Atlanta Braves minors: End of season recap of the 2019 Florida Fire Frogs
By Clint Manry
The top performers
As I mentioned earlier, offense wasn’t very prevalent in the FSL, and in turn, no Florida hitter finished with an OPS at or above the 700 mark, except for infielder Riley Unroe (.851) and outfielder Trey Harris (.831) — two players that each played just 38 and 34 games, respectively, before being moved up to Mississippi.
Unroe, a 24-year-old and former 2nd round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays, ended up making it all the way to Gwinnett in 2019. In Florida, Unroe hit .304 with 13 XBHs before being moved to Mississippi, where he played 77 games and hit .285 with 5 home runs and 12 doubles.
He slowed down once in Gwinnett, hitting just .171 with two XBHs in 13 games for the Stripers; but overall, Unroe had a great 2019 season.
He finishing with 128 games and a solid .281/.361/.403 slash-line. The Arizona native also hit 9 home runs and 22 doubles, plus he went 14-for-19 on stolen base attempts.
Harris has already been covered in this series, but his time in Florida was very consistent with his time everywhere else in 2019. In Florida, Harris hit .303 with 4 home runs and 5 doubles, all in just 34 games before being promoted to Mississippi.
First baseman Drew Lugbauer was the power-bat in Florida’s lineup in 2019, slugging 16 home runs and 26 doubles. His 2019 was very similar to last season, where he finished with 12 homers and 22 doubles in Rome, however, the 23-year-old’s batting average dipped even more (.232 BA in 2018, down to .194 in ’19).
Infielder Riley Delgado led the team with 144 hits, resulting in a .282/.324/.323 slash-line and 15 doubles in 131 games. Catcher William Contreras also had a solid year, finishing sixth on the team in hits (50) and batting average (.263).
No Florida hitter crushed it in 2019, but there were several strong seasons.
I wrote about his breakout year during the season, and Florida was where it all started happening for starting pitcher Philip Pfeifer.
The former Vanderbilt star led the Fire Frogs in strikeouts, finishing with 110 punchouts in 92 innings-pitched (14 starts / 2 relief appearances) before being moved up to Mississippi.
Pfeifer was a man on a mission, running K/BB rates of 10.8 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 while in Florida. On top of that, the lefty mastered the High-A level with a cool 3.23 ERA. Surprisingly, his run-prevention got even better once he moved up.
In Mississippi, Pfeifer was good for a 2.38 ERA in 11 games (4 starts / 7 relief appearances), though his walk-rate suffered (4.2 BB/9). He even made it to Gwinnett, appearing in 3 games before the season ended.
Overall, it was a remarkable season for Pfeifer, and probably one of the best turnaround-seasons for an Atlanta Braves’ minor league pitcher in 2019. In 133.1 total innings-pitched, Pfeifer finished with a 2.97 ERA and 159 strikeouts across three levels of the minors.
Hayden Deal was another critical arm for Florida in 2019. Deal finished second on the team in strikeouts (99), making 22 starts for the Fire Frogs. In 119.1 innings of work, the 24-year-old compiled a 3.24 ERA and a stingy walk-rate of 2.4 BB/9.
Soon-to-be AZL participants, relievers Brandon White and Daysbel Hernandez, finished Nos. 1 and 2 in ERA on the team, respectively. The former accrued 33 relief appearances while the latter totaled 35.
White had an excellent bounce-back season, surrendering just one home run in 51.1 innings of relief. Hernandez was just as stingy, allowing only two homers in 52.2 innings. Look for these two to be in Mississippi in 2020.