Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: have patience with a couple of top prospects

On paper, the Mississippi Braves are loaded with top prospects.  On the field, some of that talent is translating well to performance, but not all of it.

This last weekend, the Atlanta Braves AA minor league affiliate from Mississippi made its closest orbital approach to me, and so I decided to meet them halfway… in Birmingham.  There were some surprises.

As an aside, the Mississippi Braves made some news on Sunday when they added Jasseel De La Cruz to its roster – immediately after he no-no’d the A+ Jupiter Hammerheads (Marlins affiliate).

Now it’s probably necessary to note that De La Cruz’s promotion was earned even apart from the no-hitter:  he’s had ERA’s of 2.50 and now 1.93 at both levels he’s pitched at this season, but more importantly he is also showing command:  2.25-to-2.50 walks per 9 innings.

That’s what earned him this 2nd callup… not just by beating up a hapless Marlins affiliate into submission (they are 13-28 on the year as of this writing).

Either way, he’s part of things still to come for the M-Braves… and I didn’t see him pitch, but it’s still worth a mention.

Saturday’s game

Mississippi’s offense has been coming generally from just 2 sources – Cristian Pache and Drew Waters.

1B Ryan Casteel is the only other hitter with an OPS over .800. Their next-best contributors (Tyler Neslony and Connor Lien) are both in the .700’s and both on the injured list right now.

I was therefore looking forward to seeing Waters and Pache hit.

They went a collective 0 for 9 on the night.  We will discuss this.

The M-Braves’ defense is outstanding:  the infield up the middle is excellent, but the outfield probably features the best defensive trio you could find below the major league ranks (and even including many of those) with Waters (LF), Ray-Patrick Didder (CF), and Pache (RF).

Offensively, though… let’s look at the headliners…

The Top Position Players?

DREW WATERS

On Saturday night, the Braves faced a lefty starter for the B’ham Barons.  That made switch-hitting Drew Waters bat from the right side.

In all honesty… he should consider abandoning the switch-hitting (or at least working a lot more on the right side).  Kyle Kubat didn’t have a great outing, but he sure carved up Waters like a Halloween pumpkin:  strikeout, strikeout, routine grounder to 2nd, grounder to first (now vs. a RHP), walk.

Sliders and generally anything in the dirt were being chased – often – with awkward swings that at times looked more like he was trying to kill a bug.

Later in the game, right-handers entered as noted, and Waters looked much more comfortable batting from the left side.  Still not great, but much better… in admittedly a very small sampling.

Overall, he’s recorded 3 homers, 2 triples, 15 doubles, and 34 singles for a .316 average over 171 AB so far this year (as of Sunday’s game).  His strikeouts are elevated (27%), but not to the point of being alarming.

Still:  his hitting could use a lot of work despite the lofty average… or dump the RHH part.

CRISTIAN PACHE

I had been in a camp thinking that Cristian Pache was nearly ready to his the majors, should the Atlanta Braves decide to do something… unusual… with Ender Inciarte.

Certainly, Pache’s glove is there already:  no doubt.  His offense isn’t quite there, though.

On Saturday, Pache (a RHH only) grounded out to 2nd base twice before getting a ball out of the infield – a flyout to right.  His night finished with a strikeout and popout to second.

He looked better at the plate than Waters, but still not really there offensively. In fact, a lot of the “lesser” hitters on the M-Braves team looked better than either of these top position-player prospects.

This was a surprising conclusion to reach, yet it was inevitable based on simple observation.

I had seen both Freddie Freeman and Jason Heyward when they were both on this M-Braves club.  They had all of the appearances of ‘men among boys’… and they were driving baseballs around the yard.  None of that was happening Saturday night.

By contrast, while Barons/White Sox stud Luis Robert – their 2nd overall prospect – went 0-for-3 with a walk and strikeout, but his appearance at the plate was a lot more polished than either Pache or Waters.

The Cuban Robert is hitting .281 on the year with an .885 OPS.

How did they win??

The offense that drove a 4-1 Braves win came from the middle of the order:

• Casteel:  2 for 3, walk, run scored
• Andy Wilkins:  1 for 3, walk, run scored
• Alejandro Salazar:  1 for 4, 2 RBI
• Riley Unroe (newly arrived from Florida):  1 for 4, run scored.
• Luis Valenzuela:  3 for 4, 1 scored.
• Didder:  RBI

In this group, only Casteel is hitting above .250… four of them are at .204 or lower.

This explains how the Mississippi Braves are sitting at 19-23 in the middle of the Southern League’s South division – despite all of the pitching that they carry (3rd overall in ERA).  They just don’t have any sustainable hitting.

They did have some pitching…