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Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK
The two infielders had a dynamic couple of games, combining for four extra base hits The Rome Emperors are on top of the South Atlantic League standings, and it’s days like today that are the reason why as they dominated on both sides of the ball. However they were not the most dominant Atlanta Braves affiliate, as the Stripers offense had a monster day on their way to a blowout win. Down in Florida Luis Guanipa made his second appearance with the FCL squad in a win.
(28-32) Gwinnett Stripers 17, (28-32) Durham Bulls 3
Box Score
Statcast
Andrew Velazquez, SS: 3-5, HR, BB, 5 RBI, .241/.319/.429
Ramon Laureano, LF: 3-6, 2B, 2 RBI .355/.382/.548
Alejo Lopez, 2B: 4-5, 3 2B, 2 RBI, .287/.369/.356
Darius Vines, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 5.44 ERA
Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 2.29 ERA
Well, that’s one way to end a three-game losing streak. Behind an eight run seventh inning the Gwinnett Stripers stormed to a victory, outputting the team’s highest run total since a 20 point outburst on August 10th of last season. No player has enjoyed this series more than Andrew Velazquez, who clubbed his third home run over his past four games to lead off that seventh inning. Velazquez is currently riding a nine-game hitting streak, and already has the second-most home runs of any season in his professional career with nine. Ramon Laureano has been on quite the tear as well since joining the Braves system, with multi-hit games in each of the three so far against Durham though he continues to strike out quite a lot. Alejo Lopez has been a pleasantly good player all season long, as though his raw power is limited he tends to take great at bats and hit a ton of line drives, resulting in him being one of Gwinnett’s best on base threats all season. Unfortunately Lopez has little in the way of power, and hadn’t had an extra base hit since May 4th. Lopez wasn’t exactly hitting rockets today, none of his batted balls cleared 98 mph, but he found grass with them and broke his extra base streak with a three double game.
It was an easy night on the mound for Darius Vines, though he ultimately ended up not going very deep in the game as he covered just 63 pitches. It was definitely a quick pull for Vines with no serious signs of distress, though he was doing quite a bit of shaking and fiddling with his throwing hand especially after his 62nd pitch sailed high, so you have to wonder if he had a blister pop up. Vines got clocked for a home run in the first inning but otherwise sailed through his four innings with the Bulls making very little hard contact. The bullpen of course had about the easiest task in the world in protecting a double digit lead and there was no struggle in getting that done from Ben Bowden, Jackson Stephens, Daysbel Hernandez, and Ken Giles. Hernandez was gassed up in his inning, averaging 98.3 mph on his fastball (averaged 96.8 in the major leagues last year) and topping out with a 98.9 mph pitch.
(25-29) Mississippi Braves 3, (28-25) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4
Box Score
David Fletcher, 3B: 1-25, .200/.200/.200
Drake Baldwin, C: 1-4, BB, RBI, .242/.309/.335
Drew Parrish, SP: 6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 4.42 ERA
While it wasn’t the worst day for Drew Parrish it certainly wasn’t the best, as he could not keep the ball in the park and the Blue Wahoos got all of their runs off of Parrish’s three home runs allowed. Parrish had his best success early when he wasn’t striking anyone out. He had zero through two innings, but batted balls managed to find gloves to keep him in a rhythm. His changeup then became a weapon for him as he went through the lineup a second time and he racked up nine strikeouts over his last four innings, but Pensacola could sit on his fastball and drive it for those home runs. Otherwise though he really didn’t see much trouble as they had a hard time keying in on Parrish’s secondaries.
Parrish got at least decent run support from the M-Braves offense. I would hesitate to call three runs a great day, but with the way they’ve been going that is kind of just what the Braves pitchers have to work with. Drake Baldwin has found himself on a bit of a mini-hot streak, with the frequency with which he’s put the ball in play of late finally translating into actual base hits falling. Baldwin only had the one hit, floating in a line drive for a base hit, but it made an impact as it brought in a run. Baldwin has gotten a bit too in the habit of looking for base hits and opposite field contact, and while some of that is just approach stuff as the effort to get him working more walks also has him in more deep two-strike counts, I don’t think that’s something the Braves necessarily want him or any other hitter doing.
(29-22) Rome Emperors 4, (26-27) Winston-Salem Dash 0
Box Score
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 1-3, 3B, .280/.368/.377
EJ Exposito, SS: 1-3, 3B, RBI, .302/.363/.574
Luis Vargas, SP: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 0.00 ERA
(30-22) Rome Emperors 4, (26-28) Winston-Salem Dash 0
Box Score
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 1-3, 2B, .280/.368/.377
EJ Exposito, SS: 2-3, 2B, .302/.363/.574
Mitch Farris, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 2.75 ERA
Jared Johnson, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.32 ERA
You’re reading the final lines right, I promise I didn’t make a mistake here the Emperors just won both of their games on Thursday by the same final score. They did it in different ways, however. Game one was the Luis Vargas show, as he battled throughout most of his start with no runs of support on the board and he looked fantastic. Vargas didn’t walk anyone, and with the way his stuff has ticked up I believe he can live in the zone more frequently and have success at the lower minor leagues. A few more games like this and Vargas could find himself as one of the options to move up to Double-A, as even though his command isn’t at the level you would like it to be his pitch mix is Double-A quality even if I would project him better as a bullpen arm.
Vargas didn’t really get any help until after he threw his fifth inning, as Dash starter Tanner McDougal had the Emperors number the first time through the lineup. Finally though the top bats got a second look at him and went to work, with Drew Compton getting the fifth inning rally started by doubling. Then who else but EJ Exposito, by far the best hitter in the entire system this season, came through with a double, taking a pitch the opposite way into the gap for a double. EJ has certainly cooled from his unsustainable home run pace, but is still making consistent impact contact to all fields that has to be impressive. Double-A should challenge his approach but he has made massive improvements and it may be soon time to make the move and find him a place in Mississippi’s lineup.
Sabin Ceballos gave us a couple of extra base hits, one in each half of the double header, and put up some of the best swings I’ve seen from him. Ceballos has been so contacted-oriented for most of the season that we’ve seen few of the impressive hacks from his college days make it into games, but the process may be playing itself out for us. In game one he really opened up and turned on an inside fastball, banging it off of the wall for a triple. He opened up the scoring in the second half of the double header with a bit more of a controlled swing, but took and outer half fastball and found the barrel into the gap for an RBI double. If we can get more of that Ceballos, looking for impact contact pull side where his strength and bat plane allows him to lift the ball more effectively, then with the approach we’ve seen from him in terms of pitch selection I think he could really hit another gear in the second half of the season. Rome of course couldn’t go a game without EJ making more great contact, smacking a line drive into the gap for a double in the sixth inning.
Game two belonged to Mitch Farris, and with his command working on all of his pitches he shone bright forcing six strikeouts and 14 whiffs in five innings of work. Farris is one of those pitchers that are fun to get into a system and hope for bigger things from. The movement on all of his pitches is electric and he commands them well, and even with him being older if there is any hope of unlocking a touch more velocity you can suddenly turn that into a reall major league arm. As it is Farris is a guy whose secondaries are so good that A-level hitters are all but hopeless, and he has the command to be one of the few guys that could climb the levels on the back of just pure junk.
(21-32) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (25-28) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 5
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, CF: 0-3, BB, .104/.171/.156
Noah Williams, DH: 1-3, RBI, .286/.250/.286
Davis Polo: SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 4.69 ERA
There was plenty to like in this start from Davis Polo, as early on he was well in control of the game with both his fastball and slider working well. Specifically he was locating his fastball as well as you can hope from a young pitcher, and started to get into counts where he could finish hitters off with his albeit inconsistent slider. Then the lineup flipped back over and his command started to dip at the worst time as hitters got a second look at him. With the slider a bit of a non-factor and his fastball not hitting the edges he became hittable and Myrtle Beach tagged him for a couple of home runs to damage his final line. Overall where he is as a pitcher is fine given that he is 19 years old, though not having a third pitch to use will be a limitation if he sticks in rotation. I like the projectability and the current command from Polo (at least when he is fresh).
Offensively though, this team is just a mess. All of these hitters are so young and inexperienced that every game is a mixed bag, and Thursday night that bag gave us a paltry performance. No one in the lineup was taking particularly good swings and they weren’t connecting on the ones they did take, racking up 13 strikeouts to only two walks in the game. There really isn’t a solution to this that isn’t a long term outlook type of thing, these guys are all just extremely inexperienced players who already had contact questions and the approach has to come a long way. There are efforts being made for all of these guys, we’ve seen walk rates tick up for a handful throughout the year, but they are going to have some bad days as well and Thursday was one of those days.
(6-18) FCL Braves 4, (14-10) FCL Twins 3
Box Score
Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-3, 2 RBI, .500/.500/.500
John Gil, SS: 2-3, 2B, .279/.364/.337
David Rodriguez, SP: 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 6.43 ERA
Marco Patino, RP: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Luis Guanipa is back in action and it’s exciting times in Braves country. Guanipa dealing with an injury that delayed his season was certainly one of the disappointing aspect of the FCL Braves terrible start, but he’s provided a boost at the top of the lineup in both of his games and accounted for three of the Braves four runs in this one. Seems they’re still being careful with him and pulled him early from both games, but after an impressive looking game in spring breakout and a 3-6 start you have to feel very excited about what Guanipa’s development path could look like.
Marco Patino was one of the DSL Braves better pitchers last season with 22 strikeouts and only six walks, but unfortunately got off to a rough start this season especially with his four walk game in his debut. He had his best game of the season with four strikeouts on Thursday and seems to be coming round with nine strikeouts and three walks in his last 7 2⁄3 innings.
(0-1) DSL Braves 0, (1-0) DSL Royals Ventura 9
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 1-3, BB
Juan Espinal, CF: 1-4
Rudit Pena, SP: 0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, und ERA
The DSL finally played a full game and go figure they got stomped. Starting pitcher Rudit Pena is coming off of a terrible season for the DSL and it didn’t start any better as he allowed four runs and didn’t record an out. Not the way you want the first game to start out if you’re any team. It was a DSL game so of course the Braves walked 13 batters in total. Offensively Juan Espinal is a highly talented outfielder that will be one to box score watch this year. He had a hit yesterday (though the game was suspended so it’s not officially in his register yet) and added a second today as he is batting second for the team. 17 year old shortstop Juan Mateo got his first professional hit as well and drew a walk in the leadoff spot. This team should be more fun than last year and is better than that first game implied at least offensively, though as always the Braves don’t invest a ton of money in international pitching and tend to just go for guys they hope have the athleticism to succeed, an approach which often yields inexperienced teenagers that have no clue where they are throwing the ball.
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Ben Lonergan/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK
The two infielders had a dynamic couple of games, combining for four extra base hits The Rome Emperors are on top of the South Atlantic League standings, and it’s days like today that are the reason why as they dominated on both sides of the ball. However they were not the most dominant Atlanta Braves affiliate, as the Stripers offense had a monster day on their way to a blowout win. Down in Florida Luis Guanipa made his second appearance with the FCL squad in a win.
(28-32) Gwinnett Stripers 17, (28-32) Durham Bulls 3
Box Score
Statcast
Andrew Velazquez, SS: 3-5, HR, BB, 5 RBI, .241/.319/.429
Ramon Laureano, LF: 3-6, 2B, 2 RBI .355/.382/.548
Alejo Lopez, 2B: 4-5, 3 2B, 2 RBI, .287/.369/.356
Darius Vines, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 5.44 ERA
Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 2.29 ERA
Well, that’s one way to end a three-game losing streak. Behind an eight run seventh inning the Gwinnett Stripers stormed to a victory, outputting the team’s highest run total since a 20 point outburst on August 10th of last season. No player has enjoyed this series more than Andrew Velazquez, who clubbed his third home run over his past four games to lead off that seventh inning. Velazquez is currently riding a nine-game hitting streak, and already has the second-most home runs of any season in his professional career with nine. Ramon Laureano has been on quite the tear as well since joining the Braves system, with multi-hit games in each of the three so far against Durham though he continues to strike out quite a lot. Alejo Lopez has been a pleasantly good player all season long, as though his raw power is limited he tends to take great at bats and hit a ton of line drives, resulting in him being one of Gwinnett’s best on base threats all season. Unfortunately Lopez has little in the way of power, and hadn’t had an extra base hit since May 4th. Lopez wasn’t exactly hitting rockets today, none of his batted balls cleared 98 mph, but he found grass with them and broke his extra base streak with a three double game.
It was an easy night on the mound for Darius Vines, though he ultimately ended up not going very deep in the game as he covered just 63 pitches. It was definitely a quick pull for Vines with no serious signs of distress, though he was doing quite a bit of shaking and fiddling with his throwing hand especially after his 62nd pitch sailed high, so you have to wonder if he had a blister pop up. Vines got clocked for a home run in the first inning but otherwise sailed through his four innings with the Bulls making very little hard contact. The bullpen of course had about the easiest task in the world in protecting a double digit lead and there was no struggle in getting that done from Ben Bowden, Jackson Stephens, Daysbel Hernandez, and Ken Giles. Hernandez was gassed up in his inning, averaging 98.3 mph on his fastball (averaged 96.8 in the major leagues last year) and topping out with a 98.9 mph pitch.
(25-29) Mississippi Braves 3, (28-25) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4
Box Score
David Fletcher, 3B: 1-25, .200/.200/.200
Drake Baldwin, C: 1-4, BB, RBI, .242/.309/.335
Drew Parrish, SP: 6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 4.42 ERA
While it wasn’t the worst day for Drew Parrish it certainly wasn’t the best, as he could not keep the ball in the park and the Blue Wahoos got all of their runs off of Parrish’s three home runs allowed. Parrish had his best success early when he wasn’t striking anyone out. He had zero through two innings, but batted balls managed to find gloves to keep him in a rhythm. His changeup then became a weapon for him as he went through the lineup a second time and he racked up nine strikeouts over his last four innings, but Pensacola could sit on his fastball and drive it for those home runs. Otherwise though he really didn’t see much trouble as they had a hard time keying in on Parrish’s secondaries.
Parrish got at least decent run support from the M-Braves offense. I would hesitate to call three runs a great day, but with the way they’ve been going that is kind of just what the Braves pitchers have to work with. Drake Baldwin has found himself on a bit of a mini-hot streak, with the frequency with which he’s put the ball in play of late finally translating into actual base hits falling. Baldwin only had the one hit, floating in a line drive for a base hit, but it made an impact as it brought in a run. Baldwin has gotten a bit too in the habit of looking for base hits and opposite field contact, and while some of that is just approach stuff as the effort to get him working more walks also has him in more deep two-strike counts, I don’t think that’s something the Braves necessarily want him or any other hitter doing.
(29-22) Rome Emperors 4, (26-27) Winston-Salem Dash 0
Box Score
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 1-3, 3B, .280/.368/.377
EJ Exposito, SS: 1-3, 3B, RBI, .302/.363/.574
Luis Vargas, SP: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 0.00 ERA
(30-22) Rome Emperors 4, (26-28) Winston-Salem Dash 0
Box Score
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 1-3, 2B, .280/.368/.377
EJ Exposito, SS: 2-3, 2B, .302/.363/.574
Mitch Farris, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 2.75 ERA
Jared Johnson, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.32 ERA
You’re reading the final lines right, I promise I didn’t make a mistake here the Emperors just won both of their games on Thursday by the same final score. They did it in different ways, however. Game one was the Luis Vargas show, as he battled throughout most of his start with no runs of support on the board and he looked fantastic. Vargas didn’t walk anyone, and with the way his stuff has ticked up I believe he can live in the zone more frequently and have success at the lower minor leagues. A few more games like this and Vargas could find himself as one of the options to move up to Double-A, as even though his command isn’t at the level you would like it to be his pitch mix is Double-A quality even if I would project him better as a bullpen arm.
Vargas didn’t really get any help until after he threw his fifth inning, as Dash starter Tanner McDougal had the Emperors number the first time through the lineup. Finally though the top bats got a second look at him and went to work, with Drew Compton getting the fifth inning rally started by doubling. Then who else but EJ Exposito, by far the best hitter in the entire system this season, came through with a double, taking a pitch the opposite way into the gap for a double. EJ has certainly cooled from his unsustainable home run pace, but is still making consistent impact contact to all fields that has to be impressive. Double-A should challenge his approach but he has made massive improvements and it may be soon time to make the move and find him a place in Mississippi’s lineup.
Sabin Ceballos gave us a couple of extra base hits, one in each half of the double header, and put up some of the best swings I’ve seen from him. Ceballos has been so contacted-oriented for most of the season that we’ve seen few of the impressive hacks from his college days make it into games, but the process may be playing itself out for us. In game one he really opened up and turned on an inside fastball, banging it off of the wall for a triple. He opened up the scoring in the second half of the double header with a bit more of a controlled swing, but took and outer half fastball and found the barrel into the gap for an RBI double. If we can get more of that Ceballos, looking for impact contact pull side where his strength and bat plane allows him to lift the ball more effectively, then with the approach we’ve seen from him in terms of pitch selection I think he could really hit another gear in the second half of the season. Rome of course couldn’t go a game without EJ making more great contact, smacking a line drive into the gap for a double in the sixth inning.
Game two belonged to Mitch Farris, and with his command working on all of his pitches he shone bright forcing six strikeouts and 14 whiffs in five innings of work. Farris is one of those pitchers that are fun to get into a system and hope for bigger things from. The movement on all of his pitches is electric and he commands them well, and even with him being older if there is any hope of unlocking a touch more velocity you can suddenly turn that into a reall major league arm. As it is Farris is a guy whose secondaries are so good that A-level hitters are all but hopeless, and he has the command to be one of the few guys that could climb the levels on the back of just pure junk.
(21-32) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (25-28) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 5
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, CF: 0-3, BB, .104/.171/.156
Noah Williams, DH: 1-3, RBI, .286/.250/.286
Davis Polo: SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 4.69 ERA
There was plenty to like in this start from Davis Polo, as early on he was well in control of the game with both his fastball and slider working well. Specifically he was locating his fastball as well as you can hope from a young pitcher, and started to get into counts where he could finish hitters off with his albeit inconsistent slider. Then the lineup flipped back over and his command started to dip at the worst time as hitters got a second look at him. With the slider a bit of a non-factor and his fastball not hitting the edges he became hittable and Myrtle Beach tagged him for a couple of home runs to damage his final line. Overall where he is as a pitcher is fine given that he is 19 years old, though not having a third pitch to use will be a limitation if he sticks in rotation. I like the projectability and the current command from Polo (at least when he is fresh).
Offensively though, this team is just a mess. All of these hitters are so young and inexperienced that every game is a mixed bag, and Thursday night that bag gave us a paltry performance. No one in the lineup was taking particularly good swings and they weren’t connecting on the ones they did take, racking up 13 strikeouts to only two walks in the game. There really isn’t a solution to this that isn’t a long term outlook type of thing, these guys are all just extremely inexperienced players who already had contact questions and the approach has to come a long way. There are efforts being made for all of these guys, we’ve seen walk rates tick up for a handful throughout the year, but they are going to have some bad days as well and Thursday was one of those days.
(6-18) FCL Braves 4, (14-10) FCL Twins 3
Box Score
Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-3, 2 RBI, .500/.500/.500
John Gil, SS: 2-3, 2B, .279/.364/.337
David Rodriguez, SP: 3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 6.43 ERA
Marco Patino, RP: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
Luis Guanipa is back in action and it’s exciting times in Braves country. Guanipa dealing with an injury that delayed his season was certainly one of the disappointing aspect of the FCL Braves terrible start, but he’s provided a boost at the top of the lineup in both of his games and accounted for three of the Braves four runs in this one. Seems they’re still being careful with him and pulled him early from both games, but after an impressive looking game in spring breakout and a 3-6 start you have to feel very excited about what Guanipa’s development path could look like.
Marco Patino was one of the DSL Braves better pitchers last season with 22 strikeouts and only six walks, but unfortunately got off to a rough start this season especially with his four walk game in his debut. He had his best game of the season with four strikeouts on Thursday and seems to be coming round with nine strikeouts and three walks in his last 7 2⁄3 innings.
(0-1) DSL Braves 0, (1-0) DSL Royals Ventura 9
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 1-3, BB
Juan Espinal, CF: 1-4
Rudit Pena, SP: 0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, und ERA
The DSL finally played a full game and go figure they got stomped. Starting pitcher Rudit Pena is coming off of a terrible season for the DSL and it didn’t start any better as he allowed four runs and didn’t record an out. Not the way you want the first game to start out if you’re any team. It was a DSL game so of course the Braves walked 13 batters in total. Offensively Juan Espinal is a highly talented outfielder that will be one to box score watch this year. He had a hit yesterday (though the game was suspended so it’s not officially in his register yet) and added a second today as he is batting second for the team. 17 year old shortstop Juan Mateo got his first professional hit as well and drew a walk in the leadoff spot. This team should be more fun than last year and is better than that first game implied at least offensively, though as always the Braves don’t invest a ton of money in international pitching and tend to just go for guys they hope have the athleticism to succeed, an approach which often yields inexperienced teenagers that have no clue where they are throwing the ball.
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