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.
Be sure to check out the OFR Farm Report Podcast, coming out this Tuesday!
Life On the Farm
DSL BRAVES:
The Braves started the week with a three game losing streak and closed it out with a three game winning streak, Saturday’s match against the Marlins stretching into 12th inning and a 6-5 win.
Outfielder Deivi Estrada continued his hot hitting, going .364/.563/.455 with a double this week. Estrada is riding an 11-game hitting streak, during which he has hit .444/.533/.528 with 3 stolen bases.
Right-hander Jorge Bausita pitched a second consecutive Quality Start, going 6 innings against the A’s an allowing only 1 earned run while striking out 5.
GCL BRAVES:
The Braves went 2-3 on a rain-soaked week that featured five postponements. The Braves continue to get good performance from the 18-year-olds Michael Harris and Vaughn Grissom. Harris went 5-for-10 with 2 extra base hit, while Grissom went 4-for-13 and knocking in 3. First baseman Mason Berne went 3-for-7, including a homer, in 2 games.
Right-hander Zach Seipel pitched 3 scoreless innings in a start. Indigo Diaz, the Braves 27th-round pick, made his pro debut with a clean inning of relief.
DANVILLE:
The D-Braves went 3-4 on the week, dropping their record to 16-22, now in last place in the Appy League East Division and 7.5 games back. The team has a 4.88 ERA, third highest in the league, but they received two stand-out starts this week from right-hander Ricky DeVito. The 8th-rounder pitched 7.2 scoreless innings combined, only allowing 4 hits and 2 runs while striking out 8. They also got two scoreless relief outings apiece from Albinson Volzquez, Greg Leban, and Justin Yeager.
First baseman Bryce Ball continued his power assault on the league, hitting 3 more home runs to run his season total to 12 in only 32 games. Ball is now hitting .310/.397/.698 for the year.
ROME:
Rome went 3-3 on the week, keeping pace with first-place Augusta, but allowing Asheville to tie them for second place, 1 game back.
Catcher Shea Langeliers, who had been scuffling at the plate most of his time since joining the team, exploded for a .364/.375/.545 line this week with a home run. Fellow first-rounder Braden Shewmake also went .320/.393/.480, while second baseman Greg Cullen got back on track after being dropped lower in the batting order, going 6-for-20 with a homer.
Rome got several strong starting pitching performances, headed by Alan Rangel, who threw 7 innings of four-hit, shut out ball. Right on his heals was righty Odalvi Javier, who allowed one run on 8 hits scattered over 7 innings. Javier has a 1.42 ERA in his last 6 starts. Left-hander Tanner Lawson had a strong week out of the bullpen, pitching 6.2 innings over two outings and striking out six and allowing only 1 unearned run.
Right-hander Trey Riley came off the disabled list and allowed one run in two innings in a relief outing.
FLORIDA:
The Frogs went 4-3 on the week; while they remain in the cellar of the FSL North Division, they improved to 6.5 games behind first place Dunedin.
Right-hander Nolan Kingham pitched two strong outings this week to earn OFR Pitcher of the Week honors. Kingham got the loss against Fort Myers on Sunday despite only allowing 2 earned runs in 8 innings, but followed it up with a start on Saturday where he came one out away from pitching a complete-game shutout, scattering 7 hits over 8.2 scoreless innings and striking out 9. Phil Pfeifer, Freddy Tarnok, and Hayden Deal all pitched well in their starts, allowing only 4 runs between their 4 starts.
Right-hander Caleb Dirks came off the injured list and pitched his first non-rehab innings since August 2017, throwing three innings over two appearances and allowing a hit and no runs while striking out 3.
The team needed that pitching because the offense was very cold, scoring only 18 runs for the week. Infielders Brett Langhorne and Kevin Josephina lead what offense there was, with Langhorne going 7-for-19 with 2 doubles and Josephina hitting .316 with a home run. First baseman CJ Alexander has struggled since coming off the injured list; he is hitting only .154/.302/.173 for the Fire Frogs in 17 games.
MISSISSIPPI:
The M-Braves had another solid 4-3 week although they are still seven games back of the Biloxi Shuckers in the Southern League South division. The offense once again struggled to generate runs with only 25 over seven games. Recently promoted players took the lead on offense with catcher William Contreras, this week’s OFR Position Player of the Week, having an 8-for-18 week with a double, two home runs and eight RBI (.444/.500/.833). Outfielder Greyson Jenista continued his strong July with an 8-for-17 week (.471/.550/.471) while SS/CF Ray-Patrick Didder continued his strong second half with a 7-for-22 week that included two doubles and a home run (.318/.444/.545). These strong performances were needed as outfielders Cristian Pache (.240/.296/.320) and Drew Waters (.259/.310/.333) had subpar weeks.
The Mississippi pitching staff had a good week overall with 26 runs allowed over their seven games although nineteen of them were over their last two games. Tucker Davidson had a great start on Wednesday with one run allowed over six innings and nine strikeouts and Ian Anderson followed the next night with no earned runs given up and nine strikeouts over 5.1 innings of work. Kyle Muller had a good performance in a game one doubleheader loss on Tuesday with just two unearned runs allowed in six innings and six strikeouts. Joey Wentz had a mixed week with a win (8 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) on Sunday and a loss (3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) on Saturday. Jasseel De La Cruz also had a mediocre start on Friday with four runs and eight hits given up in just four innings.
GWINNETT:
The Gwinnett Stripers continued to roll with a 4-2 record on the week and are now 62-43 for the season, holding a 1.5 game lead over Durham in the International League South division race. The Stripers won with pitching this week as they held their opponents to seventeen runs in six games while giving up two runs or less in four games. Kolby Allard (5.2 IP, 7 ER) and Kyle Wright (6 IP, 3 ER) were the only pitchers to give up more than one earned run in their starts this week. Bryse Wilson (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K) and Touki Toussaint (4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K) were both impressive in their first starts after being optioned from Atlanta while Huascar Ynoa (5 IP, 1 ER) also had a solid start. Mike Foltynewicz may have gotten himself one step closer to Atlanta with a good start where he allowed just one run and four baserunners over seven innings of work.
Due to bullpen churn. Ben Rowen saw action in three games and allowed just one run over 5.1 innings while Patrick Weigel threw three hitless innings over two outings. Thomas Burrows had two scoreless one-inning appearances while Wes Parsons had a three-inning scoreless relief outing after being optioned out from Atlanta. Dan Winkler also had two scoreless one-inning appearances but also had a meltdown on Friday night with three walks and two runs allowed in just two-thirds of an inning.
Outfielder Rafael Ortega led the offense with an 8-for-20 week with three doubles, two home runs (.400/.478/.850) and eight runs driven in. Adam Duvall had another good week before being called up to Atlanta to replace the injured Nick Markakis with a 5-for-15 stretch although he struck out seven times (.333/.444/.667). Catcher Alex Jackson was 5-for-19 with a home run and eight strikeouts while infielder Riley Unroe was just 3-for-16 but managed six walks to bring his OBP for the week to .409.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
7/20/2019: RHP Trey Riley activated from 7-day injured list for A Rome
7/20/2019: RHP Victor Cavalieri released from A Rome
Riley was out for just a little over a month after being moved to the Rome bullpen. The 2018 4th-rounder has struggled mightily with control this season, but remains an intriguing talent.
Cavalieri was a 2018 36th-round pick. He leaves the organization after giving up 7 runs in 7.1 innings for Rome this inning and pitching to a 9.62 ERA in stops in the GCL, Rome, and Florida over the last year.
7/21/2019: RHP Patrick Weigel optioned to AAA Gwinnett from MLB Atlanta (transaction resolved on 7/22)
7/22/2019: RHP Shane Carle activated from 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett
7/22/2019: RHP Caleb Dirks activated from 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett; assigned to A+ Florida
7/22/2019: RHP Troy Bacon placed on 7-day injured list for A+ Florida
7/22/2019: RHPs Jason Creasy and Kurt Hoekstra assigned to AA Mississippi from AAA Gwinnett
7/22/2019: RHP Jonathan Aro placed on 7-day injured list for AA Mississippi
7/22/2019: RHP Andres Santiago released from AA Mississippi
Any so it was written that July 22nd would henceforth be known as The Great Right-Hander Migration.
Weigel’s first major league call-up lasted two games and he didn’t get into a game. For Caleb Dirks, it’s a long time back to the active roster after working back from injury almost two years ago. He had been pitching on rehab assignment for the GCL Braves, but this move allows him to come back against higher-level competition without throwing him into the offensive fire of AAA ball.
The real end result of this however is the release of Andres Santiago after throwing 234.1 innings over the last three seasons over four different levels, starting and relieving, wherever the organization needed someone to plug in. We at Outfield Fly Rule salute you, gunslinger.
7/24/2019: SS Carlos Paraguate activated from 7-day injured list for A Rome
7/24/2019: IF Ariel Montesino placed on restricted list for A Rome
Paraguate was promoted from the DSL Braves straight to Rome to start the 2019 season, a move that he wasn’t ready for offensively having only turned 18 years old two months before the season started. The Braves were forced to rush Paraguate due to the lack of other infield options in the organization, but now he gets to ease back in 2019 first-rounder Braden Shewmake having been added to the team.
7/24/2019: RHP Jeremy Walker selected by MLB Atlanta from the AAA Gwinnett
7/24/2019: RHP Wes Parsons optioned to AAA Gwinnett
7/24/2019: RHP Shane Carle designated for assignment
Walker has pitched very well for Mississippi this season and after a two-game adjustment period for Gwinnett as well. He would have needed to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, so it’s good that the Braves have the opportunity to take a look at him at the major league level now.
The casualty of this move was Carle, who has had a disappointing season, but Braves fans should be thankful for helping solidify the Atlanta bullpen in the first half of the 2018 season. Carle was later traded to the Texas Rangers for cash considerations.
7/25/2019: RHP Indigo Diaz activated to the GCL Braves
7/25/2019: RHP Ciriaco Javier released from the GCL Braves
7/26/2019: RHP Ben Thompson activated to the GCL Braves
7/26/2019: RHP Cameron Kurz released from the GCL Braves
Diaz and Thompson were 2019 draft picks signed by the Braves several weeks ago, but their assignments had been pending; both are foreign citizens (Canadian and New Zealander respectively), so the conjecture is that that it has taken time for the players to get work visas.
Javier was a 2015 international free agent out of the Dominican; he spent parts of three seasons in the DSL before making it stateside last year. He has pitched sparingly in 2019 and at 23 years old was not a prospect.
Kurz is more of a surprise. Considered by some to be an 18th-round steal in the 2018 draft, Kurz came to the organization with a closer pedigree at UC-San Diego, but injury issues have limited him to only 11.2 innings since he signed with the Braves.
7/27/2019: OF Adam Duvall recalled to MLB Atlanta from AAA Gwinnett
7/27/2019: IF Jack Lopez activated from 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett
No doubt this hasn’t been the season that Duvall expected coming into it, but Duvall has used his extended time well, remaking his swing and in the process shattering the Gwinnett franchise single-season home run record.
Lopez as been a good addition to the team, hitting .289/.339/.439 while filling in at third, short, and second base. Lopez has already tied his season high in home runs.
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