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How deep is Atlanta Braves’ pitching? Witness a Danville no-no

By Alan Carpenter |
SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 10: A view of baseballs prior to the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at PETCO Park on July 10, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 10: A view of baseballs prior to the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at PETCO Park on July 10, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)

Tuesday afternoon the Danville Braves completed a rare event for this level… and you might not guess the names involved.

No-hitters are indeed rare, but that’s especially true in the minor leagues, but 3 Atlanta Braves‘ farmhands combined to do the deed over seven innings, silencing the Bristol Pirates 5-0 in the first game of a double-header.

This squad has some excellent pitching talent on its roster – Kyle Muller (2nd rounder from 2016), Huascar Ynoa (just picked up in the Jaime Garcia trade), and Dilmer Mejia (at times has been considered a top 20 prospect by some) – just to name a few.

But the talent isn’t just in the top names or the top draft rounds.  Witness the no-no trio:

  • Bruce Zimmermann.  A 2017 Round 5 draftee and southpaw out of Mt. Olive University.  He got the first 2 innings, striking out a pair and walking 1… the only hitter that reached in the game for the Pirates.
  • Jacob Belinda.  10th Rounder from 2017 and the nephew of former Pirate pitcher Stan Belinda (notable in Braves’ lore for taking the loss in the ‘Sid Bream slide’ game from 1992).  He’s from Lock Haven, PA and 10th round picks aren’t supposed to be any good, right?  Funny then, that this right-hander has a 2.65 ERA at Danville and took 4 innings on Tuesday.
  • Lefty John Curtis finished up the gem with 2 K’s in the seventh and final inning.  He was another North Carolina pickup from (Lenoir-Rhyne) in the 8th Round this year and is sporting a 1.08 WHIP in almost 17 innings with a 2.16 ERA.

Sure:  nobody went the distance and all of these guys are on low-inning/low-pitch counts.  This is short-season ball for a bunch of pitchers that have already been through a full season in their prior lives in college and high school ball.  That’s part of the deal here.

But part of the reason for highlighting this accomplishment – and there’s no reason to diminish it for any reason – is the fact that here’s 3 guys that were not highly heralded because of bigger names being drafted ahead of them.  But don’t sleep on them… or anybody else, for that matter.

The Braves’ drafting is as much a part of this franchise rebuild as the trades, the signings, or anything else.  This is all about talent and it is clear that this talent runs deep through the system.

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Also of note:  there’s gotta be a catcher involved in the process of a no-hitter, too, and that catcher for this game was one William Contreras, who’s been getting a lot of notice for his offense lately.

There’s good reason for that as he is hitting a robust .345 against the better rookies around the majors in this league.

In this game, he didn’t get a hit, but did score from a walk.  In 2017 his strikeout rate is under 10% and his walk rate is higher after 116 ABs in 31 games.  A .939 OPS should tell you something too.  Oh, and he’s got a brother who plays for some NL team in Chicago.

But Contreras can also now boast that he’s caught a no-hitter as he accepted all of the 82 pitches that shut down the Bristol squad.

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Danville is now 25-22 in the Appy League, good enough for 3rd place, but yesterday these battery mates were on top of the hills around Bristol.

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