Michael Harris II has been on a roll for Gwinnett, and I’m sure following his last performance Atlanta Braves fans are even more excited to welcome him back into the lineup soon. Harris wasn’t the only guy on the farm to have a big day though, with Mitch Farris and JR Ritchie pitching well at the lower levels.
(53-60) Gwinnett Stripers 2, (56-57) Memphis Redbirds 8
- Michael Harris II, CF: 3-4, HR, .421/.500/.579
- Nacho Alvarez Jr., 3B: 0-3, BB, .301/.412/.503
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 4 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 5.68 ERA
- Hayden Harris, RP: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 4.12 ERA
It was yet another outstanding day for Michael Harris II in his rehab with the Stripers, though for the rest of the team Saturday’s game was a bit more disappointing. The highlight for Harris was a 110 mph home run to dead center field but he also added a couple of base hits before he was pinch-hit for in the top of the ninth inning. It’s going to be a welcome relief to have him back patrolling center field as soon as he is ready, but I have to say it’s been a pleasure for me to get to watch him play some minor league games again. This game was otherwise dominated by Memphis — Harris’s home run was the hardest hit ball of the game then each of the next eight hardest-hit were all from RedBirds batters. It’s been a tough month here for Nacho Alvarez so far as outside of the two hits yesterday he really hasn’t done much with the bat. Alvarez did have a hard hit line out in this one, getting a cutter up in the zone that he was able to hit well but right at the center fielder for a lineout. Alvarez has been playing shortstop less frequently since his demotion (and Zack Short being outrighted) and over the past three games has played only third base.
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 11, 2024Michael Harris II = money
110.5 mph | 411 ft for the @Braves center fielder on his first @GoStripers rehab homer! pic.twitter.com/BV1T6cyYhO
The pitching was as troublesome as the offensive production, and despite Hurston Waldrep only allowing one run it was the worst he’s pitched in the minor leagues in awhile. He was scattering both of his secondary offerings in and out of the zone, so despite a decent amount of strike-throwing his command just wasn’t there and his splitter in particular didn’t miss as many bats as we’ve been accustomed to. His fastball had a bit more velocity than last game, closer to where we saw him sitting when he was in Mississippi, and he had one of his better days with the pitch as he didn’t leave it over the plate too often. Waldrep was not the worst of the pitchers though as Hayden Harris had his worst game of the season. Harris’s fastball command has largely been on point since being promoted but in this game he struggled between a combination of not locating anything and getting squeezed on a couple of calls, leading to him allowing six runs with three walks and two home runs in less than an inning. Perhaps a bit of concern could be warranted as it was Harris’s lowest fastball velocity of the season at 90.7 mph, 1.4 mph lower than his average coming into this game.
Swing and Misses
Hurston Waldrep - 8
Hayden Harris - 3
(48-58) Mississippi Braves 1, (60-45) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 7
- Cal Conley, SS: 1-3, BB .243/.312/.311
- Tyler Tolve, C: 0-3, BB, .214/.269/.398
- Ian Mejia, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 3.44 ERA
- Jonathan Hughes, RP: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 4.39 ERA
Ian Mejia’s command has been a bit on the shaky side over the past month or so, and he has struggled in that stretch overall as both walks and hard hit balls have plagued his outings. Overall he just hasn’t been as fine with his pitches and Mejia doesn’t really have the raw stuff to be able to succeed at this level without that location. This game was his worst of the season as he issued four walks and only got two strikeouts, and Mejia now has issued 12 walks in his past 16 2⁄3 innings. This performance underlined a rough performance from the entire Mississippi team, whose hitters only notched two hits and one run in the game. No one in particular has hit very well lately, and Ethan Workinger has struggled immensely since his promotion. This isn’t much of a surprise for Workinger as he has frequently been a player who struggles to adjust to new levels before really coming into his own after a couple of months. Workinger’s approach at the plate gave him trouble at times even in High-A, and facing off now against better breaking stuff on average is going to be the biggest challenge he’s faced in his professional career. Workinger has struggled to consistently lay off of breaking stuff and hit it in the zone, and that’s definitely been a weakness as he is 1-12 so far this week.
Swing and Misses
Jonathan Hughes - 11
Ian Mejia - 7
(50-52) Rome Emperors 7, (61-44) Greensboro Grasshoppers 4
- Drew Compton, 1B: 2-5, .259/.366/.381
- Kade Kern, LF: 2-3, HR, 2B, BB, 6 RBI, .300/.364/.700
- Luis Vargas, SP: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.44 ERA
- Isaac Gallegos, RP: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 0.84 ERA
(50-53) Rome Emperors 1, (62-44) Greensboro Grasshoppers 2
- Drew Compton, DH: 1-3, BB, .259/.366/.381
- EJ Exposito, SS: 1-4, 3B, .237/.305/.420
- Mitch Farris, SP: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, 2.71 ERA
We only had one game on Saturday that gave us much offense, and Kade Kern was the star of the show in a win in the first game of the Rome double header. The Emperors got off to a quick start thanks to a couple of singles from Drew Compton and Stephen Paolini, both of whom had big games. After an error and a walk brought in Compton to score Kade Kern came up in a big spot with a chance to do damage, and made the most of that chance. He got a fastball that sunk right into the middle of the zone and he turned on that pitch driving it into the left center gap for a bases-clearing double. Rome would hold this 4-0 lead for awhile, but Luis Vargas ultimately coughed it up in the fourth inning due to a combination of home runs and errors that gave Greensboro a four run inning of their own.
The Emperors turned to Isaac Gallegos out of the bullpen, and he covered through the sixth inning marvelously. Gallegos missed a ton of time after being drafted last year, but since coming back to pitch during the FCL season has been quietly putting up a string of great performances. He has an overall 1.45 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 18 2⁄3 innings this season, and after allowing a hit to the first batter he faced didn’t allow another baserunner in the game. Gallegos isn’t the most exciting prospect, relying on his slider to dominate the lower minor leagues, but I definitely see a guy who could fit as a major league middle reliever. It’s a pretty standard profile with a sinker and a potentially above average slider, and he will ultimately depend on refining the location of his slider to make it to the big leagues but he does have one major league quality offering to work with and that’s more than you often find from these late round college arms. Jared Johnson continued to pitch well with two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, and among pitchers with 40+ innings pitched this season he leads all Braves prospects in swinging strike rate. Kern made another big impact in the eighth inning, and with this being a double header that was an extra inning with the free runner at second base. Carlos Arroyo drew a walk to put two runners on, and Kern made a splash by turning on an inside pitch and somehow keeping it fair for a three-run home run. Kern is a player that I was surprised to see struggle in Single-A this season, as even though I knew there were hit tool concerns there I didn’t think they would pop up so early in the process. It’s nice that he’s hit his stride now, as despite not being a high pick there is more athleticism and raw power than he has actually put out on the field in his career and he’s one of those guys worth watching if he can continue making contact like he has over the past month and a half where he has cut his strikeout rate to 21%.
Game two also went into extra innings, this time because neither side could scratch any runs across. Rome had a huge chance in the fourth inning to get the game’s first run, courtesy of our pal EJ Exposito. Expo crushed a 1-0 sinker at the bottom of the zone, just missing a home run the opposite way as it hit a few inches below the top of the wall. Exposito cruised into third with a one-out triple, and Justin Janas was then hit by a pitch to put two runners on. Nick Ward put the ball in play, but it was right at the first baseman who was playing in and Exposito had to stick at third. Kern couldn’t come up with a big hit in this game either, and the Emperors wasted their biggest chance to put runs on the board. Fortunately Mitch Farris was cruising, putting up what I will call the third-best outing from a Braves prospect this season behind Drue Hackenberg’s 16 strikeouts and Ian Mejia’s no hitter. In the bottom of the fourth inning a slap bunt turned into a base hit, and the runner was immediately thrown out trying to steal second base. That was the only hit Farris allowed in the game. It was utter domination, as Farris carved through the lineup with 12 strikeouts and only one walk on just 86 pitches. Farris was perfectly locating his fastball at the top of the zone, and when he got ahead of the Greensboro hitters he was able to get them fishing at his slider and changeup to rack up strikeouts. In the eighth inning Rome scored a run as the Grasshoppers walked in one. Kern then laced a sinking line drive into the gap that could have broken the game wide open, but the center fielder made a great tumbling snag and robbed Kern of another multi-RBI game. Greensboro would score two in the ninth and walk the game off.
Swing and Misses
Mitch Farris - 18
Luis Vargas - 11
Isaac Gallegos - 6
Jared Johnson - 5
(37-65) Augusta GreenJackets 0, (49-53) Charleston RiverDogs 1
- John Gil, SS: 0-4, .161/.213/.214
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-4, .169/.250/.262
- Junior Garcia, DH: 0-3, BB, .064/.267/.085
- JR Ritchie, SP: 5 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 2.49 ERA
JR Ritchie was sensational in his outing on Saturday, allowing no hits over five innings, but an error in the fourth inning doomed him and the GreenJackets to a loss thanks to an anemic offense. Ritchie has gotten stronger each game, tightening up his slider and his location and showing flashes of a guy who was well on his way to being a clear top 100 arm. While Ritchie hasn’t quite shown the same consistency with getting that wipeout shape on his slider it has gotten better, and he also showed flashes of a 55 to 60 grade changeup in this game. Ritchie doesn’t feel like he’s missed much in coming back from Tommy John surgery, and should be well situated to start off at Rome next year and have a chance to have a true breakout season. Charleston had little chance against him when he was locating his pitches this game, and while I typically don’t put too much stock into how a guy looks coming off of major surgeries when they look this good it’s hard to ignore. The only run came score when Ritchie walked a guy in the fourth inning, who then stole second base. Ritchie picked the guy off and had him dead to rights at third base, but Willmer De La Cruz dropped a perfect throw, literally directly to his glove, and the runner made it safely to third then scored on the play. It was a brutal way for Ritchie to give up a run, but he’s such an impressive pitcher and as excited as I’ve been about a young guy in a long, long time. He needs to stay healthy of course, but if he does he’s a major league arm in a couple of years at the rate the Braves are willing to promote young pitchers.
For all of the amazing pitching that’s made its way through Augusta this year there is just a curse on anyone in that lineup as they consistently can’t find guys who can produce. John Gil has hit a slump since a hot first series in Augusta, which isn’t really a surprise given his tendency to chase breaking balls. All of these guys at the top of the lineup need quite a bit of refinement, though I am still impressed with how often Gil can find contact even when he is fooled. With his natural feel for contact and his athleticism an improvement in approach would make him a top 100 type player, though he is far off from that in his current form. Isaiah Drake had a ninth inning single but was immediately caught stealing, and I would assume he repeats in Augusta next year. I have liked how well he responded to his early season struggles, but even as he has hit a slump from that strong stretch in June it seems like he’s fallen even worse into the habit of just slapping pitches the other way and I want to see him really target driving pitches towards that right-center field gap before I feel he’s ready for the jump to Rome. I like what I’ve seen from Patrick Clohisy so far — the bat speed and contact is good enough for him to be a legitimate prospect though we have to see how I don’t really think his performances at Single-A will be indicative of much. I will need to see him against higher level breaking stuff but there is a foundation for success.
Swing and Misses
JR Ritchie - 11
Adel Dilone - 6
(14-31) DSL Braves 2, (23-22) DSL Red Sox Blue 4
- Juan Mateo, SS: 2-5, .226/.324/.290
- Michael Martinez, LF: 0-3, BB, .201/.331/.309
- Sebastian Estiven, SP: 4.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 10.45 ERA
As I feared Jose Perdomo didn’t play in this game though he has typically been playing every other day, and whatever caused him to be pulled from Thursday’s game has him missing at least one of his scheduled appearances. Hopefully it’s just a minor precaution but for a guy who has already missed a good bit of time you have to hope soft tissue injuries don’t become a lingering problem. I’m really happy to see a couple of hits here from Juan Mateo. He went through a brutal stretch there in July but now has back-to-back multi-hit games. The strikeout in this game broke a stretch of eight straight without a strikeout, and so far he looks to be one of the better guys they’ve found in the past few years. He is the first Braves prospect since Randy Ventura to post a strikeout rate below 11% in his age-17 season in the DSL. Ventura and Jose Peraza are the only other two 17 year olds to strike out less than 11% of the time for the DSL Braves since 2011.
