Atlanta Braves: Minors Monday
With respect to Ben and his vacation tour that you’ll learn about later today, I will attempt to fill his considerable shoes (though I go size 15) by giving you today’s Minors Monday report.
We’ll start in the Dominican Summer League, where the DSL Braves are having a rough start: they are now 3-10 on the season (0-3 since last report), and – this is weird – were beaten by a pitcher for the DSL Mets named Familia in their last game. That contest went 2-1 in 15 innings with neither team able to put much together despite an evenly split 22 combined hits.
It’s still very early, of course, but there are signs of hitting with this DSL club: seven players sport batting averages above .275 thus far; five over .300… including C Anthony Concepcion, who is at .318 with 12 game appearances.
The pitching is likewise hard to gauge at this point, though four members of the staff have ERA’s around 1.15 after 7+ innings, though pitching control is always an issue at these ages. Oddly, the one pitcher seemingly without control issues (Luis Mora) is getting hit hard: 9 strikeouts, 1 walk in 10 innings… but a 6.30 ERA… though he’s also whacked 4 hitters.
3 Rome Braves Named as All-Stars
Moving into Georgia, the Rome Braves announced that Joseph Daris, Ozhaino Albies and Kyle Kinman will be traveling to the home of the Asheville (NC) Tourists for the June 23rd All-Star game.
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The 24-year-old LHP Kinman sports a 1.17 ERA in 23 innings of relief over 20 appearances (26 K, 15 BB). He has 10 saves for the Rome club.
CF Daris is hitting .277 with 10 steals and a .768 OPS with just 1 error in the outfield over 57 games.
Ozzy Albies is continuing to have the kind of year we were hoping to see back up his stellar numbers from last season: he’s now at .320 with a .790 OPS and 22 steals in 61 games. He’s the only Rome Brave with over 100 total bases (next closest is Jordan Edgerton with 85), and his OBP is at .378.
The only ‘gotcha’ in Ozzy’s game right now is defense at SS: 13 errors already. That actually doesn’t lead the club, as Edgerton has 16 next door at third base. Honestly, if those guys could clean that up a bit, I expect Rome’s record could improve a bit over the current 29-34 (2-2 since Thursday; several pitchers have lots of unearned runs on their tally).
A shout-out for Braxton Davidson: just saw a tweet mentioning his personal 10-game hitting streak. His bat is definitely coming around: .279 with 5 homers and 22 RBI and just 4 errors in Left Field. A .407 OBP and .406 SLG gives him a .813 OPS for the year, and those numbers are climbing. Real good to see.
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Carolina Gets an All-Star
SS Johan Camargo has been named as an All-Star, and will travel to Rancho Cucamonga, CA for the June 23rd game between the Carolina League and California League All-Stars.
Camargo is hitting .295 with a .740 OPS and .352 OBP in 59 games, as the Braves continue to find excellent middle-infield prospects up and down their entire system.
Dustin Peterson is hitting lights-out: up to .308 now with an .849 OPS including 5 homers for the Mudcats. Sean Godfrey is right behind him with a .307 clip in CF. Conner Lien is the third member of this outfield trio at the top of the chart for the club at .299.
Yean Carlos Gill was dropped from the 40-man roster this week as his 1-8/6.47 record did not justify keeping him on the protected list. He’s clearly been struggling, but the entire staff has been since the bus crash: Andrew Thurman, Steve Janas, Ty;er Brosius and Lucas Sims are still on the DL (Janas for an injury prior to the accident – just after his near-no-no).
Carolina now stands at 30-32 on the year and 1-3 since last Thursday.
Mississippi Stars
The Southern League also recently announced its slate of All-Stars for their June 23rd contest in Montgomery, and the Mississippi Braves are very well represented.
Named to the South Division team are Pitchers Tyrell Jenkins, Jake Brigham and Jorge Reyes, plus outfielder Mallex Smith. Catcher Chris O’Dowd was originally named as well, but due to his PED suspension, that honor will undoubtedly be rescinded.
Jenkins and Brigham are throwing very well for the Braves, with 3.00 and 3.10 ERAs respectively as starters. Jorge Reyes follows up in relief with a 1.73 ERA over 41 innings with a 1.10 WHIP. If Jenkins can get his control dialed in (31 walks in 69 innings), then he will be a force to be reckoned with. Brigham is already getting there with 14 walks in 58 innings.
Mallex Smith is continuing to work on his defense while posting excellent numbers at the plate, a key part of what makes this Mississippi club one probably the most exciting to watch in the farm system. Mallex is hitting .338 with a .415 OBP and 21 steals in 53 games (.825 OPS).
Kyle Tait, the M-Braves radio voice, commented (via twitter) that Mallex’s routes to fly balls are still a work in progress, but when you have ’80’ grade speed, that overcomes also any routing error you can come up with… add a soft glove and you’ve got the makings of a solid center fielder for the future.
Mississippi had a rough weekend as they ran into a buzzsaw named ‘the Biloxi Shuckers’. Some minor league organizations will tend to “load up” their clubs at times to help improve their records and draw fans in. This team, which was the Huntsville Stars (Brewers affiliate) last year, may have done just that to get the attention of fans in their new Southern Mississippi home.
Biloxi is now 39-24 on the year and clinched the first half title at the expense of out M-Braves this weekend. Mississippi went 1-3 since Thursday, now standing at 32-30, and now has a shutout string of 21 innings in which they haven’t scored. Even Mallex failed to get a hit on Sunday in the 2-hit shutdown. Ouch!
The AAA Team
AAA Gwinnett also had a 1-3 last weekend, now sitting at 20-32 for the season.
I could tell you that Manny Banuelos is really pitching well (2.19 ERA, except for his walk rate… 29 in ~66 innings), or that Matt Wisler has been struggling a bit lately (up to 4.29), or that David Carpenter II has a 0.94 ERA (12 walks in ~29 innings), but none of you will care about that.
You want to know about Peter Moylan.
Pete has still been working through the rust of not having pitched much competitively since 2013, and it’s showing. His ERA in 4.2 innings is 7.71 (4 earned runs) with 4 walks and 5 K’s. He’s also given up 6 hits, so the jury is still out – and probably will be through June – while we see what he’s still got left to give.
We’ll leave it right there for now… and that being our Minor League Monday report.