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. Happy Independence Day to our fellow Americans.
Due to the holiday there will be no OFR Farm Report Podcast this week.
Weekly Round-Up
COMPLEX LEAGUES:
The DSL Braves found their offensive groove last week. In their last six games, the Braves have averaged 10 runs a game. Unfortunately this hasn’t done much to help the standings, and the Braves currently sit in last place in the DSL North Division at 6-15, 14 games back of the 20-1 DSL Dodgers-Bautista team. Infielder Carlos Cordero continued his hot streak, going 4-for-13 in 4 games with a stolen base, though he did have a six-game hitting streak broken on Saturday.
The FCL Braves made a move in the standings, going 4-2 since last Monday, bringing their record to 10-11, in third place in the FCL South Division, 5 games behind the frontrunning FCL Pirates. Outfielder Douglas Glod had a monster week, going 6-for-15 with 3 doubles, 2 triples, a homer, 8 walks, and a stolen base. After a slow start, Glod now has a 9-game on-base streak in which he’s hitting .321/.524/.821. Injured Stripers Darius Vines and Jackson Stephens made rehab appearances this week, each tossing two scoreless innings.
AUGUSTA:
The Greenjackets took 4 of 6 against Columbia in the first complete series of the second half and share first place in the standings at 5-4 with Charleston, Columbia, and Kannapolis. They will host Myrtle Beach for a six-game series starting today.
Augusta got some terrific starting pitching the week, once again starting with righty Jorge Bautista to start the series. This week’s OFR Pitcher of the Week only gave up 3 hits and one unearned run in 6 innings while striking out 4, his third quality start in row. The next night righty Jhancarlos Lara gave the team 4 strong inning, giving up only 2 hits and 1 run and on Friday Owen Murphy had his second consecutive strong outing, striking out 6 in 4 scoreless innings.
Right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach, fresh off being named to represent the Braves organization for this weekend’s Future’s Game, gave up 2 runs (1 earned) in 5.2 innings, again setting a new season high in pitches thrown with 81. On Monday Adam Shoemaker picked up a start and struck out a career-high 7 batters in 4 innings, allowing a run on 5 hits. Left-hander Scott Strickland had a strong piggyback outing in relief of Jared Johnson, allowing only an unearned run in 4 innings and picking up a win.
Centerfielder Tyler Collins had a big week, going 6-for-18 with 2 doubles, 2 walks, 2 stolen bases, and 5 RBI, 4 of those coming in Friday’s 12-5 win. Outfielder Bryson Worrell went 6-for-19 with a home run, 5 walks, and 5 RBI on the week.
ROME:
Rome split the 6-game home series with Bowling Green, giving them a 4-5 record to start the second half, 5 games back of front-running Hickory who is off to a 9-0 start. Rome will travel to Greenville for a seven-game series as they have a scheduled Wednesday double-header to make up for a May 24 rainout.
Right-hander Cedric De Grandpre got the series off to a good start with 5 shutout innings with a career-high 9 strikeouts. Relievers Patrick Halligan and Jose Montilla followed with 2 scoreless innings apiece to give Rome a 1-0 win. Righty Luis Vargas on Friday tossed 2 shutout innings but the bullpen faltered and the offense couldn’t deliver a hit with runners on base as Rome lost 1-4.
Shortstop Ignacio Alvarez had a strong week, going 9-for-22, including a home run. First baseman Bryson Horne, who has been struggling, had his best week of the season going 5-for-13 with a homer. Geraldo Quintero went 7-for-17 while logging time a second, third, left field, and designated hitter.
MISSISSIPPI:
The Mississippi Braves began the second half of their season this week as they traveled to Biloxi to face the Shuckers. After losing the first two games of the series, the M-Braves stormed back to win the remaining four games. Mississippi returns home on Tuesday to start a series against the Montgomery Biscuits.
The starting pitching did not fare particularly well this week as there were no quality starts and only Luis De Avila (5.2 IP, 1 R) on Friday and Tanner Gordon (5 IP, 2 R) on Saturday pitched well and earned victories. However, there were several relievers that pitched well. Jake McSteen, Trey Riley, Kyle Wilcox, and Nick Howard all had multiple scoreless outings while Victor Vodnik (two scoreless, hitless innings) continued his hot streak as he now has a 0.71 ERA since May 3rd with a 0.99 WHIP and 37 strikeouts in 25.1 innings. Daysbel Hernandez pitched two scoreless innings with six strikeouts and now has eleven scoreless outings for Mississippi with just four hits allowed in twelve innings.
Mississippi’s offense was carried by a handful of players this week: shortstop Luke Waddell had two home runs and drove in eleven runs during a .348/.464/.609 week, outfielder Jesse Franklin V went 4-for-4 on Friday with three home runs and two stolen bases and finished the week with a .474/.500/1.158 line with eight RBI, and OF-1B Landon Stephens ended the week strong as he went 8-for-19 with three doubles, three home runs, and five RBI with a .421/.542/.1.052 batting line. Outfielder Justin Dean was only 3-for-21 during the week but had eight walks and eight stolen bases including a four-stolen base game on Saturday.
GWINNETT:
The Gwinnett Stripers started the second half of their season on the road against St. Paul. However, the pitching was dreadful this week as the Stripers gave up at least ten runs in each of their first five games and a total of 62 runs over the six-game series as they were swept by the Saints. The Stripers now return home to face the Omaha Storm Chasers.
The only good start that Gwinnett received this week was on Monday from Allan Winans as he tossed five no-hit innings with seven strikeouts before being removed following an hour-long rain delay. Jared Shuster tossed four solid innings before getting roughed up in the fifth during his start on Saturday and finished with six runs allowed on ten hits over 4.2 innings. AJ Smith-Shawver battled poor command on Sunday as he gave up six earned runs over 3.1 innings with four walks and two home runs allowed. Seth Elledge was the only bullpen arm to record multiple scoreless outings, but Nolan Kingham did have a solid long-relief appearance where he allowed just one hit over three innings with five strikeouts.
The Gwinnett offense averaged nearly six runs a game with Braden Shewmake being a standout courtesy of his game on Wednesday where he hit for the cycle. Shewmake went 8-for-18 during the week with two doubles, a triple, a home run, and three RBI (.444/.667/.833). Shortstop Vaughn Grissom was 7-for-21 with two doubles, two stolen bases, and eight walks (.333/.533/.429). 1B-DH Jesus Aguilar was 4-for-11 with a grand slam and seven RBI while Joe Dunand continued his power surge in going 6-for-22 with three doubles, two home runs, and five RBI (.273/.304/.682). Dunand leads the Stripers in home runs with 13 and is batting .315 with a 1.043 OPS.
POSITION PLAYER of the WEEK:
PITCHER of the WEEK:
Transaction Round-Up
- 6/26/2023: RHP Dereck Rodriguez recalled from AAA Gwinnett; RHP AJ Smith-Shawver optioned to AAA Gwinnett
Smith-Shawver ran into a hot Cincinnati line-up on June 23, giving up 5 runs in 3.1 innings. His lack of command apparently convinced the Braves that he could use some more seasoning in AAA. Rodriguez held a chair until Smith-Shawver’s replacement, Kolby Allard, would be activated.
- 6/25/2023: OF Brandol Mezquita placed on 7-day injured list for A+ Rome
- 6/26/2023: OF Ethan Workinger assigned to A+ Rome from A Augusta
Workinger was hitting .289/.380/.507 with Augusta at the time of the promotion, and .375/.477/.653 with 5 homers in the month of June. Mezquita goes on the IL for the second time; he had originally went out on May 31 and was re-activated on June 14 but only appeared in one game.
- 6/27/2023: IF Charlie Culberson and RHP Seth Elledge signed to minor league contracts
Two familiar faces returned to the fold. Culberson rejected an outright assignment the prior week, now likely in order to sign a non-standard minor league in the understanding that the Braves would call him up quickly — which they would do.
Elledge had an excellect 2022 campaign with Gwinnett and was added to the 40-man roster. He didn’t secure a major league job with Atlanta out of spring training either and was designated for assignment on April 11 in favor of lefty Danny Young. He was claimed by the Mets and played for their AAA club in Syracuse before he was designated again. This time he was claimed by Detroit, and he spent a month with their AAA Toledo affiliate. On June 18 the Tigers designated him and this time he made it through waivers. He refused assignment back Toledo and became a free agent.
- 6/27/2023: 1B Drew Lugbauer activated from the 7-day injured list; IF Jose Dilone assigned to A Augusta from AA Mississippi
Lugbauer resumes re-making the Mississippi power records. Dilone was a temporary fill-in until Lugbauer’s return, coming up from the FCL Braves, so an Augusta assignment is appropriate.
- 6/28/2023: LHP Kolby Allard activated from the 60-day injured list; RHP Dereck Rodriguez optioned to AAA Gwinnett
1430 days after being traded by the Braves to the Texas Rangers for reliever Chris Martin and 1777 days since his last start for Atlanta, former Braves 2015 first-round pick Kolby Allard made his way back to the mound at SunTruist Park as a Brave. He acquitted himself well and will get at least another start. In particular, his curveball had a lot of the shape and action that got Allard first-round attention in the first place.
- 6/29/2023: LHP Jared Shuster optioned to AAA Gwinnett
- 6/30/2023: RHP Michael Soroka recalled from AAA Gwinnett
Shuster stayed in the Braves rotation for 7 starts spaced out over 7 weeks, and the Braves won 5 of those starts. Nevertheless, the Braves have elected to switch out Shuster for Soroka. A close examination of Shuster’s numbers shows that he’s mostly getting by on smoke and mirrors — getting a 13.5% strikeout rate is low, and getting a 8.8% walk rate to go with it is not a recipe for success. Shuster also has been a flyball pitcher and has been victimized by home runs. That said, there’s some positive developments that Shuster can take back to Gwinnett, most notably a slider than has done a lot of work in keeping him competitive.
- 6/30/2023: Selected the contract of IF Charlie Culberson from AAA Gwinnett; C Chadwick Tromp optioned to AAA Gwinnett; LHP Dylan Lee transferred from 15-day to 60-day injured list
Culberson switches back out with Tromp for the roster spot that doesn’t seem to get used. Hard to believe this is what MLB or the MLBPA thought would happen when they increased roster size to 26 but mandated a limit of only 13 pitchers while also instituting the designated hitter in the National League, but they should have.
- 7/1/2023: LHP Danny Young placed on the 7-day injured list (retroactive to 6/30) for AAA Gwinnett; RHP Matt Swarmer activated from the developmental list for AAA Gwinnett
If the Braves need a reliever, they are somewhat more limited. Young had been effective in 8 games for Atlanta this year.
- 7/3/2023: C Joe Hudson activated from the 7-day injured list for AAA Gwinnett; C Arden Pabst assigned to AA Mississippi from AAA Gwinnett; 1B Drew Lugbauer placed on the 7-day injured list for AA Mississippi (retroactive to June 30)
This is the second time in 19 days Lugbauer has had to go on the IL. When healthy he’s been having his best season in AA, hitting .270/.386/.610.
Your Moment of Zen
INCOMING! @Braves prospect Jair Casanova clambers over the bullpen bench to make the catch for the @GreenJackets. pic.twitter.com/A45nuOCcpM
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) July 2, 2023
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