Week 13 Farm Report, Part 1: Ian Anderson and Jeremy Walker toss a no-no

(29-50) Florida Fire Frogs (A+)

The Fire Frogs did not have the same success of other teams in the Atlanta Braves organization last week going 2-4 and falling to last place in the FSL North standings.

Week 13 Notes

Third baseman Jordan Rodgers hits first HR of ’19 in Florida’s win Thursday:  A rather highly touted prospect back when he was drafted in the 6th round of the 2017 Draft by the Atlanta Braves, Rodgers hadn’t had much success as a pro — career .237 hitter in the minors.

But on Thursday, Rodgers put that behind him and had a great game, going 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI in Florida’s 5-2 win over Palm Beach.

As the No. 8 hitter in this season’s Fire Frogs lineup, Rodgers has actually had one of his better year’s at the plate.

The University of Tennessee product is slashing .247/.273/.342 (.615 OPS) in 24 games thus far for Florida (entering Saturday night), still not great numbers but better than his 2018 campaign.

Several Florida players had a good game on Friday, with four other Fire Frogs batters finishing with a two-hit night:

• (CF) Andrew Moritz: 2-for-4, K, SB
• (SS) Riley Delgado: 2-for-4
• (LF) Jefrey Ramos: 2-for-4, R
• (DH) Drew Lugbauer: 2-for-3, R, BB

Florida starter Matt Hartman also played well, finishing his outing with a solid line: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

Fire Frogs lose in extras Friday night, Nolan Kingham punches out eight:  The loss was a heartbreaker — a walk-off RBI single by Tampa in the 10th inning — but it didn’t change the fact that Nolan Kingham labored through an eight-strikeout start.

The former Texas Longhorn pitched eight innings, striking out eight and walking four in Florida’s extra-inning loss, 6-5, to the Tampa Tarpons.

As been the case all season, Kingham walked four and allowed four runs. It’s already apparent that the Braves 12th round pick in the 2018 Draft will be a high-strikeout pitcher, but also susceptible to giving up runs. The righty has 42 earned runs this season (4.73 ERA), although he has 57 strikeouts in 50 innings pitched.

Kingham ran into trouble in the very first frame, surrendering a two-run homer to Tampa’s cleanup hitter, DH Dermis Garcia. After that he settled down, pitching cleanly until the 4th inning.

With this being Kingham’s second season in the Braves organization,  there’s still plenty to learn for the 22-year-old, but so far his performance hasn’t been too bad.

Through 19 starts and eight relief appearances in the minors, Kingham has a 4.14 ERA, while running K/BB rates of 6.2 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. This season he’s been more of a strikeout-type pitcher, but he still needs to improve on his run prevention.

Here were the top offensive performers for the Fire Frogs Friday:

• (SS) Riley Delgado: 1-for-5, 2B, R
• (RF) Trey Harris: 1-for-2, 2B, 2 R, 3 BB
• (1B) Drew Lugbauer: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI
• (C) Logan Brown: 2-for-5, 2 K
• (LF) Jefrey Ramos: 1-for-4, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K

Ramos’ RBI single in the 6th, that plated Harris, ended up being the run to tie the game at five, eventually sending the two teams to extra innings.

Philip Pfeifer K’s 11 on Sunday:  Sometimes the Baseball Gods just aren’t on your side. Florida’s starting pitcher, Philip Pfeifer, was feeling that more than anyone on Sunday night.

The Fire Frogs lost 2-1, despite Pfiefer punching out 11 and only walking one. The lefty from Knoxville, TN pitched a masterful 7.2-inning outing Sunday night, only to have it squandered by Florida’s light hitting (only 5 hits as a team).

When Pfiefer left in the middle of the 8th, his line looked as if Florida was set to win the game:

7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, BB, 11 K

Florida only received hits from three different batters:

• (SS) Riley Delgado: 2-for-4, R, K
• (DH) Jefrey Ramos: 2-for-4, 2B, RBI
• (C) Zack Soria: 1-for-3, 2 K

Players of the Week

(SS) Riley Delgado 

6 G, 9-for-25, .360 BA, double

Florida’s offense was rather light in Week 13. Really, any of Delgado, Trey Harris, Andrew Moritz or Kevin Josephina could’ve won Batter of the Week.

Delgado stood out with his three-straight two-hit games (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and the fact that four of his six games this past week were multi-hit performances.

(SP) Philip Pfeifer 

1 start, 0-1, 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, BB, 11 K

That’s just bad luck… striking out 11 and still getting tagged with the loss.

Pfiefer has been up and down this season, mostly down of late. Here are his 2019 numbers, in Florida:

10 starts, 1-6, 60 IP, 4.35 ERA, 66 K, 19 BB

Roster Moves & IL List

* Finally some news on Beck. The right-hander has begun a rehab assignment and is with the rookie level Braves. Hopefully we’ll see the 2018 4th rounder in Florida soon.

A lot of teams in the Atlanta Braves organization are trending up in the second half, and we could see several teams make the postseason.