Mejia spun a gem, leading Columbus to a shutout win to open the week
It was a busy day to open the week on the Atlanta Braves farm system, with two pitchers in particular having incredible outings in wins. On the offensive end of things Nacho Alvarez is keeping his hot start at Gwinnett going, and down in the Dominican Summer League Diego Tornes is destroying everything in his path.
(29-47) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (31-43) Norfolk Tides 3
- Nacho Alvarez, SS: 1-3, .440/.622/.640
- Jurickson Profar, LF: 0-3, RBI, .357/.412/.667
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 5.60 ERA
- Hayden Harris, RP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA
It’s no surprise to see command issues be the plague on a start for Hurston Waldrep, but it is a bit strange how exactly the walks came to be were out of the ordinary. The Braves seemed to settle on letting Waldrep fully utilize his arsenal in his last start and he was back using all four pitches this outing, but perhaps due to the eight days between starts or just an off day his splitter was absolutely awful. He couldn’t land it to save his life, and had to rely on his fastball which he was struggling to throw strikes with and his slider which he actually did locate relatively well and have success with. An optimistic look at this outing would see a guy who only gave up two earned runs and a bunch of weak contact despite having zero success with the staple pitch in his arsenal. He did well keeping pitches out of the middle of the zone despite missing the zone often, and he only had one particularly bad inning. In the second inning both the single and the double were soft contact that found holes to lead to that run. Waldrep is to blame for walking the first two batters of the third inning, but the two throwing errors by the defense cost him for sure one run and arguably both if you assume they get the double play if Luke Waddell doesn’t unleash one of the worst throws I’ve ever seen in my life. There are definitely aspects of this game — particularly his slider — that Waldrep can take and move forward with, though he is undoubtedly going to have to be much more consistent to get another real shot at the big leagues. He’s in a better position than he was at this point last season, however, and hopefully with a better splitter and more time to work with all four pitches he can show some real improvement in his coming starts.
While we can find some silver linings to a mediocre outing by Hurston Waldrep, it’s impossible to spin anything positive about this lineup. This is not a good Triple-A team and they earned every bit of only getting one hit in the game. They somehow managed to score a run thanks to an error and some sacrifices, but in nine innings the Stripers had exactly one instance of good contact. Thankfully that came from the one guy in the lineup that we really want to see having big days at the plate, and who has done so quite consistently. Nacho Alvarez Jr. got a hanging breaking ball and smoked a 102 mph single in the fourth inning, by far the best contact of the game for the Stripers, and so far he has reached base in all eight of his appearances for Gwinnett. In fact, in seven of those games he has reached base two or more times. It’s also great to see him with solid contact like that to the pull side. The sample is still extremely, extremely small, but so far he is pulling the ball more, pulling it harder, and lifting more to the pull side than he did at Triple-A last year. Alvarez is not likely to ever become a major threat to turn and lift with authority, but if he can go from awful to acceptable it would be a huge step towards him solidifying a major league projection.
Swing and Misses
Hurston Waldrep – 10
Hayden Harris – 5
Rolddy Munoz – 4
(27-40) Columbus Clingstones 2, (42-28) Biloxi Shuckers 0
- Ethan Workinger, DH: 1-4, HR, .222/.300/.429
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, .245/.353/.366
- Ian Mejia, SP: 8 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2.03 ERA
- Austin Smith, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 1.42 ERA
After a disappointing stretch where his ERA ballooned to 2.29, Ian Mejia finally got back on track and met expectations with his fifth outing this season of 6+ innings and no runs allowed. Mejia was on Maddux watch up until he was pulled from the game, as he covered his 8 scoreless innings on just 85 pitches and with Austin Smith needing 12 to retire Biloxi in the ninth inning the Clingstones had a combined Maddux. Mejia was just brilliant with his location throughout this game, working all of his pitches around the edges of the strike zone, and for the five hits he did allow it’s hard to even blame him on most of those. Two choppers down the third base line — one David McCabe made a play but poor throw on, the other skipping past him — accounted for the first two. The third was a great splitter that the hitter just flicked into right field for a bloop hit. The fourth was the only one that was hit particularly hard, a hanging breaking ball that the hitter turned on for a double, but the final was also just a roller up the middle that snuck right through the defense. His splitter is the pitch that has been the dynamic part of his arsenal this season. He struggled while developing that splitter last season, but his command has come a long way and he now utilizes that as an MLB-average pitch. He has the command and the secondary quality to stick as a back-end rotation piece, the question now is going to be whether his fastball is enough to keep him from getting hurt too often at the upper levels. His slider in this game was as good as it has been all season long and Mejia looks like he is ready to make the jump to Triple-A full time.
The offense for Columbus may not have had a big day, but they strung just enough hits together to get Ian Mejia a run in the middle innings and Ethan Workinger was able to end his power drought for some late insurance. There is not a ton of power on this team, so they rely on stringing together hits and they were just able to find holes in the fifth inning. Cal Conley inside-outed a single into left field for a one-out hit, followed immediately by Geraldo Quintero smacking a grounder through the right side to put two runners in scoring position for EJ Exposito. Exposito hit a solid line drive, but it was right at the center field, though deep enough to score the first run for the Clingstones. Ethan Workinger got off to a blazing start to the season, but since May 13th his power has dropped off of a cliff with only one home run between then and Tuesday night’s game. In the eighth inning he got a hittable fastball and he turned around a 96 mph fastball for his 11th home run of the season, breaking a ten-game homerless streak and doubling Columbus’s lead. David McCabe had a multi-hit game in this one, which is a great sign as he has been struggling at the plate since his two-home run game earlier this month. However, his swing is off right now and he isn’t creating many opportunities for power. McCabe is consistently behind pitches and has fallen back into the habit of slapping at pitches the other way, leading to a run of weak contact in the past couple of weeks that hasn’t worked for him. While much of McCabe’s power is to the opposite power alley and up the middle, he has to be able to turn on pitches and lift to the pull side or else he will continue to be challenged on the inner half where lately all he has been able to do is inside-out pitches and hope they can fall for singles.
Swing and Misses
Ian Mejia – 12
(31-38) Rome Emperors 2, (34-36) Greenville Drive 1
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 2-4, 2B, .242/.341/.341
- Titus Dumitru, LF: 1-4, RBI, .244/.320/.356
- Herick Hernandez, SP: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 4.84 ERA
- William Silva, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 6.48 ERA
In another low-scoring game it all came down to Titus Dumitru in the final at bat for the Emperors. Herick Hernandez may have run up three walks in this game but he wasn’t all over the map like that might suggest. Hernandez generally worked around the edges of the zone and had to rely on his changeup quite a bit in this game, and though strikeouts didn’t pile up he did an excellent job keeping hitters off balance. The game was marked by weak contact and routine plays for defenders as they struggled to barrel Hernandez and only came away with one hit in the game against him. He also pitched a majority of the game with no margin for error, with the offense struggling to get any level of run support. Rome had opportunities in the first and fourth inning behind familiar threats in the lineup, but came up empty. Lizandro Espinoza led off in the first with a hit by pitch and stole second, but with no outs the top of the Rome order failed to come through with a hit to score him. Patrick Clohisy led off in the fourth with a double, and advanced to third on a ground out by Dumitru, but a called strike three on Will Verdung helped to cut off the scoring opportunity.
Finally in the fifth inning the Emperors were able to get more than one baserunner in an inning, and it started off with one of the new additions to the team. Mason Guerra got his first Emperors hit by lining one into left field, and a funky high hop sent it hurtling over the left fielder’s head and allowed Guerra to advance to second base with a double. This put him in prime position, where Ambioris Tavarez followed with a sharp single up the middle that was just enough for Guerra to score from second and give Rome the lead. After Hernandez’s departure things got a bit spookier for the Emperors, with Royber Salinas and Isaac Gallegos both struggling to command anything. Salinas was able to avoid any damage despite allowing two walks in the seventh inning, but Gallegos was not so lucky. After two walks and a hit to load the bases he uncorked a wild pitch with two outs, scoring the tying run and putting pressure back on the offense to come through again. Clohisy laid down a tremendous bunt to lead off the inning, beating out the ball with no throw to set up another opportunity. Clohisy then stole second base, and Rome had a huge opportunity with no outs to walk the game off. Titus Dumitru wasted no time in sending the crowd home happy, smacking a base hit through a vacant hole on the right side for a walk off single and a series-opening win.
Swing and Misses
Herick Hernandez – 12
William Silva – 6
(35-33) Augusta GreenJackets 1, (37-33) Lynchburg Hillcats 5
- John Gil, SS: 1-4, BB, .237/.337/.305
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 3-4, .259/.341/.366
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 2.81 ERA
- David Rodriguez, RP: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3.44 ERA
While the Augusta offense didn’t help matters in this game by being held to just one run, the real story was the early struggles of Jeremy Reyes. Prior to this outing Reyes had managed to avoid any series damage in any of his starts this season, putting up a 0.86 ERA following his return from the injured list despite scary underlying walk rates. Finally the dam cracked and Reyes’s high whiff rates and good fortune couldn’t carry him any longer. Reyes walked four batters in just two innings of work, and despite his very high whiff rates he has managed to allow more walks + hit batters this season than he has strikeouts. This game really just spiraled for him in both innings, and if it wasn’t for his ability to miss bats with all three of his pitches he would have come away even worse for wear. Despite the trouble and horrendous control Reyes isn’t in that bad of a spot for his development. Yes he has a long way to go in terms of developing his mechanics and his command, but it’s not every day you find a teenager who sits in the mid-90’s, misses bats at with three pitches, and can put post solid numbers despite never really having a good feel for location. Reyes is much higher risk than any of the other current starters in full season ball, and the injuries the past two seasons don’t bode well, but it’s hard to be terribly disappointed in a guy who produces whiffs at a rate north of 30%.
David Rodriguez did a wonderful job stepping up to save the bullpen from getting stretched thin early in the week, needing 41 pitches to get through four one-run innings. This gave Augusta a really good chance to work their way back into the game, but that never happened. While the Woodpeckers got all of their baserunners right in a row in the first couple of innings, Augusta kept guys on base but had trouble stringing hits together to chance those runners home. They finally got some actions brewing in the seventh inning after a Leiker Figueroa walk, which was followed by two hits to load the bases for Owen Carey and the middle of the lineup. Carey did his job and drew a walk to force home a run, but Luis Guanipa’s grounder couldn’t find a hole and Augusta stranded the bases loaded. In total the team went 1-6 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on base. Despite some on and off struggles I’ve been impressed with the progress of the key prospects this season, particular in the top four of the order. Owen Carey has been absolutely terrific, of course, with a hit tool and plate discipline years ahead of his development. Watching him take at bats is a joy given how consistently good his swing decisions are and he is one of those guys that even at his worst is going to make himself difficult to get out. Then for John Gil and Isaiah Drake the story has been much the same, and both are getting the ball in the air with some authority, though they are just missing barrels often and flying out deep into the outfield. The swings for both are getting to the point we can hope to see a power surge soon and the lineup is starting to look dangerous even as its faced inconsistency.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 10
Albert Rivas – 4
David Rodriguez – 2
(13-24) FCL Braves 7, (24-12) FCL Twins 6
- Eric Hartman, LF: 0-3, BB, .111/.250/.111
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 1-5, RBI, .207/.259/.267
- Juan Mateo, 3B: 3-4, BB, 2 RBI, .292/.366/.343
On today’s episode of things you love to see: offense at the lower levels from some of the system’s notable prospects. Juan Mateo had a huge day at the plate, with three more hits to run his on base percentage this month up to .435. It doesn’t seem like the power is going to come this season for Mateo and that is a bit disappointing, but if we see him keep hitting the ball and getting on base consistently that will be a good sign and give Augusta’s staff something to work with next year. Jose Perdomo had only one hit, but given his struggles this month it’s easy to take what we can get there and hope he can turn it around soon. Speaking of turning things around, after a horrible start to the season Dalton McIntyre is looking like the player he was expected to be, hitting .319/.439/.340 in June. Given his age he could earn a call up to Augusta, though that’s going to be hard given the number of outfielders they are already trying to find spots for.
(9-7) DSL Braves 3, (10-5) DSL Athletics 0
- Diego Tornes, CF: 1-3, BB, .345/.438/.509
- Juan Espinal, RF: 1-3, .238/.418/.429
- Dayner Matos, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Who else would it be for the DSL Braves? That’s a 12-game hitting streak for this year’s top international signee and a 14 game on-base streak to start his professional career. There is simply nothing else you could ask him to do at this point. Oh, and he also has gone 13/13 on stole bases. It’s unclear if there is a way for the Braves to get him stateside in the middle of the season, but based on his early performance this seems like a rare recent case of a Braves prospect who may actually be ready for the FCL straight away. The pitching staff was great in this game, with Dayner Matos extending his no earned run streak to nine innings to start his career. Matos was just signed this year and is 21 years old so the numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt, but Atlanta has had a couple of older signees come in and create some buzz, so maybe Matos could be one of those guys next year.