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

A Veteran and a Draftee

Many of you probably know by now about Florida’s starter, Philip Pfeifer, and his crazy-dominant start on Thursday. Also, recently drafted Shea Langeliers may be finding his groove at the plate in Rome.

(10-22) Florida Fire Frogs

It hasn’t been a good year for Florida and it wasn’t a good 6 games in Week 16, as the Fire Frogs finished 2-4 and are dead last in the FSL North (9.0 GB from 1st). They’ve lost 7-straight, entering Monday, and are 35-63 overall this season.

On Tuesday, Florida led 5-1 going in to the latter half of the 6th inning versus Palm Beach, only to lose 11-7. Fire Frogs’ reliever Matt Hartman gave up 6 runs after just throwing 8 pitches. Hartman was only able to get 2 outs in his disastrous outing. Yikes.

Offense was a big problem last week, also. No one really did much, other than the Atlanta Braves 10th round pick in 2018’s draft, infielder Brett Langhorne.  The 23-year-old hit .473 with 6 RBI, including two doubles and a home run.

On Tuesday, Langhorne went 4-for-5 with those two doubles, driving in 2 runs. He’s hitting .345 in his last 10 games, though he’s only walked once in that span.

Of course Philip Pfeifer’s 17-strikeout game on Thursday leads all of Florida’s pitching for the week, and most likely the season — 8 IP, 3 H, 17 K. Pfeifer threw an efficient 94 pitches (73 strikes) in his masterful start, and I’ll talk more about him later in the report.

Nolan Kingham put together a good Week 16, making two starts (Tuesday, Sunday). Kingham combined for 14 innings-pitched and struck out 11 in his two starts, allowing 12 hits and 5 runs (3.21 ERA for the week).

ROSTER MOVES

*Withrow started a rehab-assignment

(16-15) Rome Braves

Now a 2nd place team in the SAL Southern division, the Rome Braves have had a nice 2nd Half so far. Just a game back from 1st place, Rome scored 4.57 runs per game in Week 17 and went 3-4.

Gabriel Noguera led Rome’s pitching staff with 13.2 innings-pitched and 13 strikeouts, in his two starts combined; but Alan Rangel and Dilmer Mejia also threw the ball very well last week.

All three pitchers combined for a 2.74 ERA, compiled from 26.2 innings-pitched, 20 strikeouts, 23 hits and 8 earned runs.

Reliever Tanner Lawson has been dominant lately, pitching to an 0.78 ERA in his last 10 appearances (26/5 K/BB), including last week’s 5 innings-pitched and 6 strikeouts. He allowed just one run in his 2 appearances in Week 16.

Outfielder Jose Bermudez led the offense, as he’s in the midst of a 7-game hit streak, including 5 of his last 6 games being multi-hit finishes. The 22-year-old went 12-for-23 (.521 BA) with 4 doubles and 4 RBI in six games last week.

Last month’s No. 1 draft pick, Shea Langeliers, hit .250 and knocked in 5 runs, also hitting 2 doubles; and second baseman Greg Cullen hit .333 with a homer and 7 RBI, in seven games.

ROSTER MOVES