Ritchie put together his best Double-A start with five scoreless innings and eight strikeouts
There was plenty for Atlanta Braves fans to like on the farm system on Saturday night, with JR Ritchie’s breakout performance for Columbus headlining them all. He dominated after a slow start, shutting down the Biscuits in a 1-0 win. Down in Augusta it was Cam Caminiti who put up a gem, though his outing was short-lived, and the GreenJackets were able to win behind pitching and a great day from Colby Jones and Eric Hartman.
(35-51) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (38-46) St. Paul Saints 3
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-3, BB, .222/.303/.315
- Jonathan Ornelas, DH: 2-3, BB, RBI, .206/.287/.336
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 5.25 ERA
- Wander Suero, RP: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0.81 ERA
Hurston Waldrep survived this game with no earned runs allowed, but it was one of his worst in awhile despite him actually throwing the ball in the strike zone more than he typically does. Waldrep didn’t have any of the uncompetitive plate appearances that often mark his poor performances, but still walked four hitters and hit another across his five innings of work. The problem centered around his inability to miss bats and finish off plate appearances, and in particular the Saints were not fishing at the sliders and splitters he was putting off of the plate. They were able to lay off of those sliders that he threw outside of the zone and crush the ones he left in it, and without the success on that pitch that he has been having over the past half of the season he struggled to find the results he needed and faced a lot of adversity the second time through the order. His splitter was terrific as always when thrown, but the Braves are still dialing back on the usage of that pitch in favor of Waldrep working on the fastball and slider and it’s the same old story there. With them handicapping him it’s not important to focus much on the results, and his command and slider have both been better since they changed his leg kick in his delivery, but this in particular was one of his worse days even if the run totals don’t reflect it.
Of course, what more can we say about the Stripers offense without sounding like a broken record. There really isn’t much going on here at all. Jarred Kelenic had a hit on a hard hit ground ball but for the most part Gwinnett both didn’t hit the ball hard and somehow also didn’t have good results when they did. That Kelenic single was the only one of their seven hard-hit balls to fall for a hit. It’s no surprise then that they scored only one run. Carlos Rodriguez had a couple of deep fly outs in this game, but he wasn’t able to get maximum power behind them and fell short on both occasions on getting anything on the board. To take a look at some positives, Wander Suero has been outlandish out of the bullpen. He allowed a run on May 3rd to raise his ERA on the season to 1.98, and in his past 19 appearances (19 2⁄3 innings) he has not allowed a run. It’s been many years since Suero’s brief run as an effective MLB reliever, but this is by far the best he has thrown strikes and missed bats since that time so at some point the big league team might give him a look. His cutter velocity has actually improved and is sitting up close to where it was when he was having success in Washington, so why not? There’s not a whole lot for the team to lose at this point.
Swing and Misses
Hurston Waldrep – 6
Wander Suero – 2
(32-45) Columbus Clingstones 1, (45-35) Montgomery Biscuits 0
- Ethan Workinger, RF: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .228/.300/.424
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, .259/.356/.382
- JR Ritchie, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 3.49 ERA
- LJ McDonough, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1.93 ERA
Brilliance from JR Ritchie and the rest of the Columbus Clingstones staff ruled the day, as they suck out a win in a pitcher’s duel behind a combined shutout. This offensive attack continues to have their struggles, though typically you would expect to score more than one run when the middle of the order is able to all have multi-hit games. Drew Compton, Ethan Workinger, and David McCabe all had multiple hits but a lack of power or any help around them led to mostly empty innings. The exception to that came early and gave JR Ritchie a lead to work with throughout most of his start. Compton flipped a base hit into right field, and was able to advance to second when the defender misplayed the ball, setting up a scoring opportunity with just one out in the inning. Workinger delivered the tie-breaking hit, sitting on an 0-2 slider that stayed in the zone and driving it into the gap in left-center for a double. Workinger has been on an extended run of poor play with a 55 wRC+ throughout his last 20 games, but he’s been on the uptick in this series with six hits in his last three games and two of those going for doubles. David McCabe has also started to turn around from his slump, hitting safely in seven of his past eight contests while only striking out five times in that span. Even with these hits, though, McCabe is still struggling on pitches on the inner third of the plate. He’s been better lately of getting his bat to the ball and punching hits the opposite way, but he’s consistently late on anything on the inner part of the plate and pitchers have not been letting him get the ball out over the plate at all.
It has been a very impressive past month on the mound for JR Ritchie, yet despite consistency and improvement in his results and location on his secondary offerings he had yet to really have a breakout performance at Double-A. Saturday evening got off to a bit of an inauspicious start with three of the first seven hitters reaching base, then an error loading the bases in the second inning, but Ritchie put together his best work of the year when he needed it. A terrific slider tied up the next hitter for a key strikeout, and following a ground out to end the inning Ritchie ensured that Montgomery would have no more chances to do damage. Even facing a lefty-heavy lineup Ritchie kept going back to that slider and it kept working, with him notching eight strikeouts with most coming on that pitch. Ritchie has made drastic strides in keeping that pitch down in and below the strike zone since the start of the season, and it’s resulted in him improving many of his numbers since being promoted to Double-A. While his walks are up and really still hovering a bit too high for comfort, he has improved his whiff rates at Double-A and has been forcing weaker contact with more ground balls.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie – 10
LJ McDonough – 5
(34-44) Rome Emperors 0, (43-35) Bowling Green Hot Rods 12
- Will Verdung, 1B: 1-3, BB, .289/.380/.345
- Ambioris Tavarez, SS: 1-4, .230/.331/.311
- Adam Maier, SP: 3 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 5.82 ERA
- Isaac Gallegos, RP: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.45 ERA
This was a messy one. Adam Maier had some good results with three scoreless innings to start the game, but the writing was on the wall pretty early and it all came crashing down in the fourth inning. Maier was not locating the ball well and was not missing Hot Rods bats, and when they made contact they made it in droves. A leadoff home run in the fourth inning broke a scoreless tie, that on its own was ultimately enough for Maier to talk a loss, but the game kept spiraling. After a walk and an error Maier allowed four more hits and another walk, finally being pulled without recording an out in the inning. Maier keeps having these brief stretches where the flashes of him figuring it out poke through, but even the best outings this season have been underlined by an inability to locate anything or miss bats despite having the raw stuff to be able to. It’s become increasingly hard to find positives in his game and his command just isn’t making progress at all.
If it makes anyone feel better, it’s not like Maier had much support from teammates on either side of the ball. The offense got blanked and the defense made three errors, then the bullpen had just as many issues with walks as Maier did. Jacob Gomez has been an interesting arm this season, but hasn’t done much to ease concern that it could fall apart for him once he reaches a level with age-appropriate competition. He’s managed to only see a small drop in his whiff rates, centered around his ability to get his fastball above bats and an improvement in his sweeper this season, but he has also seen his walks jump to 16.7%. Gomez has a jerky, long, high effort delivery that makes it difficult to room for improvement there, so without a bump in his velocity or some mechanical tweaks there may be a wall for him coming at Double-A.
Swing and Misses
Adam Maier – 6
Justin Long – 5
Jacob Gomez – 4
(39-39) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (41-39) Columbia Fireflies 3
- Owen Carey, RF: 2-5, .258/.328/.346
- Luis Guanipa, DH: 0-5, .175/.250/.225
- Eric Hartman, LF: 3-5, HR, RBI, .239/.355/.400
- Cam Caminiti, SP: 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 2.95 ERA
Augusta is starting to look scary again, and even though he hasn’t pitched deep into games yet Cam Caminiti is living up to every ounce of the pre-draft hype and more. Caminiti’s command of his fastball is so far ahead of a typical player his age, and with how often he’s throwing quality fastballs and working ahead in counts hitters are stuck trying to guess out his secondaries in many of these games. His slider has taken a huge leap forward since last season and is flashing plus potential, and of course he still has the changeup that was his best secondary entering his professional career. Caminiti’s only hold up was a laborious third inning, where the third hitter of the inning was able to foul off enough pitches to take him to 10 in the plate appearance before sneaking a squibber through the right side of the infield for an RBI single. Though Caminiti’s command held on and his secondaries bullied the next three hitters for a pop out and two strikeouts, his fastball velocity fell off after this and that plus the 31 pitch inning was enough to end his day prematurely. The Braves are being abundantly cautious with Caminiti, with good reason, but he has still given every reason to believe in him despite the limited exposure. He hit 96 in that last inning (on the broadcast radar) and has improved across the board, and for a guy who is still only 18 years old it’s amazing to see him seemingly already be too good for Low-A.
The offense is starting to get healthy, and there have been some impressive performances from the lineup though they haven’t yet put it together as a unit to rattle off a bunch of wins in a row. Saturday evening was one of their best, and even with a weak day from John Gil (who is on a 1-22 stretch) they managed to find some offensive impact. Two player in particular stood out. Colby Jones has cooled off a bit after going on a hot run in May and into June, but provided an early spark for the team as they took the lead in the first three innings. First, he lead off with a double in the second inning and scored the game’s first run, then in the third he delivered the hit to break the score open. With two runners on and one out in the inning Jones worked a 2-2 before slicing a fastball down the right field line and into the corner for a two-RBI triple. He then scored on a double from Elio Campos, giving him responsibility for each of the first four runs of the game for the GreenJackets. Eric Hartman has also been terrific since returning from the injured list. He has gone 5-11 with extra base hits in each of his three games, and the 3-5 performance on Saturday was the best of the trio. He capped his day off in the sixth inning with a towering home run, highlighting just how high his potential is. There is some real concern about Hartman’s swing-and-miss and his ability against breaking balls, typical for young hitters, but he has real above-average home run strength to go along with him being 27/29 on stolen bases and able to play second base along with left field.
Swing and Misses
Cam Caminiti – 13
Albert Rivas – 7
Jackson Dannelley – 6