Murphy went deep for the second time in as many games as he played the full game at designated hitter
There’s this minor league for the Atlanta Braves that’s making waves right now. You may have heard of him, his name is Sean Murphy. Sources say he may be getting called up soon. He had a pretty solid day on Thursday, with a big home run for the Stripers.
(23-25) Gwinnett Stripers 11, (20-28) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 12
- Sean Murphy, DH: 2-6, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, .333/.400/1.111
- Eli White, CF: 2-4, BB, .329/.438/.418
- Ian Mejia, SP: 1.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 33.75 ERA
- Ben Bowden, RP: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 5.93 ERA
This game was quite a sight to behold, but first things first is Sean Murphy’s rehab. Murphy has looked very strong in his two games with Gwinnett, and in the fourth inning hit his second no doubt home run in as many games. Murphy took the first pitch he saw in the at bat and turned on it to hit it over the bullpen, over the walkway, and into the apartments in left field for a solo shot. With him looking this good the Braves could choose to call him up earlier than initially planned – especially after he caught seven innings instead of the planned five on Tuesday.
Gwinnett got hammered early on to fall behind big, as Ian Mejia’s first venture into Triple-A didn’t go as planned. Mejia lacked his normal strike-zone filling ability, issuing three walks in an inning and a third, and when he did find the zone the Jumbo Shrimp were able to hit him hard. It was a harsh welcome to the league for Mejia, but in positive news he was still able to have success with his slider and get whiffs on five of ten swings. If you do check out the Statcast link note that a lot of his pitches are misclassified and he threw fastball, slider, changeup and nothing else.
The game really got wild once Mejia departed, as the Stripers turned to David Fletcher just to save their relievers some innings and it went…not as bad as it could have I guess. Fletcher allowed three runs but did manage to cover 2 2⁄3 innings for the Stripers and the offense actually managed to come back. Every single Stripers starter had a hit, including multiple from six of the nine spots in the order, and hit three home runs to drop eleven runs in the game. Sebastian Rivero had the biggest performance of all, reaching base in all five plate appearances with two singles and three walks.
(19-23) Mississippi Braves 8, (12-30) Chattanooga Lookouts 5
- Nacho Alvarez, SS: 3-5, RBI, .283/.393/.341
- Drake Baldwin, DH: 3-5, 2B, .248/.314/.350
- Tyler Tolve, C: 1-5, 2B, 3 RBI, .155/.196/.256
- JJ Niekro, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 4.02 ERA
- Hayden Harris, RP: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 6.23 ERA
- Rolddy Munoz, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.00 ERA
Mississippi is on a roll and this Chattanooga team they are facing is truly terrible. The Lookouts have just been dominated by the Braves this series so far, though this is the first time their offense put up some sort of fight. JJ Niekro is normally a reliable guy for Mississippi, not one to often have huge nights but typically not a guy that’s going to cause many problems. Unfortunately Niekro did not have much success finding the strike zone in this game, allowing five walks across four innings to give the Lookouts a fighting chance. Still Niekro mostly avoided problems and only allowed one run through four innings but left after the first two hitters reached in the fifth inning. Then once he was pulled from the game Jonathan Hughes struggled, allowing two inherited runners to score and another of his own to make it a one run game.
The back end of the Mississippi bullpen was fantastic, especially for the two top relief arms on the team. Hayden Harris struck out two of the three batters he faced, with that pushing his strikeout rate above 40% and lowering his FIP on the season to 1.04. Harris allowed a run in his second outing of the season but has since been a machine, going 12 1⁄3 straight scoreless with only three walks, 22 strikeouts, and a 0.50 FIP. In the ninth inning Rolddy Munoz got the ball and struck out two of the four batters he faced, maintaining the 50% strikeout rate he has had since coming up to Mississippi. Munoz is in the midst if his breakout season, topping out in the triple digits with a 46.4% strikeout rate. Munoz is also rule 5 eligible, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Braves are aggressive in moving him to Triple-A to see if he is worth a 40-man spot this winter or even in the second half of the season.
Nacho Alvarez had been in quite a funk over the past couple of weeks for Mississippi, but this series seems to have broken him out of it as he put out his second three-hit night in a row. Prior to this Nacho hadn’t had a multi-hit game since May 7th or a three-hit game at all this year, and while his power still hasn’t shown up at all in games he’s been getting back to consistent line drives and has pulled a few of his hits in these past two games. Drake Baldwin also had a three-hit game and he has been on a more consistent uphill trajectory this month. The power has not come for him, and in a league and park like the one he plays in he may see his power suppressed as long as he is in Double-A, but he is hitting the ball and making better swing decisions and that is a huge step for him. Baldwin has an 11.8% strikeout rate in May, and while his walks are still lower than I would like to see I am having a hard time complaining about that sort of consistent contact from him.
(21-19) Rome Emperors 2, (20-20) Wilmington Blue Rocks 1
- Kevin Kilpatrick Jr, CF: 2-4, .302/.360/.434
- Sabin Ceballos, DH: 1-4, .260/.370/.325
- Drue Hackenberg, SP: 7 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 2.75 ERA
- Jared Johnson, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2.12 ERA
Drue Hackenberg hasn’t been getting the consistent praise of some of his organization-mates this season, as the ridiculous performances around the system have kind of masked what has been more a consistent, solid performing year for Hackenberg. His slider on Thursday night was probably the best we’ve seen it this season, and his ability to produce weak ground ball contact has allowed him to post a 2.75 ERA this season. There has been solid progression game to game for Hackenberg and he hasn’t really had as much of a problem finding strikes as he did earlier this season. His command still needs work and he will be tested at the Double-A level when he does get there, but if the slider can be as effective as it was Thursday night that will be the thing that gives me confidence he is ready for a promotion. Already he has been better and better at hitting the bottom half of the zone with his sinker.
Two straight wins for the Emperors have vaulted them into a tie for first place, but it wasn’t the offense getting the job done on Thursday. The hot hitting from Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. and EJ Exposito have somewhat slowed down, and the team really isn’t doing much to string together hits this year outside of the absurd stretches guys have gone on. The only runs scored this game came from Adam Zebrowski, who went deep in the first inning to give the Emperors arms a lead they would not relinquish.
(18-23) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (23-18) Salem Red Sox 11
- Isaiah Drake, DH: 1-5, .125/.219/.179
- Robert Gonzalez, CF: 1-2, HR, 2 BB, 4 RBI, .207/.263/.289
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-4, .293/.421/.415
- Davis Polo: SP: 4.2 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 4.80 ERA
The pitching for Augusta in this game wasn’t particularly good, and realistically the guys that went on Thursday evening were organizational guys who really haven’t done much to impress all season. For Davis Polo he is young and has some room to project to more velocity, so he’s not a non-prospect per se, rather more of a project that the Braves are hoping on rather than believing in. Polo does have a decent slider, I’d say flashes of average to maybe solid average, and if his stuff ticks up in a bullpen role I think the shape of his fastball along with that slider could make for a relief arm although I don’t see that happening with him sitting 91-93. Then again Luis Vargas surprised us with his velocity Wednesday night, so you never quite know when it’s going to click for these guys.
On the offensive side of things I have been reasonably impressed with Isaiah Drake. He was absolutely dreadful his first time around, and while I’m not going to act like he’s been some sort of force since coming off of the injured list it is a completely different feeling to his at bats. The swing and miss is there but it’s not as if he looks totally lost in regards to his approach, feel for contact, and recognition of pitches. There are competitive at bats and he’s making contact at a higher rate and so far that has come with better results in a small sample. Drake did strike out twice on Wednesday, but if we see more of what we have in the past four games I feel much more confidence in keeping this guy as a top 30 prospect versus the completely overmatched player we saw pre-injury.
Robert Gonzalez provided the bang for the offense, hitting his first home run of the year and it wasn’t a cheap one either. Gonzalez went to the power alley in right field and hit it 395 feet, and he’s such an interesting prospect for me. The physical toolset is impressive, but teams have figured out that he will pretty much swing at anything you throw him and his strikeout rate of late has ticked up as opponents have realized he is going to chase out of the zone with regularity. Still, he makes hard contact on any mistakes left in the zone, and he even drew a couple of walks on Thursday. I’m not going to sit here and say I have some sort of growing faith that Gonzalez will figure things out, the approach for him is probably the worst I’ve seen from a Braves prospect in full season ball, but he showed off the raw power part of his toolset on Thursday and if he makes better swing decisions those are going to come more frequently.
(4-10) FCL Braves 11, (8-6) FCL Red Sox 2
- Douglas Glod, CF: 1-3, HR, BB, 3 RBI, .211/.354/.421
- John Gil, SS: 2-6, .208/.300/.245
- John Estevez, DH: 1-3, 3 BB, RBI, .227/.379/.477
- Mario Baez, 2B: 2-4, 2B, BB, 3 RBI, .262/.326/.333
- Luis Arestigueta, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 4.09 ERA
The FCL Braves have won three straight games on my recap days so if I didn’t know any better I’d say they’re the best team in the league. Well they aren’t but the offense is showing at least some semblance of life especially John Estevez. Estevez was a guy that I expected to hit, he did so in the DSL and it seemed every report was that he was a guy that had the approach and contact skill to translate that up a level. He has done so very well, with a 124 wRC+ and 11 walks to 12 strikeouts in 14 games this season. Douglas Glod hit his second home run in as many games, and he’s been a bit better lately with seven walks to eight strikeouts over his past six games. Still the contact doesn’t seem to have stepped forward this year and that’s a major concern. Luis Arestigueta is either number one or number two in this pitching staff in terms of prospect ratings, and it wasn’t a terrible afternoon for him. He did walk four batters, something he hadn’t struggled with in his first two outings this year, but he also struck out six and so far has been able to put up good strikeout numbers. Arestigueta is still only 18 years old, but he is one that got a decent bonus as an amateur and could get an opportunity in full season ball later this year.
Quickposts
So for those who have not seen it the site added a thing called quickposts this week. There are still a few things that are being worked out with it, including access on mobile (you can go to batterypower.com/quickposts to see it on mobile), but I have plans to use it pretty often if you guys want a way to keep up with some smaller minor league activity especially in between my recap days. This will not impact minor league content negatively at all — if it was a full write up before it will be a full write up now. However this gives me a chance to sprinkle in things like Ian Mejia’s promotion or quick thoughts on the progress of guys the Braves recall that previously wouldn’t have been enough to justify us having a full post on.
Recap plan
If you’ve been checking the schedule you might notice that the Mississippi Braves are playing Monday fir Memorial Day and are the only full season affiliate in action. My plan for this is to wrap this recap into the weekly report I’ve been doing, I’ll just open up the report with a recap for Mississippi and the FCL Braves and then go into the normal weekly report.