<img alt="All-Star Futures Game" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lyWVpWlAeqE_Z7RSbiWXtxl5mJc=/0x0:5244x3496/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73539689/2161920516.0.jpg">
Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images
Baldwin’s blast and Ian Anderson’s strong start led Gwinnett to a win It was a fun night of baseball for the Atlanta Braves system, as the big league club got a big win behind Spencer Schwellenbach and the next wave of guys did good things on the farm. Drake Baldwin and Ian Anderson continue to show out for Gwinnett, putting up dominant games in Triple-A for a resurgent Stripers team. Then in Mississippi, Drue Hackenberg has turned into another one of that team’s churn of successful pitchers as he pitched five scoreless innings.
(61-62) Gwinnett Stripers 7, (57-64) Louisville Bats 2
Box Score
Statcast
Nacho Alvarez Jr, SS-3B: 1-3, 2 BB, RBI, .293/.413/.478
Drake Baldwin, DH: 2-4, HR, BB, 4 RBI, .312/.427/.497
Ian Anderson, SP: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 4.02 ERA
Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2.95 ERA
There’s not much more you can say about Drake Baldwin at this point because every time it looks like maybe teams are finding a hole in his game, he finds a way to answer the questions. He pulled an fastball in the tenth inning for a grand slam that helped lift the Stripers over the Bats late, and had three batted balls above 100 mph. One was off of a 95 mph fastball from top prospect Rhett Lowder. The biggest flaw in Baldwin’s profile is/was his tendency to not get around on fastballs. His swing was geared to slice (though with more power than the word slice might imply) fastballs in the zone the opposite way, and that showed in the numbers. Baldwin tends to roll over fastballs and sinkers when he does pull them, he struggles on inner-half fastballs in particular, and coming into this game he had only one batted ball that was:
Off of a four-seam fastball or sinker
Pulled
Hit with a launch angle greater than 0, and
Hit at 100 mph or more
You know: The types of batted balls you want your hitters to be hitting. Well, Baldwin did it twice in this game, with his line drive single off of Lowder and his extra inning grand slam that lifted Gwinnett to a win. Baldwin was able to rotate his trunk and get around on fastballs on both occasions. If he can do that more often and at least start to take away inner-half and upper-half fastballs, then it will really close the one significant hole I’ve seen so far. Doing so without sacrificing the outer-half to breaking balls and changeups is going to be a test, but so far during the adjustment period Baldwin has been cutting down on his whiff rates and still maintaining a high quality of contact.
One of the key things to look for at the upper levels of the minor leagues is how adept guys are at making adjustments as it’s a necessary skill to succeed in the major leagues that isn’t necessary in the minor leagues. Some guys (Drew Waters and Cristian Pache come to mind) struggle with that step in their development and it can set them back or derail their progress completely. Early indications are that Baldwin is both willing and able to make those changes, which can only increase the confidence I have that he will ultimately develop into not just a major league quality catcher but one who can be an impact big leaguer.
Then the guy on the other side of the ball did pretty well too. Ian Anderson had a tough time in the first couple of innings with his command and in the first was particularly focusing on using the slider he’s been working on, but he settled back in to have a nice evening overall as he used the changeup both more often and to greater effect. His slider had a 20% usage in this game and over the past few starts he has done a great job of giving it a distinct and consistent shape — though I would not take take these usage numbers too seriously. One: Usage dropped significantly after the first inning, and two: The Braves tend to have guys throw more of the pitches they think he needs to work on and in Anderson’s case they feel the slider is necessary to his next level development but still see him as fastball/changeup above all else. Anderson’s fastballs in the first inning ranged between 93.0 mph and 94.3 and though his velocity did dip later in the game, that is typical of the process in regaining velocity. This next step will be not only increasing his first inning velocity but holding that velocity deeper and deeper into games as they try to get him back to his 2021 velocity. He’s also steadily increasing the movement on his fastball, and it seems every significant trend is moving in a direction where he could make a serious run at the rotation out of spring training next season.
As for the rest of the team. Nacho Alvarez has been playing shortstop since they moved Gurriel there as an experiment, but Gurriel left this game early shifting Nacho back to third where it seems he is probably going to be planted permanently now. Nacho didn’t hit the ball hard today and hasn’t been hitting it hard really at all, though right now I’m going to reserve judgement on the progress of a guy coming off of pneumonia. As for Gurriel, I didn’t really see anything indicating why he was removed early.
Swing and Misses
Ian Anderson - 16
Zach Logue - 6
Daysbel Hernández - 4
(56-60) Mississippi Braves 3, (37-79) Chattanooga Lookouts 0
Box Score
Ethan Workinger, LF: 1-4, .260/.315/.360
David McCabe, DH: 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, .167/.355/.250
Drue Hackenberg, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 3.13 ERA
Patrick Halligan, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 2.39 ERA
Mississippi stayed hot with another win, and now they’ve moved up to third in the Southern League as they continue to take advantage of a rough Chattanooga team. The M-Braves didn’t have a particularly active offense but they strung together hits when it mattered and scored three runs in the third inning. This was enough for Drue Hackenberg and the pitching staff to close out a shutout win. Hackenberg has been dominant for Mississippi in recent weeks, as he's allowed only one or fewer runs in five of his past six starts. The command (which was a significant issue from him earlier in the season) has started to come more consistently — specifically on his fastball — as the Braves' switch to him throwing primarily four-seam fastballs has paid off with a pitch that gets more swing and miss and that he is now commanding well enough to actually utilize at a high level. The command of his secondaries is still a work in progress (as is his changeup), but now that he is throwing strikes with his fastball and playing his cutter and slider off of that pitch he is showing plenty of promise to potentially be in the mix for one of those spot call ups next season.
David McCabe has been in impressive over the past few games, showing off fantastic discipline and flashing little glimpses of his power like with last night’s double. McCabe was a bit tardy on a fastball, but he still managed to lift the ball deep into left field and clank it off of the walk for a leadoff double. This was McCabe’s first extra base hit in a couple of weeks since his home run, and while he’s still struggling with timing and rolling over pitches he seems to be seeing it well. McCabe has eight walks in his past four games and after striking out 10 times in his first 24 plate appearances he has 12 walks to eight strikeouts in his past 38. There is reason to be confident the power will eventually come for McCabe (although perhaps not fully in Mississippi) and if he can get on base at this rate he could find himself quickly creating buzz surrounding him.
Swing and Misses
Drue Hackenberg - 11
Patrick Halligan - 4
(57-56) Rome Emperors 4, (56-61) Greenville Drive 6
Box Score
Kevin Kilpatrick Jr, CF: 2-5, .239/.321/.343
Drew Compton, 1B: 3-5, 2B, .270/.367/.384
Blake Burkhalter, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2.86 ERA
Austin Smith, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 4.50 ERA
Rome’s hot streak has been interrupted with a couple of losses so far in this series, and last night's loss was caused by a couple of poor outings from two of the Emperors top pitchers. It’s hard to call two runs over five innings a poor outing from Blake Burkhalter, but as good as he’s been overall this was a regression from him prior dominant outing. It seems every other outing he is bouncing between good and bad command, which is not a huge surprise given the time he has missed and command always being one of his questions. Yesterday was one where he really didn’t have his secondaries. Greenville was able to sit on his cutter and fastball (neither of which he was locating sharply) and Burkhalter just didn’t miss many bats. Still, he managed to keep the game in check and the Emperors took a 4-2 lead into the sixth.
Drew Compton is getting hot again, with hits in four-straight games and in this one a three-hit night. Compton had a couple of hard hit balls in this games — his third inning double comes to mind and his ninth inning single in particular started a Rome comeback effort. He was also part of a two-run fifth inning when he bounced a ball in the hole at shortstop and the defender had no play on the ball. EJ Exposito continued his much better recent play with a solid night at the plate, even though not all of his hard hits were rewarded. In the first inning he hit a ball on the right side that likely would have rolled far enough to be a double and potentially could have scored Jace Grady, but the second baseman made a terrific diving play to rob Exposito. In the ninth inning Expo did come through — turning on one and driving it off of the wall for a double which put the tying run at second base. Rome failed to score in the ninth to drop the game, but it’s nice to see Exposito taking good swings. Still, he isn’t driving and lifting hanging pitches as much as he was earlier in the season, and his lack of power production on breaking stuff over the plate has significantly impacted him.
The real struggle in this game was from Isaac Gallegos, who allowed three runs in the sixth inning and was left with the loss on the scorecard. Gallegos has been terrific and came into this one with a 2.84 ERA, but he had no feel for the zone and only threw half of his pitches for strikes. That’s the second time in the past three outings Gallegos has given up a similar line with two walks and three runs in an inning of work, and consistent command is the last piece of the puzzle for Gallegos.
Swing and Misses
Blake Burkhalter - 6
Isaac Gallegos - 4
(40-73) Augusta GreenJackets 5, (70-45) Carolina Mudcats 6
Box Score
John Gil, SS: 1-5, .239/.315/.304
Patrick Clohisy, CF: 2-5, 2B, .267/.346/.333
Colby Jones, 2B: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .324/.359/.378
Rayven Antonio, SP: 3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 6.52 ERA
Jacob Gomez, RP: 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1.42 ERA
Augusta took the loss in this one after a rough start from Rayven Antonio, though they nearly managed a comeback in the end. Antonio didn’t really have much of anything working — in addition to not locating his pitches very well and getting hit, he didn’t have much in the way of batted ball luck and Carolina was able to run up seven hits and five runs. The Augusta bullpen did a fantastic job at covering five innings of one run ball, with tenth round pick Jacob Kroeger handling a chunk of that work by striking out five over 2 1⁄3 scoreless.
The player from the staff I want to highlight is Jacob Gomez: A guy the Braves may be trying to fit into the same archetype as Hayden Harris. Gomez had a decent season with Old Dominion, posting a 2.88 ERA and striking out 64 batters in 56 1⁄3 innings, but he wasn’t drafted and the Braves picked him up on an undrafted free agent deal. Gomez is another low arm-angle, flat vertical approach angle lefty who currently sits 89-92 with his four seam fastball. Gomez, with the effort in his delivery and sitting at only 5’10, is a pure relief prospect but one who if he can add velocity similar to how Harris is done could be a legit guy in a couple of years.
Despite being a reliever, Gomez does have three to four pitches — the primary one being that flat fastball but he can also mix in a changeup and a slider along with a slower breaking ball that I think is a variant of his slider but could also be a distinct curveball. None of his secondaries are particularly interesting, with the changeup not having a big velocity gap or much movement and his sweeping breakers being pitches that will only really work in lefty-lefty matchups. The slider either varies between 77-83 mph with a horizontal shape and has been dynamite against low-A lefties, and so far Gomez has 11 strikeouts to one walk in 6 1⁄3 innings. His changeup isn’t a significant weapon but does provide an occasional change-of-pace to keep right handed hitters guessing. He’s a control-over-command guy at this point, but when he locates his fastball up it can be successful due to its shape against all batters. It’s an interesting relief profile — especially for an undrafted guy. Gomez could get a similar quick arrow up as Hayden Harris did last season, especially if the Braves can develop his velocity and command as quickly as they did Harris.
The Mudcats ran Josh Knoth out there. He's one of Milwaukee’s top prospects and a top pick from last season, and the GreenJackets had plenty of trouble through the first four innings against him. Finally in the fifth inning, Augusta was able to scratch out something with the bottom of the order with Mason Guerra rolling a ball through the right side for a single that an average second baseman would have made a routine play on. Then, Harry Owen made loud contact and chased the outfielder to the warning track where the ball barely cleared him for a triple. Augusta got two runs but remained quiet until the ninth inning.
Trailing by four, the GreenJackets got a quick start from Titus Dimutru, who floated a liner into center field and reached when the center fielder slipped trying to run and fell over — allowing the ball to land safely. The blessings of the turf gods opened things up, and a hit followed from Will Verdung before Colby Jones hit a ball hard down the third base line for an RBI double.
Before continuing, I’ve mentioned liking Jones before and there is plenty to see here, as although he is too aggressive in his approach he makes a ton of contact and if the Braves can fix his bat wrap and get him on a more direct path to the ball I can easily see what is currently just below-average contact turning into more consistent hard hit balls. Jones’s double brought up Mason Guerra as the tying run, and with still no outs in the inning Guerra drove home two with a roller up the middle for a hit. Owen then hit another ball hard, but right at the center fielder who this time remained upright to get the first out. A weak grounder moved over Guerra, and then John Gil hit another of his swinging bunts to beat out a hit and push Guerra 90 feet from tying the game. Unfortunately, Patrick Clohisy would strike out to end the game.
Swing and Misses
Jacob Kroeger - 8
Jacob Gomez - 6
Rayven Antonio - 6
<img alt="All-Star Futures Game" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lyWVpWlAeqE_Z7RSbiWXtxl5mJc=/0x0:5244x3496/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73539689/2161920516.0.jpg">
Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images
Baldwin’s blast and Ian Anderson’s strong start led Gwinnett to a win It was a fun night of baseball for the Atlanta Braves system, as the big league club got a big win behind Spencer Schwellenbach and the next wave of guys did good things on the farm. Drake Baldwin and Ian Anderson continue to show out for Gwinnett, putting up dominant games in Triple-A for a resurgent Stripers team. Then in Mississippi, Drue Hackenberg has turned into another one of that team’s churn of successful pitchers as he pitched five scoreless innings.
(61-62) Gwinnett Stripers 7, (57-64) Louisville Bats 2
Box Score
Statcast
Nacho Alvarez Jr, SS-3B: 1-3, 2 BB, RBI, .293/.413/.478
Drake Baldwin, DH: 2-4, HR, BB, 4 RBI, .312/.427/.497
Ian Anderson, SP: 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 4.02 ERA
Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2.95 ERA
There’s not much more you can say about Drake Baldwin at this point because every time it looks like maybe teams are finding a hole in his game, he finds a way to answer the questions. He pulled an fastball in the tenth inning for a grand slam that helped lift the Stripers over the Bats late, and had three batted balls above 100 mph. One was off of a 95 mph fastball from top prospect Rhett Lowder. The biggest flaw in Baldwin’s profile is/was his tendency to not get around on fastballs. His swing was geared to slice (though with more power than the word slice might imply) fastballs in the zone the opposite way, and that showed in the numbers. Baldwin tends to roll over fastballs and sinkers when he does pull them, he struggles on inner-half fastballs in particular, and coming into this game he had only one batted ball that was:
Off of a four-seam fastball or sinker
Pulled
Hit with a launch angle greater than 0, and
Hit at 100 mph or more
You know: The types of batted balls you want your hitters to be hitting. Well, Baldwin did it twice in this game, with his line drive single off of Lowder and his extra inning grand slam that lifted Gwinnett to a win. Baldwin was able to rotate his trunk and get around on fastballs on both occasions. If he can do that more often and at least start to take away inner-half and upper-half fastballs, then it will really close the one significant hole I’ve seen so far. Doing so without sacrificing the outer-half to breaking balls and changeups is going to be a test, but so far during the adjustment period Baldwin has been cutting down on his whiff rates and still maintaining a high quality of contact.
One of the key things to look for at the upper levels of the minor leagues is how adept guys are at making adjustments as it’s a necessary skill to succeed in the major leagues that isn’t necessary in the minor leagues. Some guys (Drew Waters and Cristian Pache come to mind) struggle with that step in their development and it can set them back or derail their progress completely. Early indications are that Baldwin is both willing and able to make those changes, which can only increase the confidence I have that he will ultimately develop into not just a major league quality catcher but one who can be an impact big leaguer.
Then the guy on the other side of the ball did pretty well too. Ian Anderson had a tough time in the first couple of innings with his command and in the first was particularly focusing on using the slider he’s been working on, but he settled back in to have a nice evening overall as he used the changeup both more often and to greater effect. His slider had a 20% usage in this game and over the past few starts he has done a great job of giving it a distinct and consistent shape — though I would not take take these usage numbers too seriously. One: Usage dropped significantly after the first inning, and two: The Braves tend to have guys throw more of the pitches they think he needs to work on and in Anderson’s case they feel the slider is necessary to his next level development but still see him as fastball/changeup above all else. Anderson’s fastballs in the first inning ranged between 93.0 mph and 94.3 and though his velocity did dip later in the game, that is typical of the process in regaining velocity. This next step will be not only increasing his first inning velocity but holding that velocity deeper and deeper into games as they try to get him back to his 2021 velocity. He’s also steadily increasing the movement on his fastball, and it seems every significant trend is moving in a direction where he could make a serious run at the rotation out of spring training next season.
As for the rest of the team. Nacho Alvarez has been playing shortstop since they moved Gurriel there as an experiment, but Gurriel left this game early shifting Nacho back to third where it seems he is probably going to be planted permanently now. Nacho didn’t hit the ball hard today and hasn’t been hitting it hard really at all, though right now I’m going to reserve judgement on the progress of a guy coming off of pneumonia. As for Gurriel, I didn’t really see anything indicating why he was removed early.
Swing and Misses
Ian Anderson - 16
Zach Logue - 6
Daysbel Hernández - 4
(56-60) Mississippi Braves 3, (37-79) Chattanooga Lookouts 0
Box Score
Ethan Workinger, LF: 1-4, .260/.315/.360
David McCabe, DH: 1-2, 2B, 2 BB, .167/.355/.250
Drue Hackenberg, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 3.13 ERA
Patrick Halligan, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 2.39 ERA
Mississippi stayed hot with another win, and now they’ve moved up to third in the Southern League as they continue to take advantage of a rough Chattanooga team. The M-Braves didn’t have a particularly active offense but they strung together hits when it mattered and scored three runs in the third inning. This was enough for Drue Hackenberg and the pitching staff to close out a shutout win. Hackenberg has been dominant for Mississippi in recent weeks, as he's allowed only one or fewer runs in five of his past six starts. The command (which was a significant issue from him earlier in the season) has started to come more consistently — specifically on his fastball — as the Braves' switch to him throwing primarily four-seam fastballs has paid off with a pitch that gets more swing and miss and that he is now commanding well enough to actually utilize at a high level. The command of his secondaries is still a work in progress (as is his changeup), but now that he is throwing strikes with his fastball and playing his cutter and slider off of that pitch he is showing plenty of promise to potentially be in the mix for one of those spot call ups next season.
David McCabe has been in impressive over the past few games, showing off fantastic discipline and flashing little glimpses of his power like with last night’s double. McCabe was a bit tardy on a fastball, but he still managed to lift the ball deep into left field and clank it off of the walk for a leadoff double. This was McCabe’s first extra base hit in a couple of weeks since his home run, and while he’s still struggling with timing and rolling over pitches he seems to be seeing it well. McCabe has eight walks in his past four games and after striking out 10 times in his first 24 plate appearances he has 12 walks to eight strikeouts in his past 38. There is reason to be confident the power will eventually come for McCabe (although perhaps not fully in Mississippi) and if he can get on base at this rate he could find himself quickly creating buzz surrounding him.
Swing and Misses
Drue Hackenberg - 11
Patrick Halligan - 4
(57-56) Rome Emperors 4, (56-61) Greenville Drive 6
Box Score
Kevin Kilpatrick Jr, CF: 2-5, .239/.321/.343
Drew Compton, 1B: 3-5, 2B, .270/.367/.384
Blake Burkhalter, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2.86 ERA
Austin Smith, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 4.50 ERA
Rome’s hot streak has been interrupted with a couple of losses so far in this series, and last night's loss was caused by a couple of poor outings from two of the Emperors top pitchers. It’s hard to call two runs over five innings a poor outing from Blake Burkhalter, but as good as he’s been overall this was a regression from him prior dominant outing. It seems every other outing he is bouncing between good and bad command, which is not a huge surprise given the time he has missed and command always being one of his questions. Yesterday was one where he really didn’t have his secondaries. Greenville was able to sit on his cutter and fastball (neither of which he was locating sharply) and Burkhalter just didn’t miss many bats. Still, he managed to keep the game in check and the Emperors took a 4-2 lead into the sixth.
Drew Compton is getting hot again, with hits in four-straight games and in this one a three-hit night. Compton had a couple of hard hit balls in this games — his third inning double comes to mind and his ninth inning single in particular started a Rome comeback effort. He was also part of a two-run fifth inning when he bounced a ball in the hole at shortstop and the defender had no play on the ball. EJ Exposito continued his much better recent play with a solid night at the plate, even though not all of his hard hits were rewarded. In the first inning he hit a ball on the right side that likely would have rolled far enough to be a double and potentially could have scored Jace Grady, but the second baseman made a terrific diving play to rob Exposito. In the ninth inning Expo did come through — turning on one and driving it off of the wall for a double which put the tying run at second base. Rome failed to score in the ninth to drop the game, but it’s nice to see Exposito taking good swings. Still, he isn’t driving and lifting hanging pitches as much as he was earlier in the season, and his lack of power production on breaking stuff over the plate has significantly impacted him.
The real struggle in this game was from Isaac Gallegos, who allowed three runs in the sixth inning and was left with the loss on the scorecard. Gallegos has been terrific and came into this one with a 2.84 ERA, but he had no feel for the zone and only threw half of his pitches for strikes. That’s the second time in the past three outings Gallegos has given up a similar line with two walks and three runs in an inning of work, and consistent command is the last piece of the puzzle for Gallegos.
Swing and Misses
Blake Burkhalter - 6
Isaac Gallegos - 4
(40-73) Augusta GreenJackets 5, (70-45) Carolina Mudcats 6
Box Score
John Gil, SS: 1-5, .239/.315/.304
Patrick Clohisy, CF: 2-5, 2B, .267/.346/.333
Colby Jones, 2B: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .324/.359/.378
Rayven Antonio, SP: 3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 6.52 ERA
Jacob Gomez, RP: 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1.42 ERA
Augusta took the loss in this one after a rough start from Rayven Antonio, though they nearly managed a comeback in the end. Antonio didn’t really have much of anything working — in addition to not locating his pitches very well and getting hit, he didn’t have much in the way of batted ball luck and Carolina was able to run up seven hits and five runs. The Augusta bullpen did a fantastic job at covering five innings of one run ball, with tenth round pick Jacob Kroeger handling a chunk of that work by striking out five over 2 1⁄3 scoreless.
The player from the staff I want to highlight is Jacob Gomez: A guy the Braves may be trying to fit into the same archetype as Hayden Harris. Gomez had a decent season with Old Dominion, posting a 2.88 ERA and striking out 64 batters in 56 1⁄3 innings, but he wasn’t drafted and the Braves picked him up on an undrafted free agent deal. Gomez is another low arm-angle, flat vertical approach angle lefty who currently sits 89-92 with his four seam fastball. Gomez, with the effort in his delivery and sitting at only 5’10, is a pure relief prospect but one who if he can add velocity similar to how Harris is done could be a legit guy in a couple of years.
Despite being a reliever, Gomez does have three to four pitches — the primary one being that flat fastball but he can also mix in a changeup and a slider along with a slower breaking ball that I think is a variant of his slider but could also be a distinct curveball. None of his secondaries are particularly interesting, with the changeup not having a big velocity gap or much movement and his sweeping breakers being pitches that will only really work in lefty-lefty matchups. The slider either varies between 77-83 mph with a horizontal shape and has been dynamite against low-A lefties, and so far Gomez has 11 strikeouts to one walk in 6 1⁄3 innings. His changeup isn’t a significant weapon but does provide an occasional change-of-pace to keep right handed hitters guessing. He’s a control-over-command guy at this point, but when he locates his fastball up it can be successful due to its shape against all batters. It’s an interesting relief profile — especially for an undrafted guy. Gomez could get a similar quick arrow up as Hayden Harris did last season, especially if the Braves can develop his velocity and command as quickly as they did Harris.
The Mudcats ran Josh Knoth out there. He's one of Milwaukee’s top prospects and a top pick from last season, and the GreenJackets had plenty of trouble through the first four innings against him. Finally in the fifth inning, Augusta was able to scratch out something with the bottom of the order with Mason Guerra rolling a ball through the right side for a single that an average second baseman would have made a routine play on. Then, Harry Owen made loud contact and chased the outfielder to the warning track where the ball barely cleared him for a triple. Augusta got two runs but remained quiet until the ninth inning.
Trailing by four, the GreenJackets got a quick start from Titus Dimutru, who floated a liner into center field and reached when the center fielder slipped trying to run and fell over — allowing the ball to land safely. The blessings of the turf gods opened things up, and a hit followed from Will Verdung before Colby Jones hit a ball hard down the third base line for an RBI double.
Before continuing, I’ve mentioned liking Jones before and there is plenty to see here, as although he is too aggressive in his approach he makes a ton of contact and if the Braves can fix his bat wrap and get him on a more direct path to the ball I can easily see what is currently just below-average contact turning into more consistent hard hit balls. Jones’s double brought up Mason Guerra as the tying run, and with still no outs in the inning Guerra drove home two with a roller up the middle for a hit. Owen then hit another ball hard, but right at the center fielder who this time remained upright to get the first out. A weak grounder moved over Guerra, and then John Gil hit another of his swinging bunts to beat out a hit and push Guerra 90 feet from tying the game. Unfortunately, Patrick Clohisy would strike out to end the game.
Swing and Misses
Jacob Kroeger - 8
Jacob Gomez - 6
Rayven Antonio - 6
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