Atlanta Braves Best of the Minors in April

Several Braves’ Minor Leaguers Gained Attention in April

I thought this would be a fun exercise. The Braves have been discussed as having ridiculous talent in their minor league system, and after one month, it’s fun to look back to see who has gotten off to fast starts across the system. I decided to make this a pseudo-team with 9 hitters and 9 pitchers. The numbers listed are all numbers through the month of April.

Hitters

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Catcher

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, Rome, .295/.313/.436, 9 R, 5 2B, 2 HR, 17 RBI, 3/12 BB/K. Morales may need polish behind the plate, but his power is real. He ended the month on a slump that brought down the numbers that he hoisted most of the month.

First Base

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, Carolina, .288/.366/.384, 8 R, 4 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 9/15 BB/K. Meneses was signed out of the Mexican League at 19 very raw, so his development has been slow, but his contact skills are evident.

Second Base

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, Gwinnett, .325/.402/.361, 8 R, 3 2B, 12 RBI, 3 SB, 11/13 BB/K. Brignac was a solid vet to bring in to Gwinnett, but even the biggest optimist wouldn’t have seen this coming. Brignac has been a key cog at the top of the G-Braves lineup.

Third Base

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, Gwinnett, .310/.389/.452, 13 R, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 11/26 BB/K. Ruiz continued his hitting from the end of 2015, and, even more important, he’s showing much better defensively this season after some solid offseason work.

Shortstop

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, Carolina/Mississippi, .346/.454/.580, 15 R, 13 2B, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 7 SB, 15/13 BB/K. Swanson edged out Albies just barely, but both have been exactly as advertised – stars.

Outfield

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, Rome, .294/.368/.388, 15 R, 2 HR, 10 RBI, 6 SB, 9/12 BB/K. Acuna is just 18, and he’s shown tremendous skills at the top of the Rome lineup and in the field. He’s absolutely an elite prospect.

Outfield

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, Rome, .316/.422/.474, 14 R, 6 2B, 3 3B, 5 SB, 9/17 BB/K. Didder has elite defensive skills and elite speed, and I was maybe the biggest optimist on Didder coming into the season, but I’m even blown away at how well he’s shown thus far.

Outfield

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, Mississippi, .267/.330/.442, 11 R, 6 2B, 3 HR, 14 RBI, 9/20 BB/K. Derailed by the bus crash last season, Peterson has shown his power stroke early in 2015 was no mirage.

Designated Hitter

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, Mississippi/Gwinnett, .356/.429/.494, 13 R, 5 2B, 2 3B, HR, 10/13 BB/K. Oddly not stealing bases in spite of his blazing speed, but doing everything else you could ask for.

Pitchers

Starter – Mike Soroka, Rome, 27 IP, 1.33 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 3/29 BB/K. Soroka was certainly not considered to be an elite draft prospect in 2015, but he’s shooting up prospect lists now, and he seems to get better with every start. He may move to Carolina before draft-mate Kolby Allard even sees Rome!
Starter – Max Povse, Carolina, 26 2/3 IP, 1.69 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 4/23 BB/K. The lanky righty has been tremendous all season in a year that he needed to show he was still a big part of the future. Needless to say, no one’s forgetting him now!
Starter – Lucas Sims, Mississippi/Gwinnett, 26 2/3 IP, 2.02 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 16/42 BB/K. The walks are higher than you’d like, but he’s striking out hitters left and right, and no one can square him up at all. Sims has re-established himself as a potential future ace since last July.
Starter – Brandon Barker, Mississippi, 23 IP, 0.78 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 5/19 BB/K. Barker was really an afterthought in the Mississippi rotation, but he’s been incredible all season, leading the entire organization in starter ERA.
Starter – Chris Ellis, Mississippi, 29 1/3 IP, 1.84 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 10/22 BB/K. The organization’s innings leader, Ellis has gone deep in each game thus far. He’ll likely be the next starter moved up to Gwinnett.
Reliever – Carlos Salazar, Carolina, 9 1/3 IP, 0.96, 1.07 WHIP, 9/17 BB/K. Yes, the walks are high, but Salazar took a failed starting career and has become a dominant reliever, with stuff moving so much sometimes it falls out of the zone in spite of his best efforts to command.
Reliever – Bradley Roney, Mississippi, 8 1/3 IP, 1.08 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 5/16 BB/K. 2015’s relief surprise story has continued his success in 2016 in the upper minors. His stuff is just filthy, though he’s been getting BABIP’d a bit, which has led to the higher-than-you’d-expect WHIP.
Reliever – Bladimir Matos, Rome, 10 IP, 0.90 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 5/13 BB/K. The Braves have skills at scouting “older” prospects in Latin America, and Matos fits that criteria, signing a month before his 21st birthday and now showing extremely well this season thus far.
Reliever – Trevor Belicek, Rome/Mississippi, 15 IP, 4.20 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 1/17 BB/K. So why a guy with a 4+ ERA? Because Belicek has a ridiculous curveball from the left side and yet has kept his walk total to one on the season. He’s been a great swingman on the season, throwing all 15 innings in relief. The ERA also looks much worse than it is, as Belicek allowed earned runs in 2 of his 6 outings in the entire month.

So that’s a quick look at the guys who have stood out in the system this month. However, don’t get too quick to leave just yet. There are some pretty tremendous things coming out this week on the minor league side of things here at Tomahawk Take. On Monday, we’ll have the weekend wrap up, a draft write up, and the long-awaited master list of every player in the Braves minor league system as a huge resource for all Braves fans wanting to track their favorite minor league players in a one-stop shop sort of set up. It’s also a spot where we’ll have links to all the scouting reports done on players over the last year+. On that note, this week, we have a monster set of scouting reports coming out this week – Mike Soroka, Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna, and Max Fried.

Last, but not least, we have the coup de grace – an interview with the father of one of the Atlanta Braves young players about his son’s ascent to the major leagues and the journey to get there that I know you’ll all be very interested to see.

Next: Swanson/Albies Promoted

So keep your eyes on Tomahawk Take this week for all your minor league news!