Fewer transactions this week mean that the teams have mostly settled in after assimilating the new draftees. Today, I’ll focus on the lower half of the minor league system… will catch the rest…. hopefully on Wednesday.
In Georgia, the Class A Rome Braves are 7-6 since July 1st – that’s actually an improvement of late, as this team needs a little more offense… plus they have a couple of holes on the left side of the infield. Here’s the hitters:
- You’d have to say that Kyle Wren is still hitting well (now at .314 after 9 games on A-ball) – that despite a .400 clip over his initial 4 games. He’s only played in 5 more since, but got his first pro homer over the weekend, and still has only struck out 3 times in 35 official AB while walking 4 times and stealing 5 bases. That’s a pretty odd stat…. more walks and steals than K’s.
- Infielder Edison Sanchez is on a tear. In his past 12 games, his average has gone up from .237 to .291 (going from 76 to 117 ABs). By my count, that’s 16 hits in his last 41 AB, with 4 doubles included.
- SS Jose Peraza (.276) and C Chase Anselment (2.86) both bumped their averages up a couple notches in the past week+ as well.
Pitchers…
- Mauricio Cabrera has been a workhorse for Rome, now up to 92+ innings. He has a 4.29 ERA and 1.44 WHIP, but that’s a lot of work.
- Top prospect Lucas Sims is still doing well, posting a 2.94 ERA over 67+ innings now. His WHIP is a scant 1.05 with a 3:1 K-to-BB ratio. Nice work.
- Reliever Shae Simmons has an ERA down to 1.70 over 37 innings with 22 saves and a 0.97 WHIP…and a 4:1 K/BB ratio. That will play.
- Ditto for Carlos Perez: 32 ip, 2.25 (though up a notch from 2.03 at last report). 0.88 WHIP.
- 1st Rounder Jason Hursh is starting slowly, but well: 4 innings and 2 games…3 hits, 4 K, 2 BB, and no runs.
Danville has been on an absolute roll: 9-2 since July 3rd. You’ll see why in just a bit.
- 3B Victor Caratini. 12 for 39, adding 5 2Bs and 6 RBI. 4 errors in 21 games at 3B. OPS slightly down to .884.
- 2B Ronald Luna: 5 games, .313 with a double, no strikeouts in 16 AB.
- CF Blake Brown has raised his average 50 points to .300 and OPS from .500 to .812 over his last dozen ABs.
- C Bryan De La Rosa likewise went from .179 to .288 in his past 31 AB.
Lots of improvements to pitching ERAs over the past couple of weeks – lots of shutdowns by the staff lead directly to a bunch of W’s:
- Andry Ubiera from 4.09 to 3.60 in 12 innings.
- Michael Flores from 5.63 to 3.92 in 12+ innings. He leads the staff with 28 strikeouts in 20.2 total innings.
- Matt Kimbrel from 5.06 to 3.27 while almost doubling his innings to 11.
- Dakota Dill: from 5.40 down to 3.24.
- Matt Marksberry: 8.10 to 4.70.
- Ryan Gunther cut his ERA in half: 13.50 to 6.48.
- Jordan Sechler did that and more: 4.50 to 0.96
- Michael Swanner: 4.50 to 1.59.
- Richie Tate: 4.5 to 1.38
- Okay, Andrew Waszak finally gave up a run… but has only yielded the one in his 13.2 innings.
- Luis Merejo threw his first 7+ innings for Danville… no damage against him.
Nice job, pitchers!
The GCL-league Rookies have been playing a lot better in July. After getting off to a terrible start, they have now won 7 of their last 11 games, including a 15-1 stomping of the GCL Blue Jays today.
- Outfielder Victor Reyes is tearing it up. 2 hits again today, and .351/.426/.456/.883 overall in the first 16 games (today was #17).
- Infielder Dylan Manwaring has gotten off to a nice start (8 games, 20 AB), hitting .350 himself.
- CF Cody Livesay was at .333 (before an oh-for-5 today), and C Tanner Murphy has boosted himself to .316 – both in 8 games.
There’s a pretty big drop-off in averages after that, but my concern is the errors… the third basemen already have combined for 11 of them, and the infield in general is averaging over 1 per game. But it’s early yet, and the kids are still settling in, so maybe I should just shut up.
Standouts on the pitching side are….
- Oriel Caicedo (1.59 ERA in 17 innings). Today he went 4 ip, giving up only 2 hits; no runs.
- Daniel Cordero (2.31 in almost 12)
- Luis Merejo, Jonathan Holmes, Tyler Brosius and Gary Moran (0.00 in 26 total innings)
New arrival and 3rd round pick Carlos Salazar got his feet wet…in a bit of wet cement: 1 inning, 2 earned, 4 hits, 3 walks.