Ritchie got the win for Gwinnett, showing off the arsenal that made him a Futures Game selection and has him knocking on Atlanta’s door
It was a great Friday for the Atlanta Braves affiliates, except for Augusta and the two teams that got rained out. Okay perhaps it wasn’t a great day for the affiliates, but for the people who like following box scores it was a terrific day as Jose Perdomo had a five-hit explosion down in Florida. Also of note: JR Ritchie is officially a Gwinnett Striper, and though it was a bit of a mediocre showing for him it was the next step on his likely soon-to-be-complete journey to Atlanta.
(38-57) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (57-37) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-4, .218/.296/.317
- Luke Waddell, 2B: 2-4, RBI, .312/.433/.384
- JR Ritchie, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 4.50 ERA
- Austin Cox, RP: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3.64 ERA
JR Ritchie made his debut for the Gwinnett Stripers and opened by earning a win with a solid though tainted start. Ritchie did a few things this start exceptionally well. He threw plenty of strikes and didn’t give up a ton of explosive contact, and while throwing strikes he was able to keep his fastball out of the middle of the strike zone and work the edges. The biggest issue for Ritchie was his secondary offerings stayed up higher than you would like to see them, and the Jumbo Shrimp were able to take advantage of a couple of curveballs that stayed in the zone and hit them for home runs. The first was not entirely Ritchie’s fault in fairness to him. He worked ahead of Jacob Marsee 0-2, and while the curveball did stay in the strike zone it wasn’t an awful pitch, he had Marsee way out front and he just hit a wall-scraper into the corner for a solo shot. The second was more clearly a misfire. Ritchie left two curveballs in the middle of the plate and hanging up in the zone in the same at bat, and the second of these got tattooed for a no doubt home run. It doesn’t take a genius to say that Ritchie has to be better at burying his changeup and breaking balls in order to have success at this level. That has at times been a problem for him at the lower levels, but in his past few starts in Columbus he was able to real dial in and hit his spots better than he did with his secondaries throughout this start. The movement of his pitches looked good and he mixed them well, also averaging a shade over 93 mph which is where we expect him to be in longer starts compared to his Futures Game showing. Ritchie has by all measures made exceptional progress since coming back from Tommy John surgery last year and even if he does face some trouble at Triple-A it’s easy to call this a successful season for him. His stuff, however, sets the ceiling much higher than that and his ability to vary his pitch shapes consistently and his addition of a cutter has him much closer to getting a major league chance.
The great thing about being a contact-oriented team is that even if they don’t hit the ball hard, sometimes the hits are going to fall anyways, and the Stripers were able to support Ritchie with a ten-hit performance. They got a boost in the third inning on a home run from David Fletcher, a rare contribution from him in a season where he has been absolutely awful overall. Fletcher kept contributing his next time up by bringing home a run on a soft single, and the offense heated up in a way in the middle innings. Walks to Carlos Rodriguez and Eddys Leonard to open the sixth inning were gifts to put Gwinnett in position to take the lead, and finally with two outs Jason Delay was able to stroke one into center field for a two-run single to swing the game over in the Stripers favor. They tacked on another in the seventh inning, this off of the second of Luke Waddell’s singles. Waddell has been on an insane run this month, hitting .361 with a .540 on base percentage, and he now has a 15 game on-base streak. That is propped up primarily by him getting walked at an absurd clip and this was the first game in this entire streak that he hasn’t drawn a walk. That is 14 straight games with a walk snapped, and so far in July he has drawn 14 walks and struck out only three times.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie – 10
Austin Cox – 8
(36-49) Columbus Clingstones, (31-56) Rocket City Trash Pandas POSTPONED
(37-49) Rome Emperors, (39-48) Asheville Tourists POSTPONED
(44-43) Augusta GreenJackets 1, (41-45) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 12
- Owen Carey, LF: 0-1, BB, 2 HBP, .248/.324/.329
- Colby Jones, SS: 2-4, SB (50), .217/.350/.268
- Luis Guanipa, RF: 2-4, RBI, .243/.303/.286
- Rayven Antonio, SP: 3.1 IP, 10 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 3.47 ERA
The GreenJackets faced a left-handed starter, and beyond the score which if you haven’t seen it don’t look, it pointed out something I had missed up until now. Juan Mateo was a switch-hitter when he was signed and switch-hit last season, but so far he has only had five plate appearances from the left side this season and is listed as left-handed, so it appears the Braves have decided to drop that aspect from his game. It’s all the same as Mateo’s swing looks good from the left side though I can’t claim to have seen him in-game from the right side, and he was able to draw a walk in this game to reach base for the first time in Single-A. He does seem to have a great feel for the strike zone and the discipline to spit on pitches away, but in both games he has played he has been hyper-aggressive on the inner half of the plate. I’m comfortable with him taking an approach at this stage of swinging with authority and looking to turn and drive anything on the inner half, but he leaves himself vulnerable away where his contact quality this game is poor. He also has chased on his back foot multiple times in these two games, and his performance on pitches off the plate in and his contact quality away are two aspects I’ll be watching closely.
The top of Augusta’s lineup had plenty of success — Carey, Guanipa, and Jones combined to reach base seven times — but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep pace with the onslaught from Myrtle Beach’s hitters. Guanipa’s swing is still giving him fits on anything out away from his body, and though he has the bat speed and feel for contact to still extend out and make decent contact he is spraying those pitches to the right side with not much authority for extra base power. Pitchers are just not giving him anything on the inner half of the plate to hit, but I’ve still taken away positive growth this season. He is making solid contact more often and taking much better at bats overall, so my concerns around his hit tool are more him making use of his bat speed than anything else. His physical traits are there he just has to improve his swing mechanics and stop falling away from the plate when he swings.
Rayven Antonio came into this start off of a career performance, where in his last outing he set a Braves minor-league season high with 26 swings-and-misses in a seven inning masterpiece. He still missed quite a few bats this game, but that’s where the superlatives for this one wrap up. Antonio’s command across the board was poor, and while he was able to avoid walks the Pelicans got far too many pitches in the middle of the plate to hit and they hit them. Antonio gave up for extra base hits including two home runs, and they weren’t cheap shots, and they came on pitches that he hung right over the heart of the plate. Antonio was struggling with his arm slot this game and was staying too low with his arm angle, and while he was able to work ahead of hitters once he started trying to finish them his at bats fell apart. He would often miss badly on his arm side with his fastballs and more noticeably his typically dominant slider flattened out and hung in the middle of the zone. Given Antonio’s body of work this is a blip on his season more than anything, but it was a loud one and ensured his regression to his FIP happened all in one go. It’s also fair to mention that Antonio is already significantly over his career high in innings and only seven short of his total from his first two seasons as a professional, all while adding velocity, so some late-season regression in command or stuff should all but be expected at this stage.
Swing and Misses
Rayven Antonio – 11
Justin Millitello – 4
Reibyn Corona – 3
(19-36) FCL Braves 14, (27-28) FCL Rays 7
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 5-6, RBI, .225/.279/.275
- Michael Martinez, LF: 1-5, 2B, RBI, .233/.281/.500
- Junior Garcia, CF: 2-5, BB, .206/.289/.338
We’ve waited a long time for this. It’s an honest-to-god Jose Perdomo masterclass. Perdomo led the way in an offensive explosion for the FCL Braves, notching five hits (all singles) in six at bats, scoring four runs, and driving in another two. Don’t call it a streak, but Perdomo has been much more competitive at the plate these past two weeks and if he can go on a run to end the season he will put himself in a position to get a shot in full season ball for the last month. Even without that a continuation of his month of July is the hope, where he has sliced his strikeouts significantly, is finally drawing some walks, and has a .684 OPS overall. Further down in the lineup Michael Martinez had another extra base hit, an RBI double in the second inning that was part of a four-run outburst. Diego Benitez and Junior Garcia both had strong days as well and reached base three times each, though this meant different things for both. Benitez had a solid start to the FCL season but has been abysmal in July, and this marks the third in a streak of games where he has totaled seven times on base to get his numbers in a semi-respectable territory. Garcia on the other hand has been knocking the cover off of the ball with a .296/.424/.444 slash in July, and though the strikeouts are concerningly high at this point he probably does deserve a look in full season ball again even if that is a tough lineup to crack at the moment.