The Braves have some reinforcements coming with Profar making his way back from his PED suspension.
It’s been a tough season for the Atlanta Braves to say the least. Finally it will get a little bit better, hopefully, as Jurickson Profar is nearing the date to return from his suspension and made his first rehab appearance for the Gwinnett Stripers on Tuesday. The star of the system on Tuesday was Herick Hernandez, who had a brilliant outing in the Rome Emperors win.
(26-44) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (34-36) Charlotte Knights 6
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-5, .216/.310/.333
- Jurickson Profar, LF: 2-3, BB, RBI, .667/.600/.667
- Nathan Wiles, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2.95 ERA
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 10.38 ERA
Brooks Baldwin doesn’t seem happy that the Chicago White Sox aren’t giving him a chance to stick in the major leagues, and he is taking it out on the International League. This week’s victims are the Stripers, and in particular he absolutely teed off on Nathan Wiles. Baldwin had two home runs and a double against Wiles by himself, accounting for a majority of the damage and the runs scored for Charlotte as they were able to overcome the Stripers. For his part Wiles just didn’t have a great game in this one, far too often leaving his cutter over the middle of the plate which led to more contact than he has been giving up all season on that pitch. Wiles is heavily reliant on his cutter as the out pitch and if it is off he is going to really struggle to get outs consistently. If there is a positive takeaway it was that his fastball velocity was a bit close in line with his norms. His velocity in the prior two games had dipped way down with him averaging below 92 mph in both games, and while he still isn’t at the numbers he had earlier in the season he had a 92.5 mph average fastball velocity which falls right in line with his prior month worth of starts.
Jhancarlos Lara had the most impressive day from the pitching staff, throwing an efficient inning with a couple of strikeouts which he sorely needed after struggling throughout June. It was a notably slider-heavy outing for him, nine of his 14 pitches, but he was keeping that pitch in and around the zone and getting swings-and-misses on it. His fastball was still all over the place and that’s going to have to improve quickly, but at least with Lara there are some clear mechanical issues that the Braves can work on. He has been awful at repeating his release point on his fastball and hasn’t really shown a ton of improvement during the season this year, but if you’re hoping for a player to improve it’s good to have clear issues to work on rather than him just being a player who misses his location despite good mechanics.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Stripers offense wasn’t very good on Tuesday. The Stripers are by far the worst and softest hitting team in Triple-A with an abysmal 86.4 mph average exit velocity and 3% barrel rate as a team, and yet again the contact as a whole was very poor in this game. Nacho Alvarez did continue to reach base by drawing two walks and has reached base at least twice so far in every Gwinnett game, but in his first four games back he hasn’t gotten the barrel to the ball at all. He only has one hard hit ball in the four games, but given his long layoff and the extremely small sample that obviously is nothing to be concerned about. The big news from the game was the first rehab appearance for Jurickson Profar, and he even came away with a couple of hits in the game. In the first inning he hit a floater into right field that fell in for a leadoff single, and in the ninth he capped off his game with a bleeding grounder up the middle for another hit. Jarred Kelenic followed Profar with a base hit to bring Nacho up to the plate with a chance to tie up the game, but he grounded into a double play that ended the game. Profar’s biggest chance to make an impact came in the sixth inning when he had two runners on base and one out with the Stripers trailing by a couple of runs. Profar lifted a deep fly ball out to right field, but he got under it an missed the barrel and it went for a sacrifice fly.
Swing and Misses
Nathan Wiles – 4
Jhancarlos Lara – 3
(25-35) Columbus Clingstones 1, (33-30) Birmingham Barons 4
- David McCabe, 3B: 1-4, .253/.370/.389
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-3, HR, BB, .255/.343/.364
- Ian Mejia, RP: 6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 2.29 ERA
- Blayne Abeyta, RP: 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 3.32 ERA
The top four in the Columbus order had a solid day at the plate, and you would expect with that — especially Drew Compton — that they would come away with an offensive breakout to start the week. They scored, as you can see, one run solely on Compton’s fourth inning home run. The first inning was the sort of nightmare sequence for a lineup that can really only happen when the team is in a cold streak. Cody Milligan led off with a single only to be immediately erased by a double play ball from Ethan Workinger. Then David McCabe smoked a single into center field on a changeup running away from him and Compton worked a walk, but the inning ended unceremoniously on a pop out from EJ Exposito. Compton would need three more innings to get back up to bat, where he put the Clingstones on the board first by hooking a hanging curveball and crushing it onto the concourse in left field. While the team as a whole has struggled Compton has been quietly raking for the past month, hitting .282/.380/462 with three home runs over the past 30 calendar days. For the rest of the game the Clingstones were able to cobble together hits, but never strung them together and the top of the lineup lacked RBI opportunities with the bottom of the lineup getting blanked on the scorecard.
The reason the Clingstones were able to take the lead in this game came down to Ian Mejia, who despite poor control in this game was able to get a ton of weak contact for the first three innings. Mejia walked three batters his first time through the order, but kept to the edges of the plate when he threw strikes and stayed off of the barrels of the Barons hitters. The good play didn’t last long into the fourth inning as he started to really make a ton of mistakes with his slider and Jacob Gonzalez greeted him by blitzing a hanger for a double. After a really impressive one to strike out the next hitter he gave up the big hit of the game, though it wasn’t actually on one of his worse pitches. He got a cutter on the inner corner of the plate, but Caden Connor was just able to get his hands inside and crush it for a two run home run. He then left a slider up that got smoked for a triple, but put together a couple of good sequences. He got the next hitter to chase a slider for a strikeout, but it scooted past Adam Zebrowski for a wild pitch that scored the third run of the inning. Mejia then settled back down, and that inning was the only one in which he allowed a run. Mejia hasn’t gotten much attention, partially due to his age and repeating Double-A, but he has made some solid progress with his splitter and his fastball this season. He had an abnormally bad command game on Tuesday, but generally has been making incremental progress towards a hopeful swingman/back end future.
Swing and Misses
Ian Mejia – 9
Jose Cuas – 4
(29-35) Rome Emperors 9, (24-40) Winston-Salem Dash 4
- Lizandro Espinoza, SS: 2-5, .218/.271/.372
- Titus Dumitru, LF: 3-4, 2B, BB, RBI, .250/.324/.344
- Herick Hernandez, SP: 7.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 5.37 ERA
- Ryan Bourassa, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2.67 ERA
This right here is what we like to see. Bunches of runs, bunches of hits, and a great command game from Herick Hernandez added up to a huge win for the Emperors. Hernandez has been so hot and cold throughout this season, but when he is locked in he is absolutely among the best pitching prospects in this system and can carve through lineups. There is little more you can ask of a pitcher than to retire the first 15 batters he faces, and Hernandez came out of the gates with his best sort of stuff. He was frequently pitching backwards off of his slider, an approach which had the Dash off balance, and he struck out the side in the first inning including a great little fading changeup to retire the second of those hitters. While the Dash wisened up and wouldn’t let him attack the zone so freely over the next six innings, it didn’t much matter as they couldn’t get the barrel to anything and he was getting whiffs with all four pitches. Through five innings he had eight strikeouts and hadn’t allowed a baserunner, though his run of perfection would come to an end on a swinging bunt to lead off the sixth inning. Hernandez had to contend with that and a catchers interference call, putting two on with no outs, but wiggled out of it thanks to a double play ball and a fly out. He went right back to dominating the game in the seventh inning and it wasn’t until the eighth that the Dash finally got a solid hit off of Hernandez. Hernandez was clearly tiring at this point and walked the next hitter on four pitches before getting a pop out to end a brilliant outing. The most impressive pitch for Hernandez was his splitter, which was as good as it’s been ever and miles ahead of where he started out when he entered the system. While Hernandez has had trouble with command and his long arm action does generate concern for his ability to repeat his release point long term, there is zero doubt about the development of his arsenal. All of his pitches are major league quality offerings with the progress of his splitter, and if he can even approach average with command he is looking at a very bright future in a major league rotation.
When your starter is as brilliant as Hernandez was it is always right to get him a few runs, and the Emperors did not wait to take advantage of an awful outing from Dash starter Dylan Cumming. Cumming loaded the bases on a two-out walk and the Emperors jumped on the opportunity, with a single from Justin Janas and double by Keshawn Ogans clearing those runners out and getting into the Winston-Salem bullpen very early. Janas had another massive hit two innings later, driving home two runs on a triple to break the game open and put the Emperors on top 5-0. That lead would grow to 7-0 with home runs from Bryson Horne and Mac Guscette, then the top of the lineup got in on the action again. There is life in the bats again with Lizandro Espinoza, Patrick Clohisy, and Titus Dumitru all showing signs of stirring after they collective slump and Espinoza once again got some action going with a base hit. Clohisy followed by doubling him home for run number eighth, and Titus Dumitru greeted a new pitcher rudely with a single to tack on the final run.
Swing and Misses
Herick Hernandez – 15
Ryan Bourassa – 5
Samuel Strickland – 3
(32-30) Augusta GreenJackets 7, (41-23) Lynchburg Hillcats 2
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-5, 3B, .256/.347/.374
- John Gil, SS: 1-4, 2B, .247/.348/.321
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1.52 ERA
- Samuel Mejia, RP: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 5.01 ERA
The whole lineup contributed for the GreenJackets to open their series against Lynchburg, and their big third inning drove them to a win as the pitching staff was able to hold the Hillcats to only two hits. John Gil didn’t contribute to the final score and only had one hit in five at bats, but he set the tone early with a first inning double. Gil got a fastball in the zone and jumped all over it, turning and burning the left fielder with a hard-hit line drive. Gil has been on an insane tear at the plate, and once again didn’t record a strikeout. In his past 17 games Gil has a 135 wRC+ and during that time has managed to draw 15 walks while only striking out five times. The power hasn’t been there just yet for Gil but the swings are getting better and his approach at the plate has taken leaps in a short time as the game seems to be slowing down for him. The GreenJackets got on the board in the second inning to answer a Lynchburg run, but they really took control of the game in the third inning and didn’t need to rely on the top of the order to do it. A hit from Colby Jones and walk to Mason Guerra set up a one out rally, where Lynchburg did their best to boot the game in Augusta’s favor. Nick Montgomery’s base hit broke the tie, and after two errors and another hit the GreenJackets were leading 5-1 They would extend that lead in the fourth inning on Guerra’s eighth home run of the season, and the bullpen was outstanding and easily protected that lead. Douglas Glod notched a three hit game out of the eighth spot, and despite his strikeout numbers being concerning again this season he has done well to adjust to full season ball. Over the past month his power has blossomed with three home runs and three doubles, and he is drawing enough walks to keep his on base percentage relatively high. Glod hits the ball hard and has a great approach at the plate, though his lack of a defensive home and his poor contact skills still make him unlikely to break the trend of higher profile Braves international signees not working out.
The way Jeremy Reyes started this game it looked like he may be onto something big. He retired the first five batters of the game, three via strikeout, and all three of his pitches looked terrific. However the inklings of command issues that he avoided in the first inning started to pop up quickly in the second, and then all of the sudden the game got away from him completely. Reyes went walk, hit batter, walk, walk with two outs before pitch counts forced him from the game in the middle of the inning. For a brief flash his stuff was brilliant — 94-96 on his fastball with both his slider and changeup getting whiffs — but it all went sideways in a matter of minutes. While some of Reyes’s issues are physical and due to trouble repeating mechanics, he also got out of this game mentally and started overthrowing the ball. While it’s nice to see him hit 98 on the gun, it seemed to come more out of frustration with his outing and Reyes will need a bit of time to learn to slow the game down. This is far from a major criticism and certainly not unique to Reyes, just something that the still 19-year-old needs to do to avoid these runaway disasters. In Reyes’s stead the bullpen did a brilliant job of covering the final 7 1⁄3 innings, with Jackson Dannelley in particular avoiding disaster. He retired the first batter he faced in the second inning to strand the bases loaded, then retired the next six batters he faced in a row to give it to Samuel Mejia for long relief. Mejia had a weird outing. He walked the first four batters he faced in a row, though with a caught stealing in between it took a sacrifice fly to score a run, then he settled down and didn’t issue another free pass across four innings.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 7
Samuel Mejia – 5
Jackson Dannelley – 2
(11-22) FCL Braves 3, (16-17) FCL Pirates 4
- Juan Mateo, 2B: 0-4, .269/.351/.319
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 0-4, .214/.260/.282
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-3, 2B, 2 BB, .200/.467/.400
- Royber Salinas, SP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 0.00 ERA
These FCL Braves losses are starting to become annoyingly common, and outside of Luis Guanipa who won’t be in Florida much longer no one is hitting well at all. Guanipa had an active game as he drew two walks and had a double, but his time on base did little to help the Braves as the two prospects behind him had a rough day. Juan Mateo went hitless, and while he is drawing enough walks to make an impact he is in a mini-slump with only one hit over his past five games. That’s better than what we’ve gotten from Jose Perdomo, however, who has seven strikeouts in his past four games and hasn’t drawn a walk this month. Perdomo is hitting .159/.159/.250 this month and in particular over the last seven games has gone 3-21 with no extra base hits.
(5-6) DSL Braves 3, (5-5) DSL Red Sox Red 5
- Diego Tornes, CF: 2-4, 2 RBI, .270/.352/.432
- Juan Espinal, DH: 1-3, 2B, BB, .241/.421/.448
- Wuilinyer Tovar, RP: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 11.37 ERA
- Jorge Nunez, RP: 3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 0.00 ERA
Diego Tornes keeps hitting for the DSL Braves, with two hits in this one running his hitting streak to seven games. Outside of a three-strikeout game on the 9th Tornes has been brilliant all season for the Braves though the walks have slowed down after the first couple of games. His two-run single in the third inning of this game gave the Braves a brief lead, and he added a couple of stolen bases to the ledger as well. The best thing about this game might just be the control for the Braves pitchers. They only allowed one walk over nine innings, with all of those innings coming from fresh signees from this year’s class. Jorge Nunez in particular had an amazing game with no walks and five strikeouts over three scoreless innings of relief.