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.
SHAMELESS PLUG: As a companion to the Farm Report, check out our brand new podcast, the OFR Farm Report, co-hosted by Andy Harris and Matt Chrietzberg, and out every Monday on Android, iTunes, TuneIn, and Stitcher.
Mike Soroka: An Appreciation
On Saturday night, Mike Soroka pitched another splendid game for Atlanta, throwing 7 innings of 3-hit ball and allowing only 2 unearned runs. That brings his season ERA after four starts down to a miserly 1.14. It’s not been smoke-and-mirrors either. His FIP is a similarly miserly 2.25 and he owns a 10-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
As the Fox Sports Braves twitter account pointed out last night, Soroka became the only major league pitcher since 1968 to allow one earned run or fewer in seven of his first nine starts.
All these numbers just emphasize something that anyone can see with their own eyes if they care to look. Mike Soroka is good. Very good. As Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna quickly justified their high prospect rankings once they made the major leagues, now Soroka is doing the same.
With his next appearance, Mike Soroka will likely pass 50 major league innings, at which point nearly all publications will no longer consider him a “prospect”. He will come off of MLB Pipeline’s prospect ranking and Kyle Wright will assume the top spot there. Soroka was of course our own #1 prospect, but it wasn’t unanimous everywhere. Uncertainty surrounding the shoulder inflammation that cost him the second half of his 2018 season caused some publications to drop him down their lists.
Interestingly, those that saw him the most did not. The more local prospect watchers — the writers from Talking Chop, Tomahawk Take, and Walk-Off Walk as well as us here at OFR — never wavered. Following Mike Soroka in his quick journey up the minor league ranks has been quite frankly, a joy. When reports that his shoulder inflammation didn’t have a more sinister underlying cause, I had no reservations that Soroka would bounce back.
The reason for that goes beyond his pitching ability. It’s about a maturity level that far belies his 21 years on earth. It’s his ability, as catcher Brian McCann puts it, “to slow the game down”. In fact every catcher who receives him starts to wax philosophically afterwards. Here’s Tyler Flowers gushing about how Soroka’s sinker is “a gift” and “can’t be taught”. Here’s Kurt Suzuki talking about the way Soroka carries himself after catching his first major league start last May. Even back in 2016, when most local prospect watchers were getting their first looks at Mike Soroka with Rome, the 18-year-old stood out. Below are comments I wrote after seeing him for the first time, at the Rome home opener in 2016 (he threw 4 innings, giving up 1 run on 4 hits, a walk, and striking out 7):
Soroka was very impressive, easily the most impressive Rome pitcher I’ve seen since Arodys Vizcaino came through six years ago. From the first pitch he seemed poised and relaxed and if I didn’t know better I would never have guessed he’s only 18YO.
He threw 3 pitches, fastball, change-up, slider. His scouting report indicates he should have a curveball too, but I don’t think he threw it. Against RH pounds low and inside with fastball then slider away for the K. Half of Ks came from RH batters missing or giving up on slider away. Only 4 hard-hit balls all night, two went for outs, one should have been fielded.
His 4th inning was a groundout and two Ks and he looked like he could easily have kept going for another couple innings.
Then there’s just the way he presents himself. Read this interview at Talking Chop, or this one at Tomahawk Take, and realize he was 19 years old and just completed his first full season of professional baseball.
So with Soroka’s imminent drop from prospect lists and his his rise up the ranks of Rookie of the Year contenders, I want to take this space for the last time to thank Michael John Graydon Soroka out of Calgary, Alberta for being so entertaining for minor league fans the last two+ years.
The best is yet to come.
Life On the Farm
ROME:
Rome split the week, going 3-3 with all three wins coming in their last three games. Exiting last Sunday’s tilt against Kannapolis after only retiring 5 batters, right-hander Jose Olague rebounded yesterday with a gem against Lakeland, going 7 innings and only allowing 1 run on 4 hits. The main strength of the Rome squad right now however is the relief corps. Right-hander Lukas Young has yet to allow an earned run this season after 10 appearances and 13 innings and has 4 saves to his credit. Co-closer Kurt Hoekstra was also unscored upon this week, as were lefties Dilmer Mejia and Jake Higginbotham and right-hander Jose Montilla.
Trey Harris continued his assault on SAL pitching this week, hitting .381/.462/.810 and pounding out 2 home runs to go with a double and a triple. Harris’s 202 wRC+ leads all Braves minor league hitters. Centerfielder Justin Dean emerged from a brief slump to post a .391 OBP this week along with 3 stolen bases. Third baseman Darling Florentino landed on the injured list this week, but is expected back soon.
FLORIDA:
Fire Frogs pitching showed out this week, driving the team to a 4-1 record with one rain-out. The highlight performance of the week was right-hander Nolan Kingham‘s 9-inning complete game on Wednesday. Kingham only allowed 3 soft hits and struck out 5 only only 85 pitches, giving the 12th-rounder a certified “Maddux” and the first 9-inning complete game by an Braves minor league pitcher since Bryse Wilson‘s shutout for Rome on July 8, 2017.
Last Sunday, Jasseel De La Cruz made his Florida debut a good one, firing 6 innings of 2-hit, 1 run ball. Hayden Deal pitched 6 scoreless innings in his start this week, dropping his season ERA down to 1.20. The Frogs even go 3.1 scoreless innings in a surprise start by left-hander Phil Pfeifer, who has spent the last three seasons pitching in relief for Mississippi and Gwinnett.
Florida’s bullpen was absolutely brilliant this week, giving up only one earned run combined. The highlight of this effort was the return of right-hander Matt Withrow to the mound after missing the entire 2018 season. Withrow threw 3.1 scoreless innings in relief of Pfeifer on Friday.
The Fire Frogs offense was carried this week by catcher William Contreras, who hit .389/.421/.500 on the week, and infielder Brett Langhorne, who shrugged off a tough April to hit .455/.538/.818 with 3 extra base hits. Outfielder Jefrey Ramos only got three hits this week, but he made the most of them, slamming two home runs.
MISSISSIPPI:
As much discussion has taken place about the M-Braves hitters, the pitching stepped up in a big way during a 5-1 week where the staff allowed just eight runs in six games…and five of those were in one contest. OFR Pitcher of the Week Ian Anderson had a dominant week with two scoreless starts where he gave up just four hits in twelve innings while striking out nineteen and walking five. Kyle Muller had a decent outing on Monday where he gave up two runs in five innings of work although he walked five. On Wednesday, Patrick Weigel had his best start of the season in pitching three shutout innings where the only hitter that reached was due to a hit batsman. Although Weigel pitched three innings, his pitch count stayed in the 35-40 range and there are no signs that the Braves are expanding his role. Jeremy Walker continued his great work as Weigel’s piggyback partner with five more shutout innings. Walker now ranks sixth in the Southern League in both ERA (2.00) and WHIP (0.96) while having walked just one hitter in 27 innings this season. On Thursday, Joey Wentz took a perfect game into the seventh inning and didn’t allow any runs while Tucker Davidson continued his effective, but inefficient, work on Friday in allowing just two runs over 5.2 innings although he used 101 pitches in doing so. Davidson leads the league with just a .127 batting average allowed and is fourth in ERA at 1.46.
Reliever Jason Hursh had three scoreless one-inning outings on the week while Huascar Ynoa, in his one appearance for the week, gave up a run over two innings in earning a save but struck out three and threw 21 strikes in 23 pitches. Connor Johnstone continued his fine gunslinger work with 4.1 scoreless innings over two games.
The position players continue to be led by outfielders Cristian Pache and Drew Waters. Pache was 9-for-21 with two doubles and a triple on his way to a .429/.478/.571 week. A negative on Pache’s week is that he was 0-for-2 in stolen base attempts on Saturday, making him just 4-for-9 on the season. Waters continued to rake with a 12-for-24 week en route to a .500/.500/.625 week. Waters struck out just four times in those 24 plate appearances but didn’t draw any walks for the week. A couple of M-Braves hitters had rough weeks: 1B-DH Andy Wilkins was 2-for-20 with nine strikeouts and OF Connor Lien was just 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts.
GWINNETT:
Gwinnett Stripers games saw an abundance of offense during a 4-3 week where they scored 47 runs in seven games but also gave up 40 runs during that same time. There were a number of offensive standouts for Gwinnett this week, led by third baseman Austin Riley who wins OFR Position Player of the Week in going 12-for-23 in six games with four doubles, five home runs and eleven RBI while striking out just three times en route to a .522/.560/1.348 hitting line for the week. Last week’s winner, outfielder Adam Duvall, had another strong week in hitting safely in all seven games in a .375/.483/.917 week where he tallied two doubles, a triple and three home runs while striking out just five times in 29 plate appearances.
Outfielder Travis Demeritte had another fine week with a .381/.480/.667 week with three doubles and a home run. Leadoff hitter OF Rafael Ortega had four multi-hit games in a .357/.471/.607 week. Catcher Alex Jackson returned from a stay on the injured list to go 4-for-7 over two games with a home run while Sal Giardina ably replaced him in going 6-for-15 with three doubles. Outfielder Ryan Lamarre had a down week in going just 2-for-19 with ten strikeouts.
A significant number of the runs allowed by the pitching staff on the week originated on Sunday when Kyle Wright gave up eight runs in just 1.2 innings. Fortunately, he rebounded with his next start on Friday with seven strong innings where he allowed just three runs on five hits. Sean Newcomb had a second consecutive great start on Monday where he gave up just one run in six innings while walking no one. Bryse Wilson had a nice start on Tuesday when he struck out seven and gave up two runs in 4.2 innings. Kolby Allard had a rough start on Wednesday afternoon in giving up seven runs in 5.1 innings although just three were earned due to two Austin Riley errors.
Rehabbing relievers were a big part of Gwinnett’s week with Jonny Venters tossing three scoreless one-inning outings while Jesse Biddle pitched a perfect inning on Saturday night in earning a win. Thomas Burrows had two subpar outings this week in giving up a run on two walks, four hits and a hit batsman over just 2.1 innings. Ben Rowen had a solid week with a four-inning scoreless spot start on Saturday and a relief appearance where he tossed 2.1 shutout innings. Jose Rafael De Paula had another good week with two hitless outings where he struck out six in three innings. Elian Leyva had some trouble during the week in allowing five earned runs and eight hits in 4.2 innings over two games.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
4/30/2019: 3B Darling Florentino placed on 7-day injured list for A Rome
4/30/2019: IF Ariel Montesino promoted to A Rome from extended spring training
Reports are that Florentino shouldn’t miss much time. In the meantime, third base in Rome has been handled primarily by Brenden Venter. Montesino was a minor league free agent picked up by the Braves this offseason.
5/1/2019: C Raffy Lopez placed on 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett
5/1/2019: C Zack Soria activated from 7-day injured list for A+ Florida and promoted to AAA Gwinnett
Soria’s stay in Gwinnett turned out to be brief, as seen below.
5/2/2019: LHP Corbin Clouse placed on 7-day injured list of AAA Gwinnett
5/2/2019: LHP Jordan Harrison promoted from AA Mississippi to AAA Gwinnett
No word on what has been ailing Clouse, but his last outing on April 30 he only faced one batter and walked him. On the mound he looked uncomfortable and seemed like he was trying to loosen up his shoulder.
5/2/2019: OF Tyler Neslony activated from 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett; assigned to AA Mississippi
5/2/2019: OF Gary Schwartz assigned to A+ Florida from AA Mississippi
5/2/2019: OF Shean Michel assigned to extended spring training from A+ Florida
The activation of Neslony started a downward migration of outfielders, with Shean Michel the ultimate victim for now as he is dropped from the Fire Frogs roster. Neslony had a disappointing 2018 season for Mississippi after a strong 2017 first with Florida and then with Melbourne of the Australian Summer League.
5/2/2019: RHP Matt Withrow activated from 7-day injured list for AA Mississippi; assigned to A+ Florida
5/2/2019: RHP Ryan Shetter assigned to extended spring training from A+ Florida
The best news of the week was the return of Withrow, who was holding his own in the 2017 Mississippi rotation with the likes of Soroka, Max Fried, and Kolby Allard before a broken leg sent him to the disabled list. He returned at the end of the season to make some rehab appearances, but he ended up missing all of 2018 for presumably another ailment.
5/3/2019: C Alex Jackson activated from 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett
5/3/2019: C Zack Soria assigned to extended spring training from AAA Gwinnett
Hopefully Soria enjoyed his two days of getting AAA-level pay.
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