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It was a breakout performance for the talented center fielder It was a big day for a big prospect, as Isaiah Drake went off in an Augusta win. The Atlanta Braves 2023 fifth round pick has struggled to find his offensive footing in his professional career so far, but occasionally does things to remind us of the immense ceiling that he possesses. Other standout performances came from Jhancarlos Lara and Adam Shoemaker on the mound.
(29-33) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (29-33) Durham Bulls 7
Box Score
Statcast
Andrew Velazquez, 2B: 2-3, 2 2B, BB, .253/.330/.449
Ramon Laureano, RF: 1-4, RBI, .350/.372/.600
Taylor Widener, SP: 3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 5.12 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.06 ERA
It has been quite a wild run at the plate for the normally light-hitting Andrew Velazquez, who has managed to find power and every bit of batted ball luck to go on a now-11 game hitting streak. Taking it back to his past 20 games Velazquez has a 161 wRC+, with his two doubles in this game representing the 11th and 12th extra base hits of that streak. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for the Stripers on Saturday, as the hot and cold offense of the month of June has one of its cold days. Gwinnett has scored 10+ runs in three games this month and won all three, but in the other four games haven’t scored more than three runs and lost all four.
Luke Waddell has been a major disappointment this season as his hard contact rates just haven’t been enough to sustain consistent success and pitchers are attacking him in the zone limiting his walk rates. Over his past 10 games though there has been a bit of a light, as he has a 103 wRC+ and .179 isolated power throughout that stretch. Waddell had a double in his first plate appearance in this one, and he just missed an opposite field hold run as the ball banged right off of the top of the high wall in left field in Durham.
Taylor Widener got the start in this one and put up his second straight really bad outing which has bombed his ERA in what was previously a good start to the season. The Bulls hit Widener well with six hard-hit balls in the three innings he pitched including a home run to lead off the second inning. Brooks Wilson is similarly in a situation where two awful outings have killed an otherwise solid year, though it’s definitely more apparent with Wilson’s low innings load. Wilson was able to land his splitter effectively in this game and that made a world of difference, and his fastball velocity has started to tick up a bit. He came in last year sitting below 90 after his tommy john return and was just a tick above 90 early this year, but over his past couple of starts he’s seen a bit of a jump and averaged an even 93 this game.
(25-31) Mississippi Braves 6, (30-25) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 7
Box Score
Nacho Alvarez, SS: 0-1, 3 BB, .265/.381/.313
Drake Baldwin, C: 2-3, BB, .245/.316/.335
Jake McSteen, SP: 3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 3.95 ERA
Domingo Gonzalez, RP: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 2.89 ERA
Mississippi had it working early and dropped a four spot on the Blue Wahoos in the first inning, but while that lead would hold for much of the game Pensacola did eventually answer and just eke out the win against the Braves. Cody Milligan started the game off with a bang, ambushing a first pitch fastball to clear the fence to dead center field and get Mississippi rolling. Nacho Alvarez of course has been a welcome addition back to the M-Braves lineup, and drew the first of his three walks to set off a chain of events to score three runs. Drake Baldwin and Yolbert Sanchez each had hits and runs scored in the inning.
Baldwin is finally looking like the player we had hoped to see coming into the season. His unfortunate repeat of 2023’s slow start has bogged him down all season, but everything has come together over the past couple of weeks as his numbers are trending forward in every category. Ultimately though it is looking like Baldwin may be more of a platoon player, as the at bats he is putting up against left-handed arms just aren’t good enough and even recognizing and catching up to fastballs from lefties is a struggle for Baldwin. Fortunately he is on the fatter side of that platoon and hits righties well enough to be a starting-caliber catcher against them.
The Mississippi starting rotation has quickly taken some hits, but guys have been stepping up and Jake McSteen is one of those arms. McSteen is an older organizational guy who isn’t really fit to be a starting pitcher, though in relief his stuff ticks up across the board and this season he has had impressive results against left-handed hitters. McSteen did a solid job in this outing and managed to limit Pensacola to one run, with it ultimately being the bullpen that blew the lead. Jorge Juan was an offseason free agent signing that certainly has a live arm and can get strikeouts, but on days when his strike throwing is off it can get ugly and he walked three batters and allowed the Blue Wahoos to tie it. Domingo Gonzalez then had to clean up the inning, but he allowed a two-run double that was ultimately the game-winning hit. Gonzalez has largely been one of the best pitchers for Mississippi this season however, getting some looks in high leverage and showing some major league relief potential. Gonzalez utilizes his frame and low release to his advantage, creating a sinker-slider combination that has created a 37.8% strikeout rate and 2.86 FIP this season.
(31-23) Rome Emperors 10, (27-29) Winston-Salem Dash 6
Box Score
Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., CF: 1-4, 3 RBI, .278/.338/.396
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 1-3, 2B, BB, .273/.365/.372
EJ Exposito, SS: 2-4, .300/.365/.559
Jhancarlos Lara, SP: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 4.79 ERA
If there is any team you can count on to get a win right now it’s the Emperors, and the offense once again had a big day led by Sabin Ceballos and EJ Exposito. Exposito led the team with his three runs scored, two of those times being brought in by Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. Kilpatrick has faded from his hot start simply because the ball isn’t finding grass as often, but it doesn’t really feel like he’s been awful. The hard hits for Kilpatrick are still coming, and while the strikeout rate has ticked up a bit it’s also come with more patience as his walks have improved as well. Overall though it feels like Kilpatrick is a bit stagnant at the moment as he has been hitting far too many ground balls throughout the season.
Sabin Ceballos has had a refreshing start to the month of June, already having four extra base hits under his belt. Ceballos hit a rocket double the other way over the right fielder’s head in the eighth inning, and the hard hit balls are starting to come more frequently. He’s thankfully hitting more fly balls and line drives than how he started the season, although the results on his fly balls haven’t yet been optimal. Ceballos has had trouble finding the barrel in the air and it’s resulted in a lot of lazy contact, the hope being that he can square up the ball more frequently like he’s done on the ground for parts of the year and some of those end up turning into home runs. Ceballos also made his tenth error in this game, but I’m not putting this one on him so much. Ceballos made a nice sliding stop to his right and made a throw with a big hop to the first baseman that Justin Janas had bounce off of his glove. Ceballos has a better arm than what he showed on that play and I am surprised he chose to bounce it rather than air one out to first, and we’re nit-picking the defensive actions on a single play here but a critical problem was his footwork as he stumbled a bit standing up and didn’t have a firm plant with his back foot.
This game got ugly for Jhancarlos Lara as he went through the lineup a second time, but I’m not going to express too much concern with that. Lara missed a ton of bats especially the first time through and was locating his fastball much better than in previous starts, both the most important aspects for Lara’s development. It seems like ultimately Lara is going to end up in the bullpen as a late inning reliever, and while starting provides him a valuable chance to get more reps working on his fastball command the results later in starts muddy a purely statistical evaluation of his play. Lara looked solid and the shape of his pitches was good, and he could be fast-tracked once the fastball command develops to the point the Braves feel he’s ready to make that bullpen move.
(23-32) Augusta GreenJackets 8, (25-30) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 7
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, CF: 3-4, 2 HR, BB, 3 RBI .130/.200/.240
Jeremy Celedonio, RF: 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, .333/.438/.917
Garrett Baumann, SP: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2.90 ERA
Adam Shoemaker, RP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 4.73 ERA
Garrett Baumann has had quite a few outings this season where everything put in play against him managed to find a glove, so it was bound to be that a day would come where everything found a gap. The Pelicans went 9-15 on balls in play, and much of that wasn’t even great contact. It was just one of those rough outings for a guy where not a lot went right on the results, but the inputs were fine as Baumann had control of his pitches and managed to get a decent number of whiffs.
In relief Adam Shoemaker had one of his fun outings, where everything came together for him to dominate with eight strikeouts over three scoreless innings. Shoemaker showed promise early this season as his slider has taken a clear step forward, but it seems that his early season fastball command was a bit of mirage as he just hasn’t been able to put it together with any consistency since. Days like Saturday certainly remind you of what he could be if he ever found that consistency, and overall this season Shoemaker’s strikeout rate ticked up to 30.5%.
First career homer? Game tying homer IN THE SAME GAME?? Yeah, that's a solid day at the office.@isaiahdrake05 is our @PremierNetworx IT Guy of the Game!! pic.twitter.com/FsmuWkFo8p— Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) June 9, 2024
We’ve been waiting on one of these kind of days from Isaiah Drake. It’s been tough this season, but he put one of the best days from any prospect this season together with the first two home runs of his season on Saturday. Part of Drake’s problems can be his tendency to get slappy on pitches in the zone, as despite having above average raw power he tends to chase contact to all fields. Not yesterday, as he got two pitches to hit and turned on them driving them over the right field wall. The second of these was a game-tying shot in the ninth inning, the first blow in what would be a rally for the GreenJackets to win the game.
Cam Magee followed up Drake with a walk, then ultimately advanced on a wild pitch and stolen base to find himself at third base with one out. This brought up Jeremy Celedonio, who has been massive for Augusta in the couple of games he has been back. Celedonio has massive raw power, and he showed that in the first inning when he went deep down the left field line to put Augusta on the board first. Celedonio didn’t quite get as much on the ball in the ninth, but his fly ball was deep enough as Magee came home to score on a walk off sacrifice fly.
(6-19) FCL Braves 3, (17-8) FCL Rays 1 SUSPENDED
Box Score
Luis Guanipa, CF: 0-2
John Estevez, LF:1-1, BB
Whilmer Guerra, SP: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 5.87 ERA
We might have had a chance at win number seven for the FCL Braves (and number six on my recap day) but unfortunately the game was suspended in the third inning. The FCL Braves were on a roll too, with a run already in in the third inning and two runners on base with no outs. Unfortunately though the game ends early and we only have three innings of box score to comb through. It was good to see a hit and a walk from John Estevez, who has hit a bit of a rough patch after a strong start and came in with two hits and nine strikeouts over his previous seven games.
(0-2) DSL Braves 4, (1-3) DSL Mariners 15
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 2-5
Elio Campos, 2B: 2-4
Jose Pena, SP: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 27.00 ERA
The DSL Braves don’t get games in very often but when they do they have gotten stomped out twice now. Fortunately they did get some more good production from Juan Mateo, who has three hits in the two official games so far this season. It’s going to be a rough season for the pitching staff though, who walked 15 batters this game. Hopefully we get enough games in soon to start getting a feel for and some reports on these players.
<img alt="Atlanta Braves Workouts" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0jlYKScmK_m-_zvgC4Ze8ykdP0A=/0x0:6938x4625/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73397378/1705847736.0.jpg">
Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
It was a breakout performance for the talented center fielder It was a big day for a big prospect, as Isaiah Drake went off in an Augusta win. The Atlanta Braves 2023 fifth round pick has struggled to find his offensive footing in his professional career so far, but occasionally does things to remind us of the immense ceiling that he possesses. Other standout performances came from Jhancarlos Lara and Adam Shoemaker on the mound.
(29-33) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (29-33) Durham Bulls 7
Box Score
Statcast
Andrew Velazquez, 2B: 2-3, 2 2B, BB, .253/.330/.449
Ramon Laureano, RF: 1-4, RBI, .350/.372/.600
Taylor Widener, SP: 3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 5.12 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.06 ERA
It has been quite a wild run at the plate for the normally light-hitting Andrew Velazquez, who has managed to find power and every bit of batted ball luck to go on a now-11 game hitting streak. Taking it back to his past 20 games Velazquez has a 161 wRC+, with his two doubles in this game representing the 11th and 12th extra base hits of that streak. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for the Stripers on Saturday, as the hot and cold offense of the month of June has one of its cold days. Gwinnett has scored 10+ runs in three games this month and won all three, but in the other four games haven’t scored more than three runs and lost all four.
Luke Waddell has been a major disappointment this season as his hard contact rates just haven’t been enough to sustain consistent success and pitchers are attacking him in the zone limiting his walk rates. Over his past 10 games though there has been a bit of a light, as he has a 103 wRC+ and .179 isolated power throughout that stretch. Waddell had a double in his first plate appearance in this one, and he just missed an opposite field hold run as the ball banged right off of the top of the high wall in left field in Durham.
Taylor Widener got the start in this one and put up his second straight really bad outing which has bombed his ERA in what was previously a good start to the season. The Bulls hit Widener well with six hard-hit balls in the three innings he pitched including a home run to lead off the second inning. Brooks Wilson is similarly in a situation where two awful outings have killed an otherwise solid year, though it’s definitely more apparent with Wilson’s low innings load. Wilson was able to land his splitter effectively in this game and that made a world of difference, and his fastball velocity has started to tick up a bit. He came in last year sitting below 90 after his tommy john return and was just a tick above 90 early this year, but over his past couple of starts he’s seen a bit of a jump and averaged an even 93 this game.
(25-31) Mississippi Braves 6, (30-25) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 7
Box Score
Nacho Alvarez, SS: 0-1, 3 BB, .265/.381/.313
Drake Baldwin, C: 2-3, BB, .245/.316/.335
Jake McSteen, SP: 3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 3.95 ERA
Domingo Gonzalez, RP: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 2.89 ERA
Mississippi had it working early and dropped a four spot on the Blue Wahoos in the first inning, but while that lead would hold for much of the game Pensacola did eventually answer and just eke out the win against the Braves. Cody Milligan started the game off with a bang, ambushing a first pitch fastball to clear the fence to dead center field and get Mississippi rolling. Nacho Alvarez of course has been a welcome addition back to the M-Braves lineup, and drew the first of his three walks to set off a chain of events to score three runs. Drake Baldwin and Yolbert Sanchez each had hits and runs scored in the inning.
Baldwin is finally looking like the player we had hoped to see coming into the season. His unfortunate repeat of 2023’s slow start has bogged him down all season, but everything has come together over the past couple of weeks as his numbers are trending forward in every category. Ultimately though it is looking like Baldwin may be more of a platoon player, as the at bats he is putting up against left-handed arms just aren’t good enough and even recognizing and catching up to fastballs from lefties is a struggle for Baldwin. Fortunately he is on the fatter side of that platoon and hits righties well enough to be a starting-caliber catcher against them.
The Mississippi starting rotation has quickly taken some hits, but guys have been stepping up and Jake McSteen is one of those arms. McSteen is an older organizational guy who isn’t really fit to be a starting pitcher, though in relief his stuff ticks up across the board and this season he has had impressive results against left-handed hitters. McSteen did a solid job in this outing and managed to limit Pensacola to one run, with it ultimately being the bullpen that blew the lead. Jorge Juan was an offseason free agent signing that certainly has a live arm and can get strikeouts, but on days when his strike throwing is off it can get ugly and he walked three batters and allowed the Blue Wahoos to tie it. Domingo Gonzalez then had to clean up the inning, but he allowed a two-run double that was ultimately the game-winning hit. Gonzalez has largely been one of the best pitchers for Mississippi this season however, getting some looks in high leverage and showing some major league relief potential. Gonzalez utilizes his frame and low release to his advantage, creating a sinker-slider combination that has created a 37.8% strikeout rate and 2.86 FIP this season.
(31-23) Rome Emperors 10, (27-29) Winston-Salem Dash 6
Box Score
Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., CF: 1-4, 3 RBI, .278/.338/.396
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 1-3, 2B, BB, .273/.365/.372
EJ Exposito, SS: 2-4, .300/.365/.559
Jhancarlos Lara, SP: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 4.79 ERA
If there is any team you can count on to get a win right now it’s the Emperors, and the offense once again had a big day led by Sabin Ceballos and EJ Exposito. Exposito led the team with his three runs scored, two of those times being brought in by Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. Kilpatrick has faded from his hot start simply because the ball isn’t finding grass as often, but it doesn’t really feel like he’s been awful. The hard hits for Kilpatrick are still coming, and while the strikeout rate has ticked up a bit it’s also come with more patience as his walks have improved as well. Overall though it feels like Kilpatrick is a bit stagnant at the moment as he has been hitting far too many ground balls throughout the season.
Sabin Ceballos has had a refreshing start to the month of June, already having four extra base hits under his belt. Ceballos hit a rocket double the other way over the right fielder’s head in the eighth inning, and the hard hit balls are starting to come more frequently. He’s thankfully hitting more fly balls and line drives than how he started the season, although the results on his fly balls haven’t yet been optimal. Ceballos has had trouble finding the barrel in the air and it’s resulted in a lot of lazy contact, the hope being that he can square up the ball more frequently like he’s done on the ground for parts of the year and some of those end up turning into home runs. Ceballos also made his tenth error in this game, but I’m not putting this one on him so much. Ceballos made a nice sliding stop to his right and made a throw with a big hop to the first baseman that Justin Janas had bounce off of his glove. Ceballos has a better arm than what he showed on that play and I am surprised he chose to bounce it rather than air one out to first, and we’re nit-picking the defensive actions on a single play here but a critical problem was his footwork as he stumbled a bit standing up and didn’t have a firm plant with his back foot.
This game got ugly for Jhancarlos Lara as he went through the lineup a second time, but I’m not going to express too much concern with that. Lara missed a ton of bats especially the first time through and was locating his fastball much better than in previous starts, both the most important aspects for Lara’s development. It seems like ultimately Lara is going to end up in the bullpen as a late inning reliever, and while starting provides him a valuable chance to get more reps working on his fastball command the results later in starts muddy a purely statistical evaluation of his play. Lara looked solid and the shape of his pitches was good, and he could be fast-tracked once the fastball command develops to the point the Braves feel he’s ready to make that bullpen move.
(23-32) Augusta GreenJackets 8, (25-30) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 7
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, CF: 3-4, 2 HR, BB, 3 RBI .130/.200/.240
Jeremy Celedonio, RF: 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, .333/.438/.917
Garrett Baumann, SP: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2.90 ERA
Adam Shoemaker, RP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, 4.73 ERA
Garrett Baumann has had quite a few outings this season where everything put in play against him managed to find a glove, so it was bound to be that a day would come where everything found a gap. The Pelicans went 9-15 on balls in play, and much of that wasn’t even great contact. It was just one of those rough outings for a guy where not a lot went right on the results, but the inputs were fine as Baumann had control of his pitches and managed to get a decent number of whiffs.
In relief Adam Shoemaker had one of his fun outings, where everything came together for him to dominate with eight strikeouts over three scoreless innings. Shoemaker showed promise early this season as his slider has taken a clear step forward, but it seems that his early season fastball command was a bit of mirage as he just hasn’t been able to put it together with any consistency since. Days like Saturday certainly remind you of what he could be if he ever found that consistency, and overall this season Shoemaker’s strikeout rate ticked up to 30.5%.
First career homer? Game tying homer IN THE SAME GAME?? Yeah, that's a solid day at the office.@isaiahdrake05 is our @PremierNetworx IT Guy of the Game!! pic.twitter.com/FsmuWkFo8p— Augusta GreenJackets (@GreenJackets) June 9, 2024
We’ve been waiting on one of these kind of days from Isaiah Drake. It’s been tough this season, but he put one of the best days from any prospect this season together with the first two home runs of his season on Saturday. Part of Drake’s problems can be his tendency to get slappy on pitches in the zone, as despite having above average raw power he tends to chase contact to all fields. Not yesterday, as he got two pitches to hit and turned on them driving them over the right field wall. The second of these was a game-tying shot in the ninth inning, the first blow in what would be a rally for the GreenJackets to win the game.
Cam Magee followed up Drake with a walk, then ultimately advanced on a wild pitch and stolen base to find himself at third base with one out. This brought up Jeremy Celedonio, who has been massive for Augusta in the couple of games he has been back. Celedonio has massive raw power, and he showed that in the first inning when he went deep down the left field line to put Augusta on the board first. Celedonio didn’t quite get as much on the ball in the ninth, but his fly ball was deep enough as Magee came home to score on a walk off sacrifice fly.
(6-19) FCL Braves 3, (17-8) FCL Rays 1 SUSPENDED
Box Score
Luis Guanipa, CF: 0-2
John Estevez, LF:1-1, BB
Whilmer Guerra, SP: 3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 5.87 ERA
We might have had a chance at win number seven for the FCL Braves (and number six on my recap day) but unfortunately the game was suspended in the third inning. The FCL Braves were on a roll too, with a run already in in the third inning and two runners on base with no outs. Unfortunately though the game ends early and we only have three innings of box score to comb through. It was good to see a hit and a walk from John Estevez, who has hit a bit of a rough patch after a strong start and came in with two hits and nine strikeouts over his previous seven games.
(0-2) DSL Braves 4, (1-3) DSL Mariners 15
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 2-5
Elio Campos, 2B: 2-4
Jose Pena, SP: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 27.00 ERA
The DSL Braves don’t get games in very often but when they do they have gotten stomped out twice now. Fortunately they did get some more good production from Juan Mateo, who has three hits in the two official games so far this season. It’s going to be a rough season for the pitching staff though, who walked 15 batters this game. Hopefully we get enough games in soon to start getting a feel for and some reports on these players.
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