Atlanta Braves Week 6 Farm Report: Takeaways from each level
By Clint Manry
(14-22) Florida Fire Frogs (A+)
Week 6 Record: 3-4
The Week At A Glance
Florida has been up-and-down all season, suffering from inconsistency both with hitting and pitching. In Week 6, the Fire Frogs started off with a doubleheader on Monday, losing both by a combined score of 12-2 to the Lakeland Flying Tigers.
Tuesday and Wednesday the two teams split, with Florida shutting out Lakeland 4-0 on Tuesday, thanks to some stingy pitching by Florida starter Nolan Kingham (6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, BB, 2 K).
Thursday was another win for the Frogs, with starter Freddy Tarnok (#15 prospect) tossing 5 innings of four-hit ball and striking out four. Tarnok picked up the win, his first of 2019.
In Thursday’s win, first baseman Drew Lugbauer and catcher William Contreras (#7 prospect) led the team, with Lugbauer slugging a 3-run homer and Contreras hitting a double and scoring a run.
On Friday, in Game 1 of their series with the Jupiter Hammerheads, the Fire Frogs jumped out to an 8-run lead in the first inning, with shortstop Riley Unroe hitting a grand slam.
Jasseel De La Cruz pitched a fantastic game, going seven innings and striking out seven. He gave up 3 runs, but Friday’s outing gave him at least 6 innings pitched and six strikeouts in three straight starts.
Saturday capped off the week for Florida. The Frogs went to extra innings with Jupiter, losing 3-2 in 11 innings. Hunter Deal got the start and finished with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks, working 6.2 innings and surrendering a run on 4 hits.
Week 6 Takeaways
1. Another rough week for Greyson Jenista:
Since being selected in the 2nd round of last year’s draft, Jenista (#14 prospect) had performed just as you would want a top-15 prospect to perform. Last season he flew through both Rookie ball teams, but once he got to Florida things slowed down a bit.
In 19 games with the Fire Frogs in 2018, Jenista hit .152 with a 34 wRC+. It wasn’t pretty, but a lot of us looked at it just being 19 games, so no big deal. But now it’s been 53 games, total, between 2018 and this season.
For 2019, Jenista is batting .222 in 34 games. He has 2 home runs and has struck out 38 times compared to 16 walks. That’s not too bad, hovering around a 20-25% K-rate, but his .647 OPS is well below average.
I know every prospect doesn’t hit the ground hitting like crazy — and the guy was literally just drafted last year — but I thought he’d be doing better by now. In Week 6 Jenista batted .206 with one XBH.
2. Who’s this De La Cruz fella?
Pegged a 35+ FV by Fangraphs, Jasseel De La Cruz is obviously not projected to do much as a big league pitcher (he’s ranked #28 on the Braves prospect list).
Signed out of the D.R. in 2015, De La Cruz has a minor league career ERA of 3.71 with 8.4 K/9 — not too shabby. De La Cruz started 2019 in Rome, where he made 4 starts before being promoted to Florida. In Rome he ran a 2.50 ERA in 18 innings with 22 strikeouts.
Well, in Week 6 he was at it again, striking out seven in seven innings (his game, in detail, is above).
Del La Cruz has now accrued 19 innings in Florida this season and is 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA. He’s yet to give up a homer and he has only allowed 7 line drives out of 55 batted-balls (12.7 LD%).
This may be an under-the-radar type player that we could possibly see in the big leagues in the future. If he can keep it up in 2019, look for him to get a better projection and prospect ranking for 2020.
Players of the Week
(SS) R. Unroe: .360 BA, HR (GS), 3B, 7 RBI
(SP) J. De La Cruz: W, 7 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Speaking of under-the-radar guys, Riley Unroe is a player that wasn’t projected to do much. In fact, he’s not even ranked or rated as a prospect, so technically he’s not a prospect (he was selected in the 1st round of the 2017 Rule-5 Draft).
Regardless, he’s been one of the leaders on this Fire Frogs team, along with several other non-prospects.
The grand slam on Friday was awesome because, of course, it plated 4 runs, but even better, it was Unroe’s second at-bat of that inning. Unroe bats leadoff for the Fire Frogs and in the first inning seven-straight batters reached base. So that gave Unroe another at-bat in the 1st and he took advantage of it, blasting his 4-run homer.
Other notable games include: Game 1 of Monday’s doubleheader he finished 1-for-3 with a triple; Tuesday be had a base-hit and 3 walks; and Thursday he picked up 3 hits and an RBI.
De La Cruz has already been mentioned in the Week 6 Takeaways, but he wins Pitcher of the Week due to some pretty average pitching for Florida in Week 6, not to take anything away from De La Cruz’s start.
Florida starter, Hunter Deal, made two starts (GM 1 on Monday and a start on Saturday), but he wasn’t as efficient as De La Cruz.
De La Cruz benefitted from 8 first-inning runs in his start, but you still have to get the other team out, and he did that Friday in Florida’s 9-3 win.