Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Roundup
Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Roundup – Gwinnett (16-21)
Gwinnett continued its struggles last week on Thursday, falling to Syracuse 4-1. Greg Smith had a solid start, but the Braves couldn’t give him any runs to help. Smith went 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and a walk while striking out 5. Jose Peraza and Cedric Hunter were the only Braves with multiple hits, and Hunter picked up the only extra base hit with a double.
Heartbreak ensued on Friday for Gwinnett as an 8th inning rally to take a 4-2 lead over Louisville was squandered as the G-Braves bullpen allowed 3 runs in the top of the ninth and Gwinnett lost 5-4. Matt Wisler wasn’t at the top of his game, but he gave the Braves 5 2/3 innings, allowing 2 runs (only one earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks with 5 strikeouts. I’m not writing up Wisler’s start this time, but what I saw of the Friday game was very frustrating as Joe Benson‘s error (his 5th on the season!) was just one of a collection of plays the Gwinnett defense should have made behind Wisler. Wisler could be a guy who takes a 4+ ERA to the majors and suddenly with guys like Jace Peterson and Andrelton Simmons up the middle behind him turns into a low-3 ERA pitcher for quite some time. After Wisler left the game, David Carpenter and Aaron Kurcz combined for 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 4. John Cornely came in for the 9th to collect the save, but he allowed a 3-run home run to seal the fate for the Braves. The Braves got two more hits from Adonis Garcia. Eury Perez collected a double and stole his 19th base of the season while Joe Benson stole his 3rd base of the year.
Gwinnett once again lost the game late on Saturday, giving Louisville a 3-1 win with the bullpen giving up a run in both the 8th and 9th innings to turn a 1-1 tie into a loss. Kanekoa Texeira started the game for the Braves, and he went 4 innings, only allowing 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 3. Ian Thomas was the pitching star of the game, continuing his scoreless time in Gwinnett with 3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing only 1 hit and striking out 6 Bats hitters. Sean Kazmar continued to flash excellent hitting with 3 hits, including a triple to bring his season average to .347. Cedric Hunter had 2 hits, including a double, and stole his 1st base of the year. Barrett Kleinknecht collected 2 hits and Mycal Jones walked twice and stole his 1st base for Gwinnett’s offense.
For the third game in a row, the flourish of runs for Louisville came in the 9th inning, but this time they were already up 3-2 when the bullpen gave up 4 runs, and though Gwinnett scored 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the 9th, they lost the Sunday tilt 7-4. Ryan Weber continued his masterful pitching in his first appearance since his promotion from Mississippi. He’s now made 10 appearances and 4 starts on the season, providing an excellent swing man to first the Mississippi and now the Gwinnett pitching staffs. He’ll very possibly be up in the majors soon, and anyone looking back on the value of Cristhian Martinez in 2011-2012 or even Jorge Sosa in 2005 will know how valuable Weber’s flexibility between the pen and rotation can be for a team. Weber went 5 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits and a walk while striking out 1. Adonis Garcia had 3 hits and a double to bring his season average to .351, and he stole his 2nd base of the year. Eury Perez had two hits, as did Daniel Castro, and newly acquired Wil Nieves had 2 hits as well.
Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Roundup – Mississippi (20-16)
Mississippi got a quality start from Greg Ross on Thursday, but still fell to Mobile 3-2. Ross went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3. The M-Braves didn’t suffer from a lack of base runners, they just couldn’t get any of them across the plate. Eric Garcia was the only Brave with multiple hits. KD Kang had the only extra base hit with a triple. The M-Braves did draw 4 walks on the day, and Matt Lipka stole his 4th base, but the team still ended up on the losing side. Mallex Smith did have a throwing error, his first on the season.
Mississippi bounced back on Friday, getting a 5-2 win behind a very solid start from Victor Mateo, going 7 scoreless innings, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 3 to win his first decision of the season. Seth Loman was the offensive star for the M-Braves, collecting 3 hits and a walk in four trips to the plate, including a double. KD Kang had 2 hits, and Chris O’Dowd swiped his 3rd stolen base on the season to go along with his .380+ average.
I’ve heard conflicting reports, but that sound of overwhelming relief you heard in the Pensacola area on Saturday was most likely Jason Hursh after easily his best start of the season. He helped the M-Braves defeat the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (how great a team name match up is the Blue Wahoos versus the Mudcats?!) 1-0. Hursh threw 6 scoreless innings, allowing only 3 hits and a walk while striking out 4. Ryan Kelly gave Mudcat fans a heart attack in the 9th inning, loading the bases on 3 hits allowed before closing out the game for his 9th save. Not surprising that in a low-scoring game, the offense didn’t have a lot to mention, but Emerson Landoni did have two hits, including a double. David Rohm made his only hit count, knocking out a 1st inning home run with 2 outs that was the only run of the game.
The M-Braves finished out a 3-1 weekend with a 10-inning 3-2 win over Pensacola on Sunday. Tyrell Jenkins got the start for Mississippi and pitched well without his best control, going 7 scoreless innings, allowing 3 runs and 5 walks while striking out 3. The Braves had 10 hits, including 2 each from Mallex Smith and David Rohm. Rio Ruiz and Seth Loman each had doubles on the day.
Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Roundup – Carolina (19-15)
Thursday‘s game was cancelled in the aftermath of the bus crash. They brought in a number of players from Rome to replace the six Mudcats who landed on the DL – Lucas Sims, Dustin Peterson, Dave Peterson, Jacob Schrader, Tyler Brosius, and Andrew Thurman. That constitutes 3/5 of the Mudcats starting rotation and two of the guys who are usually hitting somewhere in the 3-5 area in the lineup, so the loss was tremendous for what was a very successful Mudcats squad before the accident.
Games resumed Friday with Carolina faced up against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Chicago Cubs organization, including personal favorite and former Braves catching prospect Victor Caratini. The Pelicans defeated a scrambled Mudcat squad 7-3. Yean Carlos Gil got the start for the Mudcats and went 5 1/3 innings, allowing 6 runs on 11 hits while striking out 6. Carolina’s offense was able to get 9 hits, led by newcomer Keith Curcio, who brought his .340+ batting average from Rome and just kept hitting, getting 2 hits in his first game in Carolina. Sean Godfrey had 2 hits, a double, and a nice assist from center field on a double play. Levi Hyams also collected 2 hits on the day.
The one thing a team after a rough week and inserting new players definitely doesn’t need is a long game, but after 12 innings on Saturday, Myrtle Beach came out victorious over the Mudcats 3-2. Newly recalled starter Brandon Barker got the start for Carolina and went 4 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4. Jose Briceno forced extra innings with his home run in the 9th inning, but the Mudcats offense was sparse otherwise. Keith Curcio kept hitting, netting 2 more hits along with a stolen base. Sean Godfrey stole his 5th base and Connor Oliver stole his 2nd base of the year.
Another Rome call up, Sean Furney, started the Sunday game for Carolina, and while he pitched well, the Mudcats fell again to Myrtle Beach 6-5. Furney went 6 innings in his first high-A start, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out 2. Connor Oliver had two triples on the day to lead the Mudcat offense. Sal Giardina had 2 hits, while Johan Camargo and Reed Harper clubbed doubles and Carlos Franco knocked another triple. Keith Curcio was on base twice in spit of not getting a hit, and he had a stolen base on the day, his 2nd for Carolina and 6th on the season.
Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Roundup – Rome (16-19)
Rome could say they were dominated by Asheville pitching on Thursday, but they still came away with the win in spite of striking out 11 times and only scraping together 4 hits. Caleb Beech got the start for Rome and went 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 3. Zach Quintana struck out 3 of the 5 batters he faced in 1 2/3 innings of perfect relief to get his 2nd save. While no hitter for Rome had multiple hits, Bryan De La Rosa got the start at DH and hit his 2nd home run of the year. De La Rosa has always been a defense first catcher, but his bat has been at least average this year in Rome, which would only help the Braves depth at the position.
Between Thursday and Friday, a number of Rome players were called up to Carolina to fill in the roster as a number of Mudcats went on the DL after their bus crashed en route to a game. The team took the roster shuffle in stride, however, shutting out Asheville for the 6-0 victory on Friday. Max Povse made the start, but as he is building up arm strength after his early injury, he only went 4 innings, though he did strike out 4 and not allow a run in those innings. Oriel Caicedo was the pitching star of the game, giving Rome 3 innings of scoreless relief, only allowing one hit while striking out 5. The Braves bats contributed as well as Omar Obregon, Matt Tellor, Tanner Murphy, and Joseph Daris each had 2 hits on the day. Ozhaino Albies, Murphy, and Daris knocked out doubles and Jordan Edgerton added a triple in the victory.
Rome scored another victory on Saturday over Asheville 6-3. Alec Grosser didn’t look the best, but he got through 5 1/3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 1 to pick up the win. Dustin Emmons and Kyle Kinman threw a combined 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing a combined 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 4. Jordan Edgerton had a double among 2 hits on the day and Matt Tellor did the same. Braxton Davidson led the team with 3 hits. Joseph Daris collected his 3rd triple. Ozhaino Albies stole his 14th base and Codey McElroy stole his 2nd of the season.
With 3 outs to go to a perfect 4-0 weekend, the Rome bullpen saw the first real chink in Zach Quintana’s armor on the season as he allowed 4 runs in the bottom of the ninth and Asheville picked up the Sunday win 9-8. Chad Sobotka only lasted 1 2/3 innings to start the game, and while his defense didn’t help him as he allowed 2 unearned runs, but he didn’t have his control on the day, walking 3. Bryan De La Rosa had 3 hits on the game. Ozhaino Albies had two hits and his 15th stolen base on the year, though he also picked up his 9th error on the season. Joseph Daris hit a home run, and Jordan Edgerton, Matt Tellor, and Codey McElroy had doubles. Stephen Gaylor stole 2 bases on the day.
That’s All!
The Carolina bus crash was the big story of the week, and it was obvious in watching the Carolina team this weekend that they were not all together mentally quite yet after the whole experience. I had some health stuff go on this weekend, so there will be a bit of a delay on the Victor Mateo piece, but I also intend to watch all of Jason Hursh’s start from the weekend, and if there’s enough there to write about, you can bet I’ll have a review of his start as well. Rumor mills have been buzzing that the Braves intended to make a bunch of promotions win or lose after the weekend series in Florida. After sweeping Miami, I’ll be curious to see if they stick to that plan as the names of guys like Ian Thomas and Adonis Garcia were certainly mentioned as promotion candidates, and it’d be good with Garcia to see what the Braves have there. While I know Braves fans are itching to see Jose Peraza, the injury on Thursday and his struggles defensively tell me that he still has good reason to be learning his craft. If the Braves want him to do that learning in Atlanta, that’d be up to them, but I don’t see a reason for him to be pushed to Atlanta with some very important learning still to do before he’s going to impact the big league club in a positive way.