Caminiti and Rayven Antonio combined in a gem for Augusta
With a double header scheduled in Rome it was a busy day on the farm with every Atlanta Braves minor league team in action. It was a case of the usual suspects, with great days from many players who have been hot as of late. Down in Augusta Cam Caminiti and Rayven Antonio pitched a piggyback game and dominated with 14 strikeouts. In the DSL Diego Tornes had yet another great game and extended his hitting streak to 16, and in Gwinnett Jurickson Profar continued his dismantling of International League pitching.
(31-49) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (33-45) Norfolk Tides 11
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 0-4, .208/.293/.307
- Jurickson Profar, LF: 2-4, 2B, HR, .366/.442/.659
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 7.11 ERA
Despite the best efforts of Jurickson Profar to lift this offense, a paltry performance and implosion in a bullpen game led to a comfortable loss for the Stripers. Profar’s easy dominance over the Triple-A level continued in the third inning of this game when he went deep to dead center field, a 414 foot home run that put the Stripers up in the game by a run. Profar added a hard-hit double in the next inning and had a 103.5 mph line out to lead the game off, giving him yet another game with a bunch of hard contact. Unfortunately no one else on the team did much else, with a couple of soft singles from Eddys Leonard and Jason Delay wrapping up the hit total in the game.
This depleted pitching staff had to rely on the bullpen to try to cover a game, and for awhile it was going well until it very quickly went in the opposite direction. Rolddy Munoz and Jhancarlos Lara each had a couple of scoreless innings, with Lara’s dominance being the most profound and him having his best Triple-A outing despite a bit of trouble finding the strike zone with his fastball. Lara’s fastball was missing up pretty terribly throughout the outing, but his slider was so good he was able to make it through unharmed and produce seven whiffs on 15 swings. Lara was nailing his location with that pitch better than he has in a long time and the Tides had no answer. This allowed the Stripers to carry a lead into the second half of the game, but that went away quickly.
Enoli Paredes had a tough fifth inning and couldn’t control the ball well at all, but all things considered held the game together pretty well despite allowing two runs in the inning. Gwinnett was still in the game and would have plenty of chances to make up those runs, but the spiral in the sixth inning put the game out of reach. Paredes allowed the first four batters of the inning to reach — two walks and two hard-hit doubles — then turned the ball over to Domingo Gonzalez. Gonzalez had an even worse outing, allowing four straight hits before a grand slam capped off a nine-run inning before anyone had even recorded an out. Gonzalez did finally record an out and struck out two batters to end the inning, but the damage had long since toppled the Stripers chances.
Swing and Misses
Jhancarlos Lara – 7
Domingo Gonzalez – 3
(28-43) Columbus Clingstones 0, (45-29) Biloxi Shuckers 6
- Geraldo Quintero, LF: 2-4, RB, .227/.325/.443
- David McCabe, 3B: 1-3, BB, .246/.351/.360
- JR Ritchie, SP: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 4.01 ERA
That’s two straight shutout losses for the Clingstones, though this time they felt like they had plenty of opportunity but squandered it by going 0-10 with runners in scoring position. With JR Ritchie pitching well early on this game stayed close, but the Clingstones fell behind on a run against Ritchie in the first inning and held that deficit for the rest of the game. Ritchie struggled in that first inning but finished off with a strikeout, setting off a dominant stretch of pitching that saw him retire ten straight Shuckers hitters. Ritchie finished that off with two strikeouts to close out the fourth inning, but finally ran into problems again in the fifth inning. After a leadoff walk Ritchie allowed a two-run home run, blowing the deficit for the team up and putting a major mark on what was previously a very good outing for Ritchie. Ritchie’s walks have started to tick up a bit in Double-A as he isn’t commanding all of his pitches consistently, yet despite being moved through the system relatively quickly following Tommy John surgery he has remained effective. Ritchie struck out 25 batters over 23 1⁄3 innings in June and has improved his whiff rates since his promotion.
Despite consistent baserunners the Clingstones were never able to chase anything home, seeming to have each rally immediately fizzle out after the first couple of hitters reached base. Geraldo Quintero, who has been really the only consistent hitter in the lineup throughout the year, had another good day at the plate but his early baserunning mistake may have cost Columbus a real chance to put up a big inning in response to the first from the Shuckers. Quintero doubled with one out in the inning but was thrown out trying to advance to third base, a critical second out that was immediately followed by a walk to Ethan Workinger and a hit by David McCabe. The bats went relatively cold for a few innings after this and by the time Columbus started getting baserunners again the deficit had ballooned.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie – 9
Elison Joseph – 4
(32-40) Rome Emperors 2, (36-37) Greenville Drive 0
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 1-3, BB, .234/.334/.328
- Mason Guerra, DH: 1-3, HR .188/.235/.438
- Garrett Baumann, SP: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 3.53 ERA
(32-41) Rome Emperors 0, (37-37) Greenville Drive 1
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 0-3, .234/.334/.328
- Harry Owen, C: 1-2, .167/.259/.208
- Adam Maier, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 5.26 ERA
The pitching staff was absolutely brilliant for Rome in the double header, but the same could be said of Greenville’s and the Emperors came away with just a split on the day. The first game belonged to Garrett Baumann, who over the course of this month and the last couple of starts of May has fully erased a poor start to the year. Baumann allowed an earned run in his opening outing this month but hasn’t allowed another run since, and though the walks have not come back down to where they were last year his swing-and-miss numbers have started to creep up. Baumann’s slider is much stronger now after they’ve manipulated and experimented with grips and that combined with his improved fastball and always strong changeup has made for a stretch of six outings where he has 34 strikeouts in 31 1⁄3 innings. Baumann’s big support in game one came from Mason Guerra, who tagged a home run to lead off the second inning and give him a bit of early support to work off of. Guerra has unfortunately shown trouble with making contact even at the lower levels, a concern moving forward for him, but there is no doubt that he has the power to stick at first base. That wasn’t entirely apparent at Oregon State as his overall offensive game never developed as it was hoped earlier in his career, but if he can continue to put up good power numbers the Braves will give him plenty of chances to figure it out at the plate.
Adam Maier finally put together a good, efficient start after a rough few starts to open the month, but the offense went completely silent and didn’t give him any help to work with. The Emperors lineup managed only one hit in game two, and that was the only baserunner, meaning a second inning run allowed by Maier sunk him with the loss. Even in a good game like this Maier didn’t really miss many bats, mainly relying on weak contact to wiggle his way through five innings. While his command was better than normal it seems like he just doesn’t have the power to make full use of his impressive spin on his breaking balls and changeup and it’s hard to bet on that improving at this point in his career. Royber Salinas had a dominant outing in his second rehab appearance at the level, and the hope is now that he can stay healthy and start to work back into getting his velocity up to his pre-injury levels. Unfortunately we don’t have much information to work on from this start thanks to issues with the Rome stream and all of Salinas’s outing is lost to history.
Swing and Misses
Royber Salinas – 8
Garrett Baumann – 7
Adam Maier – 5
(36-36) Augusta GreenJackets 4, (40-34) Fayetteville Woodpeckers 2
- John Gil, SS: 0-3, 2 BB, RBI, .234/.334/.302
- Owen Carey, CF: 1-5, 2B, .270/.341/.365
- Cam Caminiti, SP: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2.93 ERA
- Rayven Antonio, RP: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2.82 ERA
It’s definitely easier to win a game when you piggyback your two best starters for a single outing, and the GreenJackets put together two great outings in one from Cam Caminiti and Rayven Antonio. Caminiti started out the game with a bit of shakiness, hitting the first batter of the game and then allowing a base hit before tiptoeing out of trouble. He then issued a leadoff home run in the second inning but that triggered a tear from him where he was just mowing through Fayetteville hitters. After that early trouble he reminded the Woodpeckers who he is, striking out the next five hitters in a row, allowing a single, then striking out three of the next four to close out a dominant outing. This was all despite him having some trouble locating his changeup. He was leaving both of his secondary offerings up in the zone, which certainly is troubling, but his changeup in particular he just could not bury. Yet he was able to throw fastballs by Fayetteville hitters and mix in some terrific sliders to still come out with another great pro start. The Braves really are hoping to get Caminiti up to five innings in games, but are being slow and limiting him to no more than 75 pitches right now just out of an abundance of care for a young arm and it’s kept us from seeing how he holds his stuff deep into games. Even with that it sounds like Caminiti, outside of his second outing where he was dealing with dehydration, has felt great and that he could go more once the Braves are ready to take the training wheels off.
Antonio’s story was similar as it was only a solo home run that took a bite out of his final stat line, but he had yet another fantastic game and his numbers are reflecting how good his stuff has looked. His fastball has taken a step forward and both his changeup and slider are playing up with the extra power as well, and all without seeing a significant drop in his command from earlier in the season. Antonio still does struggle to locate pitches and with a big body he is always going to carry the concern of whether he can control that well enough to grow into MLB command, but his progress from last year to now has been phenomenal. All of his pitches are MLB average or better offerings and that is showing with how easily he is dispatching hitters at this level. His whiff rates have been taking marginal shuffles forward throughout the season as well and he has come from an unknown to one of the system’s intriguing arms in quite a hurry.
Offensively the GreenJackets had oodles of chances to make this a blowout, but only went 1-10 with runners in scoring position and needed that pitching staff to do as well as it did. The surprise MVP was Jake Steels in the nine hole, who reached base in all four of his plate appearances but yet only drove in one run. The GreenJackets as a whole had a bit of good luck with batted balls, like Owen Carey’s bloop double in the first inning, scored off of Fayetteville walking home a run, and took advantage of errors, but runs are runs and they all counted the same in this win. As a whole the top of the order continues to put great at bats out there consistently, and Owen Carey has become the guy for that offense. He has been terrific at making himself a difficult out in the second spot, and I believe the power is going to get to MLB average or better at his peak and he can be a very interesting outfielder.
Swing and Misses
Rayven Antonio – 11
Cam Caminiti – 11
(11-8) DSL Braves 9, (11-8) DSL Red Sox Blue 10
- Diego Tornes, CF: 2-4, BB, RBI .348/.438/.493
- Michael Martinez, LF: 3-4, 2B, BB, .327/.450/.612
There are only so many ways you can say the exact same things about a team before it gets repetitive, but these are the reruns we love to watch. Diego Tornes and Michael Martinez both continue to crush the ball down in the Dominican, and that’s now 16 games in a row with a hit for Tornes. Seven of Tornes’s last ten games have been multi-hit games, and he has also stolen a base in nine straight games. Michael Martinez has somehow been even better, with now 13 hits and eight extra base hits in his past six games. Unfortunately the pitching staff wasn’t very good on Saturday and the Red Sox were able to pile up hits, scoring ten runs to take a five run lead into the ninth inning. Five walks in the ninth inning helped the Braves to score four runs and bring it within one, but a strikeout from Manuel Campos ended the game with them falling just short.