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

Our own version of “Bryce” in Danville

Bryce Ball wasn’t a high draft pick – not even close (taken in the 24th round of last month’s Draft). However, he’s been one of the best since becoming a pro.

The Dominican Braves offense has evolved from small ball to a much more formidable unit, as they’ve turned their offense around lately.

(14-18) Danville Braves

Danville put together a solid Week 16, going 4-3 thanks to several draft picks from June. Despite having an above-average offense, the D-Braves have lacked in the starting pitching department, and enter this week in last place in the Appy East division (6.5 GB from 1st).

Four 2019 draft picks led Danville’s offense last week, ignited by last month’s 9th rounder, second baseman Cody Milligan. Milligan hit .375 and stole 2 bases, while also slapping a double and knocking in a run. Over his last 10 games, the Kansas native is batting .368.

First baseman Bryce Ball, hit 2 homers and a double last week, also plating 6 runs (he has 19 XBHs in his first 27 professional games, including 10 homers); outfielder Conner Blair, 15th round pick, finished with 5 RBI and a homer; and 10th round pick, Brandon Parker, slugged a home run and a triple, knocking in 5 runs as well.

Mitch Stallings and Alec Barger led the starting pitching rotation. Stallings went 5.2 innings on Wednesday, striking out four and walking two while allowing just 3 hits.

Barger had a poor start on Monday (5 earned runs), but bounced back on Saturday, when he struck out six and allowed just one run from two hits, in 4.2 innings.

Stallings has a 1.67 ERA in 4 starts and two appearances this season, between the GCL Braves and Danville; while Barger carries a 4.24 ERA in six starts with the D-Braves.

Relievers Alex Camacho and Kenny Wells led the bullpen. The former struck out six in 3 total innings last week, while the latter struck out four and allowed a run, in the 2.1 innings he accrued.

(8-12) GCL Braves

The Gulf Coast Braves went 4-2 in Week 16, featuring a walk-off win on Monday, when the Braves’ Darling Florentino (former Florida Fire Frogs player) hit a sac-fly to left field to win the game, 4-3 in 13 innings over the Pirates.

Outfielders Michael Harris and Brandol Mezquita led the Braves’ offense, hitting .421 and .368, respectively. Harris finished the week with a double and a stolen base, while Mezquita hit a home run, knocked in 2 runs and also stole a base.

Shortstop Vaughn Grissom also hit well, batting .272 last week and belting a homer. Vaughn led the team with 4 RBI in Week 17.

Pitching was a weak spot for the GCL Braves last week. Starter/reliever Chad Bryant opened the week with a start on Monday, tossing a 3-hitter and striking out six, in a 5.2-inning outing. He allowed 2 runs on Monday. Then on Saturday he made a 3-inning appearance, allowing 4 hits.

Starter Zach Seipel pitched well also, making a start on Wednesday and striking out five in 5 innings. Seipel allowed just a single hit and walked one.

(20-23) DSL Braves

Winning 5 of their last 10, the DSL Braves have been an up-and-down team seemingly all season, though the offense has generated more power lately, as the first couple weeks of the season was a chore when it came to runs.

Pitching-wise, the Dominican Braves have a few solid arms. Reibyn Corona pitched a fantastic outing on Tuesday, striking out six in 6 innings and allowing just 4 hits in his scoreless start. Corona has a 4.09 ERA in 5 starts and 4 appearances for the Braves.

Jorge Bautista was another useful arm in Week 16. Bautista made a 6-inning start on Friday, allowing just one run from 2 hits and striking out four. He’s running a 3.96 ERA in 8 starts and one relief appearance this season.

Relief pitcher Ronaldo Alesandro worked a total of 3.1 innings last week, striking out five and walking two, as he allowed a run and a hit.

The Braves’ lineup was rather spread out in terms of production. Outfielder Deivi Estrada went 11-for-23 (.478 BA) and plated 5 runs. Estrada also hit 2 doubles and stole four bags for the Braves.

Randi De La Cruz only played in 4 games, but he played well when in the lineup, hitting .333 and slugging a homer plus a double, good for 3 RBI in his 15 at-bats last week.

Week 16 top players

C, Alex Jackson (Gwinnett)

6 games, .333 BA, 4 HR, 9 RBI

Rafael Ortega (Gwinnett)

7 games, .347 BA, 4 2B, 6 RBI, 2 SB, 7 BB, 6 K

Two players benefiting from a Gwinnett lineup that is currently doing some historic things on offense, Jackson and Ortega aren’t even the top-two batters on the team.

If Jackson were putting up his current numbers in the majors, he’d be in the midst of one of the best campaigns by a catcher in a very long time.

Other than his middling batting average, his baseball card stats are remarkable for his position, let alone any spot on the field:

63 games, .239 BA, 22 HR, 52 RBI

Ortega started 2019 looking like the best batter in the Stripers lineup. Now over 90 games into the season, he’s arguably  the best pure hitter on the team, batting a healthy .293 through Sunday.

Talk about a guy putting up some unique numbers… no matter what position a guy plays, 30 doubles and 18 home runs is a heckuva season. Ortega’s been doing this literally all year.

SP, Philip Pfeifer (Florida)

I’m sure you suspected as much, but it’s mighty hard to top a 17-strikeout game. Not only did Pfeifer strikeout 17 batters, but he didn’t walk a single one, which you usually don’t see in high-strikeout outings. That just shows how locked-in Pfeifer really was.

Pfeifer is a pretty cool story. I wrote a little about his journey this past weekend, sort of recapping his seven-year minor league career. He’s a player that has had his share of ups and downs, so it’s even more delightful that Pfeifer was able to have such a crazy dominant start last week.

That’s it for this week’s Farm Report. This week saw two key prospects earn promotions: Trey Harris and Riley Unroe. Who’s the next Atlanta Braves prospect to earn a promotion?  Share you’re thoughts in the comments!