Guanipa had a terrific day at the plate and has been much more productive for Augusta since coming off of the injured list
There are some signs of good things across the Atlanta Braves system, and though the wins have been tough to come by this summer a few notable players have kept producing at a high level. Luis Guanipa has looked much better since coming off of the injured list last week, and he along with Patrick Clohisy at Rome put out terrific offensive evenings for their squads. In Triple-A Jhancarlos Lara may be figuring things out as he has walked only two batters over his past seven innings.
(32-50) Gwinnett Stripers 2, (37-43) St. Paul Saints 4
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-4, .219/.299/.313
- Jurickson Profar, LF: 1-2, .333/.407/.583
- Davis Daniel, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 3.82 ERA
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 6.59 ERA
The joy of Jurickson Profar updates in these recaps has finally come to an end. Profar made one last impact with a third inning single, but was pulled mid-game to make his way to the Braves as he is finally eligible to return from his suspension. That leaves up with a lineup that has been awful this season and it’s not like Profar was doing anything to save them much. There has been a bit of good news as Jarred Kelenic’s numbers have somewhat improved the last couple of weeks, though in this game it wasn’t his hit that was the most impressive at bat. Kelenic smoked a fly ball in the first inning, but hit it out to dead center field where it fell harmlessly for just another fly out. Still, it was hard contact and he had a bit more on a 100 mph ground out in the seventh inning. That said the underlying numbers aren’t pretty as his average exit velocity is staying on a downward trend and his approach isn’t seeming to improve. He has made more contact in the past couple of weeks but it hasn’t been hard contact and after that three game stretch at the end of the Memphis series where he had success it’s disappointing that he couldn’t roll that forward and have a better stretch.
After a delayed start to this game Davis Daniel took the ball for the Stripers and he ran into a bunch of trouble in the first couple of innings of this game. The Saints were not missing and Daniel was struggling with his location both in and out of the strike zone, leading to St. Paul running up three quick runs in the first couple of innings. Daniel settled in and got outs for the rest of the game, but it was a rough outing overall for him and showed off more of his fastball decline. Daniel averaged a season-low 89.3 mph on his fastball, and his average fastball velocity all season is down to 90.4 mph from his 91.6 mph average last season at Triple-A. The pitcher who did have a great outing was Jhancarlos Lara, though the command was a bit of a step back from his last outing or two. Still the Saints were aggressive swinging at Lara’s pitches and that has generally been a mistake for hitters in his career. He struck out two batters swinging and after his poor start to his Triple-A career finally seems to be settling into a rhythm. The walks are still astronomical but his results have been terrific. Lara has a 6.59 ERA, but that’s heavily influenced by early struggles and high walk rates. Hitters are batting just .111 against him with a .466 OPS, and have a horrendous quality of contact with an 83.9 mph average exit velocity. Despite the absurd 23.6% walk rate Lara still has a 3.14 FIP/3.66 xFIP and the 6th-highest whiff rate produced (42.3%) amongst 564 Triple-A pitchers with more than 250 pitches thrown. Yes, he has to drastically improve his walks to make it as a big leaguer, but the moment he gets his walk rates towards even reasonable range, if he gets there (and he has two walks and a 0.96 FIP in his past six appearances), he will be one of the best relievers in baseball.
Swing and Misses
Davis Daniel – 7
Jhancarlos Lara – 4
(28-44) Columbus Clingstones, (44-31) Montgomery Biscuits PPD
(33-41) Rome Emperors 3, (40-34) Bowling Green Hot Rods 0
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 4-4, 2B, .245/.343/.342
- Lizandro Espinoza, SS: 1-3, BB, .208/.269/.361
- Cedric De Grandpre, SP: 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 2.45 ERA
Cedric De Grandpre had a terrific outing, and although his control wasn’t his best he still managed to put together four dominant innings out there before fading a bit in his final frame. De Grandpre has been fantastic since returning from the injured list, and the first four innings of this game he only allowed two baserunners and continued his trend of getting good swing and miss on his breaking ball. His fastball was scattered though and while he was able to work around it for a few innings with fatigue he walked a couple of hitters in the fifth inning and had to be pulled from the game. De Grandpre has been solid for Rome and has improved his whiff rates overall from prior to surgery, but it’s clear the command and feel for pitching still hasn’t recovered yet. That’s to be expected at this point and it’s hard to hold that against him, with the main focus being the quality of his stuff and results which he has checked off those two boxes. The hope is that the more he gets back to pitching regularly the closer he will get to the command he showed prior to injury when he walked only 22 batters in 86 2⁄3 innings in 2023.
With De Grandpre and the Rome bullpen shutting down Bowling Green’s offense, the hitters here didn’t have much work they needed to get the win. Patrick Clohisy basically carried the team to the runs they needed by himself, with an incredible four hits in this game to go along with two stolen bases. Clohisy got one of those hits and one of those steals in the first inning, then got driven home by Mason Guerra to put Rome on top early and give De Grandpre a little something to work with. The offense never stayed quiet in this game, getting runners on base in almost every inning, but without much power production and very few of those hits sequenced together they stayed off of the board for awhile. It was when they got those extra base hits that they were able to extend the lead, and Clohisy was in the middle of the final two scoring efforts. After a walk to Lizandro Espinoza in the fifth inning, Clohisy bunted for a hit to put the pressure on but with two outs Rome would need something to go right to not come away empty-handed again. That something was Will Verdung and High-A defense. Verdung hit a weak roller up the middle, and it was in the perfect spot that Verdung was likely to reach base regardless of the defensive effort. Yet the second baseman had the ball carom off of his glove and into shallow left-center field, where Espinoza was able to score and Verdung got to second to be credited with a double. In the seventh inning Clohisy once again kept pressure on with his speed and hustle. He smacked one into the gap in right center field and didn’t slow down for a second, sprinting through first and beating a throw in for a double. He then timed the pitcher well and got a great jump to steal third base, then on a chopper over to third base by Mason Guerra he was able to barely beat the throw home, sliding beneath the tag for the third run of the game.
Swing and Misses
Cedric De Grandpre – 9
Logan Samuels – 4
(37-37) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (39-37) Columbia Fireflies 6
- John Gil, SS: 0-5, .226/.324/.292
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 3-3, 2B, BB, .217/.357/.3-4
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 3.60 ERA
Luis Guanipa had an incredible game for the GreenJackets, but the players around him went hitless and it led to a disappointing outcome for the Augusta offense. Guanipa had a walk in his first plate appearance, but the GreenJackets struggled to string together any hits early and stranded him and Douglas Glod who led off in the third inning with a double, while Jeremy Reyes struggled on the mound. Facing a 3-0 deficit Guanipa finally got the ball rolling a bit for Augusta, sitting on a changeuop on the inner edge of the plate and turning on it into left field for a leadoff double. A couple of walks followed to load the bases, and suddenly the GreenJackets had a massive opportunity to tie or take the lead. That did not happen. Nick Montomery’s fly out to right field was too shallow even to score the speedy Guanipa, and though they did get a run in on a sacrifice fly by Elio Campos they missed out on their biggest scoring opportunity of the day with just one run. Guanipa kept his day going, but the rest of the team couldn’t say the same. Guanipa’s next at bat he worked the count ahead and got a pitch to sit on, turning and ripping a liner into left field for a base hit. His final hit was a bit more lucky as he beat out a chopper over to third base, but overall it was a terrific evening for him. His swing stayed more stable than it looked last season and he was able to stay on both fastballs and offspeed pitches. Guanipa is swinging less and missing less this season, though he still is hitting way too many ground balls and it’s hard to see where the power is going to come from with his swing at this point.
Jeremy Reyes had an incredible first inning on the mound, but he struggled to keep it going as his command started to pose issues for him more and more as the game went on. Reyes is still missing a ton of bats and did so with both his slider and fastball in this game, but his inability to locate consistently or hold his command into games has made it hard for him to have any sort of breakout game. His stuff is good enough that players at this level are still having trouble producing regardless, but in order for him to make the leap to High-A he’s, one, going to have to stay healthy long enough to get consistent reps and two, locate everything better across the board. He’s a clearly talented starter and the sky in the limit but he just has a long, long way to go still.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 11
Reibyn Corona – 9
Justin Millitello – 3
(15-27) FCL Braves 3, (19-23) FCL Red Sox 4
- Jose Perdomo, SS: 1-3, BB, .204/.257/.261
- Juan Mateo, 3B: 2-4, 2B, .295/.371/.346
Jose Perdomo had a hit and a walk to open up his July on a good note, and he will really need to turn things around this month after he fell off of the earth in June. Perdomo had just a .412 OPS last month, and while he is making a fair amount of contact his power production has fallen far below what was expected of him early. He is hitting just a ton of ground balls, but his hit today was listed as a liner into right field. Juan Mateo has had a similar problem with power production (though his was more expected) however his season has gone in the opposite direction. He has been on fire as of late, hitting .324/.425/.365 in June and then starting off July with another two hits. Mateo is also hitting a lot of ground balls, but has been a lot better than Perdomo at getting to line drive contact and the biggest question is whether he will ever produce the strength and hard hit numbers needed to hit for even reasonable power.
(11-10) DSL Braves 5, (8-12) DSL Dodgers Bautista 9
- Diego Tornes, CF: 0-5, .308/.400/.436
- Michael Martinez, LF: 2-5, 3B, HR, RBI, .316/.435/.649
It took a full month, but for the first time in his career a team has managed to go an entire game without letting Diego Tornes reach base. In the entire month of June Tornes reached in every single game with hits in all but two, though with two straight hitless games it does seem like he truly might be human after all. Tornes has been massively impressive statistically and on reports, and it’s the consistency that has stood out. He has started to strike out a bit more in the past couple of weeks and has multiple in each of his last two games, but there’s going to have to be a lot more of that for me to start being concerned. Michael Martinez has also been incredible and put up his sixth multi-hit game out of his past eight. We’re trying to get a bit more information on Martinez, you guys know how tight-lipped the Braves can be, but with a triple and a home run in this game he now has ten extra base hits and three home runs over this eight game span.