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. We delayed this week’s report so we could clear the weekend and report on the end of the minor league regular season (editorial: sad face.) Matt Chrietzberg gives a report from Mississippi and Chris Jervis pops in to answer mailbag questions!
A First-Hand Look at Kyle Muller
I had the opportunity to witness Kyle Muller‘s final home start of the season at Mississippi on Saturday, August 25th against the Biloxi Shuckers. This start was noteworthy for several reasons, mainly because Biloxi is a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate and they had a number of highly-rated prospects playing in the game. First, Biloxi had Zack Brown as their starting pitcher, who is ranked 8th in their system by MLB Pipeline. In addition, their #1 (second baseman Keston Hiura) and #2 (centerfielder Corey Ray) prospects were in the starting lineup.
Muller started off quickly on a 92-degree night where the heat index was 100 to start the game, his first three pitches were 93, 93 and 94 on the stadium gun. Muller is a very quick worker, he’s right back on the mound as soon as the catcher sends the ball back to him. He got through the first inning without much trouble, giving up just a single while throwing 11 strikes in 13 pitches. However, Muller ran into some trouble during the second inning, giving up consecutive walks to start the inning. After the second walk and a mound visit from pitching coach Dennis Lewallyn, he forced a 6-4 fielder’s choice at second base before giving up a bloop single to bring in the only run he would give up on the evening. After forcing another fielder’s choice, Muller struck out Corey Ray swinging to end the inning. He ended the inning having thrown only 12 strikes on 27 pitches.
92 mph swinging strike on a full count from Mississippi’s Kyle Muller on Biloxi’s Corey Ray to end the second inning. pic.twitter.com/STkKumGDkT
— Matt Chrietzberg (@BravesMattC) August 25, 2018
The third inning went much more smoothly, Muller had a shutdown inning with a groundout, followed by strikeouts of Keston Hiura (looking) and Weston Wilson (swinging). Travis Demeritte gave the M-Braves the lead in the bottom of the third with a bases-loaded double, staking Muller to a 3-1 lead. In the fourth inning, Muller’s velocity began to fade on this steamy evening with his fastball declining to 90-92, and it showed in giving up a single and a double, although no further scoring damage was done. The fifth inning went much more smoothly in a three-up, three-down frame where Ray had a pop out and Hiura grounded out to shortstop.
Mississippi’s Kyle Muller has fanned the Brewers’ number one and two prospects in a three-batter stretch, this time getting Keston Hiura looking at 90 mph. pic.twitter.com/9PJpyLHivx
— Matt Chrietzberg (@BravesMattC) August 25, 2018
In the sixth inning, though, it was clear that Muller was running out of gas with the heat index still at 96 degrees. His fastball was down to 89-90 although he managed to work around the declining velocity in getting out of the inning allowing just a walk. Muller finished his six innings allowing just the one run on three walks and four hits while striking out five while tossing 58 strikes on 94 pitches.
Kyle Muller finishes out the 2018 season with a 11-3 record and a 3.03 ERA with 129 strikeouts in 139.2 innings across stints at Rome, Florida and Mississippi. With only five starts in AA to close out the season, Muller should begin next season in Mississippi to team up with fellow prospect Ian Anderson to lead the next wave of Braves pitching prospects into Atlanta.
Life on the Farm
DANVILLE: The D-Braves ended their schedule with a win, stopping a 3-game losing streak that ended hopes that the team would finish above .500. Right-hander Jose Montilla finished the season with a flourish, tossing 5 shut-out innings. Relievers Tanner Allison, Ryan Shetter, Mason McReaken, Mitch Stallings, Zach Seipel, Jake Higginbotham, Connor Simmons, and Luis Mora combined for 18 shut-out innings.
Outfielder Justin Smith was the only offensive standout last week, going 5-for-13 with a homer and 3 walks. Look for a complete review of the Danville Braves later this week.
ROME: Rome went 5-5 in the last week plus to finish their overall 2018 record at 71-65, the fifth-best record in the South Atlantic League. Of course, the Braves clinched a playoff berth back in June after winning the first-half division championship, and they will facing the Lexington Legends in a best-of-three division championship series.
Outfielder Jefrey Ramos (.324/.351/.676 with 3 homers, 2 doubles) and infielder Derian Cruz (.478/.538/.565) carried much of the offensive freight for Rome with solid contributions from outfielders Trey Harris and Justin Dean and first baseman Hagen Owenby. On the flipside, shortstop AJ Graffanino has suddenly gone ice cold, only hitting .182/.243/.212 over the last 9 games. Catcher Drew Lugbauer continues to play most days behind the dish and has taken a beating, and this is reflected in his batting line of .138/.286/.172 with 11 strikeouts over that same 9 game span.
Right-handed starters Walter Borkovich and Odalvi Javier have been rock steady down the stretch, and this week week was no different. Borkovich started two games, allowing only 2 runs in 14 innings. Javier held his opponents to 3 runs in 11 innings over two starts. Rightly Alan Rangel had a quality start against West Virginia, but was knocked around by Asheville to the tune of 5 runs in 5 innings. Left-hander Hayden Deal continued to be terrific out of the bullpen, pitching 6 scoreless innings; for the month of August, Deal pitched to a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings over 6 relief appearances. After having tough performances his first several turns through the rotation, RHP Freddy Tarnok put together three solid outings to end the regular season, pitching to a 1.35 ERA in 13.1 innings.
FLORIDA: The Fire Frogs closed out their last week with a 2-5 record, marked by torrential rains that caused the postponement or cancellation of four games. This put the final overall record fro the team at 51-80, the worst mark in the Florida State League. The Fire Frogs were outscored 13-38 over that stretch, including 2 shut outs. Outfielder Drew Waters was the only standout offensive performer for Florida this week, hitting .320/.357/.480 with 2 doubles and a triple.
On the mound, the Frogs got another outstanding start by RHP Jeremy Walker before his promotion to Gwinnett on Saturday. Otherwise the team was relying on spot starters such as Filyer Sanchez, Dilmer Mejia, and Tanner Allison to limp to the finish line. LHP Joey Wentz made two final appearances, allowing 3 runs in 5 innings. Left-handed reliever Chase Johnson-Mullins has had a tough, injury plagued season but he was able to end it in style, pitching 9 innings over his last 7 appearances without allowing a run and striking out 8.
MISSISSIPPI: The M-Braves stayed in the playoff hunt until the final weekend of the season but couldn’t quite pull through, going 5-4 over the last week of the season en route to a 67-71 overall record. The M-Braves managed the 5-4 mark despite not being able to generate much offense in only scoring 19 runs over those final nine games. Catcher Jonathan Morales led the way in going 8-for-21 with three RBI. Outfielder Cristian Pache tailed off badly during this time, finishing 1-for-22 with nine strikeouts. Now he’ll get a well-deserved break before heading to the Arizona Fall League.
Mississippi did get some good pitching performances in allowing only 23 runs over their final nine games. Ian Anderson won his final two starts while giving up no runs over 12.2 innings on just five hits while striking out 19. Reliever Thomas Burrows had a strong week with two saves and three holds in five outings. Burrows pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, giving up just two hits and no walks while striking out seven.
GWINNETT: The Stripers finished up their season by going 5-4 in their last nine games, good enough to clinch a winning record for the 2018 campaign at 70-69, nine games back of division-winning Durham. The best pitching performance of the week came from spot starter Jeremy Walker, who was called all the way up from Florida and threw eight innings of shutout baseball, giving up just three hits while striking out six. Touki Toussaint performed as usual while awaiting the call back to Atlanta, giving up no earned runs in six innings in winning his lone start of the week. Wes Parsons gave up just three runs in twelve innings over two starts while Corbin Clouse took a break from relief duties to start two bullpen games. Clouse pitched three shutout innings in each of his outings. A number of major-league arms made rehab appearances this week, including Shane Carle, Arodys Vizcaino, Jose Ramirez, Peter Moylan and Brandon McCarthy. Moylan and McCarthy re-aggravated their injuries to finish their seasons, but Carle was called back up to Atlanta while Vizcaino and Ramirez will continue their rehab efforts at Rome since their season is still going.
Gwinnett scored 41 runs over their last nine games, mainly due to a strong finish from 3B Austin Riley. Riley was 12-for-37 during this time with a double, three home runs and ten RBI. However, the strikeout red flag popped up as he fanned 14 times in 39 plate appearances. OF Michael Reed was 6-for-25 with four RBI before being called back up to Atlanta and 1B Carlos Franco was 5-for-15 with six RBI to finish out his season.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
8/26/2018: C Chris Stewart designated for assignment by Atlanta
8/26/2018: 3B Rio Ruiz promoted to Atlanta from Gwinnett
8/26/2018: OF Xavier Avery promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
8/26/2018: OF Brandon Downes activated off the 7-day DL (Mississippi)
It took 150 days from the start of the season, but Rio Ruiz finally got recalled to Atlanta. With the team no longer needing the services of Chris Stewart after Kurt Suzuki was able to come back from a nasty hit-by-pitch within a few days, the team addressed the need for a left-handed bench option by promoting Ruiz.
Avery’s Mississippi exile only lasted three days, with Downes temporarily taking back his roster spot.
8/26/2018: 1B Carlos Franco activated off the 7-day DL (Gwinnett)
8/26/2018: OF Danny Santana placed on the 7-day DL (Gwinnett)
The team’s leader in homers and RBI rejoined the line-up, but the injury to Santana comes at a bad time. It may have been a long-shot, but it’s possible Santana could have rejoined Atlanta in September.
8/27/2018: LHP Max Fried activated off the 10-day DL (Atlanta); optioned to Gwinnett
Fried had been on a re-hab assignment as he recovered from a line-drive shot to his foot. Fried had been pitching well for Atlanta before the injury, but in two re-hab outings Fried had allowed 8 runs in 6.1 innings pitched.
8/27/2018: RHP Josh Ravin activated off the 7-day DL (Gwinnett); transferred to Florida.
8/28/2018: RHP Josh Ravin placed on the 7-day DL (Florida)
This is essentially a re-hab assignment for Ravin, who had pitched brilliantly in relief for Gwinnett before getting struck in the head in a very scary incident on June 14. Unfortunately, there looks to have been a set-back.
8/27/2018: LHP Filyer Sanchez promoted to Florida from Danville
8/27/2018: LHP Victor Cavalieri transferred to the Gulf Coast Braves from Florida
8/28/2018: RHP Alex Camacho transferred to Rome from Florida
8/29/2019: LHP Tanner Allison promoted to Florida from Danville
As the Fire Frogs limp to the finish line of the season, the organization is using the opportunity to give some of their arms a taste of higher-level hitters. Allison had already appeared in 31 games between Rome and Danville.
Camacho was one of the more interesting arms for the Gulf Coast Braves and may now get to play a role in the Rome bullpen as the team starts it’s playoff run.
8/28/2018: C Chris Stewart outrighted to Gwinnett
8/28/2018: C Sal Giardina transferred to Mississsippi from Gwinnett
8/30/2018: C Chris Stewart traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for cash considerations.
8/30/2018: C Sal Giardina promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
Have catcher’s gear, will travel.
8/30/2018: 3B Rio Ruiz optioned to Gwinnett from Atlanta
Ruiz made room for trade acquisition Lucas Duda.
8/31/2018: LHP Dilmer Mejia promoted to Florida from Danville
Mejia bounced between Rome and Florida before settling in at Danville this year. Given another opportunity against higher level talent, Mejia allowed 10 baserunners and 4 runs in 4 innings.
9/1/2018: RHPs Bryse Wilson and Touki Toussaint and OF Michael Reed recalled to Atlanta; RHP Kyle Wright and OF Lane Adams selected by Atlanta.
The start of the September roster expansion, with the expected promotions of Wilson, Toussiant, Wright, and Reed. Adams has had a bit of a lost season, but he’s known and liked by Atlanta coaches and can be counted out as a strong pinch runner. Reed only appeared a couple of times before going on the DL, making room for the re-acquired Preston Tucker.
9/1/2018: RHP Jeremy Walker promoted to Gwinnett from Florida
9/1/2018: RHP Kelvin Vasquez activated from 7-day DL (Mississippi); promoted to Gwinnett from Mississippi
9/1/2018: IF Nicholas Shumpert promoted to Gwinnett from Danville
With the September 1 promotions, Gwinnett needed to be back-filed in order to play out the string. Walker made the best of this by pitching an 8-inning shut-out gem.
9/2/2018: OF Dustin Peterson designated for assignment
9/2/2018: IF Ryan Flaherty selected by Atlanta
Peterson, the #21 prospect on the OFR Mid-Season Prospect List, will have to pass through waivers. If he does he’ll be eligible for the Rule V draft for the second time. This is clearly a calculated risk by the Braves, but the fact is that despite flashes of strong performance, another injury-plagued season and an overall .268/.324/.406, 11 home run AAA season doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence that he can carve out a place on the Atlanta Braves soon. The move opened up a 40-man roster spot to add Ryan Flaherty back as an additional bench player.
Mailbag Q&A
Is Kolby Allard or Touki Toussaint or Bryse Wilson going to get another start this year? I would love to see all three get at least one more start. – Keith M.
When is Bryse Wilson’s next start? – Adam S.
Chris: The Braves will be using a six man rotation in September. They may opt to use a rolling rotation for that sixth spot, whereby Toussaint, Wilson, and Allard all get a start. Or, they could move one of those guys to the bullpen. My guess is that Allard would be the one sent to the ‘pen, and each of the others would get at least one September start.
Andy: Fried is in that mix as well. My guess is that Wilson only work from the bullpen given his usage in Gwinnett prior to the call-up.
What ever happened to catcher Bob Didier? – John D.
Chris: Bob Didier was a catcher who played for the Atlanta Braves from 1969-1973. As our colleague Thomas Poe pointed out over at Walk-Off Walk, the Braves were high enough on Didier that he was one reason the team traded Joe Torre. Didier rewarded them with a 4th place finish in the 1969 NL Rookie of the Year voting. Unfortunately, he really didn’t do much after that, and he was traded in May of 1973 to the Detroit Tiger for Gene Lamont.
Didier played in the majors and minors until 1977. In 1977, he decided to start coaching in preparation for his post-playing career. He managed 13 different minor league, Venezuelan, and Mexican teams. Didier also served at the Major League level as a third base coach, bullpen coach, bench coach, and hitting coach.
Since 2015, Bob Didier has run instructional camps and served as a roving instructor for MLB, often serving minority communities.
Q: Obviously not ALL of the top prospect starting pitchers can end up being starting pitchers…at least within the Braves organization. Imagine a realm of reality where the Braves foolishly do not trade some of their depth for other positions of need…
Which of the Braves starting pitching prospects remain starting pitchers and which ones convert to high leverage relief roles? – Bryce S.
Chris: I’m not particularly good at projecting this type of stuff. As to having an abundance of pitchers that (to some at this point) borders on having too many, I’ll simply say that these things have a way of working themselves out. A five man rotation usually requires 10-11 pitchers for a full season for various reasons: poor performances, delayed progression, regression, injury…these are all things that happen every year, and things we’ve seen before.
From what I’ve seen so far, I would expect Allard to eventually be moved to the ‘pen. However, he may have more value to the Braves as a SP prospect trade piece. Teams really love them some SP prospects, and pay far more for them than they do for a MLB reliever.
Touki Toussaint is another that I think could be a potential move to the bullpen, though this year’s success has made that less likely, IMO. Teams really want to give guys a chance to succeed as a starter before moving them out of the rotation.
Ultimately, I expect we’ll see a couple of pitchers moved this offseason.
Andy: The minute a team thinks the have too much pitching is the minute they don’t have enough pitching.
Now that we’ve had September call-ups, and have available many pitching prospects, do we change pitching strategy any? Should Snit have a quicker hook with anyone who’s struggling in the current game, since we have many capable bodies? Or should he play it as “normal”, since it’s worked good enough thus far? -Mike P.
Chris: I think you have the personnel now to get some guys some rest where you can, meaning don’t let them go as deep into the pitch count. If that means a quick hook, then go for it.
But we still need to wrap up the playoffs. It does us no good to rest guys for the playoffs and then not make them. So, I do think Brian Snitker has to walk a little bit of a fine line. He needs to get the win, rest his starters (pitchers and position players) keep key reserves sharp enough to contribute in October, while also working in young guys to get them a little work and experience.
Leave a Reply