking of wRC+, his 158 mark for the month of July was second in the organization only behind then-Rome catcher William Contreras.
8/10/2018: 3B CJ Alexander promoted to Florida from Danville
It’s not a surprise that Alexander would get promoted after hitting .354/.439/.488 in 24 games with Danville; it was slightly surprising that he is getting the double-bump to Florida, but it seems like the Braves are really pushing their newest prospects here at the end of the minor league season. Alexander so far has made the decision look good by going 5-for-8 with two extra base hits in two games with the Frogs.
8/11/2018: RHP Fernando Salas released from Gwinnett
8/11/2018: LHP Corbin Clouse promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
8/11/2018: RHP Justin Kelly promoted to Mississippi from Florida
Salas, a 9-year major league veteran, was let go earlier in the season by Arizona and picked up by the Braves in mid-July on a minor league deal. Salas only appeared in 6 games for Gwinnett and pitched poorly. The Braves apparently saw enough.
Clouse can be a dominant lefty and had pitched to a 1.84 ERA for Mississippi in 38 appearances, striking out 65 in 49 innings. The one knock on Clouse is his walk rate, and he’ll look to get that polished out of him before heading to the show.
Kelly was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels in the off-season Jim Johnson trade and has been a stalwart in the Fire Frogs bullpen, pitching to 3.05 ERA in 29 appearances, striking out 51 in 44.1 innings. This will be Kelly’s second trip to the AA level after a short tenure with Mobile in the Angels system last season.
8/11/2018: RHP Luis Mora activated from 7-day DL (Rome) and assigned to Danville for rehab
Mora has not appeared in a game since May 15, 2017. While there was no official word on what ailed him, given the time frame it would be fair to surmise a UCL tear. Before his injury, Mora was a hard-thrower who routinely hit 99 on the radar gun.
"You just made history, kid."
While @Braves prospect @hayden_deal didn't realize he only threw two pitches for a complete inning, @TheRomeBraves manager Rocket Wheeler let him know. https://t.co/hlzk76QJPW pic.twitter.com/0ZoKyd0kYS
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 11, 2018
Leave a Reply