Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: 8/10

by yondaime4 on Aug 10, 2009 11:37 PM EDT in Braves Minor League Recaps

I am going on vacation starting tomorrow so I am not sure if I will be up to date on the updates or not. I shouldn't miss more than a couple though.

Durham 3, Gwinnett 6

G. Blanco 2-3 2 RBI
O. Infante 1-3 HR(1), 2 RBI
B. Jones 2-4

Gwinnett is now tied for the division lead! Hopefully they can put together a hot streak this month and run into the playoffs! This series with Durham will help since they are the co-leaders. Brandon Jones continues his hot August with a .360 AVG and an .800(!!!!) SLG for the month so far. Where did this come from?

Mississippi 2, Huntsville 8

B. Hicks 2-3 2 2B, BB
J. Heyward 1-4 3B, RBI

Jason Heyward is only hitting .385 in August (GASP!). But he does have 5 XBH in 9 games. Don't be fooled by Brandon Hicks. He has been pretty horrible in every month this season never posting an OPS over .662.

Myrtle Beach - Off

Rome 2, Hagerstown 1

Y. Campusano 3-4 K, SB(10), CS(5)
A. Milligan 2-4 2B, RBI
JJ Hoover 6IP 7H 1R 3BB 5K

Man, three whole walks for JJ Hoover? Thats like a meltdown for him. And he was still lights out. John Sickels loves Hoover, so me being the sheep that I am, love him too. Ok and his amazing K/BB ratio helps. Adam Milligan keeps on doing his thing. He has actually been better in August than he was in July.

Danville @ Princeton - RAIN

GCL Braves 4, GCL Tigers 1

K. Rose 2-5 RBI, K
C. Bethancourt 0-2 RBI, 2 BB
R. Lopez 6IP 1H 0R 1BB 5K

Robinson Lopez has just been dealing in the GCL. His ERA is a paltry 1.11 now with 28K in 32+ innings of work. He is only 18 years old so it will be interesting to see if they jump him to Rome next year or run him into Danville first. I would guess he gets a shot at Danville first. Rome will probably have its own share of guys.

0 recs | 26 comments

Comments

So, you guys remember our former ace Russ Ortiz. Yeah, he’s with the Yankees’ AAA team now. I met him tonight and he’s a pretty outstanding guy.

cbwilk - August 10, 2009 reply

Thats cool man.

You didn’t happen to have nachos and a beer with you when you were talking to him did you?

Ha I kid I kid.

Scott Coleman - August 10, 2009 via mobile reply

Honestly, he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. He’s certainly not huge.

cbwilk - August 11, 2009 reply

Really? Good for him. I saw a pic of him the other day and thought he kinda let himself go…but that’s good to hear. I always like Russ when he was a Brave.

Scott Coleman - August 11, 2009 via mobile reply

This is a pic from some story about him back in June. Pretty accurate; obviously a bit of a paunch, but he’s like 35. Yeah, I always liked him too, hell, he was 36-16 as a Brave, what wasn’t to like?

cbwilk - August 11, 2009 reply

Indigestion from all the walks? That guy Jorge Sosa’ed a career and that ain’t easy to do. That being said, I’ll give the FO some props for knowing when to let a guy walk away. He was terrible from the day his plane landed in Phoenix.

jeg - August 11, 2009 reply

I’m amazed nobody ever bitches about how we gave up Merkin Valdez for him. Anybody remember when he was getting hype like Neftali Feliz. No? Hmm…

cbwilk - August 11, 2009 reply

Merkin is a cool name, why the hell did we trade this guy??? Fire Wren now!!

bwellnjonesco - August 11, 2009 reply

I think everyone was more surprised that we gave Damian Moss away that quickly. i don’t remember Valdez getting that much hype before the trade, although I didn’t follow prospects much at all back then. I do remember hearing that essentially right after the trade everyone found out his actual name and that he was a couple years older. That, sir, is selling high on a prospect…

Michael Scarn, FBI - August 11, 2009 reply

Well, Manuel Mateo turning into Merkin Valdez and going from 18 to 20 didn’t really diminish him that much. He was still a 100mph pitcher. He got hurt a little after he first pitched in the majors and stalled a bit, but it was very much the equivalent of giving up Feliz.

Moss is definitely the guy we sold high on. He had a good year, pretty much entirely based on Glavine’s influence, and they flipped him for Ortiz, who was outstanding for us. Moss did nothing, Ortiz was our ace, and Mateo’s name changed, so people forgot who he was. That’s why this is one nobody ever bemoans.

cbwilk - August 11, 2009 reply

Jorge Sosa...

is a closer somewhere now. Saw him in a box score the other day and was flabbergasted.

Mr. Sanchez - August 11, 2009 reply

Nationals bullpen. Not really their closer, but they’ve had so many save opportunities lately that he’s been filling in when MacDougle can’t go.

Again, we can score on the Nationals bullpen.

Bronn - August 11, 2009 reply

Never liked Hicks

People seemed to get really excited about him after his stint with Rome back in ‘07, but you rarely see college hitters strike out as much as he has an figure it out. I think in time he could be a solid power/glove utility infielder, but that he’s at or near the top of the organization’s list of shortstop prospects is cause for concern. Well, the organizational depth for the entire left side of our infield is really cause for concern.

was385 - August 10, 2009 reply

+2.5

yeah his AA litmus test really fleshed out his problems. I think his top outcome is going to be Brooks Conrad. Hopefully our incredible depth of pitching will allow us to bring in some INF prospects as well.

yondaime4 - August 10, 2009 reply