<img alt="Atlanta Braves v Baltimore Orioles minor leaguers" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XrDO_VAV9OlhTLWAe-rxAvSxPGA=/0x0:6883x4589/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73457060/1250856217.0.jpg">
Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images
Prospect lefties Luis De Avila and Mitch Farris each struck out 11 batters, though with drastically different final results The long losing streak for the Rome Emperors is finally at an end, as they took opportunity as it was handed to them to win the second game of their double header. The pitchers for the Atlanta Braves system had the best days overall, even though it wasn’t the greatest lineup, with impressive strikeout totals from Luis De Avila, Mitch Farris, Luis Vargas, and Edward Cedano.
(42-48) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (42-47) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3
Box Score
Statcast
Nacho Alvarez, SS: 1-4, .320/.402/.544
Drake Baldwin, DH: 0-3, 1 BB, .309/.440/.532
Zach Logue, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 6.04 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 4.15 ERA
There haven’t been too many quiet days for the Alvarez/Baldwin duo, but it was a relatively poor showing from both with Baldwin in particular not showing the level of contact we’ve seen from him recently. The Jumbo Shrimp did a good job getting fastballs up and in against Baldwin, and it’s proving to be difficult for him to really get his barrel to the ball up there. For Alvarez he nearly had a big day on his hands, but just missed on a couple of occasions and instead settled for a 1-4 day. Alvarez had two deep fly outs into the right center field gap, the first of which in the third inning fell dangerously just a couple of feet short of the wall and was a case of him just getting a bit too far under the ball. In the seventh he also chased the right center fielder to the warning track with a fly ball, but didn’t quite have enough juice to clear.
One issue with Alvarez that I think is causing some of the gap between his raw strength and his in game power is the disconnect between his upper body and lower body on swings. Alvarez tends just throw his hands at the ball, and as a result his barrel can sometimes trail his hip rotation in the swing and lead to inefficiencies in power production. The seventh inning fly out was a clear case of this, where he seemed to be guessing fastball and got his front foot down early, and when it turned out to be a slider he just had to throw his hands at the pitch and wasn’t able to muster the strength to get it out.
The Stripers didn’t exactly run out the A-team on the pitching side of things, though Zach Logue did his job well enough and held the Jumbo Shrimp to only one run. Logue is solid depth and can give the Stripers innings on a fairly regular basis, but doesn’t have any traits or pitches that stand out to allow him to really be any more than a Quad-A pitcher. Brooks Wilson continues to recover some velocity and is sitting at around the 92 mark consistently now, and with his splitter as good as it is that could be enough to make him a major league middle relief arm, though he just hasn’t thrown enough strikes to get there since coming back from his Tommy John surgery.
Swing and Misses
Zach Logue - 8
Brooks Wilson - 6
(38-45) Mississippi Braves 2, (46-38) Birmingham Barons 0
Box Score
Cal Conley, 2B: 1-4, .249/.319/.321
Cody Milligan, CF: 1-4, RBI, .238/.293/.360
Luis De Avila, SP: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 3.65 ERA
Luis De Avila has started to hit his stride, and broke out with his best game of the season and 11 strikeouts on Thursday. De Avila had every aspect of his location working, and from beginning to end in the game dominated. One change for De Avila this season is mechanical, as he is working more downhill and getting more extension, which especially with his shorter frame should allow his fastball to play up even more than it already does. The main thing for De Avila is command, as I don’t think his pitch mix will ever be particularly great, and he has been much better with these changes and more on a consistent line to home plate. De Avila has pitched six or more innings in six of his past seven starts, with a 2.92 FIP and 44 total innings.
It’s a good thing for Mississippi that De Avila was so good in this game, as the offense certainly didn’t do much to give him a cushion to work with. While he was cruising so too was Birmingham’s Johan Dominguez, a minor league veteran with 26 Triple-A starts under his belt that is perhaps a bit too good to be kicking around the Southern League. Mississippi didn’t break through until the fourth inning when Cal Conley bunted for a hit, then continued to use his speed and savvy as he stole second base with no throw on a delayed steal attempt. Cody Milligan looped a ball into left field for a hit, and there was no play at the plate as Conley easily scored the first run for Mississippi.
Swing and Misses
Luis De Avila - 18
Jonathan Hughes - 2
(41-40) Rome Emperors 0, (36-47) Greenville Drive 10
Box Score
The entire offense: 0-23, 4 BB, 10 K
EJ Exposito, SS: 0-2, BB, SB, .267/.340/.477
Mitch Farris, SP: 4.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 3.76 ERA
Jared Johnson, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2.91 ERA
Swing and Misses
Mitch Farris - 26 (!)
Jared Johnson - 3
(42-40) Rome Emperors 4, (36-48) Greenville Drive 3
Box Score
Kevin Kilpatrick Jr, CF: 1-2, 2 BB, RBI, .246/.327/.369
Drew Compton, DH: 1-3, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .262/.347/.417
Luis Vargas, SP: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 2.38 ERA
Ryan Bourassa, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2.08 ERA
The Emperors gave us a lot to unpack in these two games, but at least they finally won a game in July. Rome got no-hit in game one, running their losing streak to ten games dating back to June 29th. The offense has been abysmal, with 15 runs scored in the nine games this month. Now on the pitching side in game one is where we really get into an interesting discussion. Mitch Farris elicited 26 swing-and-misses, and I don’t recall seeing a higher number from any Braves prospect this season though I don’t have data for every game. 26 is an absurd number, but he also gave up three home runs and seven earned runs. Farris misses bats at a high rate with all of his pitches — his fastball misses bats despite it’s low velocity because of Farris’s release and low approach angle, then all of his secondaries have good movement and tunnel well off of each other. The problem is that flat angle to the plate, and with the fact that Farris sits in the upper 80’s it can be a bit too easy for professional hitters to rack up hard fly balls against him. I think Farris’s secondaries are good enough and I’d be interested to see what his profile looks like in relief, or if he can add velocity because he does have a thin frame, because if his fastball ticks up at all it’s a guy you can see giving you quality major league innings. Farris is an older pitcher playing in A ball so take this with a grain of salt, though coming from a Division-II school makes up some of the age-relative concerns; Farris has the 11th highest strikeout rate in minor league baseball among pitchers with 60+ innings.
Jump into game two and the Emperors finally got their win here, but it took a monumental effort late in the game to get there. Luis Vargas was brilliant once again, lowering his ERA in Rome to 2.38, his FIP to 2.86, and maintaining his impressive strikeout and walk numbers. The nine strikeouts are Vargas’s high for High-A this season, and he is missing bats both his with his upper 90’s fastball and his slider. Unfortunately he was let down a bit by his defense, who let in two unearned runs in the sixth inning and had Vargas facing the loss with a 3-1 deficit. Finally the offense decided to do anything positive, and Greenville’s pitching staff certainly helped them along. Greenville’s Reidis Sena was awful, and it isn’t like this is a guy you would expect to collapse as he hadn’t walked more than one batter in an outing since April and came in with a 1.48 ERA over his previous 30 innings. Well, he did collapse, allowing five walks including three of the last four Emperors to force home three runs and give Rome their win. Justin Janas got the inning started off with a double, and he was the only Emperors with multiple hits in the game. Janas had the worst month of his career in June, but seems to have bounced back early in July as he is hitting .308 so far this month.
Swing and Misses
Luis Vargas - 13
Ryan Bourassa - 5
(34-48) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (38-46) Fayetteville Woodpeckers 8
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, DH: 1-3, 2 BB, .161/.231/.255
Jacob Godman, C: 2-3, 3B, BB, 2 RBI, .215/.387/.327
Noah Williams, RF: 1-2, 2 BB, .195/.308/.221
Kadon Morton, SP: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 8.49 ERA
Kadon Morton really doesn’t seem ready for full season ball on the mound yet, as his pitch mix and command just aren’t working out for him so far. I’m going to reserve judgement to see how he comes out next season, to see whether a changeup becomes a part of his arsenal and whether the command of his slider can improve, but so far the experiment hasn’t gone great for Morton. At this point though it’s less about his results and more about getting him caught up on the years of innings missed, and I do genuinely think his slider is a major league quality pitch when he can get it down in the zone.
LJ McDonough is a bit of an interesting guy. His jerky delivery makes it difficult to pick up on his carrying mid-90’s fastball, but it also has the negative of making it hard for him to command his pitches. McDonough misses a ton of bats with his fastball, but I don’t know if the slider or command will be good enough for him to be a major league reliever. Still a guy with interesting whiff rates to have been found as an undrafted free agent. Juan Sanchez also has some merit as a prospect, with the highlight of his profile being his hard sweeping slider in the low-to-mid 80’s. Sanchez is younger by three years than McDonough and has a cleaner delivery so it is probably easier to project him to the command necessary to make use of that slider, but he struggles to get downhill and his back side trails significantly in his delivery. With some mechanical tweaks though there is real intrigue that comes with an above average breaking ball.
I’m curious to see what this lineup looks like next month, because right now there is a whole lot of nothing special going on in the lower level full season affiliates. Isaiah Drake has cooled off significantly, and while his strikeouts aren’t as bad as they were earlier this year they are starting to tick back into concerning territory again. Noah Williams is probably the most interesting guy on a day-to-day basis in that he actually makes some level of consistent contact, but the power hasn’t been there outside of that grand slam in the suspended game last week. Jacob Godman and Jeremy Celedonio are the only two players in the lineup with an OPS above .575, and both are older players who probably can’t stick at premium positions, and Celedonio can’t really hit even though he does have outstanding raw power.
Swing and Misses
LJ McDonough - 10
Juan Sanchez - 9
Kadon Morton - 5
(18-30) FCL Braves 5, (20-27) FCL Orioles 3
Box Score
Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-4, .305/.349/.492
John Gil, SS: 0-2, 2 BB, 3 SB, .278/.389/.377
Junior Garcia, LF: 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI, .291/.413/.425
Luis Arestigueta, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 4.05 ERA
For as cold as the Rome Emperors have gotten the FCL Braves seem to be making up for it, as this young lineup has really improved down the stretch and they are winning some games. I talked last week saying Luis Guanipa was struggling but only really needed a couple of good games to get his numbers back up, and he went out earlier this week and did exactly that. Thursday was only a 1-4 showing, and he has been a bit light on walk rate, but I don’t think there are any more conclusions we can draw on Guanipa until we see him in full season ball. The same goes for John Gil, who is not striking out at all anymore and I’m very curious to see what that approach and swing looks like. The videos I’ve seen of him swinging indicate a guy who should have more contact issues than he does, but if his contact rates in the FCL are real and not a case of beating up on poor competition then that would easily make him one of the top 20 or so guys, if not top 15, in the system given his athletic toolset.
(8-15) DSL Braves 4, (6-18) DSL Padres Brown 1
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 1-3, 3B, .262/.375/.444
Juan Espinal, CF: 0-1, BB, RBI, .190/.347/.310
Lewis Sifontes, SP: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 7.00 ERA
Edward Cedano, RP: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 3.18 ERA
(9-15) DSL Braves 3, (6-19) DSL Padres Brown 1
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 0-2, BB, .262/.375/.444
Elio Campos, 2B: 1-4, RBI, .268/.375/.329
Yander Pinero, SP: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 8.49 ERA
It’s not often that pitchers are the highlight in the DSL, though I have had Edward Cedano’s name on my radar here. He had one of the few genuinely well-pitched games we’ve seen out of a DSL pitcher this season, with six strikeouts and only one hit allowed. He and Yander Pinero are interesting guys I want to see in the FCL next year, and Pinero I’ve asked about and we’re hoping to get more info on him. Pinero just turned 17 recently and has been putting up high strikeout rates down in the DSL, though that comes with the walks we often expect from those kind of guys. He’s also 6’3, which is just a bit more added intrigue for a player that young. His walk rates weren’t quite so egregious before he walked five batters in this past game, as this was actually his worst game of the season by far, and I’ll pass on any reports I get as soon as I get a chance.
<img alt="Atlanta Braves v Baltimore Orioles minor leaguers" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XrDO_VAV9OlhTLWAe-rxAvSxPGA=/0x0:6883x4589/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73457060/1250856217.0.jpg">
Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images
Prospect lefties Luis De Avila and Mitch Farris each struck out 11 batters, though with drastically different final results The long losing streak for the Rome Emperors is finally at an end, as they took opportunity as it was handed to them to win the second game of their double header. The pitchers for the Atlanta Braves system had the best days overall, even though it wasn’t the greatest lineup, with impressive strikeout totals from Luis De Avila, Mitch Farris, Luis Vargas, and Edward Cedano.
(42-48) Gwinnett Stripers 1, (42-47) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 3
Box Score
Statcast
Nacho Alvarez, SS: 1-4, .320/.402/.544
Drake Baldwin, DH: 0-3, 1 BB, .309/.440/.532
Zach Logue, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 6.04 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 4.15 ERA
There haven’t been too many quiet days for the Alvarez/Baldwin duo, but it was a relatively poor showing from both with Baldwin in particular not showing the level of contact we’ve seen from him recently. The Jumbo Shrimp did a good job getting fastballs up and in against Baldwin, and it’s proving to be difficult for him to really get his barrel to the ball up there. For Alvarez he nearly had a big day on his hands, but just missed on a couple of occasions and instead settled for a 1-4 day. Alvarez had two deep fly outs into the right center field gap, the first of which in the third inning fell dangerously just a couple of feet short of the wall and was a case of him just getting a bit too far under the ball. In the seventh he also chased the right center fielder to the warning track with a fly ball, but didn’t quite have enough juice to clear.
One issue with Alvarez that I think is causing some of the gap between his raw strength and his in game power is the disconnect between his upper body and lower body on swings. Alvarez tends just throw his hands at the ball, and as a result his barrel can sometimes trail his hip rotation in the swing and lead to inefficiencies in power production. The seventh inning fly out was a clear case of this, where he seemed to be guessing fastball and got his front foot down early, and when it turned out to be a slider he just had to throw his hands at the pitch and wasn’t able to muster the strength to get it out.
The Stripers didn’t exactly run out the A-team on the pitching side of things, though Zach Logue did his job well enough and held the Jumbo Shrimp to only one run. Logue is solid depth and can give the Stripers innings on a fairly regular basis, but doesn’t have any traits or pitches that stand out to allow him to really be any more than a Quad-A pitcher. Brooks Wilson continues to recover some velocity and is sitting at around the 92 mark consistently now, and with his splitter as good as it is that could be enough to make him a major league middle relief arm, though he just hasn’t thrown enough strikes to get there since coming back from his Tommy John surgery.
Swing and Misses
Zach Logue - 8
Brooks Wilson - 6
(38-45) Mississippi Braves 2, (46-38) Birmingham Barons 0
Box Score
Cal Conley, 2B: 1-4, .249/.319/.321
Cody Milligan, CF: 1-4, RBI, .238/.293/.360
Luis De Avila, SP: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 3.65 ERA
Luis De Avila has started to hit his stride, and broke out with his best game of the season and 11 strikeouts on Thursday. De Avila had every aspect of his location working, and from beginning to end in the game dominated. One change for De Avila this season is mechanical, as he is working more downhill and getting more extension, which especially with his shorter frame should allow his fastball to play up even more than it already does. The main thing for De Avila is command, as I don’t think his pitch mix will ever be particularly great, and he has been much better with these changes and more on a consistent line to home plate. De Avila has pitched six or more innings in six of his past seven starts, with a 2.92 FIP and 44 total innings.
It’s a good thing for Mississippi that De Avila was so good in this game, as the offense certainly didn’t do much to give him a cushion to work with. While he was cruising so too was Birmingham’s Johan Dominguez, a minor league veteran with 26 Triple-A starts under his belt that is perhaps a bit too good to be kicking around the Southern League. Mississippi didn’t break through until the fourth inning when Cal Conley bunted for a hit, then continued to use his speed and savvy as he stole second base with no throw on a delayed steal attempt. Cody Milligan looped a ball into left field for a hit, and there was no play at the plate as Conley easily scored the first run for Mississippi.
Swing and Misses
Luis De Avila - 18
Jonathan Hughes - 2
(41-40) Rome Emperors 0, (36-47) Greenville Drive 10
Box Score
The entire offense: 0-23, 4 BB, 10 K
EJ Exposito, SS: 0-2, BB, SB, .267/.340/.477
Mitch Farris, SP: 4.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 3.76 ERA
Jared Johnson, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 2.91 ERA
Swing and Misses
Mitch Farris - 26 (!)
Jared Johnson - 3
(42-40) Rome Emperors 4, (36-48) Greenville Drive 3
Box Score
Kevin Kilpatrick Jr, CF: 1-2, 2 BB, RBI, .246/.327/.369
Drew Compton, DH: 1-3, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .262/.347/.417
Luis Vargas, SP: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 2.38 ERA
Ryan Bourassa, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 2.08 ERA
The Emperors gave us a lot to unpack in these two games, but at least they finally won a game in July. Rome got no-hit in game one, running their losing streak to ten games dating back to June 29th. The offense has been abysmal, with 15 runs scored in the nine games this month. Now on the pitching side in game one is where we really get into an interesting discussion. Mitch Farris elicited 26 swing-and-misses, and I don’t recall seeing a higher number from any Braves prospect this season though I don’t have data for every game. 26 is an absurd number, but he also gave up three home runs and seven earned runs. Farris misses bats at a high rate with all of his pitches — his fastball misses bats despite it’s low velocity because of Farris’s release and low approach angle, then all of his secondaries have good movement and tunnel well off of each other. The problem is that flat angle to the plate, and with the fact that Farris sits in the upper 80’s it can be a bit too easy for professional hitters to rack up hard fly balls against him. I think Farris’s secondaries are good enough and I’d be interested to see what his profile looks like in relief, or if he can add velocity because he does have a thin frame, because if his fastball ticks up at all it’s a guy you can see giving you quality major league innings. Farris is an older pitcher playing in A ball so take this with a grain of salt, though coming from a Division-II school makes up some of the age-relative concerns; Farris has the 11th highest strikeout rate in minor league baseball among pitchers with 60+ innings.
Jump into game two and the Emperors finally got their win here, but it took a monumental effort late in the game to get there. Luis Vargas was brilliant once again, lowering his ERA in Rome to 2.38, his FIP to 2.86, and maintaining his impressive strikeout and walk numbers. The nine strikeouts are Vargas’s high for High-A this season, and he is missing bats both his with his upper 90’s fastball and his slider. Unfortunately he was let down a bit by his defense, who let in two unearned runs in the sixth inning and had Vargas facing the loss with a 3-1 deficit. Finally the offense decided to do anything positive, and Greenville’s pitching staff certainly helped them along. Greenville’s Reidis Sena was awful, and it isn’t like this is a guy you would expect to collapse as he hadn’t walked more than one batter in an outing since April and came in with a 1.48 ERA over his previous 30 innings. Well, he did collapse, allowing five walks including three of the last four Emperors to force home three runs and give Rome their win. Justin Janas got the inning started off with a double, and he was the only Emperors with multiple hits in the game. Janas had the worst month of his career in June, but seems to have bounced back early in July as he is hitting .308 so far this month.
Swing and Misses
Luis Vargas - 13
Ryan Bourassa - 5
(34-48) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (38-46) Fayetteville Woodpeckers 8
Box Score
Isaiah Drake, DH: 1-3, 2 BB, .161/.231/.255
Jacob Godman, C: 2-3, 3B, BB, 2 RBI, .215/.387/.327
Noah Williams, RF: 1-2, 2 BB, .195/.308/.221
Kadon Morton, SP: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 8.49 ERA
Kadon Morton really doesn’t seem ready for full season ball on the mound yet, as his pitch mix and command just aren’t working out for him so far. I’m going to reserve judgement to see how he comes out next season, to see whether a changeup becomes a part of his arsenal and whether the command of his slider can improve, but so far the experiment hasn’t gone great for Morton. At this point though it’s less about his results and more about getting him caught up on the years of innings missed, and I do genuinely think his slider is a major league quality pitch when he can get it down in the zone.
LJ McDonough is a bit of an interesting guy. His jerky delivery makes it difficult to pick up on his carrying mid-90’s fastball, but it also has the negative of making it hard for him to command his pitches. McDonough misses a ton of bats with his fastball, but I don’t know if the slider or command will be good enough for him to be a major league reliever. Still a guy with interesting whiff rates to have been found as an undrafted free agent. Juan Sanchez also has some merit as a prospect, with the highlight of his profile being his hard sweeping slider in the low-to-mid 80’s. Sanchez is younger by three years than McDonough and has a cleaner delivery so it is probably easier to project him to the command necessary to make use of that slider, but he struggles to get downhill and his back side trails significantly in his delivery. With some mechanical tweaks though there is real intrigue that comes with an above average breaking ball.
I’m curious to see what this lineup looks like next month, because right now there is a whole lot of nothing special going on in the lower level full season affiliates. Isaiah Drake has cooled off significantly, and while his strikeouts aren’t as bad as they were earlier this year they are starting to tick back into concerning territory again. Noah Williams is probably the most interesting guy on a day-to-day basis in that he actually makes some level of consistent contact, but the power hasn’t been there outside of that grand slam in the suspended game last week. Jacob Godman and Jeremy Celedonio are the only two players in the lineup with an OPS above .575, and both are older players who probably can’t stick at premium positions, and Celedonio can’t really hit even though he does have outstanding raw power.
Swing and Misses
LJ McDonough - 10
Juan Sanchez - 9
Kadon Morton - 5
(18-30) FCL Braves 5, (20-27) FCL Orioles 3
Box Score
Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-4, .305/.349/.492
John Gil, SS: 0-2, 2 BB, 3 SB, .278/.389/.377
Junior Garcia, LF: 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI, .291/.413/.425
Luis Arestigueta, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 4.05 ERA
For as cold as the Rome Emperors have gotten the FCL Braves seem to be making up for it, as this young lineup has really improved down the stretch and they are winning some games. I talked last week saying Luis Guanipa was struggling but only really needed a couple of good games to get his numbers back up, and he went out earlier this week and did exactly that. Thursday was only a 1-4 showing, and he has been a bit light on walk rate, but I don’t think there are any more conclusions we can draw on Guanipa until we see him in full season ball. The same goes for John Gil, who is not striking out at all anymore and I’m very curious to see what that approach and swing looks like. The videos I’ve seen of him swinging indicate a guy who should have more contact issues than he does, but if his contact rates in the FCL are real and not a case of beating up on poor competition then that would easily make him one of the top 20 or so guys, if not top 15, in the system given his athletic toolset.
(8-15) DSL Braves 4, (6-18) DSL Padres Brown 1
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 1-3, 3B, .262/.375/.444
Juan Espinal, CF: 0-1, BB, RBI, .190/.347/.310
Lewis Sifontes, SP: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 7.00 ERA
Edward Cedano, RP: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 3.18 ERA
(9-15) DSL Braves 3, (6-19) DSL Padres Brown 1
Box Score
Juan Mateo, SS: 0-2, BB, .262/.375/.444
Elio Campos, 2B: 1-4, RBI, .268/.375/.329
Yander Pinero, SP: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 8.49 ERA
It’s not often that pitchers are the highlight in the DSL, though I have had Edward Cedano’s name on my radar here. He had one of the few genuinely well-pitched games we’ve seen out of a DSL pitcher this season, with six strikeouts and only one hit allowed. He and Yander Pinero are interesting guys I want to see in the FCL next year, and Pinero I’ve asked about and we’re hoping to get more info on him. Pinero just turned 17 recently and has been putting up high strikeout rates down in the DSL, though that comes with the walks we often expect from those kind of guys. He’s also 6’3, which is just a bit more added intrigue for a player that young. His walk rates weren’t quite so egregious before he walked five batters in this past game, as this was actually his worst game of the season by far, and I’ll pass on any reports I get as soon as I get a chance.
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