The Braves got their butt-kickin’ on for the second night in a row. It’s nice to beat teams that aren’t as good as you. And for the second night in a row, a Braves pitcher age 25 and younger had a good night. This time it was Matt Wisler, who had his first double-digit strikeout performance of his career. Through his first two starts back from AAA, he has 14 IP, 14K, 6 BB, and 3R. He wasn’€™t very efficient tonight needing 110 pitches to get through 6 innings, and he’ll need to continue to work on his efficiency as he went to many 3-ball counts and was ultimately bailed out by anemic San Diego hitters.
The offense saw Ender Inciarte, Adonis Garcia, Matt Kemp, and Tyler Flowers all record at least two hits. Garcia is far from your ideal #2 hitter, with him only being there because of all of the lefty hitters, but his OPS continues to creep up towards where it was last year. With much-improved defense, maybe he’€™s a keeper in some capacity. Inciarte had two stolen bases, but got himself thrown out at the plate when a wild pitch conveniently bounced right back to the catcher with enough time to make the tag. Dansby Swanson continues to make the above average defensive play, but couldn’€™t swing a hit for only the 3rd time in his 12 career games.
Big stuff out of the pen again with Jose Ramirez, Mauricio Cabrera, and Jim Johnson getting three scoreless innings. Johnson struck out the side in the ninth, but if you haven’€™t been paying attention, you might have missed that Ramirez has a 1.56 ERA in 17 appearances since getting called back up to the minors. More impressively, he has 21 strikeouts against 8 walks in 17 2/3 innings. With the strain on the pen, he’€™s beginning to appear more and more as he’s been in 6 of the last 11 games. He’€™s another guy that could be turning himself into someone of value, wherever and however that may be.
The Braves will have Mike Foltynewicz go for the first three-game sweep at home this year in a 12:10 game tomorrow.
Chris Withrow, according to DOB, returns to Atlanta tomorrow along with AJP. Let’s see how long we have a bullpen of Cabrera, Johnson, Simmons, Krol, and Withrow all healthy (and Roe and Ramirez, if you care), and if they can last about 8 days or so, Arodys Vizcaino will join them. It’s light on lefties, but that’s the best bullpen we’ve had in the past couple years. Jenkins is speculated to be back in Atlanta at the end of Gwinnett’s season, and while I’m not seeing anything officially confirming it, Williams Perez could be back in September too. It could start getting awkward for Aaron Blair if the Braves want to see what they have with Jed Bradley (a lefty), Jenkins comes back up, Perez gets healthy, and Teheran, Wisler, and Folty are pitching well. Someone’s arm is bound to fall off, leaving all of this as mere rosterbation, but that’s finally enough highly-regarded names to be assembled on the major league pitching staff at one time.
176 pitches seen in 8 innings (7 walks, 12 hits). That will do…
From previous thread – if Tebow can’t play a serviceable LF he will be useless. The power is nice but no way can he hit a MLB-quality breaking ball. He’s a good enough athlete that he ought to, at least with some work, become a decent OF. Any team that thinks he’s moving the attendance meter for more than a few games is kidding themselves unless he’s actually good.
It’s football time in Tennessee!!!
Enjoy it while you’re undefeated, Smitty.
Really good work out of Soroka recently. He might be in AA next year. AA tends to be the entry point for me to get excited about somebody. I just can’t get worked up over someone who isn’t there yet.
As mentioned, Jenkins had a good night at AAA, but a really weird line: 7 IP, 1 H, 7 BB, 4 K, 0 R. Hursh had a scoreless inning, and his ERA sits at 0.69 in 13 IP.
AA had another “future Atlanta” nights. Sims went 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 4 K, Minter had a scoreless inning, and Akeel Morris had 2 scoreless innings. If I could never see Joel De La Cruz, Madison Younginer, and Brandon Cunniff again, and just called up some of these kids to let them chew innings, I’d be happy.
Albies is going to the AFL. Guess he won’t be up this month.
If Fatt Blemp can play LF, I think Tebow could handle it too. The question is gonna be all about him hitting quality pitching. Low odds there, but there’s literally zero risk involved with giving him a shot. He’s probably already in our top 5 OF prospects.
@7 Ozzie Albies is only 19 years old. I get pushing Swanson up to the MLB level now because he’s a high-floor guy whose game is basically fully-developed already (plus he’ll sell tickets!!) but it feels smart of the Braves to give Ozzie every opportunity to learn against the high minors (and AFL-level prospects) before they throw him into the major league mix next season.
Plus, delaying Ozzie’s arrival 1) gives the Braves a chance to audition Peterson for super-utility (or trade bait) and 2) allows the Braves team control over more of his prime years, which might really make a difference to the Braves’ payroll by 2023 when Swanson inevitably gets a $100M+ contract extension.
@8
Just give him the Internet!! Haha, Fatt Blemp! Fan-frickin’-tastic.
@9, I’m beginning to view Albies as trade bait as well. Keeping his clock at zero helps his value there.
Interestingly enough Jace Peterson has made impressive developments in his hitting from 2015 to 2016, and now bears a pretty strong resemblance to Nick Markakis, results-wise. Jace actually has a higher Z-Contact % (contact on swings taken on pitches in the strike zone) than Neck, which is impressive. Witness:
Jace: .83 BB/K, .259/.363/.387
Neck: .69 BB/K, .268/.343/.388
Jace hits a ton of groundballs and line drives, along with few popups, which should support a higher BABIP than his current .297. Jace will be 27 years old next year – I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he had a modest breakout season, something along the lines of .280/.360/.420. That’d basically be Ben Zobrist minus the excellent defense.
I don’t want either player in my lineup. But if we can get something awesome for Albies then it might be a viable path.
Yeah, but Nick Markakis’ bat at 2B or a super-utility role would be very strong. In right field, it’s meh.
I’m not a fan of trading Albies unless it’s in a package for a player like Arenado. It needs to be a franchise corner bat or catcher. I think Albies can be a couple wins better than Jace Peterson.
P.S.: I approve of Fatt Blemp
I would love to hold onto Jace. If he is what it seems he is (a .750 OPS and can play all outfield positions, 2B, 3B, and SS in an emergency for almost no money), then he’s extremely valuable. He may never command a full-time spot, but benches and bullpens can make a huge impact, and Jace is about as good as it gets in the super utility role. He’s also third on the team in walks, and he’s really improved his BB/K ratio. He’s a good player. I also wouldn’t trade Albies, though.
Instead of worrying about how we’re going to get three more solid position players, I’m really interested in how we’re going to build a roster of 25-30 really good players, and since the rebuild was predicated on tons and tons of prospects producing tons and tons of pretty good-not-great players, a la the Giants and Royals, that’s more fun. If you have 4 position players, a really good bench, 3 starting pitchers, and a really good bullpen, then you have much less to go than saying, “Yay, we have 3 guys with OPS’ over .850 and no one to pitch the 6th and 7th innings or get a hit off the bench.”
Re: Akeel Morris. Yes, he had 2 scoreless innings, but more importantly, he struck out 5 batters in those 2 innings.
Matt Wisler has struck out 14 batters in 14 innings since he was recalled. If he can keep that up, I will be much more sanguine on his prospects.
I think the Braves might be having an internal debate on whether Albies is more like Altuve or more like Peraza.
For the record I think we should keep him – a 19yr old tearing up AA is too intriguing. I just don’t want a whole lineup of .700 OPS no-power players.
Albies is going to record over 50 extra base hits this season as a 19-year-old. Peraza has never been close to that sort of hitter.
@17
I don’t think they are having that debate at all. There is no reason to start his clock and he is 19.
As a 20-year old, Peraza split time at A+ and AA, getting 33 XBHs in 469 ABs, or one XBH every 14.5 ABs. As a 19-year old, Albies split time between AA and AAA, hitting 45 XBHs so far in 534 ABs, or one every 11.8 ABs, and you should see a decrease in that number as he gets more ABs at AA. There are certainly some similarities, but Albies has had more pop per age and level than Peraza did. Last year, as a 21-year old, Peraza had an XBH every 19 ABs in AAA. You can make the argument that Peraza’s lack of physical strength was exposed in AAA, and pitchers started knocking the bat out of his hands. That hasn’t occurred yet with Albies
I’m with you. I also think that upgrading RF/3B is going to be a lot harder than it might seem at first, so if he can play a part in that then maybe it’s worth consideration.
29 pitches through 3 with Folty. Who is this man?
Fredward continues to be on fire.
More Player A vs. Player B!
Joey Gallo: .243/.372/.544, 25 HR (1 per 13.5 AB), 16.1 % BB rate, 34.1% K rate (AAA)
Travis Demeritte: .262/.355/.554, 28 HR (1 per 15.7 AB), 14 % BB rate, 32.8% K rate (Hi-A)
Would it be irresponsible to say “Travis Demeritte is Joey Gallo at 2B?” Probably. Will he ever make enough contact to be productive at the MLB level? Probably not. Who knows, though? He was a first round draft pick; there’s no question he has (or at least had at the time of the draft) MLB-caliber tools. I’m happy to have TD in the Braves’ system and am rooting for him.
@24
Me too. I wonder if he is moved to third?
@20 Albies has had fewer walks this year, but still much better than Peraza in that department.
Travis Demeritte
Often has to wear it–
The golden sombrero
But not quite so frequently as Joey Gallo
This team does not deserve Fredie Freeman.
Folty made this inning happen.
REKT!
Matt Kemp makes Ryan Klesko look like Ryan Langerhans.
He is gassed.
Good game by Folty.
As always, if Foltynewicz can figure out how to throw fewer gopherballs, he can be a real good starter.
Folty plays the role of “James Shields” in our organization. He looked really good until that last dinger. I still like him.
And these bats. Really like these bats.
Shae Simmons
such velocity was not among his givens
Chad Roe
seems destined for the Fish, i guess you know.
SWEEEEEEEEEEEP
Sing me the dread of Adonis Garcia
such power manifest from the Goddess Medea
defensive valor so Herculean
an arm of steel, his ‘bolts you rarely see’un.
“Chaz Roe” has a name that makes him sound even less reliable than Kameron Loe. But for some reason he’s been basically decent.
UPDATE: That’s what I get for opening my big mouth.
OK that was fun, but we have 28 games left to play, and we are only 6.5 games away from picking 8th. Fortunately, our schedule is really tough down the stretch. Every team we play except for the Phillies is in the playoff picture.
6 against Wash
6 against NYM
7 against Miami
6 against Philly
3 against Detroit
So Matt Kemp is just about the worst LF in the history of LF, but we’re scoring tons more runs and winning more games. Can we just stop things right here and declare the corner-OF-defense debate over and done with?
XD
Good work, Neck!
@38 oh man, until you just wrote it, Alex, I though it was actually one and the same guy. I was wondering where the 93mph were suddenly coming from. Oops.
Mallex in the lineup for Missisippi. Speculation is he could be back next week. That’s surprising considering they said he was done for the year. Mallex/Ozzie 1-2 in that lineup. Pretty.
And the Bills are on the mound for Gwinnett. Three scoreless innings so far.
The Bills ended up with 5 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 7 K. Blair better be on notice. Put down the Twitter machine and get to pitching.