Atlanta Braves Week 6 Farm Report: Takeaways from each level

4 of 4

(Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

(16-19) Rome Braves (A)

Week 6 Record: 4-3

The Week At A Glance

Week 6 was a nice week for Rome, as they finished up on Mother’s Day with not only a winning record for the week, but also an 11-0 shutout-win over Columbia.

Like Florida, Rome had to play a doubleheader on Monday, except Rome managed to split the set against the Lakewood BlueClaws.

Trey Riley started Game 1 on Monday, walking 5 batters, but only allowing 4 hits and no runs. The offense provided the spark, and Rome won 3-1.

Tuesday was an off day and Wednesday was a 4-3 win for Rome. Alan Rangel didn’t pitch great (5 innings and no strikeouts), but shutdown reliever Victor Vodnik came in and pitched the last 3 innings, striking out four and getting the save as he held the opponents score right where it was.

Friday was a good day for the entire Atlanta Braves organization, as all of the minor league teams won and the Atlanta Braves beat the D-Backs in Phoenix, 2-1. In Friday’s game, catcher Logan Brown knocked in 2 runs and scored two runs, while Justin Dean picked up a couple of hits, including a triple and 2 walks.

Sunday’s win, the 11-0 rout, featured 13 hits by Rome and only three for Columbia. The 11 runs were a season-high for the R-Braves. The entire Rome lineup recorded a hit, except for Greg Dean.

Outfielder Trey Harris finished with 3 hits Friday, one a double, and 2 RBI. Justin Dean went 2-for-5 with 2 RBI, two runs and a strikeout. Dean is now up to a .260 average, after struggling a bit in Week 5.

Week 6 Takeaways

1. Looks like Trey Harris is ready for a vacation to Florida.

The MLB Draft features a lot of rounds and Trey Harris was selected towards the end, at Round 32 by the Atlanta Braves in last year’s event. The Missouri product spent last season in Rookie ball and Single-A.

Through 35 games this season, Harris is hitting .378 with a 1.061 OPS, leading the team in both statistics by a very large margin. He’s shown he can hit last season, running a .314 average in Rookie ball last season (31 games) and a .286 mark in Rome before that, for 22 games.

At 23, he’s not expected to challenge Ender Inciarte or Nick Markakis for an outfield spot this season, but it’s been fun seeing the kind of numbers he’s been able to put up so far.

2. Reliever Victor Vodnik is nasty:

Another later-round pick (14th rounder), Victor Vodnik is a 19-year-old who’s dominating Single-A hitters at the moment. He’s had a few clunkers, but currently, the 412th pick of the 2018 MLB Draft is striking out a crisp 14.54 batters per nine over 17.1 innings pitched.

That’s 28 strikeouts in just over 17 innings. I haven’t gotten the chance to see him pitch, but from the stats he’s putting up, I would assume he is absolutely nasty.

He only pitched 3 innings in Week 6, but keeping with the more-strikeouts-than-innings thing he’s got going, he punched out 4 and walked none in his May 8 appearance.

Until I see him live, there’s no way to know how for real he his, but he could be an interesting player this year. You can never have too many relievers.

Players of the Week

(OF) Trey Harris: .421 BA, HR, 8 RBI, 2 SB

(SP) Odalvi Javier: W, 11 IP, 8 H, 5 BB, 10 K

Trey Harris continues to lead Rome on offense, seemingly always being the one to generate runs for the usually-low scoring team.

Rome has struggled a bit this season, which is probably expected since most of the team is filled with 2018 draft picks and draftees from previous years that haven’t worked out yet.

More from Tomahawk Take

Regardless, Harris has been a bright spot, displaying excellent contact skills as well as some power.

With 4 homers and 8 doubles so far this season, I highly doubt he’ll be in Rome much longer, especially at the age of 23 (he’ll turn 24 next January).

His .597 slugging and .464 on-base percentage scream that he’s ready for more of a challenge. If not, then we’ll most likely be seeing him a weekly Player of the Week for the majority of the season.

The Rome pitching was rather unexciting this past week, but Odalvi Javier got 2 starts to put up some respectable stats.

In Game 2 of Monday’s doubleheader, Javier pitched 5 innings and gave up five runs from six hits, while walking three. His second start, on Mother’s Day, was much better as he worked through 6 innings, notching the win and striking out six. Odalvi didn’t surrender a run Sunday and walked two.

It wasn’t the best week of pitching for him, but compared to the other pitchers for Rome — it was a solid final line. Javier carries a 5.04 ERA into next week, with 33 strikeouts and 16 walks in 30.1 innings pitched. He is 1-2 so far this season.

dark. Next. Notes on Braves through 1/4 of season

Writer’s Request

That’s it this week. As you can see, I’ve changed the way I report these recaps. After some thought, I wanted to try something new this go around to maybe make it a more reader-friendly report.

As always, please share your thoughts on the Atlanta Braves Minor League teams and players; but if you will, please let me know in the comments how you feel about this particular format this week.

Do you like it better or worse than the previous reports? My goal is to inform readers of the Atlanta Braves Minor League action as best I can, but also inform readers with an interesting and easy-to-read article.

Share below!

Home/Braves Minors