Atlanta Braves minors: End of season recap for 2019 Mississippi Braves

The top hitters

When it came to Mississippi’s lineup, we’re talking about a lot of different players in 2019. The M-Braves had 15 different batters play in 40 or more games, and 19 play in 20 or more.

The no-duhs in the lineup were of course outfielders and best friends (well, I don’t know about the second part, but I feel like they should be!) Cristian Pache and Drew Waters — the Atlanta Braves Nos. 1 and 2 prospects, respectively (according to FanGraphs THE BOARD).

Both played over 100 games for Mississippi (Pache: 104 / Waters: 108) and both were promoted to Gwinnett in early August. But Waters was just a hair better while with the M-Braves, enough so that he was literally the best hitter in the Southern League and won the MVP award.

Pache flirted with .300 for a lot of the season, but settled at .278 for the year. He hit 11 home runs and 28 doubles for Mississippi, while tallying eight triples (which wasn’t even a team-high. His best friend had nine).

Waters did manage to stay over .300 while with Mississippi, and it wasn’t as if he just racked up a bunch of singles either. Batting mostly lead-off, Waters was an extra bases machine.

Here’s a quick list of stats Waters finished in the top-3 in, in the Southern League:

• 134 hits (1st)
• 35 doubles (1st)
• 9 triples (1st)
• 202 total bases (3rd)
• .481 SLG% (2nd)
• .319 batting average (1st)
• .847 OPS (2nd)

I said quick list… that’s basically every standard offensive stat.

First baseman Ryan Casteel was another offensive leader for Mississippi in 2019.

If you can remember, Casteel was a player I wrote about on Independence Day when he belted three home runs in the game versus Pensacola. It was the first 3-homer game in Mississippi Braves history, earning Casteel some national recognition.

For the season, Casteel did pretty well for himself, slashing .263/.334/.477 (.811 OPS), with his SLG% and OPS ranking as the third and 8th-best in the league, respectively.

The 28-year-old from Tennessee hit 21 home runs and knocked in 73 runs (both team-highs), to go along with 21 doubles.

Infielder Riley Unroe was another potent bat, and like Pache and Waters, a Gwinnett player by the end of the 2019 season. Unroe actually started the year in Florida, but after just 38 games wound up in Mississippi for a 77-game stretch.

While in Mississippi, the 24-year-old and former 2nd round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays, hit a healthy .304 while getting on base at a .401 clip.

Unroe wasn’t much of a power hitter (5 HR and 12 doubles), but his bat-to-ball skills were crazy-good — only 9.6-percent of that .401 OBP came from walks.

Then there’s that Trey Harris guy, you know… the player that has been included in almost every one of these recaps. Harris played just 41 games in Mississippi, his final level on 2019.

I’ve covered him enough in this series but for good reason. On September 8, Harris was recognized by the Atlanta Braves as the 2019 Minor League Batter of the Year.