Talking Chop

Wow, what a big night. I think we all got what we wanted (and what I think Frenchy needed, as well) with the trade tonight. This leads to a couple of questions of what are we doing in the OF next season and do you guys think drafting the 23rd pick of the 2002 draft was a successful move?

Gwinnett 6, Charlotte 7

• C. Burke 1-2 2B, RBI, 2BB, K
• K. Johnson 2-5 2B, K

Gwinnett made the attempt to come back in the 9th, putting 2 runs on the board but ultimately fell short against the divisional cellar dwellers. Chris Burke appears to be coming out of the slump he has been in for most of July. I don't know if the Braves have any real plans for him but I guess we will see later this year.

• J. Heyward 2-4 2B, RBI
• F. Freeman 2-4 2 RBI
• E. Campbell 3-4 3B, 4 RBI

Jason Heyward still hasn't homered so far in AA, but he hasn't struck out either and he does have an XBH in all but 3 of his games. His 1.053 OPS in his first week in Mississippi is just specatacular and it is why Baseball America has him as the #1 prospect in baseball and not Mike Stanton who has struggled to make contact since his AA promotion (Stanton is BA's #2 prospect and a great power hitter in his own right). These two guys remind me a lot of when Andruw Jones and Valdimir Guerrero were both coming up and were considered the top two prospects in baseball but were both completely different hitters.(Also Mississippi and Birmingham completed a game that was suspended on June 27. The Braves lost 3-1 as the home team even though they played in Birmingham).

Myrtle Beach 11, Frederick 4

• C. Johnson 1-3 RBI, 2BB
• B. Johnson 2-4 2B, 3 RBI, 2K
• G. Rodriguez 3-5 2B, 3B, 2K

Cody Johnson got a little love today from the chat wrap on Baseball America where the chatter was relaying a scouts opinion that Johnson has certainly made a lot of progress on the holes in his swing. His strike outs have dropped from 40% earlier in the season down to about 30% or so in the last month and a half. The strange thing though is that his batting avg. has dropped with his strike out totals. From .293 in May down to .219 in July as of tonight. Also his power has dropped significantly. His OPS is still over .800 for the past couple of months but not the near 1.000 he was putting up at the beginning of the season. Hopefully he will come to some sort of happy medium with all of this. Also Gerry Rodriguez appears to be adapting well to Myrtle Beach, posting a 1.064OPS in his first week with the Pelicans.

Rome 5, Greenville 10

• M. Kennelly 1-3 BB, K
• C. Culver 1-4 2B, 2K
• S. Shults 1-4 HR(4), 2 RBI, K
• R. Delgado 2IP 2H 2R 7BB 4K
  

That is one hell of a break down by Randall Delgado.

Bluefield 0, Danville 3

• LV Ware 1-3 2B, K, SB(9)
• RSF 1-3 2B, BB, K
• C. Masters 7IP 4H 0R 0BB 9K

Masters and Oberholtzer are just ridiculous. This Danville team lost a little of its offensive luster when Milligan and Co. got promoted but the pitching just picked up the slack. Actually throw Teheran in there too and you have a pretty freaking awesome trio of pitchers heading up this staff. We have a lot of pitching depth in the low minors.

GCL Pirates  4, GCL Braves 2 - 7 Innings

• E. Mejia 2-3 2B, HR(1)
• L. Hiller 2-3 2B, RBI

These teams also completed a rain suspended game that the Pirates won 2-1.