Atlanta Braves Week 6 Farm Report: Takeaways from each level

(17-18) Mississippi Braves (AA)

Week 6 Record: 2-5

The Week At A Glance

The M-Braves took a step back as a team in Week 6, capping off a 2-5 week with a rough loss on Mother’s Day against the Montgomery Biscuits, 9-3. Joey Wentz (#11 prospect) couldn’t even get an out as he surrendered 6 runs before being yanked.

In Thursday’s loss to Pensacola, there was a huge scare regarding starter Ian Anderson (#4 prospect). Anderson was struck in the neck by a comebacker in the 3rd inning and had to leave the game for “precautionary reasons”.

I’ve seen reports on Twitter that the ball actually hit the top of his hand before hitting his neck, so maybe the ball slowed enough to avoid any serious injuries.

He remains ‘active’ on MiLB.com, and I haven’t seen any updates, so I’d say he’s good to go after the near-miss.

Week 6 Takeaways

1. Christian Pache and Drew Waters feed off one another:

I don’t know what kind of relationship Pache (#1 prospect) and Waters (#6 prospect) have in terms of their friendship, but it has been amazing to see how similar both players are performing in Mississippi as the M-Braves’ 1-2 punch at the top of the batting order.

It seems like all this season that when one has a big game, the other does. And when one doesn’t, the other doesn’t. Just this past week, Pache only played five games compared to Waters’ seven, but their game logs are very similar. Here are a few that were comparable (remember these are just from Week 6);

• Monday (5/6)

Pache:1-for-5, 2 K  — Waters: 0-for-5, 4 K

• Tuesday (5/7)

Pache: 2-for-4, HR — Waters: 3-for-5, HR

• Thursday (5/9)

Pache: 0-for-4, 3 K — Waters: 0-for-4, K

If you look at their season closely and game-by-game, you’ll see a lot of very similar finishes.

Their season stats are pretty close: Christian Pache with a .306 average and 3 home runs, and Drew Waters with a .336 average with 3 homers. Waters has 41 strikeouts and 7 walks, while Pache has 36 strikeouts with 10 walks.

I think it’s safe to say that these two young players imitate each other rather well and I think that’s really cool.

2. The starting rotation has been outstanding at preventing runs.

This M-Braves rotation is like a prospect All-Star staff, with literally every pitcher being a top-21 prospect in the Atlanta Braves organization.

Other than Joey Wentz’s (#11 prospect) 5.70 ERA — and that got propped up from Sunday’s awful start — the rest of the Mississippi hurlers are all under 3.60 (prospect ranking in parentheses):

• (#4) I. Anderson (3.58 ERA / 7 starts)
• (#13) K. Muller (2.45 ERA / 7 starts)
• (#21) P. Weigel (1.72 ERA / 7 starts)
• (#20) T. Davidson (1.52 ERA/ 6 starts)

Wentz made two starts in Week 6, with his first one being decent as he gave up three runs and struck out two; but his start on Sunday was as bad as it gets (0.0 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 3 BB).

Tucker Davidson pitched 5 innings and punched out seven in his start Wednesday, while only surrendering one run; and Ian Anderson did give up 4 runs in his shortened start on Thursday, but before that he’d been doing well.

Patrick Weigel, if you’re not aware, is still being gently worked in this season. Here’s a short clip from his start Saturday:

Weigel had Tommy John surgery last year, so he hasn’t pitched 4 innings yet in a single start. But the results have been great for him so far as he has struck out 16 batters in 15.2 innings, with only 3 earned runs.

Players of the Week

(OF) D. Waters:  .312 BA, HR, 3B, 2 2B, 3 SB

(SP) K. Muller: W, 7 IP, 5 H, ER, 2 BB, 6 K

It’s no longer a surprise with Drew Waters as he’s maintained a plus-.300 average in 34 games so far in 2019. Double-A baseball is obviously not too much for him.

Here’s the league-leader in doubles, hits, and XBHs taking batting practice Saturday:

Waters had a rough game to start Week 6, going 0-for-5 with 4 strikeouts, but he made up for it on Tuesday, hitting a walk-off 2-run home run to beat Pensacola 5-3.

He followed that up with a 3-for-5 performance on Wednesday, hitting a single and two doubles. Then on Friday and Saturday combined, he went 4-for-9 with two doubles and two stolen bases.

Get ready, he’s going to be in the outfield grass at Sun Trust Park before you know it.

Kyle Muller has been a highly anticipated prospect for a couple of seasons now. After a strong 2017, he’s building off of last year’s solid run-prevention (3.10 ERA in Double-A and 3.24 in A+) by once again featuring a low rate of 2.45 so far this season.

While he’s been effective this season, Friday was his first quality-start of 2019 and also his first win. Muller got the victory against Pensacola after working through 99 pitches (63 strikes).

So far he’s keeping the ball on the ground (45.7 GB%) and striking out 9.27 per nine. Muller just needs to work on his 7.09 BB/9, and more starts like Friday’s will help.