The Gwinnett Stripers are more rehab than roster at this point, and we’re thankful for that as it gives us the chance to talk about our old friends again. AJ Smith-Shawver had a terrific outing for Gwinnett and looked strong through 86 pitches, holding his upper-90’s velocity deep into the game. Ronald Acuna Jr. also played the full game, though it is fair to mention it was only five innings as weather made an impact on a few games at the minor league level on Thursday. Down in Augusta Conor Essenburg
and Alex Lodise went deep, with that being home run number 20 on the season for Lodise. Then Ethan Bagwell was incredible for Rome and gave them seven strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings in his fourth High-A start.
(50-47) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (42-54) Iowa Cubs 2
- Ronald Acuna Jr., DH: 0-2, BB, .250/.350/.250
- Ha-Seong Kim: 0-2, 2 BB, .256/.370/.359
- Patrick Clohisy: 2-3, .567/.594/1.000
- AJ Smith-Shawver, SP: 4 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1.69 ERA
The Stripers only got five innings in the books on Thursday night, but that’s enough for an official game and an official win behind a solid outing from AJ Smith-Shawver. Smith-Shawver had most of the hallmarks of a perfect rehab outing. His velocity was terrific, averaging 97.5 mph on his fastball over his four innings, he had success with four scoreless innings, and he was able to throw plenty of strikes. Still, it wasn’t perfect and his command of his secondary pitches held him back significantly. Smith-Shawver’s fastball was hitting its spots and he got ahead of most hitters, but it took 86 pitches to get through four innings because he just could not locate any of his secondary pitches. His slider was a non-factor throughout the outing as he was mostly missing too far out of the strike zone to get swings, and he left his splitter over the plate quite often. He got away with that location in this outing, but that is not a recipe for success once he gets back to the major leagues. Still this is the best he has looked during his rehab when you take all of the components together, and his command wasn’t that far behind what was Smith-Shawver’s baseline location issues. His velocity was consistent throughout the game, which is a huge milestone as fatigue has been a factor for him in prior outings, and he was largely consistent with his mechanics. He might need another start in Triple-A to iron things out, but with him holding his velocity deep into games and Atlanta’s need for arms it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Braves asked him to make those final adjustments under the watchful eye of Jeremy Hefner.
I wish we had an equally impressive day from Ronald Acuna Jr. to talk about, but he went hitless with his only contact being a routine ground out on a pitch he probably should have crushed, and rain cut short his day after just three plate appearances. He and Ha-Seong Kim drew back-to-back walks in the Stripers three-run second inning, but neither were involved in any of that run scoring as they were stranded on the bases. Kim drew a couple of walks and had a pop to the right side in his other plate appearance. The Stripers contributions at the plate mostly came from the bottom half of the order, and of course Patrick Clohisy had to have his name in that hat. Clohisy led off in the second inning with a sharp grounder that the shortstop go to but had no chance on against Clohisy’s speed. On the next pitch Andrew McCutchen snuck one through the right side that Clohisy easily advanced around to third on, and Jose Azocar tied up the game with the third straight hit to open the inning. Aaron Schunk had the biggest Stripers hit of the game when he gapped one to score both baserunners, and that early 3-1 lead was enough for them to hold onto behind Smith-Shawver. Clohisy has now hit in eight straight games to start his Gwinnett career with multiple hits in six of those, and on the bases he added a stolen base this game. He is 6-6 on stolen bases since being called up and has pulled within one of Tate Southisene for the system lead.
Swing and Misses
AJ Smith-Shawver – 8
Anthony Molina – 2
(42-45) Columbus Clingstones 3, (48-43) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4
- Luke Waddell, SS: 1-4, 2B, .208/.307/.319
- Jordan Groshans, 3B: 1-4, RBI, .260/.336/.528
- Ian Mejia, SP: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 9.17 ERA
- Luis Vargas, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4.43 ERA
(42-46) Columbus Clingstones 0, (49-43) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1
- Luke Waddell, SS: 0-4, .208/.3o7/.319
- Jordan Groshans, 3B: 1-3, BB, .260/.336/.528
- Anderson Pilar, SP: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 6.23 ERA
Two games are better than one, unless you can’t hit. It was a rough set of games for Columbus, despite a late comeback effort in the opener, and this team has been awful at the plate in the second half. They have by far the best run prevention in the league in the second half, allowing a full run per game less than the next-best team, but they also have the worst offense in that span and games like these are why they are just hovering around .500. Ian Mejia could not get it done in the first inning of the opener, allowing a leadoff home run then a series of singles that charged three runs to him before he escaped. Mejia looked solid for most of the game, throwing his typical amount of strikes and working efficiently through the lineup, but the first inning blues followed the team until the end. In the third inning Luke Waddell had a double and scored a run on a Jordan Groshans single, but on the double from Waddell, Keshawn Ogans made a critical out getting thrown out at home and that run ended up being one of many pivotal game one moments. Two walks with one out set up the Clingstones in position to make a charge in the top of the sixth inning, and Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. served a liner to right field for a base hit that would chase a run home and give them the tying run on first base. Matt Scannell delivered a huge hit, hitting a deep fly ball to right field that the defender jumped and snagged but saw pop out of his glove, and that scored a run and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Unfortunately Tyler Tolve followed with a huge strikeout and Ogans grounded out to end the only major threat of either game.
Game two was sort of a snooze-fest for the Columbus offense. Groshans had another solid game with a first inning double and a walk, but no one else reached base multiple times and the team always found a way to strike out when they got runners in scoring position. Adam Zebrowski led off in the seventh inning with a pinch hit single, and a Kilpatrick walk gave them hope, but the inning when south in a hurry. Dalton McIntyre tried to lay down a bunt, and to be fair he is one of the players on the team who can do so, but he popped it up to third base. Luke Waddell followed that up with a strikeout, and Groshans popped up to shallow right field to snuff the game out. The bullpen held together nicely, especially Isaac Gallegos who pitched three scoreless innings and struck out four batters. Gallegos continues to have an impressive minor breakout in the bullpen, and has maintained his strikeout and whiff rates even with the jump to Double-A. Gallegos’s stuff was always this good but he’s really leaned into his slider as a weapon and it’s a pitch that I think will get him to the major leagues at some point in a middle relief role, though he’s likely more of a shuttle arm between Triple-A and the major leagues than a guy who carves out a long career, though he has value as a mop up multi-inning arm.
Swing and Misses
Ian Mejia – 8
Anderson Pilar – 7
Isaac Gallegos – 5
Tyler LaPorte – 4
Luis Vargas – 1
(43-46) Rome Emperors 1, (56-33) Frederick Keys 1 SUSPENDED
- Tate Southisene, SS: 1-3, .248/.378/.436
- John Gil, 2B: 0-2, .244/.339/.376
- Eric Hartman, CF: 1-2, .271, .358/.527
- Ethan Bagwell, SP: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 2.53 ERA
Ethan Bagwell fans rejoice as his breakout season got back on track with an incredible outing, one that has a strong argument to be his best all season. Bagwell was commanding his fastball from the first pitch of the game, and Frederick couldn’t get a solid hit on it even with six innings to work with. Bagwell had a bit of trouble locating his slider in the first couple of innings of this game, but once he found that pitch it was game over and he didn’t really have any trouble spots throughout the game. The progression of his slider to a pitch that can get whiffs has been massive for him and driven this breakout campaign, though underlying issues still need to be solved. Namely he just needs to get a better changeup that he can really lean on against left-handed hitters because he has been getting crushed by them this season. Right handed batters have an OPS of just .389 against Bagwell, and I want to repeat that number is OPS. Left-handed hitters, however, have a .780 OPS, and all of Bagwell’s home runs allowed have been to left handed batters. His strikeout splits are 33.8% vs 18.3% and his walk splits are 2.7% vs 10.6%, and while samples this small are not enough for these numbers to regulate (and the difference isn’t that massive in reality) the issue still tracks with watching him approach hitters on the field. Some of this could just be a developmental approach for the Braves as a lot of their fastball/slider guys don’t see a ton of changeup usage until Double-A, but so far he has been trying to use sliders to get lefties out late in counts and it isn’t really working for him. Bagwell is young and athletic and has shown flashes of a competent changeup so this isn’t a doomsday prophecy for him, but developing a third pitch is of utmost importance for him moving forward because even at the lower levels he is already running into problems with getting opposite-handed guys out.
The Rome offense was stagnant in this game, and it prevented them from having an opportunity to win a shortened contest. Eric Hartman stroked a single in the first inning that went to waste when he got picked off, and over the next five innings the Emperors only produced one more hit. That hit ended up being enough for them to at least salvage a suspended game. Tate Southisene led off in the fourth by slapping a single into right field, though he wouldn’t score the run. John Gil hit a sharp grounder over to third base, and for some reason the third baseman thought he had plenty of time to double clutch a throw to second base and that delay along with a low throw to second meant Gil easily beat out the potential double play. Gil then continued to use his speed. Even with the perfect pitch to throw Gil out on he easily beat a throw to second base for his 40th stolen base of the season. The next pitch bounced in and out of the catcher’s mitt, and Gil pressed a throw to third base that sailed left and into the outfield which allowed Gil to come home for the tying run.
Swing and Misses
Ethan Bagwell – 11
Drew Christo – 3
(50-43) Augusta GreenJackets 7, (40-52) Salem RidgeYaks 8
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 0-6, .298/.353/.450
- Conor Essenburg, RF: 2-3, HR, 2 BB, .257/.405/.471
- Alex Lodise, SS: 1-4, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .256/.340/.482
- Landon Beidelschies, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 7.09 ERA
It took until the bottom of the page but now I have a little bit of offensive action to talk about. Conor Essenburg and Alex Lodise were locked in at the plate in this game, though their contributions weren’t quite enough to get the GreenJackets a win. Perhaps they would have been but it was and awful 0-6 day at the plate for Luis Guanipa, whose batting average dropped below .300 for the first time since early May. Essenburg led off in the fifth inning of a then 2-1 ballgame with a walk, and the floodgates for both sides opened. Lodise made it an even 20 home runs of the season with a no-doubt shot to left field, briefly giving the GreenJackets a 3-2 lead in the game. That didn’t last particularly long as the bullpen gave up the lead in the bottom of the inning and kept allowing Salem to extend it, making this the only point for the rest of the day Augusta would have the lead. For Essenburg that walk gave him 10 straight games with a walk, and despite his high strikeout rates he has more walks than strikeouts and a .438 OBP this month. Two innings later it was Essenburg getting all of a ball. The Salem pitcher left a slider right over the middle of the plate and up and Essenburg hit a and absolute moonshot. No one on either side besides Essenburg even bothered to move from the crack of the bat, and I can only hope they give baseballs passports because it’s probably not in US airspace anymore. We’ve seen guys like Essenburg fail in the past due to contact issues, but it’s increasingly hard to not go all-in on him. He’s advanced at the plate, he doesn’t really expand the zone the way a lot of high-strikeout guys do, and the ball comes off of his bat in the way reserved for some of the best power hitters in the game.
It has been tough sledding for Landon Beidelschies this entire season, but lately he has produced his two best outings of the season and he is starting to find footing to get outs. Beidelschies is making much better pitches with his fastball and mixing in his slider better and we’re seeing an increase in swing-and-miss and fewer deep counts and walks. Beidelschies really has to be perfect with his pitches because he doesn’t have the velocity to get guys out consistently with his fastball, and while he hasn’t been perfect he has been a lot better lately and it’s allowing him to get into his slider and changeup which are both able to flash average potential. Beidelschies still had a lot of traffic throughout this outing and the amount of hard contact he gives up on fastballs over the plate is concerning, however it’s the progress we’re looking at and Beidelschies is in his best stretch of the season. He is starting to show some signs of being a guy who can advance through the system rather than stalling at the lower levels, though the command is still far from where it needs to be for him to find success even in High-A. Professional hitters at all levels are capable of hitting low 90’s in the middle of the strike zone and Beidelschies isn’t going to survive if that continues to be a trend.
Swing and Misses
Landon Beidelschies – 14
Adiel Melendez – 4
