Atlanta Braves Minor Leagues April All-Stars

The Month of April for the Atlanta Braves Minor Leagues

The Atlanta Braves minor league system has completed their first month with 3 of the four teams with double-digit wins already and two of the four over .500 on the season. Let’s take a look at the individual stand outs!

First, the organizational leaders for the month:

BA – Randy Ventura .359
OBP – Tyler Neslony .453
SLG – Tyler Neslony .605
OPS – Tyler Neslony 1.057
R – Ronald Acuna 17
H – Alex Jackson, Randy Ventura 28
2B – Juan Yepez 11
3B – Ronald Acuna 4
HR – Alex Jackson 7
RBI – Carlos Franco 18
SB – Randy Ventura 13
BB – Matt Tuiasosopo 17
K – Braxton Davidson 35
TB – Alex Jackson 54
W – Oriel Caicedo
ERA – Jon Kennedy 0.71
G – David Peterson 9
GS – Ten with 5
GF – Devan Watts 7
SV – Akeel Morris 4
IP – Drew Harrington 28.1
BB – Sean Newcomb 15
K – Sean Newcomb 35
WHIP – Jon Kennedy 0.63
K/BB – Oriel Caicedo 13/0

Hitters

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Catcher

– This offseason, I was openly critical of the Braves trade for Alex Jackson that sent away

and

, two pitchers who had shown a ton in 2016 that gave them a solid chance for a major league future. Jackson had struggled mightily offensively to that point, and moving him back behind the plate where he hadn’t played since high school seemed like a huge risk.

The Braves placed Jackson in Florida so he could get a full season of hitting while catching 1-3 days per week and getting instruction on his non-catching days from Braves instructors that can come up from their complex for a day to work with him. The defensive improvements have been notable from all scouts that have seen him since spring training.

Offensively, Jackson has been beating up on Florida State League pitching, posting a .301/.323/.581 line with 5 doubles and 7 home runs and 17 RBI. The one concerning line in his basic stat line is the 2/24 BB/K rate.

First Base – While another Carlos, Carlos Franco is leading the organization in RBI and would be my choice for DH on this team if it had one, the choice here is Carlos Castro.

While Castro isn’t a guy who takes a ton of walks due to an aggressive approach at the plate, he has a very compact swing that generates a ton of power with the plane change he’s added. In April, he put up a .333/.375/.453 line with 3 doubles, 2 home runs, and 13 RBI.

Second Base – The Atlanta Braves’ forays into Cuba have thus far not been terribly productive, but the minor league deal they signed Alay Lago to may turn out to be their biggest success with a player from the island.

Lago is on the loaded Florida roster and put up a .319/.351/.403 line with 4 doubles, a triple, and two steals, but primarily, he’s offered steady defense and contact at second base in his stateside debut thus far.

Third Base – In the 2014-2015 international free agent class that brought the Braves Ronald Acuna, Luis Mora, and Randy Ventura, the premium money guy that season was Juan Yepez, who had tremendous bat control and raw power.

Yepez struggled to establish himself at third base and with injury in his first two seasons in the system, playing mostly first base in 2016. The Braves moved Yepez back to third in 2017 after he really dedicated himself to his conditioning and showed up to fall instructs last year extremely fit.

Yepez has responded by playing a sure third base, albeit not elite, but certainly showing the base skills that could be built to an elite defender with his arm and present instincts. Yepez’s bat has always been his best tool, and in the Rome lineup, he’s one of the few legit power options, hitting .329/.375/.506 with 11 doubles and a home run, knocking in 10 RBI and even stealing 3 bases.

Shortstop – With Dansby Swanson in the major leagues and Ozzie Albies moved to second base, the shortstop position depth in the Braves system is in A-ball and lower.

None of the full-season guys really established themselves, so the one I’ll put here is the guy who’s really taken a big step forward in his profile, Johan Camargo. Camargo has always shown high-level defense, and the Braves had him work around the diamond the last two years in preparation to be a utility guy in the majors.

An offseason swing adjustment has led to Camargo seeing a significant spike in the drive he gives to a ball on contact, and while it’s led to some streakiness in his swing, the power is evident, as noted in his .242/.324/.485 line with 16 total bases in just 37 plate appearances as he spent some time with the big league club as well as Gwinnett in April.

Outfield – A big surge to finish the month put Ronald Acuna on this list. He was the player of the week for the final week of the month, and he began to flash the elite skills he has across the board.

Acuna’s line on month was .287/.333/.471 with 17 runs, 2 doubles, 4 triples, 2 home runs, 12 RBI, and 11 stolen bases. He struggled with contact early in the season, and that led to a high strikeout rate, which has his BB/K rate at 5/31 right now, and that is hopeful to improve.

Outfield – Called up to Florida after the beginning of the season, Tyler Neslony has shown the solid bat he flashed at the end of 2016, with some impressive numbers, hitting .326/.453/.605, with six doubles and a pair of home runs over 53 plate appearances.

Outfield – When he stole 55 bases in just 58 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2015, many began to dream about the future monster speedster that Randy Ventura could be as he came up the system.

I hate to disappoint those people, but Ventura has a lot more skills than a slap-and-slash hitter. He has a legit double-plus arm that will play in right field without issue. He has legit raw power that could even touch plus as he fills out more into his 5’9″ frame and learns to leverage it.

The switch-hitter has been a revelation for the Rome team that is built heavily on speed, using high instincts as on the base paths to steal bases at a high clip, but also to put plenty of balls “where they ain’t”, leading to a .359/.419/.397 with three doubles and 13 stolen bases, only being caught once.

Pitchers

Starter – Luiz Gohara probably got the first national notice of the season as Baseball America covered the opening series of the season for Florida and Gohara sparkled in the opener. That sparkling opener was just an indication of what was to come. After losing weight in the 2015-2016 offseason, Gohara is able to repeat his delivery much better, allowing him to be a legit starting prospect, and he’s shown the ability to manipulate his change in multiple ways, giving him a number of looks for hitters. Thus far, he’s posted a 1.73 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over 26 innings with a 5/27 BB/K ratio.

Starter – Gohara’s teammate in Florida and fellow former Mariner, Tyler Pike, has been a surprise. As a guy with legit feel for pitching when drafted, Pike was expected to move quickly, but he stalled at high-A in the Seattle system. If he keeps pitching like he has with the Fire Frogs, he will be in Mississippi soon enough. On the year, Pike has thrown 27 1/3 innings with a 2.63 ERA and 1.10 WHIP, posting a 10/29 BB/K ratio.

Starter – After a struggle at the level last season, Lucas Sims returned to Gwinnett to open 2017, and he’s found the level much more agreeable this season. Sims has been spotting his fastball well and especially shown much better location on his elite curve ball, making it near impossible for hitters to square him up. Sims has posted a 2.66 ERA and 0.72 WHIP over 23 2/3 innings with a 6/21 BB/K ratio.

Starter – Mississippi is certainly loaded this season, but the guy who has drawn notice since taking a perfect game into the 5th inning of his first start of the season is Matt Withrow. Withrow finished 2016 on a roll with Carolina that seemed to fly under the radar, but he is a guy with heavy, moving stuff that is difficult for hitters to put into play consistently. On the season, Withrow has thrown 26 innings, posting a 2.08 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, and a 8/22 BB/K ratio.

Starter – My scoring system had two pitchers tied with the same score for this final spot, and in order to have one pitcher from each staff, I am going to go with Ian Anderson, but I will mention that Kolby Allard was the other guy tied for this spot, and he did have a very solid first month of AA at 19, and this is by no means a slight to his fine work!

Anderson opened his first full season after being drafted at #3 overall last summer, and while he hasn’t gone deep in many games, he’s shown dominant ability in his starts, with a 14 K/9. Overall, he’s posting a 1.93 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over 4 starts with 29 strikeouts in just 18 2/3 innings.

Reliever – While recognizing the guy with the best score in my scoring system (based off of the game score calculations with some edits), I’ll also mention another. Lefty Oriel Caicedo may not be a guy who ends up with a lengthy major league career, but he’s the type of guy that every organization wants, and often in the right system that can develop the raw pitching skills, a guy like that can find his way to the big leagues (think Williams Perez).

Caicedo made six appearances with 6 games, making 2 starts. He threw 23 2/3 innings overwll with a 1.14 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, had a save, and posted a 0/13 BB/K ratio on the month.

In mentioning Caicedo, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Enderson Franco, who has done similar work for the Braves this year, working across multiple levels, throwing two relief outings and two starts.

Reliever – Big Australian lefty Jon Kennedy was a revelation last season in 2016 after coming to the Braves. The tall (6’7-6’9, depending on who you want to believe) reliever has a unique arm angle from the left side, and he’s been tremendous for Rome this season so far. In 12 2/3 innings, he’s posted a 0.71 ERA, 0.63 WHIP, 2 saves, and 2/14 BB/K ratio.

Reliever – One of the rewards of the seemingly annual “Kelly Johnson to the Mets” deal for the Braves, Akeel Morris put up numbers last year that were seemingly unsustainable due to his walk rate and the lack of repetition in his delivery.

This season, he’s cleaned both issues up significantly, and his double-plus change up has really looked tremendous, already earning him a promotion from Mississippi to Gwinnett. He’s posted a combined 0.84 ERA and 0.66 WHIP with 4 saves over 10 2/3 innings with a 2/11 BB/K ratio.

Reliever – After a 2015 season where many viewed Matt Custred as a huge draft steal, he struggled a bit in 2016. Custred features a monster curve ball and a moving fastball, both of which can be an issue if his mechanics in his 6’6″ frame get off a touch. He’s been on the mark thus far in 2017 in most of his appearances, with one stinker, otherwise having excellent control.

Custred thus far has posted a 0.84 ERA and 1.03 WHIP over 10 2/3 innings with a 5/14 BB/K ratio.

Next: Braves Minor League Database

Now we come to my pitcher and hitter of the month…

Hitter of the month for April: I really debated this between two guys – Ventura and Jackson. Ventura has been that dynamic offensively and defensively for who he is as a player that I strongly considered him in this spot.

However, after spending the offseason discussing the work that needed to go into Alex Jackson’s swing for him to be successful and my frustration with moving him to catcher due to the work that would need to go into that position as well as his swing after his acquisition this offseason, Jackson has been a revelation this spring.

He has plenty of concerns to note in his BABIP, an abnormally high HR/FB rate, and an interesting thing where the Fire Frogs have faced four pitchers on team’s MLB Pipeline top 30 prospect lists this season, but he’s only faced one, so that is curious, but the production has been incredible at the plate, and his progress behind the plate has been notable.

Pitcher of the month for April: While the attention was given to other four members of the rotation in the spring season, the guy who has come out of the gate receiving a ton of praise in Mississippi has been Matt Withrow, and while some will say there are guys with sexier stats, Matt has put up a tremendous start every time out.

Last season as I made calls on the Braves system to independent scouts before my top 100, I had one scout tell me that if there was one prospect in the Braves system he was cheering for based on his interactions with the players and talking with coaches for that player and around the league, it would be Withrow.

A great teammate who has carried over his elite production from the second half of 2016 to 2017, Withrow should definitely be on the radar for those fans of the Braves minor league system.