It wasn’t a great start to the week for win on the Atlanta Braves farm system, but nonetheless Tuesday got it started with a bang with a few notable offensive performances. Notably recent draftees Tate Southisene and Dixon Williams had good showings in Augusta, while Jim Jarvis’s Gwinnett debut helped lead them to a win.
(54-72) Gwinnett Stripers 8, (56-68) Norfolk Tides 4
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI, .600/.600/1.000
- David McCabe, 1B: 1-3, BB, RBI, .280/.357/.440
- Carlos Carrasco, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 3.36 ERA
- Blake Burkhalter, RP: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 4.03 ERA
Welcome to Gwinnett Jim Jarvis. The Stripers have been blessed by intriguing contributions from their two most recent additions, with Jarvis putting out a great showing
with three hits in his debut while accounting for half of the Stripers runs. The Stripers obliterated Norfolk starter Trey Gibson in the early innings, tallying up ten hits and seven runs in his three plus innings of work. This allowed them to cruise down the stretch while their bullpen excelled in turn. Jarvis scored the first run, after sneaking what was his softest hit ball of the day through and turned it into a double, his first of two doubles and two runs scored. Jarvis’s next contribution was a single in the second inning, a 105 mph grounder that scored Conner Capel to bring the game back to a tie. A two-run home run from Jonathan Ornelas put Gwinnett on top in the third inning, but Norfolk fought back to tie the game prior to a breakout inning in bottom of the fourth.
With the game tied and a runner on second base, Jarvis stepped to the plate for his third at bat with a chance to give Gwinnett the lead. On the first pitch of the plate appearance he got a fastball hanging in the middle of the strike zone and crushed it to the warning track for his second double of the game. With the Stripers in the lead they didn’t take their foot off of the gas, and David McCabe’s 104 mph single scored the sixth run of the game and chased Gibson for a reliever. McCabe had yet another game where he hit the ball hard with examples of good contact in this game, and he’s noticeably done a better job the past week at not chasing out of the zone. For the first few games at the level he had a tendency to expand off of the plate at a high rate in a small sample, but he’s coming back down the level he had set an expectation for at the lower levels and hasn’t been getting fooled as pitchers serve him more and more secondary pitches.
Carlos Carrasco struggled with his control in this game and specifically had stretches where it would get away from him, which led to the two big innings that Norfolk was able to capitalize on. Otherwise he and the rest of the Stripers staff shut down the Tides top to bottom, though it wasn’t the best relief appearance for Blake Burkhalter. He had some trouble with his release point this game that manifested in poorly located four seam fastballs, as he was missing the edges a bit inside the zone too much and too often. Still it was good enough for him to produce weak contact in his lone inning of work and he was able to keep the Tides scoreless despite a couple of hard hit balls and a bloop single.
Swing and Misses
Carlos Carrasco – 13
Nathan Wiles – 4
(52-66) Columbus Clingstones 0, (41-79) Rocket City Trash Pandas 2
- Ethan Workinger, LF: 2-4, .219/.291/.387
- EJ Exposito, 2B: 2-4, .206/.260/.303
- Lucas Braun, SP: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 4.22 ERA
Lucas Braun battled former Braves prospect Mitch Farris, and Farris’s Rocket City came out on top thanks to his terrific performance. He sliced through the Clingstones offense by striking out 13 batters in 6 1/3 innings, though they were not completely without opportunity. Trailing by a run in the third inning EJ Exposito was able to shoot one the other way against a shifted infield for a hit, and when Cal Conley dropped one in front of the left fielder for another single, Columbus saw themselves with two on and Patrick Clohisy waiting to do damage. It was a tough matchup for Clohisy, however, and Farris was able to drop in some good sliders to sit him down swinging for out number two. Geraldo Quintero would draw a walk to load the bases, but Ethan Workinger stranded them by going down swinging.
In the fourth Drew Compton gave them some solid contact to admire. He went up 2-0 in the count and attacked a pitch, barely keeping a fly ball down into the right field corner fair for his 20th double of the season. Again, though, Columbus would strand the tying run in scoring position. All the while Lucas Braun was playing out of his mind. Braun’s early season issues with missing bats has evaporated as he and the Clingstone’s staff have locked down his approach and pitch mix. He had a couple of starts at the beginning of the month when his command was far worse than expected, but he’s adjusted over the past two and been able to take games over. Braun worked efficiently, pounding the zone with his fastballs to get ahead in counts. His big mistake early came in a count that he was up 0-2 in, where he threw in three straight sliders that all missed the zone, running the count full. He challenged in the zone with his fastball and didn’t make a terrible pitch, but the hitter was sitting dead red and was able to turn and crush a high fly ball that snuck over the fence. He settled in after and was matching Farris’s performances, but that one run was the difference in the game. Later in the sixth inning his command started to slip a bit and the Trash Pandas forced home another run on a hit batter and two singles, putting a late damper on a game where Braun was otherwise as good as he has been all season.
Opportunity continued it’s rapping at the Clingstone’s door, and after an error forced Farris from the game they once again had a runner in scoring position with Clohisy at the dish. Clohisy was given a platoon advantage by the switch to Farris and worked his way up 2-0 in the count, but couldn’t deliver in the moment. He got his bat on a fastball on the inner half, but he was behind it, and he popped it into left field to end a potential rally. Columbus had late life with two singles to open the ninth inning, giving them three opportunities to bring home both and tie the game up. Those three quickly turned to one as David Fletcher slapped a pitch into the ground that turned into an easy double play, and Cal Conley’s grounder to the right side was vacuumed up easily to shut the door on a shutout loss.
Swing and Misses
Lucas Braun – 17
Cory Wall – 6
(52-65) Rome Emperors 0, (50-69) Winston-Salem Dash 7
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-4, .282/.333/.333
- Alex Lodise, SS: 0-4, .231/.275/.369
- Cedric De Grandpre, SP: 3 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 3.94 ERA
- Jacob Kroeger, RP: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 2.02 ERA
Well someone’s got to have a bad day, and it was Rome’s turn on Tuesday to stink up the place. The offense was brutal with way too much swing and miss and way too little hitting the ball hard, and the pitching didn’t have much more to hold their heads high about. Alex Lodise faced off against his cousin and he got the worst of the two sides, striking out three times in his four plate appearances as he was kept off of the bases all game. He has really struggled with inconsistency and his approach has not looked great, and he’s up to 23 strikeouts to only four walks in 69 plate appearances. One of the rare thumbs ups from the game goes to Isaiah Drake, who didn’t have his best day but contributed on both sides of the plate. He had one awful at bat out of four, but in the other three showed a great approach, though he wasn’t able to win the battles and get the barrel on the ball. He was able to use his speed to beat out a soft line drive over to short stop in the eighth inning, giving him a four game hitting streak and extending his on base streak to 14. In the fourth inning he was also able to record an outfield assist, throwing out a runner trying to go first to third on a soft grounder hit into left field, though the camera work does us few favors in seeing how and where he fielded the ball.
Cedric De Grandpre has been great in his return this year, but his command is still not where it needs to be and a bad stretch like this was bound to happen. He’s had two outings in a row where his command just was not where it needed to be for him to be effective, though in a positive spin he is still missing bats. All three of his pitches have been great at forcing swing-and-miss, he just hasn’t been locating well enough at all lately and could even be seeing some fatigue as his last two outings have been particularly bad after he was showing some progress. Jacob Kroeger saved the day with a long relief outing by covering five innings of one run ball, dropping his ERA in 87 innings this season to 1.97. Kroeger is a bit inconsistent when it comes to missing bats, mostly dependent on how well he is commanding his changeup, but I see him as a guy who could take a step forward in short inning roles. He has three pitches that work well and decent command, he just lacks the power in his arsenal to be effective over long outings. In a long relief role or middle relief role he could have a big league future if his velocity is able to tick up a bit.
Swing and Misses
Cedric De Grandpre – 12
Jacob Kroeger – 11
(62-55) Augusta GreenJackets 4, (63-56) Charleston RiverDogs 6
- Owen Carey, LF: 2-3, BB, .260/.332/.340
- John Gil, 3B: 1-4, BB, .253/.345/.367
- Tate Southisene, SS: 2-4, 2B, RBI, .300/.333/.500
- Dixon Williams, 2B: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, .250/.354/.482
- Ethan Bagwell, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 2.35 ERA
It was a slow start to Tate Southisene’s professional career, as in his first two games with Augusta he couldn’t make contact to save his life. His past two games have been a complete reversal of that, as he followed up his Sunday breakout performance with another strong showing on Tuesday. In the first inning he went the other way and hit a laser over the right fielder’s head, driving in the first run of the game to give Augusta the lead. He had another hard hit ball his second time up as he roped a single into left-center field, giving him five straight at bats with a hit. Now in his later at-bats his youth and approach did start to show up, with him chasing a pitch well out of the strike zone and grounding out on it in the fifth inning. In the eighth inning – his final at bat – he was out in front of a slider and rolled it over to the left side. Overall Southisene looks a lot more comfortable at the plate over his last two outings, especially with recognizing pitches and making contact, though the aggression we expected to see still gets to him quite a bit. Compared to the first couple of games his timing is better and he’s covering the whole plate, and his ability to make hard contact in all parts of the zone fits the reports that were out prior to his being drafted.
One more big hit in the game contributed to the four runs on the board, and that came off of the bat of Dixon Williams. Owen Carey had a great day at the plate, reaching base three times with a couple of hard hit singles, and starting out the sixth inning he had one of those with a rocket single into right field. Williams came up prepared to jump on the first pitch and unloaded on a fastball over the plate, hitting a no-doubt shot to left field that put Augusta briefly back on top. His power has been a stand out trait in his first few weeks with the team, though like in the past he has been swinging and missing at way too many pitches. He added two more strikeouts this game and has struck out over 1/3 of the time so far in pro ball. Three straight walks in the ninth inning brought the go ahead run up to the plate for the top of the order, but it was an off day at the plate for Eric Hartman. He had already struck out three times in the game, and though he was able to plate a run on a ground out he didn’t hit the ball well at all and left it in the hands of John Gil to come through. Gil had been on a great run at the plate and had a hard hit single earlier in the game, but this time he was unable to come up clutch. He got jammed on a pitch on the inner half and popped it up to left field, a routine play for the defender that closed out the game.
Ethan Bagwell had a shaky outing that looked like it would come undone early in this game, but he was able to make corrections on the fly to improve his earlier command woes and finished with a trio of dominant innings. Bagwell gave up a couple of runs in the second inning and faced traffic in both of the first two, as he wasn’t able to locate his pitches well and had trouble with walks along with some bad luck on batted balls that turned into hits. Bagwell hit his stride in the third inning, and retired the side in order from the third through fifth to finish on a great streak. He was in particular throwing his fastball well even when he was just missing the zone, keeping the ball on the edges of the plate and off of the barrel of RiverDogs hitters. The biggest knock on Bagwell at the moment is that his secondaries haven’t been effective at finishing counts as he has struggled to command his slider and changeup when he gets to two strikes, but he has worked ahead in the count enough to keep hitters on balance and force weak contact. Along with that he has really improved his ability to get his fastball up over the zone for swing-and-miss while still being able to point corners side-to-side. There is a lot of work needed for Bagwell to polish up and get ready for a promotion to High-A next season, but there has been plenty he has done to enable confidence in his progress this year.
Swing and Misses
Ethan Bagwell – 10
Carter Lovasz – 5
