<img alt="MLB: MAR 08 Spring Training - Pirates (SS) at Braves (SS)" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4iyywz1M7BFWi5GWt8Xy8IKovzM=/0x0:3600x2400/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73436232/2061705326.0.jpg">
Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Alvarez stayed hot with a home run and a walk in a Gwinnett win The last days of June of drawing to a close, and it has been a fine month for the Atlanta Braves top position player prospect. Nacho Alvarez continued his power surge with the Stripers with a leadoff home run over the bullpen in Gwinnett. Down in Rome Blake Burkhalter continues to look impressive for Rome, and Robert Gonzalez could be on a rising path for the GreenJackets.
(37-43) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (41-39) Memphis Redbirds 4
Box Score
Statcast
Nacho Alvarez, SS: 1-4, HR, BB, RBI, .358/.442/.612
Drake Baldwin, DH: 0-4, BB, .300/.400/.483
Luke Waddell, 2B: 2-5, 3 RBI, .237/.322/.336
Taylor Widener, SP: 3 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3.66 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.99 ERA
Nacho Alvarez got the game started off in a big way for Gwinnett, taking the third pitch he saw in the game and hitting it over Stripers bullpen in left field. This is a continuation of an impressive power surge for Alvarez, who now has four home runs and nine extra base hits in 16 Triple-A games, after having only seven extra base hits and no home runs in 48 games with Mississippi. Alvarez’s dominance with Gwinnett has been driven pretty heavily by good batted ball luck, but even with luck excluded he’s still been one of the best players on the Stripers since his promotion with a .359 xwOBA and a whiff rate in the 88th percentile for Triple-A players. His exit velocity and hard hit numbers still lag behind league average though, not really a surprise from what we’ve known of Alvarez throughout his career, but it’s nice to see his approach translating to Triple-A. I’m still not in the camp that thinks Alvarez is ready to take over at shortstop for the struggling Orlando Arcia, but the more success he has at Triple-A the more likely it is that spring training in 2025 is a legitimate position battle at shortstop.
Drake Baldwin has had a bit of a rough series since the three-hit opener, and Memphis has seemed to figure some stuff out against him that he and the Stripers staff will have to work to adjust to. Baldwin is still overall making contact at a high rate and hitting the ball hard consistently, but Memphis is making a concerted effort to live in the upper half against Baldwin and especially up and in, and it’s exposing some weaknesses that his swing path and setup create for him. Baldwin tends to work best in the lower half of the zone and on the inner two-thirds, with his quality and consistency of contact dropping the close to his hands they can get. This was particularly notable in Friday’s game as Memphis didn’t execute as well as they probably hoped on Saturday, and it is notable that Baldwin has done well spitting on pitches at the edges and attacking when Memphis does leave one in his hot zones. Still it’s one of those things to monitor and see how Baldwin and co. react to this going forward.
Gwinnett would end up walking this game off, with the contributions coming from two members of Atlanta’s extended bench. While both Eli White and Luke Waddell aren’t prime replacement candidates in the big leagues, both still provide depth and White had a huge day by reaching base five times. Then Waddell, one of the team’s lowkey hot hitters, walked the game off with a single. Waddell is hitting .324/.400/.507 (136 wRC+) for Gwinnett in June.
Swing and Misses
Taylor Widener - 3
Jackson Stephens - 3
Brooks Wilson - 2
(34-39) Mississippi Braves 1, (42-32) Montgomery Biscuits 9
Box Score
Cade Bunnell, 1B: 2-2, BB, RBI, .158/.344/.221
Keshawn Ogans, DH: 1-4, .221/.276/.265
David Fletcher, SP: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 6.31 ERA
Rolddy Munoz, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.94 ERA
It’s now a wonder how long the David Fletcher pitcher experience is going to last, as Double-A hitters are having zero trouble teeing off on him lately. Fletcher is not missing any bats with his knuckleball, and has 11 walks to six strikeouts in 25 2⁄3 Double-A innings. This was obviously a somewhat unserious venture to begin with and Fletcher at the very least can help an injury-riddled organization fill a few innings. I don’t think he’s blocking any really deserving guys from any spots in Mississippi, it’s just a bit annoying especially since this is three straight Saturdays and I would love to recap a Lucas Braun and Drue Hackenberg start instead.
Minor league oddities aside, the Biscuits ran out former Georgia Bulldog Cole Wilcox who has been one of their best starters all season. This manifested itself in the Mississippi bats being shut down nearly completely with only a couple of notable performances. Tyler Tolve drew two walks, and after a horrible start to the season he has really started to get hot in June. I’m cherry-picking these end points a bit, but over his past 19 games Tolve has cut his strikeout rate down to 27%, and posting a .919 OPS. This makes him by far the most productive player in this lineup for a good stretch of time, and it’s nice to see him making more contact. Tolve is more of a fringe prospect, but the power is real and if he is making contact at a 27% clip that is probably an acceptable range for him to be a productive player.
Rolddy Munoz pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, which was certainly a welcome sight to see. Munoz hadn’t pitched in a week prior to this appearance and only had two appearances between the 9th and last night, and he has been struggling in a major way. Munoz allowed runs in seven straight appearances, finally breaking that streak Saturday night. Munoz’s ability to locate just hasn’t been good enough lately, and while he hasn’t been walking the world his fastball shape makes it more hittable than the velocity might suggest and he hasn’t been able to succeed with pure strike-throwing like he did in Rome. He’ll have to be finer with his pitches to reach a major league bullpen, but it’s a talented arm and this is a good sign for him that can hopefully get him back on track.
Swing and Misses
Rolddy Munoz - 4
(41-31) Rome Emperors 4, (34-40) Winston-Salem Dash 5
Box Score
Drew Compton, 1B: 2-4, BB, 2B, .261/.354/.392
Adam Zebrowski, 3B: 2-5, HR, RBI, .227/.331/.391
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 0-4, BB, .282/.370/.397
Blake Burkhalter, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 2.40 ERA
Jared Johnson, RP: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2.35 ERA
So Blake Burkhalter is really good. There is of course a level of rust in him right now that you would expect when evaluating a guy coming off of Tommy John surgery, but his raw stuff is dominant and High-A hitters are going to be in for a bad time the rest of the season. His cutter is such an overwhelming pitch that he’s been able to really light hitters up with this season, and the swing and miss numbers below are more reflective of how he’s looked this season than I think the strikeout numbers have been. His four seamer with plus carry and cutter with plus movement give him a dominant two-pitch tandem, though if I had to pick at the profile the slider needs to tighten up and be refined with both location and shape. He’s broken out an impressive-looking fading changeup against left handed hitters at times as well, and I think this is a starter profile if he stays healthy and continues to improve command further away from surgery.
The top of the Rome order has carried them over the past couple of weeks, but despite the loss most of the production from this game came from the middle of the lineup. EJ Exposito hasn’t regained the power stroke from early in the season, but reached base three times this game and has managed to maintain good on-base inputs despite the tumbling extra base hit frequency. Adam Zebrowski hit an absolutely nightmarish stretch of play to start off June, going through a ten game span where he had two hits and a -52 wRC+. He’s immediately followed that up by getting right back into form, cutting his strikeouts below 30% again and putting up a 114 wRC+ in his past ten games. He had a home run in this game and continues to be a formidable power threat, though I think his lack of barrel control and the stiff swing path he has will pretty much make it impossible for him to sustain reasonable strikeout rates at the upper levels. On the basically complete opposite end of the spectrum is Drew Compton, who got off to a shaky start in Rome but has now settled back in to being the guy he was in Augusta. This is still too early to really tell for him as High-A shouldn’t be a huge challenge given his age and experience, however you can never complain when a guy advances a level and cuts his strikeout rate. Compton’s zone recognition and zone coverage is above average, but I do ultimately think his lack of power makes him a Quad-A type. He can certainly hit, but it’s hard to stick as even a low end major league first baseman without at least average power and I haven’t really seen that from Compton.
Swing and Misses
Blake Burkhalter - 12
William Silva - 5
(30-43) Augusta GreenJackets 7, (31-42) Charleston RiverDogs 3
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-5, 2B, .170/.230/.277
Robert Gonzalez, RF: 1-2, HR, 2 BB, 2 RBI, .176/.271/.269
Noah Williams, LF: 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI, .212/.333/.250
Garrett Baumann, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 3.38 ERA
If I haven’t made things clear I am a huge fan of Robert Gonzalez, even given how much he has struggled this season. Clearly early in the season his approach was not full season ready yet, and as pitchers figured out his weaknesses against secondary pitches the strikeouts have piled up. This hasn’t changed much as he hasn’t been finding the barrel as frequently as I had hoped, but there are clear efforts being made to improve his approach and overall game. First off, just watching him leg out the triple yesterday was an experience because the dude is wicked fast, then he has shown in recent games the ability to barrel up and drive pitches to the pull side. Gonzalez has twitchy athleticism and can create explosive power, and though I still need to see him tighten up the bat path to feel confident projecting him to a major league quality hitter, the Braves are clearly implementing changes. Early in the season Gonzalez was horrible, seeing the third-fewest pitches per plate appearance among all minor league hitters. There has been a very clear effort to have him just see the zone better, regardless of the actual present results, and it’s starting to show dividends as he has been better at picking out fastballs in the zone to drive and has a 19.6% walk rate over his past 25 games. There is still too much swing and miss — a 34.8% strikoeut rate in that span — but improved plate discipline, an 85 wRC+ despite a .200 BABIP, and a .149 isolated power (80th percentile for the Carolina League) are all positive indicators from this stretch.
The bottom of the order was fantastic in this game, with huge games out of Cam Magee, Leiker Figueroa, and Noah Williams. Williams is one to look at here, as he was a super late round pick in 2022 and has kind of floated around the complex for awhile. Williams is a solid athlete who could have raw power in there, though really that has been the limitation to his profile so far. He’s one I’m targeting getting more looks at in recent weeks, and I’ll have a lot more observations when I head to Augusta next week on these guys, but so far Williams has made solid contact at every level in his career and gotten on base frequently. Not bad for a 20 year old who we knew was going to be a project when he was drafted.
As for Garrett Baumann, who got the start in this game, it’s pretty much the same report as its been every week for him. He’s not missing all that many bats at this stage as he’s working primarily with a ground-ball inducing sinking fastball and his slider isn’t where it needs to be. However his location is solid and it seems that stretch of struggling from early this month was just a blip. Notably Adam Maier was originally scheduled to start on Saturday, as everyone was supposed to be pushed back for an extra day of rest, but instead Baumann made the start and Maier has not pitched since June 21st.
Swing and Misses
Garrett Baumann - 7
(12-27) FCL Braves 1, (25-14) FCL Rays 4
Box Score
Douglas Glod, CF: 2-2, BB, .225/.391/.360
Mario Baez, DH: 1-3, RBI, .233/.298/.283
David Rodriguez, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 7.27 ERA
Douglas Glod has been on a hot tear of late and reached base three times in this game, but it’s still not looking too great for Glod down in the FCL. His overall numbers are fine, but he hasn’t really taken a step forward and it doesn’t really seem like the numbers or reports support him remaining a top 30 guy. I’m glad to see Jair Casanova in action, he’s similar to Gonzalez above as a guy whose metrics are better than surface level stats, but so far he has not reached base since returning to action.
(5-12) DSL Braves 6, (9-10) DSL Rays 6 SUSPENDED
Box Score
Carlos Monteverde: 1-3, BB, 2 RBI, .226/.391/.302
Joan Acevedo, 2B: 2-3, 2 RBI, .222/.293/.222
Jose Pineda, SP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 7.27 ERA
We were talking a lot about Carlos Monteverde and then he suddenly went missing, as for about two weeks now he hasn’t been able buy a hit for the DSL Braves. Hopefully reaching base twice in this game gets him back on track a bit, though his walks haven’t been a problem in recent games. The biggest concern from the DSL right now is the lack of Juan Mateo, who left a game early about a week ago and hasn’t appeared since. The 17 year old shortstop was off to a great start at the plate and was the early favorite for the best prospect on the team.
<img alt="MLB: MAR 08 Spring Training - Pirates (SS) at Braves (SS)" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4iyywz1M7BFWi5GWt8Xy8IKovzM=/0x0:3600x2400/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73436232/2061705326.0.jpg">
Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Alvarez stayed hot with a home run and a walk in a Gwinnett win The last days of June of drawing to a close, and it has been a fine month for the Atlanta Braves top position player prospect. Nacho Alvarez continued his power surge with the Stripers with a leadoff home run over the bullpen in Gwinnett. Down in Rome Blake Burkhalter continues to look impressive for Rome, and Robert Gonzalez could be on a rising path for the GreenJackets.
(37-43) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (41-39) Memphis Redbirds 4
Box Score
Statcast
Nacho Alvarez, SS: 1-4, HR, BB, RBI, .358/.442/.612
Drake Baldwin, DH: 0-4, BB, .300/.400/.483
Luke Waddell, 2B: 2-5, 3 RBI, .237/.322/.336
Taylor Widener, SP: 3 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3.66 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.99 ERA
Nacho Alvarez got the game started off in a big way for Gwinnett, taking the third pitch he saw in the game and hitting it over Stripers bullpen in left field. This is a continuation of an impressive power surge for Alvarez, who now has four home runs and nine extra base hits in 16 Triple-A games, after having only seven extra base hits and no home runs in 48 games with Mississippi. Alvarez’s dominance with Gwinnett has been driven pretty heavily by good batted ball luck, but even with luck excluded he’s still been one of the best players on the Stripers since his promotion with a .359 xwOBA and a whiff rate in the 88th percentile for Triple-A players. His exit velocity and hard hit numbers still lag behind league average though, not really a surprise from what we’ve known of Alvarez throughout his career, but it’s nice to see his approach translating to Triple-A. I’m still not in the camp that thinks Alvarez is ready to take over at shortstop for the struggling Orlando Arcia, but the more success he has at Triple-A the more likely it is that spring training in 2025 is a legitimate position battle at shortstop.
Drake Baldwin has had a bit of a rough series since the three-hit opener, and Memphis has seemed to figure some stuff out against him that he and the Stripers staff will have to work to adjust to. Baldwin is still overall making contact at a high rate and hitting the ball hard consistently, but Memphis is making a concerted effort to live in the upper half against Baldwin and especially up and in, and it’s exposing some weaknesses that his swing path and setup create for him. Baldwin tends to work best in the lower half of the zone and on the inner two-thirds, with his quality and consistency of contact dropping the close to his hands they can get. This was particularly notable in Friday’s game as Memphis didn’t execute as well as they probably hoped on Saturday, and it is notable that Baldwin has done well spitting on pitches at the edges and attacking when Memphis does leave one in his hot zones. Still it’s one of those things to monitor and see how Baldwin and co. react to this going forward.
Gwinnett would end up walking this game off, with the contributions coming from two members of Atlanta’s extended bench. While both Eli White and Luke Waddell aren’t prime replacement candidates in the big leagues, both still provide depth and White had a huge day by reaching base five times. Then Waddell, one of the team’s lowkey hot hitters, walked the game off with a single. Waddell is hitting .324/.400/.507 (136 wRC+) for Gwinnett in June.
Swing and Misses
Taylor Widener - 3
Jackson Stephens - 3
Brooks Wilson - 2
(34-39) Mississippi Braves 1, (42-32) Montgomery Biscuits 9
Box Score
Cade Bunnell, 1B: 2-2, BB, RBI, .158/.344/.221
Keshawn Ogans, DH: 1-4, .221/.276/.265
David Fletcher, SP: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 6.31 ERA
Rolddy Munoz, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.94 ERA
It’s now a wonder how long the David Fletcher pitcher experience is going to last, as Double-A hitters are having zero trouble teeing off on him lately. Fletcher is not missing any bats with his knuckleball, and has 11 walks to six strikeouts in 25 2⁄3 Double-A innings. This was obviously a somewhat unserious venture to begin with and Fletcher at the very least can help an injury-riddled organization fill a few innings. I don’t think he’s blocking any really deserving guys from any spots in Mississippi, it’s just a bit annoying especially since this is three straight Saturdays and I would love to recap a Lucas Braun and Drue Hackenberg start instead.
Minor league oddities aside, the Biscuits ran out former Georgia Bulldog Cole Wilcox who has been one of their best starters all season. This manifested itself in the Mississippi bats being shut down nearly completely with only a couple of notable performances. Tyler Tolve drew two walks, and after a horrible start to the season he has really started to get hot in June. I’m cherry-picking these end points a bit, but over his past 19 games Tolve has cut his strikeout rate down to 27%, and posting a .919 OPS. This makes him by far the most productive player in this lineup for a good stretch of time, and it’s nice to see him making more contact. Tolve is more of a fringe prospect, but the power is real and if he is making contact at a 27% clip that is probably an acceptable range for him to be a productive player.
Rolddy Munoz pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, which was certainly a welcome sight to see. Munoz hadn’t pitched in a week prior to this appearance and only had two appearances between the 9th and last night, and he has been struggling in a major way. Munoz allowed runs in seven straight appearances, finally breaking that streak Saturday night. Munoz’s ability to locate just hasn’t been good enough lately, and while he hasn’t been walking the world his fastball shape makes it more hittable than the velocity might suggest and he hasn’t been able to succeed with pure strike-throwing like he did in Rome. He’ll have to be finer with his pitches to reach a major league bullpen, but it’s a talented arm and this is a good sign for him that can hopefully get him back on track.
Swing and Misses
Rolddy Munoz - 4
(41-31) Rome Emperors 4, (34-40) Winston-Salem Dash 5
Box Score
Drew Compton, 1B: 2-4, BB, 2B, .261/.354/.392
Adam Zebrowski, 3B: 2-5, HR, RBI, .227/.331/.391
Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 0-4, BB, .282/.370/.397
Blake Burkhalter, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 2.40 ERA
Jared Johnson, RP: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 2.35 ERA
So Blake Burkhalter is really good. There is of course a level of rust in him right now that you would expect when evaluating a guy coming off of Tommy John surgery, but his raw stuff is dominant and High-A hitters are going to be in for a bad time the rest of the season. His cutter is such an overwhelming pitch that he’s been able to really light hitters up with this season, and the swing and miss numbers below are more reflective of how he’s looked this season than I think the strikeout numbers have been. His four seamer with plus carry and cutter with plus movement give him a dominant two-pitch tandem, though if I had to pick at the profile the slider needs to tighten up and be refined with both location and shape. He’s broken out an impressive-looking fading changeup against left handed hitters at times as well, and I think this is a starter profile if he stays healthy and continues to improve command further away from surgery.
The top of the Rome order has carried them over the past couple of weeks, but despite the loss most of the production from this game came from the middle of the lineup. EJ Exposito hasn’t regained the power stroke from early in the season, but reached base three times this game and has managed to maintain good on-base inputs despite the tumbling extra base hit frequency. Adam Zebrowski hit an absolutely nightmarish stretch of play to start off June, going through a ten game span where he had two hits and a -52 wRC+. He’s immediately followed that up by getting right back into form, cutting his strikeouts below 30% again and putting up a 114 wRC+ in his past ten games. He had a home run in this game and continues to be a formidable power threat, though I think his lack of barrel control and the stiff swing path he has will pretty much make it impossible for him to sustain reasonable strikeout rates at the upper levels. On the basically complete opposite end of the spectrum is Drew Compton, who got off to a shaky start in Rome but has now settled back in to being the guy he was in Augusta. This is still too early to really tell for him as High-A shouldn’t be a huge challenge given his age and experience, however you can never complain when a guy advances a level and cuts his strikeout rate. Compton’s zone recognition and zone coverage is above average, but I do ultimately think his lack of power makes him a Quad-A type. He can certainly hit, but it’s hard to stick as even a low end major league first baseman without at least average power and I haven’t really seen that from Compton.
Swing and Misses
Blake Burkhalter - 12
William Silva - 5
(30-43) Augusta GreenJackets 7, (31-42) Charleston RiverDogs 3
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-5, 2B, .170/.230/.277
Robert Gonzalez, RF: 1-2, HR, 2 BB, 2 RBI, .176/.271/.269
Noah Williams, LF: 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI, .212/.333/.250
Garrett Baumann, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 3.38 ERA
If I haven’t made things clear I am a huge fan of Robert Gonzalez, even given how much he has struggled this season. Clearly early in the season his approach was not full season ready yet, and as pitchers figured out his weaknesses against secondary pitches the strikeouts have piled up. This hasn’t changed much as he hasn’t been finding the barrel as frequently as I had hoped, but there are clear efforts being made to improve his approach and overall game. First off, just watching him leg out the triple yesterday was an experience because the dude is wicked fast, then he has shown in recent games the ability to barrel up and drive pitches to the pull side. Gonzalez has twitchy athleticism and can create explosive power, and though I still need to see him tighten up the bat path to feel confident projecting him to a major league quality hitter, the Braves are clearly implementing changes. Early in the season Gonzalez was horrible, seeing the third-fewest pitches per plate appearance among all minor league hitters. There has been a very clear effort to have him just see the zone better, regardless of the actual present results, and it’s starting to show dividends as he has been better at picking out fastballs in the zone to drive and has a 19.6% walk rate over his past 25 games. There is still too much swing and miss — a 34.8% strikoeut rate in that span — but improved plate discipline, an 85 wRC+ despite a .200 BABIP, and a .149 isolated power (80th percentile for the Carolina League) are all positive indicators from this stretch.
The bottom of the order was fantastic in this game, with huge games out of Cam Magee, Leiker Figueroa, and Noah Williams. Williams is one to look at here, as he was a super late round pick in 2022 and has kind of floated around the complex for awhile. Williams is a solid athlete who could have raw power in there, though really that has been the limitation to his profile so far. He’s one I’m targeting getting more looks at in recent weeks, and I’ll have a lot more observations when I head to Augusta next week on these guys, but so far Williams has made solid contact at every level in his career and gotten on base frequently. Not bad for a 20 year old who we knew was going to be a project when he was drafted.
As for Garrett Baumann, who got the start in this game, it’s pretty much the same report as its been every week for him. He’s not missing all that many bats at this stage as he’s working primarily with a ground-ball inducing sinking fastball and his slider isn’t where it needs to be. However his location is solid and it seems that stretch of struggling from early this month was just a blip. Notably Adam Maier was originally scheduled to start on Saturday, as everyone was supposed to be pushed back for an extra day of rest, but instead Baumann made the start and Maier has not pitched since June 21st.
Swing and Misses
Garrett Baumann - 7
(12-27) FCL Braves 1, (25-14) FCL Rays 4
Box Score
Douglas Glod, CF: 2-2, BB, .225/.391/.360
Mario Baez, DH: 1-3, RBI, .233/.298/.283
David Rodriguez, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 7.27 ERA
Douglas Glod has been on a hot tear of late and reached base three times in this game, but it’s still not looking too great for Glod down in the FCL. His overall numbers are fine, but he hasn’t really taken a step forward and it doesn’t really seem like the numbers or reports support him remaining a top 30 guy. I’m glad to see Jair Casanova in action, he’s similar to Gonzalez above as a guy whose metrics are better than surface level stats, but so far he has not reached base since returning to action.
(5-12) DSL Braves 6, (9-10) DSL Rays 6 SUSPENDED
Box Score
Carlos Monteverde: 1-3, BB, 2 RBI, .226/.391/.302
Joan Acevedo, 2B: 2-3, 2 RBI, .222/.293/.222
Jose Pineda, SP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 7.27 ERA
We were talking a lot about Carlos Monteverde and then he suddenly went missing, as for about two weeks now he hasn’t been able buy a hit for the DSL Braves. Hopefully reaching base twice in this game gets him back on track a bit, though his walks haven’t been a problem in recent games. The biggest concern from the DSL right now is the lack of Juan Mateo, who left a game early about a week ago and hasn’t appeared since. The 17 year old shortstop was off to a great start at the plate and was the early favorite for the best prospect on the team.
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