Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Wrap Up
Transactions
4/27 – RHP Jason Motte recalled by Atlanta Braves from Gwinnett Braves
4/27 – RHP Wes Parsons assigned to Gwinnett Braves from Mississippi Braves
4/27 – C Anthony Recker optioned by Atlanta Braves to Gwinnett Braves
4/27 – RHP Bradley Roney assigned to Mississippi Braves from Florida Fire Frogs
4/29 – RHP Enderson Franco assigned to Gwinnett Braves from Rome Braves
4/29 – RHP Andres Santiago assigned to Rome Braves from Danville Braves
4/30 – OF J.B. Moss assigned to Danville Braves from Florida Fire Frogs
4/30 – LHP Ricardo Sanchez assigned to Florida Fire Frogs from Danville Braves
Hitter of the week: This is really not difficult whatsoever. With two major offensive performances on the week, Florida certainly gave its hitters the opportunity to pad counting stats, but what Ronald Acuna did was more than just pad.
Acuna was simply on fire on the week, posting a .423/.483/.731 line with 9 runs scored, a double, 2 triples, a home run, 10 RBI, and even 3 stolen bases for good measure.
Acuna started the season slow after having a big spring training this year, but he’s nearly gotten his season average back up to .300 already, and the raw power is really shining through.
Honorable mention: I’ll give a hat tip to Lucas Herbert‘s big week (.417/.462/.833), but he had half the games that Braxton Davidson did on the week.
Davidson has been floundering all season, but this week, he had some tremendous plate work, hitting .368/.556/.579 with a double, a home run, and an 8/7 BB/K ratio, as he drastically reduced his strikeout rate over the week.
Many saw the repeat of high-A as a bad sign for Braxton, but he was also one of the youngest players in the entire league last season, and after opening the season in a massive slump, he’s began to really make solid contact.
Pitcher of the week: This simply isn’t close. Sean Newcomb blew away the best game score of the season by any Atlanta Braves minor league pitcher on Sunday, but he also had another scoreless start on the week.
Overall, Newcomb posted 12 scoreless innings, allowing just 3 hits and 6 walks, striking out 17 hitters for Gwinnett.
After 5 starts, Newcomb has shown 3 very good starts and two rough ones. The big thing is keeping runners off base, but there is much there he cannot control (inconsistent minor league strike zones, weather on one of his poor starts) along with the big one that he can, which is how he reacts to things within the game.
Sunday’s game was impressive in how he responded to not getting calls a few times, simply continuing to attack, whereas that has been an issue at times where Newcomb would then begin to try to “aim”, which would actually hurt his command more than help.
Honorable mention: Before Newcomb on Sunday, the only other guy in the system to have posted a game score of 80 or better also did it this week.
Max Fried came out early in his first start, and he’s struggled in his outings since, but his start this week was tremendous, as he threw 7 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and one walk, striking out 6.
Fried had been shorting his follow through on previous starts, whether that was due to injury or a mechanical issue, he was not doing that this week, and if he can get back to the form that was dominating at the end of 2016, he could push for Gwinnett quickly and even Atlanta.
Next: Gwinnett Braves