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Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
The Braves top international signing has been treated with caution in his return from a hamstring injury I think that as baseball fans we can all agree hamstrings are annoying, and for Atlanta Braves fans Thursday was a reminder of that. There was some good — Michael Harris II played in center field for the first time and looks to be on track to return as soon as he is eligible. Then the bad: Jose Perdomo made just one plate appearance before being pulled from his game in the DSL. There wasn’t a ton of action on the farm yesterday with two levels being rained out but Lucas Braun made sure to provide us entertainment in one of the two full-season game being played as he threw a career-high 7 2⁄3 scoreless innings.
(52-59) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (55-56) Memphis Redbirds 4
Box Score
Statcast
Michael Harris II, CF: 0-2, BB, .400/.538/.400
Drake Baldwin, C: 2-2, 3 BB, .289/.418/.470
Huascar Ynoa, SP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 3.72 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 4.12 ERA
This was probably the best we’ve seen from Huascar Ynoa so far this season, as he was landing his slider effectively in the bottom half of the zone and was able to get his fair share of swing-and-miss on the pitch. That enabled him to have success in this game and go three scoreless innings, but his fastball velocity is still down and he wasn’t getting the pitch in the strike zone very much. Ynoa threw fewer pitches and innings in this game compared to his appearance last week as well, though I can’t pretend to know the Braves plan on him and whether this was a pre-planned pull back or not. The Braves have an interesting decision to make on Ynoa soon because he’s just a week away from the limit on a rehab assignment. Ynoa obviously had major league success and no one wants to give up on him too soon, and you have to feel for the guy coming back from a series of injuries, but they’re going to have to designate someone for assignment to make room when he is pulled from the 60-day injured list. There are plenty of expendable guys beyond just Ynoa so it shouldn’t be assumed he would be the move, but in his current form with his velocity where it is he’s probably the worst pitcher on the 40-man so I don’t think it can be assumed he won’t be either. The good news I guess is this time off of the injured list his velocity is higher than it was in his April appearances, and if he can regain some of that as the year ends out he could get another shot next year, but if Ynoa survives the remaining 40-man cuts to end out the year he is like to be a non-tender candidate this winter.
Ynoa wasn’t the issue in this game though, as the Stripers cruised out to a 5-0 lead and went into the bottom of the ninth inning in full command of this game. They turned then to veteran Ken Giles, and Giles got railed and nearly gave up the lead. Giles gave up four straight hard-hit balls with one out, all coming in as hits, and back-to-back home runs had the Stripers lead down to just 5-4. Giles then walked a batted and the quick shuffle to get Domingo Gonzalez in the game saved the Stripers from disaster. With two runners on Gonzalez got a key strikeout of Jordan Walker then Matt Koperniak lined out to end the game.
The Braves are being pretty aggressive in working Michael Harris II back from his hamstring injury, playing him for a third straight game and this time for the first time letting him run out in center field. Harris played six innings and had a walk in the game, though I do imagine after this one he will probably get Friday off before playing in Saturday’s game. This is good for the minor league crew though, because he should be playing full back-to-back games well before he is eligible to return to Atlanta’s lineup and that gives us a special treat to watch and talk about. Chadwick Tromp had a home run in the fourth inning as part of the Stripers three-run inning, and he has made the most of relatively light playing time. Tromp has eight hits and two home runs in his past five games, and he and Drake Baldwin make up what has to be one of the all-time great Triple-A catching tandems. Baldwin played in the DH spot in this game, and the Redbirds couldn’t keep him off of the bases as he reached five times including two pretty weakly-hit singles. The other three times up Baldwin drew walks, breaking a stretch of six games where he hadn’t drawn a walk. Baldwin has been getting challenged in the zone a bit more lately, but Memphis worked him on the edges in all of his at bats and he did a fantastic job at laying off those less-than-ideal offerings early in the counts and avoided expanding the zone for the most part. Both of his hits did come on later-count fastballs a bit off of the plate, and there has been a little bit of trouble for him expanding on right handed fastballs running off of the plate away from him but not so much that I’d call it a red flag at this point. That just tends to be where and how he chases and can get himself in trouble, though he also takes quite a lot of those pitches as well.
Swing and Misses
Huascar Ynoa 8
Jimmy Herget 6
Brooks Wilson 5
(48-56) Mississippi Braves 2, (58-45) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4
Box Score
Keshawn Ogans, 3B, 0-2, 2 BB, .231/.301/.273
David McCabe, DH: 1-4, .111/.200/.111
Lucas Braun, SP: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2.57 ERA
Elison Joseph, RP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 2.25 ERA
I talked some last week about Lucas Braun working more east-to-west in Double-A, and last night was the game he truly put that together as his slider was at its peak. Braun forced 20 whiffs in the game, with most of them coming on that slider. It was pure dominance as he was locating all of his pitches, and it seems like he may be working that shape on his fastball a bit to also feature a sinker or at least more sinker action when he does use the pitch in the lower half of the zone. Braun’s fastball has always been mediocre and just plays well with his command, and with his natural feel for location it could be valuable to have a sinking option that allows him to work more effectively throughout the zone. In the end though it’s all dependent on his slider and when he is burying that pitch towards the bottom of the zone and glove side it’s a clear major-league strikeout option that is separates him from a lot of command-first pitchers that are more average across the board with their pitch mix. His changeup is really the one pitch that right now is lagging behind in terms of his feel for location and shape. He tends to pull them glove side too often which is going to be dangerous against left-handed batters, and while sometimes the pitches dive away from batters at other times they tend to float a bit more and hang into the zone a bit. Even in this game when he was at peak Lucas Braun I saw some of the issues on that pitch and that’s really the next piece of the puzzle that needs to fall in for him to be ready to take over in a major league role.
Braun was the sole reason this team had a chance to win, because the offense was atrocious and only gave him one run of support while he was in the game. It wasn’t even a matter of some stretch of good hitting, as Cade Bunnell reached on an error, advanced to third when David Fletcher slapped a single into right field, then only scored because of a wild pitch. Braun made it seem like that run might just be enough but it was not. Jake McSteen gave up a couple of hits in the ninth inning, and then it was turned over to Elison Joseph who finally cracked after a few games where the command wasn’t where anyone wanted it. Joseph just couldn’t find the edges of the zone, allowing a single, a couple of walks, and then hitting a batter to put Pensacola up 3-1. He then misplayed a grounder which ended up being recorded as a hit and allowed a fourth run to score. Altogether a forgettable outing for a pitcher who has been great overall this season but hasn’t quite performed as well as the numbers say in the past couple of weeks. Mississippi finally got in gear in the bottom of the ninth, scoring a run and putting two runners on with no outs in the inning. They had a huge chance to make a comeback, then a strikeout from Bryson, Worrell, a pop out from Bunnell, and a ground out from Fletcher ended a promising inning.
Swing and Misses
Lucas Braun - 20
Elison Joseph - 6
(49-51) Rome Emperors, (60-43) Greensboro Grasshopper
POSTPONED
(36-63) Augusta GreenJackets, (47-52) Charleston RiverDogs
CANCELLED
(14-29) DSL Braves 1, (21-22) DSL Red Sox Blue 5
Box Score
Jose Perdomo, SS: 0-0, BB, SB, .250/.318/.250
Juan Mateo, 2B-SS: 1-4, .211/.318/.272
Fernando Duarte, SP: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 10.13 ERA
Jose Pineda, RP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 9.49 ERA
The Braves have been ultra-cautious in working Jose Perdomo back to full strength, so him leaving the first inning of this game may just be a precaution, but it is certainly concerning to see pulled so early. Perdomo led off by drawing a walk, then stole second base before being replaced by a pinch runner. The Braves have been steadily trying to work Perdomo deeper into games and have had him active on the bases in his last two, so there isn’t really a reason I can think that they would have pulled him beyond something that caused concern. The DSL Braves went on to lose the game, and there wasn’t much in the way of offensive production. Juan Mateo had a single in the game, but it’s been a brutal stretch of play for him since the start of July as despite having eight walks to four strikeouts in that span he has hit just .167 (10-60).
<img alt="MLB: Detroit Tigers at Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kMF7zXyuP78oy5SudZpZc1D3w-4=/0x0:5184x3456/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73511495/usa_today_12806578.0.jpg">
Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
The Braves top international signing has been treated with caution in his return from a hamstring injury I think that as baseball fans we can all agree hamstrings are annoying, and for Atlanta Braves fans Thursday was a reminder of that. There was some good — Michael Harris II played in center field for the first time and looks to be on track to return as soon as he is eligible. Then the bad: Jose Perdomo made just one plate appearance before being pulled from his game in the DSL. There wasn’t a ton of action on the farm yesterday with two levels being rained out but Lucas Braun made sure to provide us entertainment in one of the two full-season game being played as he threw a career-high 7 2⁄3 scoreless innings.
(52-59) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (55-56) Memphis Redbirds 4
Box Score
Statcast
Michael Harris II, CF: 0-2, BB, .400/.538/.400
Drake Baldwin, C: 2-2, 3 BB, .289/.418/.470
Huascar Ynoa, SP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 3.72 ERA
Brooks Wilson, RP: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 4.12 ERA
This was probably the best we’ve seen from Huascar Ynoa so far this season, as he was landing his slider effectively in the bottom half of the zone and was able to get his fair share of swing-and-miss on the pitch. That enabled him to have success in this game and go three scoreless innings, but his fastball velocity is still down and he wasn’t getting the pitch in the strike zone very much. Ynoa threw fewer pitches and innings in this game compared to his appearance last week as well, though I can’t pretend to know the Braves plan on him and whether this was a pre-planned pull back or not. The Braves have an interesting decision to make on Ynoa soon because he’s just a week away from the limit on a rehab assignment. Ynoa obviously had major league success and no one wants to give up on him too soon, and you have to feel for the guy coming back from a series of injuries, but they’re going to have to designate someone for assignment to make room when he is pulled from the 60-day injured list. There are plenty of expendable guys beyond just Ynoa so it shouldn’t be assumed he would be the move, but in his current form with his velocity where it is he’s probably the worst pitcher on the 40-man so I don’t think it can be assumed he won’t be either. The good news I guess is this time off of the injured list his velocity is higher than it was in his April appearances, and if he can regain some of that as the year ends out he could get another shot next year, but if Ynoa survives the remaining 40-man cuts to end out the year he is like to be a non-tender candidate this winter.
Ynoa wasn’t the issue in this game though, as the Stripers cruised out to a 5-0 lead and went into the bottom of the ninth inning in full command of this game. They turned then to veteran Ken Giles, and Giles got railed and nearly gave up the lead. Giles gave up four straight hard-hit balls with one out, all coming in as hits, and back-to-back home runs had the Stripers lead down to just 5-4. Giles then walked a batted and the quick shuffle to get Domingo Gonzalez in the game saved the Stripers from disaster. With two runners on Gonzalez got a key strikeout of Jordan Walker then Matt Koperniak lined out to end the game.
The Braves are being pretty aggressive in working Michael Harris II back from his hamstring injury, playing him for a third straight game and this time for the first time letting him run out in center field. Harris played six innings and had a walk in the game, though I do imagine after this one he will probably get Friday off before playing in Saturday’s game. This is good for the minor league crew though, because he should be playing full back-to-back games well before he is eligible to return to Atlanta’s lineup and that gives us a special treat to watch and talk about. Chadwick Tromp had a home run in the fourth inning as part of the Stripers three-run inning, and he has made the most of relatively light playing time. Tromp has eight hits and two home runs in his past five games, and he and Drake Baldwin make up what has to be one of the all-time great Triple-A catching tandems. Baldwin played in the DH spot in this game, and the Redbirds couldn’t keep him off of the bases as he reached five times including two pretty weakly-hit singles. The other three times up Baldwin drew walks, breaking a stretch of six games where he hadn’t drawn a walk. Baldwin has been getting challenged in the zone a bit more lately, but Memphis worked him on the edges in all of his at bats and he did a fantastic job at laying off those less-than-ideal offerings early in the counts and avoided expanding the zone for the most part. Both of his hits did come on later-count fastballs a bit off of the plate, and there has been a little bit of trouble for him expanding on right handed fastballs running off of the plate away from him but not so much that I’d call it a red flag at this point. That just tends to be where and how he chases and can get himself in trouble, though he also takes quite a lot of those pitches as well.
Swing and Misses
Huascar Ynoa 8
Jimmy Herget 6
Brooks Wilson 5
(48-56) Mississippi Braves 2, (58-45) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4
Box Score
Keshawn Ogans, 3B, 0-2, 2 BB, .231/.301/.273
David McCabe, DH: 1-4, .111/.200/.111
Lucas Braun, SP: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2.57 ERA
Elison Joseph, RP: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 2.25 ERA
I talked some last week about Lucas Braun working more east-to-west in Double-A, and last night was the game he truly put that together as his slider was at its peak. Braun forced 20 whiffs in the game, with most of them coming on that slider. It was pure dominance as he was locating all of his pitches, and it seems like he may be working that shape on his fastball a bit to also feature a sinker or at least more sinker action when he does use the pitch in the lower half of the zone. Braun’s fastball has always been mediocre and just plays well with his command, and with his natural feel for location it could be valuable to have a sinking option that allows him to work more effectively throughout the zone. In the end though it’s all dependent on his slider and when he is burying that pitch towards the bottom of the zone and glove side it’s a clear major-league strikeout option that is separates him from a lot of command-first pitchers that are more average across the board with their pitch mix. His changeup is really the one pitch that right now is lagging behind in terms of his feel for location and shape. He tends to pull them glove side too often which is going to be dangerous against left-handed batters, and while sometimes the pitches dive away from batters at other times they tend to float a bit more and hang into the zone a bit. Even in this game when he was at peak Lucas Braun I saw some of the issues on that pitch and that’s really the next piece of the puzzle that needs to fall in for him to be ready to take over in a major league role.
Braun was the sole reason this team had a chance to win, because the offense was atrocious and only gave him one run of support while he was in the game. It wasn’t even a matter of some stretch of good hitting, as Cade Bunnell reached on an error, advanced to third when David Fletcher slapped a single into right field, then only scored because of a wild pitch. Braun made it seem like that run might just be enough but it was not. Jake McSteen gave up a couple of hits in the ninth inning, and then it was turned over to Elison Joseph who finally cracked after a few games where the command wasn’t where anyone wanted it. Joseph just couldn’t find the edges of the zone, allowing a single, a couple of walks, and then hitting a batter to put Pensacola up 3-1. He then misplayed a grounder which ended up being recorded as a hit and allowed a fourth run to score. Altogether a forgettable outing for a pitcher who has been great overall this season but hasn’t quite performed as well as the numbers say in the past couple of weeks. Mississippi finally got in gear in the bottom of the ninth, scoring a run and putting two runners on with no outs in the inning. They had a huge chance to make a comeback, then a strikeout from Bryson, Worrell, a pop out from Bunnell, and a ground out from Fletcher ended a promising inning.
Swing and Misses
Lucas Braun - 20
Elison Joseph - 6
(49-51) Rome Emperors, (60-43) Greensboro Grasshopper
POSTPONED
(36-63) Augusta GreenJackets, (47-52) Charleston RiverDogs
CANCELLED
(14-29) DSL Braves 1, (21-22) DSL Red Sox Blue 5
Box Score
Jose Perdomo, SS: 0-0, BB, SB, .250/.318/.250
Juan Mateo, 2B-SS: 1-4, .211/.318/.272
Fernando Duarte, SP: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 10.13 ERA
Jose Pineda, RP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 9.49 ERA
The Braves have been ultra-cautious in working Jose Perdomo back to full strength, so him leaving the first inning of this game may just be a precaution, but it is certainly concerning to see pulled so early. Perdomo led off by drawing a walk, then stole second base before being replaced by a pinch runner. The Braves have been steadily trying to work Perdomo deeper into games and have had him active on the bases in his last two, so there isn’t really a reason I can think that they would have pulled him beyond something that caused concern. The DSL Braves went on to lose the game, and there wasn’t much in the way of offensive production. Juan Mateo had a single in the game, but it’s been a brutal stretch of play for him since the start of July as despite having eight walks to four strikeouts in that span he has hit just .167 (10-60).
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