Yesterday was the final day of the Florida Complex League season, which means we say goodbye to one of the Atlanta Braves affiliates until next spring. For those that will play on, the Mississippi Braves are just one game out of a playoff spot behind their knuckleball-tossing utility infield and squad of veteran prospects.
(47-52) Gwinnett Stripers 6, (46-53) Durham Bulls 2
- Drake Baldwin, C: 1-4, BB, RBI, .284/.424/.474
- Luke Waddell, 3B: 2-4, BB, 2 RBI, .241/.322/.333
- Dylan Dodd, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 4.76 ERA
- Ken Giles, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 4.55 ERA
Dylan Dodd held his own in this game and managed to help secure a win for Gwinnett, but I am starting to feel a bit of concern with him as his velocity has dipped significantly down the stretch. In this game he averaged his lowest fastball velocity of the season at 91.2 mph, despite only throwing 56 total pitches in the game. Now this could have a lot to do with being pulled between Gwinnett and Atlanta, which interrupted his schedule, but it’s been a general trend for his velocity for a couple of months now as it has slowly dipped from being well over an average of 93 early in the year. The pitch he did have success with was his changeup, which he got five swing-and-misses on alone, but overall it seems like Dodd may just not be able to handle throwing at those higher velocities over a full season.
We’re starting to see the first little slivers of struggle for Drake Baldwin at the plate, as he hasn’t been great at Triple-A against fastballs and the Bulls utilized fastballs on 12 of the 17 pitches against him. Baldwin hasn’t been bad against fastballs at Triple-A I should say, but you typically see hitters hit fastballs better than other pitches whereas in Baldwin’s case he has roughly the same performance on fastballs as everything else. Teams seem to have figured out that his swing path gives him troubles on fastballs at the top of the zone, and he had three in zone swing and misses on fastballs in the upper third this game. This may be somewhat of an unavoidable hole in his swing given his swing and setup being geared to handle pitches in the bottom half of the zone, but it will be interesting to see if the Braves make swing and setup adjustments to try to combat it.
Luke Waddell seems like he is finally making the overall adjustments to the Triple-A level, expanding the zone less and as a result putting up overall better on base numbers. Waddell is running a .370 on base percentage over his past 40 games, and even though he has had some amount of good batted ball luck he has looked much better at the plate with his swing decisions and contact. Waddell just doesn’t hit the ball hard enough to really feel like he’s ever going to have a true breakout, but after being awful for quite awhile it’s nice to see him showing that he has enough offensive potential to slot in as a utility type bat.
Swing and Misses
Dylan Dodd - 10
Matt Carasiti - 6
Ken Giles - 4
(45-47) Mississippi Braves 6, (50-43) Montgomery Biscuit 5
- Cal Conley, SS: 2-4, BB, RBI, .251/.317/.320
- Keshawn Ogans, 3B: 1-3, 2 BB, .239/.304/.282
- David Fletcher, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 5.05 ERA
- Elison Joseph, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
I feel like David Fletcher pitches every single game I recap at this point, and it’s always just good enough to feel like it’s worth doing one more time. Obviously the Fletcher experiment is more a joke than anything, but it’s kind of wild to see a guy who has played infield his whole career be not completely awful as a starting pitcher with basically zero actual prep time. Elison Joseph has been fantastic since being promoted to Mississippi, but unsurprisingly has had more issues with strike-throwing so far throwing only 57% strikes. Yesterday was the first time it really looked like it could be an issue as he allowed two walks, but he’s missing bats at such a high rate that so far he’s been able come away unharmed. He’s going to have to do a bit better at finding the zones, but the stuff is going to translate no matter what level he is at.
Mississippi’s offense got Fletcher out to a quick lead with a Bryson Horne double in the second inning, and when Horne later scored on an error they took the lead. Horne tends to have big games (like this one, where he had two hits) and then others where he is non-existent, his hit tool seeming to oscillate between good and bad on a weekly basis. The Braves fell back behind and were trailing 5-3 in the seventh inning until the Biscuits Patrick Wicklander decided he no longer cared to throw strikes. After Geraldo Quintero snuck a single through Wicklander allowed three walks and hit a batter which added up to tie the game, then his replacement allowed the winning to come in as his third pitch made its way to the backstop. Eventually a double play did cease the bleeding, but Mississippi managed to luck their way into another win and are somehow 8-2 over their last ten and only a game back of first place despite a 57 run gap in run differential between them and Biloxi.
Swing and Misses
David Fletcher - 5
Elison Joseph - 4
(45-46) Rome Emperors 5, (43-50) Brooklyn Cyclones 2
- Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 2-3, 2B, BB, .263/.358/.362
- Ethan Workinger, LF: 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI, .270/.360/.414
- Drew Compton, 1B: 1-3, 2 BB, RBI, .245/.374/.382
- Mitch Farris, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 3.32 ERA
- Samuel Strickland, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1.91 ERA
Given how awful the Emperors offense has been lately and the quality of pitcher they were facing in Jonah Tong, you might expect that Rome got shut down in the game. Instead Rome managed to batter Tong up, stringing together some hits and chasing him from the game after two innings. They only managed two runs off of him, as Tong still managed to get a bunch of swing and miss from the whiff-prone Emperors, but they got into the back part of Brooklyn’s bullpen and had success. EJ Exposito has been in a particularly nasty slump, coming into this game with a .306 OPS and a .114 BABIP in the month of July. Finally he managed to have success with a couple of doubles and a walk, as well as having a fly out to the warning track and sharp line out in his other two at bats.
It wasn’t a great day for Mitch Farris on the mound as he struggled with his command, especially on his great changeup. He was consistently missing up and on the arm side with his changeup, leaving it either out of the zone or in hittable locations where the Cyclones were able to get hits. Still, Farris managed to control the game well enough, mostly because he missed bats and located his fastball better as the game went on. When Farris is able to dot the top of the zone his fastball has enough carry to still miss bats despite its low velocity, and he did a fairly good job this game though he also got burned when he did miss. I this Farris probably needs either another breaking ball or to improve his slider in order to profile as a solid big leaguer, but if he commands his fastball well I think its shape is good enough along with his changeup to see him as a back end/spot starter.
Swing and Misses
Mitch Farris - 10
Samuel Strickland - 6
(36-54) Augusta GreenJackets, (40-52) Myrtle Beach Pelicans PPD
(20-39) FCL Braves 3, (36-23) FCL Pirates 9
- Diego Benitez, DH: 1-4, HR, .137/.231/.214
- Carlos Monteverde, 1B: 2-2, 2 2B, 2 BB, .400/.514/.533
- Jhonly Taveras, SP: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 7.84 ERA
- Luis Arestigueta, SP: 3 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.10 ERA
It was the final day of the FCL season on Thursday, and a miserable FCL Braves season ended on a seven game losing streak. The team wasn’t terrible in the sense of talent, certainly we saw a number of very interesting young guys come through, but as the youngest offense in the league and fifth-youngest pitching staff they were primed to struggle. I am happy that Carlos Monteverde got a chance to make his trip stateside and closed out the season on a good streak of play. Overall Monteverde had a great season across the two rookie levels with an .860 OPS, and his development is going to be interesting to watch. Monteverde can hit, but so far in his pro career hasn’t hit for much power at all. This is not very good for a guy already playing first base and corner outfield, however you have to consider age. He could end up being a prime example of a player who just has to grow into his power later, like fellow Venezuelan and Braves international signee Juan Yepez did. Yepez is now having success with Washington, but in his years in the Braves system the question was always whether the power would ever match up with his hitting. Often for guys power is the last thing to come and Monteverde seems to be on the right track. Diego Benitez ended his year off with a home run, but that’s not going to change much here. He wasn’t good on either side of the ball and if he is in the Braves system next year I expect him to repeat the rookie levels.
(11-22) DSL Braves 5, (17-16) DSL Astros Blue 2
- Luis Perdomo, SS: 0-3, 3 K, .200/.200/.200
- Juan Mateo, SS: 0-4, .216/.317/.295
- Juan Espinal, CF: 1-3, 3 SB, .190/.365/.291
- Lewis Sifontes, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 6.85 ERA
Both of these teams had three hits each, but the Braves managed to have all of their offense come in the fifth inning and put up four runs to take a win. Unfortunately Jose Perdomo wasn’t involved in that as he struck out in all three plate appearances. Playing so infrequently (though undoubtedly he is getting plenty of reps in simulated games) makes it hard for guys to get in a rhythm so I’m not surprised he is struggling right now, and we saw it take a long time for Atlanta to finally get Luis Guanipa playing relatively full time. Perdomo may be the same case, and I think given the confidence evaluators have in his maturity there could be a case to send him to the Arizona Fall League if he is healthy just to get him some actual game reps. Lewis Sifontes had a fantastic game on the mound and struck out all six batters he faced, and overall he has one of the highest strikeout rates on the team. He’s in a repeat of the level and is listed at 5’9” (though he could have grown since being signed) so there is plenty of reason for skepticism, but we kind of have to grasp at straws with these international guys. Like Fernando Duarte, who made his first professional start and struck out three batters with only one walk. Duarte has struggled with walks this year as has everyone on the team, but he’s also listed at 6’6” and is 17 years old.
