Atlanta Braves Week 12 Farm Report: A fresh class of players

(27-46) Florida Fire Frogs (A+)

Week 12 Record: 2-5

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Week at a Glance

Week 12 Notes

Nolan Kingham throws another shutout: The former Texas Longhorn did it again in Week 12, tossing a complete-game shutout on Tuesday night. Kingham now has three such outings this season, giving the Fire Frogs seven as a team.

Facing Daytona, Kingham only allowed three hits and struck out seven with just one walk. He only needed 91 pitches (66 strikes) to get through the 31 batters faced, generating 12 ground outs and six fly outs.

The Fire Frogs had an outstanding game on offense — which we’ll get to in a minute — tallying 13 hits and beating the Tortugas 4-0. Florida could’ve scored more if not for stranding 10 runners on the base paths and finishing 1-for-12 with RISP.

It has been a season of ups and downs for Kingham, who started the 2019 campaign with three-straight starts that consisted of one earned run or less. In his first 16 innings-pitched this season, Kingham only gave up one run, as well as only one walk.

The 2018 12th-round draft selection by the Atlanta Braves ran into some bad luck, though. Beginning with his May 15th start, Kingham labored through three consecutive poor outings:

• May 15:  4 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, BB, 3 K
• May 20:  7 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 HR, 2 BB, 11 K
• May 25:  2.1 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, HR, 4 BB, K

Altogether, those three starts combined for 13.1 innings pitched, 22 hits, 17 earned runs, 4 homers, 7 walks, and 15 strikeouts. But since that start on the 25th of May, Kingham has pitched rather well. In the four starts since, he has had only one lousy outing, a start in which he gave up seven runs and only lasted 4.1 innings on June 6.

For the season, Kingham’s numbers are far from flashy. He’s 4-5 with a 4.43 ERA, though his 3.67 xFIP illustrates a bit of bad luck for the 22-year-old righty. His 6.04 K/9 is not a dominant K-rate, but his 2.15 BB/9 shows that he does an excellent job of avoiding walks.

The general stat line may not look all that impressive for Kingham, but there are two stats that he has done quite well in: CG and SHo. In an era where pitchers are lucky to make it into the 6th inning, Kingham has already pitched the entire game three times in just his first 11 starts of the year. Dominant numbers or not, that’s a pretty cool accomplishment.

The Florida bats break out on Tuesday night: As I mentioned above, the Frogs’ bats had it going on Tuesday, in their 4-0 win against Daytona.

The Fire Frogs ambushed Daytona in the very first inning, scoring three runs from Trey Harris‘ two-run home run and Drew Lugbauer‘s solo-homer. With Kingham dealing the entire game, the Fire Frogs didn’t need any more runs, but in the 4th, second baseman Jordan Rodgers provided the final run with an RBI single to left field, scoring Kevin Josephina.

The play log may not depict much in terms of crazy offense, but when looking at the box score, Florida’s lineup was on a roll. Five different Fire Frogs batters finished with multi-games, with shortstop Riley Delgado going 4-for-4 with a double and run scored.

The only batters without a hit: leadoff hitter and centerfielder, Shean Michel; and catcher Zack Soria.

The hot-hitting Harris finished 2-for-5 with a home run and two RBI, as well as a strikeout. Lugbauer went 2-for-4 with a homer and a double, a walk and a strikeout. Josephina had a double as well, picking up two hits and scoring a run. Last but not least, Rodgers went 2-for-4 with his RBI.

Logan Brown and Andrew Moritz make their High-A debuts on Thursday. Derian Cruz gets his on Saturday:  Another wave of promotions took place during Week 12, as three players got moved up to High-A Florida on Thursday.

Here’s how each fared in Rome. Notice how much Moritz and Cruz struggled in Single-A. Maybe this is another let’s-see-what-you-got trial by the Braves.

(OF) Andrew Moritz (Rome stats)

52 G, .231 BA, .537 OPS, 2 2B

(C) Logan Brown (Rome stats)

51 G, .301 BA, .734 OPS, HR, 11 2B

(INF) Derian Cruz (Rome stats)

25 G, .195 BA, .560 OPS, 3 2B, 4 SB

If it was, Moritz made a good first impression as he had an outstanding first four games with the Fire Frogs, including a 3-for-3 night on Sunday. After batting 9th in his first game, he was moved to lead-off for the next three games. Moritz ended play on Sunday with an excellent start:

4 G, 8-for-15 (.533 BA), 2B, 2 RBI

Brown batted 7th on Thursday and Friday, before being moved to the cleanup spot on Sunday. He posted back-to-back 1-for-3 games in Games 1 and 2, then finished 1-for-4 with an RBI and a strikeout on Sunday.

4 G, 3-for-14 (.214 BA), RBI, 2 runs

The start to High-A wasn’t as fun for Cruz. He made his debut Saturday with an 0-for-4 game, batting 6th and playing third base. He did manage an RBI bases-loaded walk, though. Overall, Cruz finished 0-for-8 for Florida, in Week 12.

Players of the Week

(OF) Trey Harris

Harris is having a season similar to Drew Waters in 2019, now only one class below the Mississippi outfielder.

Week 12 was one of Harris’ finest as he ripped off three consecutive games with a home run, going deep on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday.

It’s remarkable the numbers he’s put up this year, both in Rome and in Florida now:

Harris in Rome

56 games, .366 BA, 1.031 OPS, 8 HR

Harris in Florida

15 games, .333 BA, .965 OPS, 3 HR

It wasn’t enough for him to be a superstar in Rome, but even now, Harris is one of the leaders of this Florida Fire Frogs team as he leads all qualified hitters in batting average and OPS.

With Harris still performing this great and now catcher Logan Brown and outfielder Andrew Moritz a part of the Florida team, the Fire Frogs will most likely start winning some games in bulk, thanks to this loaded offense.

(SP) Nolan Kingham

(Read about his start above. He was good.)

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