Atlanta Braves Week 16 Farm Report: Gwinnett’s offense has awakened again

As we near the stress-filled MLB trade deadline, take a minute to relax and enjoy the talent-rich organization in which we are fortunate to cheer for.

The Atlanta Braves farm system had it all in Week 16, even more so involving the high minors of the organization. Like they have for much of the season, the Stripers’ bats scored runs in bulk and even moved up in the standings.

Mississippi received a new player, one that’s now joined his second team of the season, as he’s moved up the organizational ladder at a frequent pace.

Both teams received solid production from their ultra-talented pitchers, some even leading their respective leagues in performance.

Best of all, the Atlanta Braves winning pitcher this past Sunday night, on ESPN (hint: his first name rhymes with seven), wrapped up his rehab assignment and hopefully will deprive us all from having to follow him anymore this season in the minors.

Let’s jump to it!

(59-41) Gwinnett Stripers

Gwinnett hit their stride again, playing excellent in Week 16. The Stripers are in the midst of a 5-game win-streak, thanks to a week of scoring 7.4 runs per game and allowing just 3.8, on their way to a 5-2 record last week.

The 8-2 run they’ve managed over their last 10 games now has them pacing the International Leagues South Division by 1/2 a game. Scoring lots of runs has been working well!

Basically every hitter in the Stripers lineup deserves some recognition, but we’ll stick with just a few.

Catcher Alex Jackson and outfielder Rafael Ortega really stood out last week (there’ll be more on these two later in the report). Jackson’s week was highlighted by another 2-homer game, when he finished 3-for-4 with 4 RBI on Monday, his second multi-homer game in his last 4 games at that point.

Ortega showed out on Sunday, which ended up being a12-1 rout by Gwinnett over Rochester (everybody was raking in that game). The pure hitting Ortega tallied 3 hits, including two doubles and 3 RBI, also scoring two runs.

Also, first baseman and 2019 Atlanta Braves Spring Training superstar, Pedro Florimon, had probably his best game in recent memory.  On Thursday, Florimon finished 3-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBI, capped off by a triple for good measure. Too bad he’s still hitting just .232 this season.

The old guys showed ’em how to pitch in Gwinnett last week, as Kevin Gausman and Mike Foltynewicz put together the week’s two best starts. Both big league rotation mates combined for a 2.07 ERA and 11.07 K/9 in their respective outings.

Gausman went 7 innings on Tuesday, striking out ten and walking just one. His 104-pitch outing consisted of just six hits and two runs, as the now-healthy Gausman generated 7 groundouts, a solid quality-start before heading back to Sun Trust Park and tossing a gem on Sunday Night Baseball versus the Nationals.

Folty had it easy, pitching in Gwinnett’s offensive explosion on Thursday. He took advantage of Gwinnett’s big lead and threw 6 innings of four-hit ball, striking out six and walking three. Only one run crossed the plate on the Atlanta Braves righty, as he worked through the opposing lineup by tossing an efficient 89 pitches (with 54 strikes).

Jeremy Walker was the trending reliever for Gwinnett, as he recorded a win, converted a save and struck out eight batters in two combined appearances. The recently-promoted Walker allowed just two hits in those 6 innings of relief.

ROSTER MOVES

(13-16) Mississippi Braves

Mississippi capped off their Week 16 with an 18-hit performance versus Pensacola, outslugging the Blue Wahoos and winning 8-3. Overall, the talented-filled Braves finished 4-1 last week, stemming from another 7-day stretch of stingy pitching.

Mississippi is now 46-52 overall and currently in the middle of a 4-game winning streak entering Monday, assisting in getting them to the 3rd place spot (6 GB) in the South Division.

Starting with the team’s strength, the M-Braves’ starting pitching registered a 3.00 ERA, 3.00 BB/9 and 9.27 K/9 as a staff. The two starters primarily responsible for another strong week of pitching, was none other than Tucker Davidson and Ian Anderson.

Davidson took the mound on Thursday, pitching eight scoreless innings, allowing just 5 hits and striking out nine. Davidson single-handedly led Mississippi to a win, as the M-Braves only mustered 2 hits in their 1-0 win over Pensacola.

Davidson’s 2.04 ERA entering Monday is the best ERA in the Southern League.

The very next day, Anderson went seven strong innings, striking out 10 Pensacola batters and allowing just a run from 5 hits. Anderson leads the League in strikeouts, with 129 — 14 more Ks than the next highest pitcher. He also ranks 7th in ERA, carrying a 2.80 mark after his start on Friday.

Offensively, there really wasn’t one hitter that just completely stood out from the rest, though there were some players that finally put together solid weeks.

Outfielder Greyson Jenista, who has struggled for much of the season, hit .277 in Week 16, also hitting a double. Catcher William Contreras had his best week yet, hitting .571 with a double and 5 RBI in four games last week.

Far from a struggling player this season, outfielder Trey Harris made his Double-A debut on Friday, going 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI. In case you forgot, Harris was moved from Rome to Florida just 6 weeks ago.

Drew Waters played in 5 games, batting .312 with a double and an RBI. Not quite his usual .400+ batting average with five XBHs, but still a good week at the plate for the Atlanta Braves No. 2 prospect.

ROSTER MOVES