It was a tough Thursday evening for the Atlanta Braves affiliates. They all took losses and none of them looked particularly good doing it. There were still some good things going on, especially down in Augusta, but it was overall a disappointing evening for the starting pitching.
(25-17) Gwinnett Stripers 4, (17-25) Durham Bulls 5
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 1-5, .310/.413/.437
- Nacho Alvarez Jr., 3B: 1-5, .238/.324/.333
- Rowdy Tellez, 1B: 3-5, RBI, .250/.349/.516
- Owen Murphy, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 6.59 ERA
It’s the third start in a Stripers uniform for Owen Murphy, and he has gone down, up, and now back down again as high walks rates continue to be a startling problem for him this year. Across both levels
Murphy is already only five walks short of his career high for walks in a season, and a big problem has just been his inability to keep anything down in the strike zone. While his high carry fastball can play well in the upper parts of the strike zone and higher the same is not true of the slider and curveball, and both pitches have not been effective and have forced Murphy to be nearly completely reliant on fastballs to succeed. Pitchers who throw a lot of fastballs but don’t have elite velocity tend to get hit around for home runs at the upper levels and with one more today Murphy is up to four home runs allowed in three Triple-A starts and nine allowed in 34 1/3 innings this season. Some of this is due to him just overall not commanding the ball well, but finding reliable command on his secondaries to take pressure off of his fastball is imperative.
Murphy also struggled to maintain velocity in this game, averaging 93.9 mph on his fastball but watching that dip inning-over-inning until it bottomed at 90.6 mph in the fourth. Murphy has to have more stamina than running out of gas at only 72 pitches, though to be fair Murphy’s fastball was by far his best weapon this game. A home run taints the final line of the pitch overall, but it was the one he could get strikes with most consistently and wasn’t hit all that well outside of the home run. Murphy’s fastball has the ability to be effective even without elite velocity, but to hit the next level and crack into MLB conversations his slider has to be much more consistent because it is his best pitch when he can bury it. The offense lacked a standout performer and scored most of their runs in one clutch of hits in the 7th inning, putting up a three spot that brought them within a run. However there wasn’t much impact contact to match the two Bulls home runs and that made the difference in the final line. Nacho Alvarez was able to record a hit but it was not a great outing for him. His hit came on a medium contact ball that snuck through the infield and his other four at bats all looked rough including two strikeouts.
Swing and Misses
Owen Murphy – 7
Dylan Dodd – 6
(17-18) Columbus Clingstones 1, (20-16) Knoxville Smokies 5
- Patrick Clohisy, CF: 1-3, BB, .234/.308/.372
- Jordan Groshans, 3B: 2-4, .246/.308/.516
- Shay Schanaman, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 5.49 ERA
- Jhancarlos Lara, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 9.28 ERA
The Columbus pitching staff got battered, allowing three home runs that accounted for four of Knoxville’s runs, and without David McCabe and Lizandro Espinoza in the lineup the offense did not have the firepower to answer back. The offense as a whole only managed to record four hits in the game, though Jordan Groshans at least kept his hot play from yesterday rolling just a bit. He had half of the teams hits in the game, though both were singles, and so far this month has been hitting .308/.357/.718. Patrick Clohisy also had a hit and a walk, extending what has been a really solid week of play for him. Clohisy has struggled mightily this season and still isn’t producing his performance from his time in Columbus last season, but he is getting back to drawing a bunch of walks and getting on base. During his recent five game on base streak he is 4-15 with six walks and only three strikeouts, and much of the batted ball inputs are better than the numbers might suggest. Despite a low BABIP he is hitting plenty of line drives, and though his lack of raw power does cap his results he should be able to reproduce more of the results he has put up thus far in his career.
Pitching has been the achilles heel for the Clingstones this season, as in addition to leading the Southern League in home runs on offense they have also given up the most home runs and the worst ERA in the league. Shay Schanaman did a solid job for four innings, producing a ton of ground ball contact that went for outs, but the fly balls he did allow found a way to hurt him. He allowed two solo home runs in the game to account for both of the runs he did allow before departing. Schanaman has already allowed a career-high six long balls in just 19 2/3 innings of work. The Clingstones have also allowed the highest walks per nine of any Southern League team, and with guys like Elison Joseph and Jhancarlos Lara getting big innings in the bullpen it’s not hard to guess why. After a great outing two days ago Lara couldn’t get the ball around the zone in this one, though fortunately he’s so overpowering that teams often struggle to make good contact against him. The bag was a bit more mixed for Elison Joseph. His control was not good, but it was at least fringe, and he produced a ton of whiffs which has always been the case for him when he is anywhere near the zone. Unfortunately the last two seasons he hasn’t been and the two walks he allowed this game didn’t do much to improve the 29.5% walk rate he’s posted this season. The whiffs should come back based on the contact rates he is allowing so far, but that can’t make up for the fact that he has been very lucky to only have a 3.38 ERA this season.
Swing and Misses
Elison Joseph – 10
Shay Schanaman – 7
(20-16) Rome Emperors 0, (9-26) Brooklyn Cyclones 7
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 1-4, .293/.369/.500
- John Gil, SS: 0-3, .281/.385/.469
- Jeremy Reyes, SP: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 4.83 ERA
The Emperors looked quite dreadful against a really bad Brooklyn team, and it’s probably best to motor past this one pretty quickly. Now, the Cyclones did run out as good of a combination of pitchers as they can muster, but it was still an ugly day for the offense. John Gil had a couple of strikeouts, and after a marvelous week in Asheville he has yet to record a hit with only one walk this series. Gil has shown a strong pattern of up-and-down play this entire season and he may be on a bit of a down swing at the moment, though there isn’t anything he is putting on the field that is worth getting concerned over. Isaiah Drake had an okay showing with a hard line drive for a single in the third inning, though nothing overly spectacular especially not compared to the crazy finish in Asheville. He broke his streak of six straight games with a stolen base by not swiping a bag today, but so far he is on a nine game on base streak and has been successful in his last nine stolen base attempts.
Every time health has been on Jeremy Reyes’s side he has shown something worth watching, and he used his fastball and slider to great effect in this game to get a bunch of whiffs. However, his command was no better than it has been this entire season and even a very free-swinging Brooklyn team learned to let him make mistakes the second time through the order. He dominated the first go around but couldn’t delivery that success consistently and allowed runs in each inning he pitches the second and third times through the order. Reyes is a bit of a tough evaluation because of how much time he has missed due to injury, but after an exciting look a couple of seasons ago it’s quickly trended towards a bullpen future for him. The injuries don’t help that at all, and neither does the lack of any progression with his command. Reyes doesn’t show the sort of athleticism or ability to repeat his arm path that would give much confidence to MLB-quality command projections, though the raw stuff is plenty good enough to succeed in a bullpen role if he does eventually make that switch. Given that he is 20 years old and doesn’t have as much competition behind him after the Braves last draft he will keep getting opportunities, but the lack of a clear line upwards is a bit frustrating for a guy who has so much room to grow.
Swing and Misses
Jeremy Reyes – 17
Mathieu Curtis – 6
(19-17) Augusta GreenJackets 1, (17-17) Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Tate Southisene, DH: 1-4, .261/.469/.391
- Alex Lodise, SS: 1-4, .321/.387/.393
- Luis Guanipa, CF: 1-4, .348/.400/.435
- Landon Beidelschies, SP: 4 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 11.00 ERA
- Luis Arestigueta, RP: 4 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 6.87 ERA
Tate Southisene, Alex Lodise, and Luis Guanipa all had singles in this game, and that’s the point it’s best to stop talking about the offense. It was mostly a mess, though those three looked really good out there and perhaps a bit better than the lines might indicate. Southisene wasn’t really getting the ball in the air this game, but had a couple of hard hits on the ground and is putting up some good deep at-bats. I really like where Alex Lodise was in this game, at least on fastballs, and there is some improvement for him against breaking balls. He is still a bit late at recognizing and adjusting to spin but has looked better this week, and his contact has been awesome. You have the home run yesterday, but also a couple of hard hit fly balls that he was right on and hit to center field and some missiles that landed foul. Guanipa was the one that has put up great swings the past two games and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get right back to where he was next week in the coming games. He has done a great job of controlling the inner half of the strike zone, and it’s led to hard contact and in this particular game some loud foul balls. He needs to be less aggressive up, but has a rare blend of bat speed and barrel control to be able to get to those pitches and not strike out even if it would serve him to wait for lower offerings. We know the approach is an issue and aggression is going to be the scariest part of his profile for the rest of his career, but he’s been smashing the ball when he makes contact and as he’s started to lift more the home runs should keep coming in for him. It’s a great turn around after a bad couple of seasons and now I only hope he can just stay on the field for a full season.
Landon Beidelschies didn’t have the worst of outings on Thursday, but he really couldn’t land a secondary pitch for a swing and miss. Beidelschies was heavy on his fastball usage against the Pelicans, and it led to him throwing a ton of strikes but also letting up a ton of contact that turned into runs. His home run allowed came on a curveball that looped right over the middle of the plate, but many of his hits came on well-placed fastballs that Myrtle Beach was just able to hit. That’s going to happen sometimes, especially for a guy who doesn’t have the velocity to get it past hitters, but it’s unfortunately a bit magnified when it comes from a pitcher who hasn’t managed a good outing yet this season. Beidelschies has just got to be better about landing his secondary offerings consistently or it’s going to be a continued struggle even when he is commanding his fastball well. Big time positives came from Luis Arestigueta, who carried over a good ending to his last outing to put up a phenomenal performance this Thursday. It didn’t start out so great, though. He walked the first batter he faced and was falling into the tendency of flying open early and dragging his arm behind. He was missing glove side over and over, but did well enough to reign it in and get some fly outs to end the inning. He came out again in the second inning and immediately threw three balls the exact same way, but was able to dial his mechanics in and put up his best outing since his second of the season. A missed location on a fastball turned into a two run bomb, but otherwise both his fastball and slider were missing bats. He was doing well to land the fastball up and bury the slider, and especially in the final inning he was making the Pelicans look foolish with his slider. He even mixed in a swinging strike on a changeup, a pitch that is too firm to be an effective pitch at high usage but is nice to see him at least developing.
Swing and Misses
Luis Arestigueta – 14
Landon Beidelschies – 5
