Jeremy Reyes struck out a season-high eight batters
The All Star break is over and the Atlanta Braves minor league affiliates were back in action on Friday night with some interesting twists. Hurston Waldrep and Jeremy Reyes headlined the pitching performances, and both had successful outings in their own way with Reyes in particular leading all Braves prospects. We also had the promotion of Juan Mateo from the FCL Braves to Augusta to replace the injured John Gil, and though we only have one game to judge him off of there is still plenty to watch from him from yesterday and moving forward.
(37-57) Gwinnett Stripers 2, (57-36) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3
- Eddys Leonard, 3B: 2-4, 2B, HR, .228/.294/.421
- Luke Waddell, 2B: 1-3, BB, .306/.431/.380
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 4.78 ERA
- Dylan Dodd, RP: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4.63 ERA
The Braves sent Hurston Waldrep into this game with a clear focus, and Waldrep was able to find a level of success despite serious limitations. Of the 83 pitches that Waldrep threw in this game only 27 of them were fastballs or splitters, leaving him to mostly try to fight off Jacksonville with a combination of cutters, sliders, and curveballs. Further, his command of the splitter in this game was poor as he wasn’t able to get the pitch down, leaving him effectively complete without his best weapon. To balance this he had a great day locating most of his other pitches, and in particular found plenty of success with his curveball by getting eight whiffs on 13 swings. The Jumbo Shrimp ran out a lefty-heavy lineup with six players batting from the left side, and the Braves in the past have been content with their pitchers throwing those overhand curveballs as a way to combat opposite-handed batters. It worked to perfection for Waldrep this game as he was able to mix fastballs up and then land his curveball below the zone and Jacksonville only put one of his curveballs in play. His three walks are a bit misleading as well with two of those coming at bats that he got squeezed a bit on and he very easily could have come out of this outing with only one or two walks in five innings instead.
Waldrep hasn’t really had a game in awhile where he has put all of the piece togethers, but this time it seemed like he was really only missing his splitter and was otherwise successful in what the Braves asked him to do. They seem hesitant to call him up at this point, and I understand given both their desire to give him a steady developmental environment and the risk of his command being disastrous at the major league level, but he seems to be overall moving in a positive direction this season. He has added more arm-side movement to his fastball, started to implement a true cutter, and brought his curveball back into the fold giving him a more diverse arsenal. His command still misses too often, but he is having fewer complete blow ups and with a few more months and an offseason of work should be given every opportunity to win a starting job in spring training in 2026.
Offensively Gwinnett struggled as we have come to expect, but with Waldrep and the bullpen doing a solid job this game could have turned on a single swing. Eddys Leonard had a great day with a double and a run scored in the fifth inning, then a home run in the ninth to give Gwinnett a breath of life, but it was a couple of hard hit outs that really may be what haunts the Stripers from this one. The sixth inning you could call a stretch. Jarred Kelenic laced a line drive to open the inning, but it was sprayed directly at the right fielder and he was able to drift back for a catch. Luke Waddell followed with a walk that, had that 105 mph line out fallen could have started a rally, but the next two in the order made outs and the game remained tied at 1-1. The fifth inning was when the Stripers had a particularly terrible point of luck. Gwinnett already had a run in, and with a runner on first and two outs Cody Milligan smoked a line drive into right field. Just like Kelenic the ball was directly at the right fielder and was snagged on a slide for the final out, but it was a ball that if hit a few feet in either direction would have either brought home the go-ahead run or given Gwinnett a chance with two in scoring position. As it stands the Stripers came up empty and a sixth inning, 29.7 mph swinging bunt single with two outs made a key part of the difference in favor of Jacksonville.
Swing and Misses
Hurston Waldrep – 13
Hunter Stratton – 7
Dylan Dodd – 3
(36-49) Columbus Clingstones 1, (31-56) Rocket City Trash Pandas 4
- Cal Conley, SS: 1-3, BB, .199/.259/.231
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, .279/.372/.400
- Landon Harper, SP: 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2.84 ERA
- Rolddy Munoz, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 2.25 ERA
If you were hoping that any of the other affiliates would rescue us from the offensive woes of the Stripers, you’re in for a disappointing recap. It was a light day for the Clingstones in their first game following the all-star break, and Rocket City’s early run production was enough for them to cruise to a win. The one exception to poor offense was once again David McCabe, who had another multi-hit game after starting the game 0-2. One of his outs in the fifth inning was what appears to be a pretty deep fly out to right field, though in the spirit of minor league production quality the MiLB tv feed cuts back from commercial soon after the ball is caught and thrown back in so we can’t actually watch this particular play and it is lost to the memories of those in attendance. McCabe’s next two at bats ensured we had some video evidence of good play in this game. McCabe was able to get a couple of pitches out over the plate and turned and hit both sharply, getting singles in his next two at bats. McCabe is hitting over .400 for the month and has reached base safely in all but one game, and though the power is showing up he has been hitting the ball hard and far more often is hitting the ball hard and in the air to his pull side. He’s been just missing on many occasions like in the fifth inning of this game, and his swing and approach are exactly what you want to see. I’m a bit surprised not to see McCabe among the names who got called up to start the second half of the season, though he is still a couple of series short of a full season worth of Double-A plate appearances.
Landon Harper made the start for Mississsippi and it was as you often see Harper’s starts go. He threw a ton of pitches and was able to work five efficient innings, though in this outing he gave up too many hard hit balls and Rocket City was able to tag him for a few runs. Harper’s slider has been a lot more effective this season and he has seen a significant rise in swing-and-miss as a result, and he is another that very well could get a Triple-A chance this season though it’s a harder barrier to cross with pitching in this system.
Swing and Misses
Landon Harper – 14
Rolddy Munoz – 2
Tyler LaPorte – 2
(37-49) Rome Emperors 2, (39-48) Asheville Tourists 14
- Mason Guerra, 1B: 2-4, RBI, .234/.279/.359
- Justin Janas, RF: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .256/.324/.352
- Logan Samuels, SP: 2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.52 ERA
Rome has ventured up to Asheville where the home runs fly, and it’s never a great thing in that ballpark to have pitchers go out there and not miss bats. That was the case for Logan Samuels in particular, who has been inconsistent with his location at High-A all throughout his stint there and as a result batters have been able to take advantage of him leaving pitches over the plate. In many parks a pitcher can get away with that, but in Asheville that can lead to them allowing two home runs and four runs in two innings. Rome kind of held on, and in this park trailing 7-2 isn’t a complete death sentence, but it all fell apart for William Silva and the bullpen late in the game. Silva allowed two home runs in his outing as well, and split across the 7th and 8th innings allowed six runs and Asheville was able to get a total of seven runs in the eighth to put the game away. It is important to note that we don’t get MiLB tv with Asheville, so it can be hard to judge when home runs are a result of bad pitching or just the hitter-friendly park, though in any case it’s never good for a guy to be giving up hard fly balls.
At least both teams got a chance to hit in this park, except it didn’t help much for Rome as they couldn’t actually hit fly balls. Rome had 14 ground ball outs in this game and with the team overall hitting poorly this summer it was another disappointing showing for the hitters. Mason Guerra has been solid for them since being called up and added a couple of hits this game, and though both his power numbers and walk rate has fallen off since his promotion it’s good to see him making plenty of contact.
Swing and Misses
William Silva – 5
Jacob Gomez – 4
Logan Samuels – 4
(44-42) Augusta GreenJackets 0, (40-45) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 3
- Eric Hartman, CF: 0-4, .229/.343/.374
- Isaiah Drake, RF: 0-2, BB, .254/.345/.357
- Luis Guanipa, RF: 2-4, RBI, .238/.304/.286
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 3.21 ERA
The final stretch of the season is in progress for Augusta, and unfortunately they’re going to have to do without John Gil for a bit. His injured list stint is something we’ve been expecting, though there is zero concern about him long term, and in his place we’re going to get to see 18 year old Juan Mateo and his impressive contact abilities. How did that first game without Gil go for Mateo and the squad? Well they got no-hit. Not great. The only whiff of any excitement for the GreenJackets was Isaiah Drake working a walk in the first inning — otherwise the only way anyone reached base was via error. As for Mateo’s GreenJackets debut, it is easy to see both what there is to love about him and what has created concern. The biggest concern regarding Mateo is his lack of power, and much of that is just going to be solved by adding muscle. Mateo is rail-thin and has a ton of room to add strength to his frame, and with his primarily playing third base the Braves aren’t going to be overly concerned with him slowing down. I love a lot of aspects of his swing. He has quiet hands and a clean bat path, he generates lift better than I was expecting given his extra base numbers at the lower levels, and he has a terrific ability to adjust and get his bat to the ball in all parts of the zone. This helps, because he was very aggressive on breaking balls in this game. We’re working with a three at-bat sample here, so judging him on his approach this early is unwise, but he was attacking breaking balls in every count in his at bats. This could be beneficial to him though, as his bat speed is average at best at this stage and he was consistently a bit behind fastballs this game. I’ll keep an eye on Mateo for a couple of series to draw my final real thoughts on him, but right now the main goal should just be for him to add as much strength as he can as it’s quite clear the hit tool is legitimate if he can actually make enough impact for it to be valuable.
Jeremy Reyes took on Ty Southisene — brother of Braves first rounder Tate — and the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, and boy does it seem like Reyes is starting to put it together after struggling mightily with his command after getting injured earlier this season. Southisene greeted Reyes by poking a hanging 1-2 breaking ball through the left side of the infield, and Reyes had a rough first inning following this. The next batter turned on a sinker and was able to line it to the right side for a double, and a poorly placed fastball to the fourth hitter of the inning was roped into right-center field to score two. Some off screen shenanigans on defense led to the hitter being able to score on what was ruled a home run, but that was the last runner Reyes gave up. Reyes retired 17 straight to cover the rest of his outing, and this was absolutely the best he has utilized his slider this season. He played with the pitch off the plate and Myrtle Beach struggled to lay off, and he was able to his the zone with his fastball enough to get ahead in counts and throw it past Pelicans hitters when they started to try to jump on his slider. Reyes is locating his fastballs and his slider much better than he was throughout May and June and he’s now starting to find some consistency that if he can carry it through the rest of the season would give him a strong final couple of months.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 12
Trent Buchanan – 2
(18-36) FCL Braves 4, (27-27) FCL Rays 1
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 1-4, BB, .207/.264/.258
- Michael Martinez, DH: 1-4, .240/.269/.520
- Kendy Richard, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Thankfully the FCL Braves pitching staff led by Kendy Richard’s five scoreless innings gave the system one win to talk about on Friday. It turns out that if a team gets hits and scores runs they can actually win games. Jose Perdomo reached base twice in this game, and while it has not been a great month for him July still represents a significant improvement in his numbers. He has reached base in each of his past nine games, and after a long stretch where he wasn’t drawing any walks he now has four in his past three games. Perdomo is still the most disappointing player in the system this summer and his lack of hard contact is a major issue, but any sort of stretch of positive play can hopefully build momentum for him. Michael Martinez has been great since coming over from the DSL, not really showing any signs of slowing down. He had a hit in this game though he also had his first two-strikeout performance stateside, and with his home run in Thursday’s game he adds to an impressive power output. His last 15 games have been something a comedy, with 13 extra base hits (five home runs) and a 201 wRC+ split across two levels. He has (in a small sample) kept hitting for power in the FCL while so far he has kept his strikeouts at a solid 23.5% clip and has a 112 wRC+. He hasn’t drawn a walk yet and in that 15 game span his walk rate is only 5%, so that may be something to watch moving forward, but there are two points to be made here. One is the unreliability of rookie-level statistics and the fact that we’re talking about a very small sample of games. The other is that at this point we have to take any sort of good hitting we can from the rookie ball teams and the international prospects.