It was an exciting set of games on the pitching front for the Atlanta Braves minor league system, with all four levels featuring a pitcher that ranked on the Battery Power top 30 list. Three of those - Hurston Waldrep, Blake Burkhalter, and JR Ritchie - are trying to make their way back from elbow injuries, and the latter two showed a lot of promise in their Saturday performances.
(51-56) Gwinnett Stripers 8, (55-51) Nashville Sounds 5
- Nacho Alvarez Jr. 2B: 1-5, 2B, 2 RBI, .323/.425/.556
- Eli White, CF: 1-3, 3B, 2 BB, 2 RBI, .285/.388/.435
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 7.27 ERA
- Huascar Ynoa: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 4.41 ERA
Back in Triple-A it was an ugly outing for Hurston Waldrep, who notably saw a huge dip in his velocity for this game. Waldrep averaged only 93.7 mph on his fastball, and his results matched his struggles with his stuff. Of course his splitter was dominant as always, forcing seven swing-and-misses, but he was all over the place with his control and really looked like a pitcher coming off of a significant layoff. This just wasn’t the Hurston Waldrep we were seeing before his elbow injury and if this velocity issue continues it’s going to be a major point of concern for him. The same could be said for Huascar Ynoa who is dealing with reduced velocity himself, though since coming off of the injured list last week it has been higher than the year started. Last week he averaged 93.7 mph on his fastball though it dipped back down a bit to 92.8 this week with a higher workload. Ynoa is probably not a major league rotation option with that velocity and that’s shown as he has struggled in Triple-A.
Fortunately despite concern from both of these pitchers the offense was on a roll on Thursday, putting up a massive seven run second inning that spurred them to a win. There was some batted ball luck involved, especially on Nacho Alvarez’s bloop two-run double, and Alvarez really had a tough game in this one as the Sounds peppered him with fastballs. One one batted ball was over 80 mph, the rest in the 60 mph range, and all of Alvarez’s at bats ended on fastballs. The Stripers only had four of the 17 hardest hit balls in this game, and both of Gwinnett’s 100+ mph batted balls ended up being outs, but I guess that’s the nature of the sport sometimes.
Swing and Misses
Hurston Waldrep - 8
Huascar Ynoa - 5
(47-53) Mississippi Braves 5, (60-40) Tennessee Smokies 8
- Tyler Tolve, 1-3, HR, BB, 3 RBI, .208/.263/.392
- David McCabe, DH: 1-4, .100/.250/.100
- Luis De Avila, SP: 3.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 3.74 ERA
Mississippi made a run at climbing out of an early six-run hole, but it was too much for them to overcome a poor start from Luis De Avila. De Avila has mostly been good for Mississippi for the past couple of months, bouncing back from a rough start to show the best command he has in his career. De Avila was just off all around on Saturday though, walking five batters and allowing six runs which tied for the most he has given up this season. With De Avila scuffling the Mississippi lineup had a lot of work to do and they got on a bit of a roll in the fifth inning. David Fletcher snuck a bouncing ball down the first base line with a couple of runners on, sending it rolling into the right field corner to score Keshawn Ogans and Brandon Parker and put Mississippi on the board.
The big blast for the offense would come in the next inning as Tyler Tolve got a breaking ball that hung up in his wheelhouse and he crushed it to right field for a three-run home run. Tolve still isn’t making enough contact at this point as he is far too prone to expanding the zone, but when he makes good decisions in the zone he has crushed them. Over his past 120 plate appearances Tolve has hit nine home runs, posting an .861 OPS in that span dating back to mid-June. His power certainly plays well to all fields, but the length of his swing and his swing decisions have combined to make him a tough projection to a major league quality hit tool.
Elison Joseph still hasn’t allowed a run since being promoted to Mississippi, though he has found himself in some trouble in his last couple of starts. Joseph broke off a couple of good sliders in this game, like the one that got Christian Franklin to chase well off of the plate, but overall neither his fastball or slider were being commanded near well enough in this outing. Joseph allowed a weak contact single and a walk in this game, though he managed to keep the inning scoreless as a fly ball fell harmlessly at the warning track to end out the inning.
Swing and Misses
Drew Parrish - 11
Luis De Avila - 8
(47-49) Rome Emperors 2, (56-41) Bowling Green Hot Rods 0
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-3, .242/.361/.355
- Kevin Kilpatrick Jr.: 0-2, BB, .237/.318/.345
- Blake Burkhalter, SP: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 2.14 ERA
(48-49) Rome Emperors 2, (56-42) Bowling Green Hot Rods 1
- Justin Janas, 1B: 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, .243/.343/.350
- Mitch Farris, SP: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 3.05 ERA
- Jared Johnson, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 2.45 ERA
We finally got a bit of baseball in this week in Rome, and the Emperors ran out a dominant pitching duo that shot down a good Hot Rods offense in the double header. The star of the show in game one was Blake Burkhalter, who despite coming off of Tommy John surgery hasn’t really missed a beat this season. Burkhalter’s velocity looks good, sitting in the mid-90’s and he added the best slider command I’ve seen out of him in this game. For Burkhalter that’s really the next step as both his four seam fastball and cutter have been dominant, and the more he can mix in the slider and changeup the more success he is going to have like in this one. Burkhalter threw all seven innings of the first game of the double header and it wasn’t even much of a sweat as he thoroughly dominated from the first pitch to the last. Burkhalter was really peppering the glove side edge of the plate with his cutter, a pitch that has served to be by far his best pitch in High-A and one of the best individual pitches in the system as a whole. Rome had a bit of a tough matchup in both games on the other side, though they managed to fight through in both games. Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. worked a walk to lead off game one, then he went to work with his legs. After advancing on a ground ball Kilpatrick recorded his 39th stolen base by swiping third base, then scored Rome’s first run on a wild pitch. The game would stay 1-0 until the sixth inning, when EJ Exposito beat out a ground ball in the shortstop hole and brought home Drew Compton from third base.
In game two Rome managed just two hits and only one off of starter and new Rays acquisition Dylan Lesko, but that one hit proved to be all they needed. Lesko, as has been his pattern, struggled with his command and walked three Emperors. One of those Emperors batters was Jace Grady, who with one out in the second inning reached to bring up Justin Janas. Janas got an 0-1 slider on the inning half of the plate and belt high, and he turned on the pitch and crushed it over the playground in right field to give Rome a 2-0 lead. From there the game belonged to Mitch Farris and the Emperors bullpen, who shut down the Hot Rods offense.
Farris had his command working as well, and easily carved through the lineup by striking out five of the 11 batters he faced. Farris has been one of the most dominant pitchers in the system this season, one of only two to maintain a K-BB% of 20% through 60 or more innings, and he set up Rome well in this game. Cory Wall had an inconsistent couple of innings where he allowed the only run of the double header and walked a couple of batters, but the game went back to the rest of the bullpen and was closed out easily from there. Jared Johnson had one of his games where he was able to find the strike zone, and he needed ten pitches to close out the seventh inning. Johnson has had some hiccups this season, but over his past 15 appearances has a 1.31 ERA.
Swing and Misses
Blake Burkhalter - 12
Mitch Farris - 8
Jared Johnson - 3
(36-62) Augusta GreenJackets 0, (54-45) Down East Wood Ducks 7
- John Gil, SS: 0-4, .195/.261/.268
- Junior Garcia, CF: 0-3, BB, .077/.265/.103
- JR Ritchie, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 3.24 ERA
- Albert Rivas, RP: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 5.40 ERA
The GreenJackets struggled to get this game in given the weather in North Augusta, but managed to give us a chance to once again suffer the results of an Augusta GreenJackets offensive game. There was no Luis Guanipa in this game to watch, and John Gil really struggled in the leadoff spot. He started the game with an ugly plate appearance where he chased a sweeping slider well out of the zone for a strikeout. He made weak contact in his other three trips to the plate, and so far that’s really been the story for Gil. He has had the speed to beat out a bunch of grounders in the infield to boost up his on base numbers, but he is just too aggressive and hasn’t handled movement well either chasing breaking balls out of the zone or missing the barrel on contact.
Despite an ugly game for the GreenJackets there was something to like from JR Ritchie, who showed the best command he has of his pitches post-surgery. Ritchie was putting both his fastball and slider in good locations, forcing swing-and-miss along with avoiding walks. Ritchie did miss some secondaries, including his slider, over the plate which led to the Wood Ducks finding a couple of runs, but overall this was the best we have seen from him. The improvements Ritchie needs to make are the obvious ones you would expect. One his velocity isn’t really back to where it was sitting pre-surgery, which is pretty typical for a guy especially with Ritchie having a shorter recovery period than we’ve often seem from Braves prospects. Ritchie also isn’t doing particularly well with his changeup, which is a combination of both the lack of development of the pitch prior to his injury and the lack of time to regain his feel. Ritchie showing the ability to pinpoint his fastball on the top of the zone in this game was the most promising aspect from this start, and he’s having success with this pitch despite having mediocre movement and not yet seeing the mid-90’s velocity he often displayed in 2023.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie - 9
Adam Shoemaker - 8
(13-26) DSL Braves 1, (28-14) DSL Reds 3
- Jorge Mateo, SS: 0-3, BB, .215/.317/.280
- Michael Martinez, RF: 0-1, BB, .217/.343/.342
- Sebastian Estiven, SP: 2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 12.12 ERA
There was no Jose Perdomo again for the DSL squad in this one, as Perdomo had four plate appearances on the 29th and with his missing the last two games and the amount of rain that has impacted games he hasn’t played any games since then. The DSL offense struggled in this game, recording only two hits and one run against a very good DSL Reds team. 17 year old catcher Manuel Dos Passos had one of those hits, and Dos Passos has been one of the better on-base guys for the team this summer. Dos Passos has struggled to make contact with 29 strikeouts in 102 plate appearances, but he has drawn a ton of walks and has a .376 on base percentage.
