Myke Jones has raised his average 68 points in the month of May.
Gwinnett 1, Columbus 8
James Parr didn't take the news of being removed from the Braves' 40 man roster well, picking up his 5th loss of the season while allowing 11 baserunners. Matt Young got on base again, with a double, and played second base again. I guess they're serious about getting him some playing time there. Just think how good of a second baseman he'd be if they hadn't moved him off the position years ago.
Mississippi 2, Huntsville 4
Mike Minor fans another 7, and he's averaging a cool 13 per 9 for the season. This guy is good, folks. Brandon Beachy has been one of the best surprises of the season, as he piles up another 3 scoreless innings, which gives him 6 conseccutive scoreless over his last 3 appearances. Willie Cabrera has done great in his return to AA, rocking the .311 average and .825 OPS for the season, and in his last 9 games he's hitting .412 with a 1.003 OPS. The Braves have signed infielder Alejandro Machado and assigned him to Mississippi. Machado, who played 10 games with Boston in 2005, was orignally signed by the Braves as a free agent in 1998 before being traded to the Royals in 2001 for shortstop Rey Sanchez. This season he had been playing with the Marlins' AAA team New Orleans.
Myrtle Beach 1, Wilmington 4
The Pelicans have been having trouble with offense all year and tonight was no different. Things will probably only get worse with the suspensions of their starting first and second basemen. The team has added first baseman Mike Jones, who played for Salem in the Carolina League last year, and second baseman Dan Nelson, who played for Potomac earlier this season. Hopefully these two older High A vets can infuse some thump into the lineup. Of course, they were 0-7 tonight, so maybe not. Matt Crim picked up the loss in a complete game effort.
Rome 3, Hickory 5
Is anybody getting tired of hearing about how good Robby Hefflinger has been? No? Me either. Myke Jones has raised his average from .141 to .209 this month. That's doing work. He's hitting .333 with a .934 OPS in May and showing himself to be the player that the Braves thought he would be. Chris Masters continues to dominate the Sally League. He's striking out just over a batter an inning, and his WHIP for the year is a miniscule 0.83 for the year.
0 recs | 42 comments
Mike Minor is an animal.
Scott Coleman - May 22, 2010 via mobile
He was lights out while pitching here at Vandy.
I would like to see him moved up to Gwinnett soon. With his college experience coming in the SEC, he has the equivelent of a couple of minor league seasons under his belt. In fact, I could see him getting the call right now in an emergency, over Jo-Jo, who is being stretched out in AAA.
DawgB - May 22, 2010
Woah there, the SEC is good, but it’s not the equivalent of a Minor League level. The worst team in the Appy League would woop the best team in the SEC over any length series.
cbwilk - May 22, 2010
Maybe yes, maybe no. But he did start this season in AA , with just a few rookie league and AFL games under his belt, so that experience must be worth something.
DawgB - May 22, 2010
I’m not saying it’s not worth something. In fact, I’d argue that the highest level college players are the equivalent of High A players. But to say the league as a whole is the equivalent of a Minor League is just wrong. 95% of those college players (probably more) are going to be done with baseball when their college careers are over. 100% of those professional guys play professional baseball. There’s really little argument to be had over it.
cbwilk - May 22, 2010
Instead of nitpicking over what level the SEC would compare with exactly, let’s just say the point is that playing against SEC competition for 3 years makes him an advanced prospect, just like any big time prospect coming out of college. Look at Mike Leake. He pitched in a weaker conference and hasn’t needed any minor league time to be successful in the majors.
ajones2522 - May 22, 2010
Well that I agree with. It wasn’t nitpicking, it was having a conversation about something that a lot of folks don’t realize isn’t as obvious at it is.
cbwilk - May 23, 2010
Its the same as some people saying a dominate college football team could beat the worst NFL team…not happening…
bwellnjonesco - May 23, 2010
Not what I was saying at all. I was not comparing the SEC or any college baseball program to the major leagues. I was making the point that playing in a quality college program can help a player progress as if he was in A ball for those years.
DawgB - May 23, 2010
No, it isn't...
a college football team is composed of 18-23 year olds. NFL is 23-33, and composed of all great college players.
Low minor teams are of similar age, some maybe younger, some older, than college teams, but there is no significant age discrepancy like NFL vs. college football. And while the minor teams probably have more quality players per team, there are some really bad organizations, really bad coaches, and some teams just draft bad players, so that I don’t think it’s a stretch to say if you took the 8 teams in the College World Series, and matched them up with some of the worst short season minor league teams, they’d be competitive if not better in some cases.
Mr. Sanchez - May 23, 2010
I think it’s a huge stretch. Every guy on every minor league team was the best at some point, in high school, in college, possibly even in the Minors. That’s just not the case with college, a bunch of those guys weren’t even the best on their HS team. No, give it a series of any length and the worst minor league teams would make the best college teams look like what they are, a bunch of kids who happen to play baseball sometimes.
cbwilk - May 23, 2010
You've seen more than me, so I'll defer to the expert
Mr. Sanchez - May 23, 2010
I don’t know, maybe. But a lot of rookie league teams have a bunch of extremely young and raw international kids too. Obviously these kids are going to be extremely talented too but college teams are also going to have some juniors who are legit prospects and a lot more polished. I really don’t have an opinion on which teams are better but I do know those factors should be considered.
ajones2522 - May 23, 2010
All I’m saying is that the Sunday starter, and I don’t care which team you’re talking about, isn’t getting drafted, not even late in the draft. That means that no matter what team you’re talking about the third best starter isn’t good enough to go pro. International guys may be raw, but they were good enough to be offered contracts.
cbwilk - May 23, 2010
Maybe other teams are different and I’m using Vandy as an example just because I see them all the time, but they had Mike Minor starting on Sundays as a freshman and their Sunday starter this year is Jack Armstrong, a sophomore who was taken in the draft out of high school and is a pretty good prospect in his own right so I’m not sure a blanket statement like that works.
ajones2522 - May 24, 2010
So he (Minor) progressed up the chain, kind of like a prospect who starts in short season, then goes to low A, High A, AA, etc. Again, showing that the college programs can turn out some pretty good players, not just the low minors. Oh, yeah, there is also this fellow named Strasburg.
DawgB - May 24, 2010
Great, you’ve pointed out 1 of maybe 4 schools in the nation who validate your point. Yes, you might not be aware, but the vast majority of colleges are nothing like Vanderbilt or Rice or Texas or North Carolina.
cbwilk - May 24, 2010
Or....
….Virginia, Arizona State, Florida, Florida State,S. Carolina, UCLA, TCU, Louisville, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Auburn, et al. I did note that 5 SEC teams are in the top 25 this week.
Maybe we can both agree that the low minors and good college programs are incubators for future major leaguers. Each has their stregnths and weaknesses.
Can we now officially declare this horse dead?
DawgB - May 24, 2010
I don’t really have a point to validate other than to be sure we are dealing with facts. You said Sunday starters don’t get drafted. That’s false. And probably by more than you’re admitting. Vandy is an excellent program but the SEC has 7 or 8 other programs who are just as good if not better than Vandy. it’s that deep, so it’s not a stretch to say there are probably 4 teams with pitching depth comparable to Vandy in the SEC alone. I think that’s the whole point of the original post. The SEC can provide some really tough competition and shouldn’t be discounted as just a bunch of kids who can’t make it in pro ball.
ajones2522 - May 24, 2010
How many guys have their career end in A ball?
I could see major conference ball being at or near a level of rookie ball, perhaps some A ball teams. While the SEC isn’t a league full of legit prospects, neither are rookie ball and other leagues.
Mr. Sanchez - May 23, 2010
Yeah, but if you put that non-prospect A Ball guy in the SEC, or any other college league, he’d make them look foolish. Plenty of guys have their careers end in A ball, but the point is that they got to A ball while those college kids got to college.
cbwilk - May 23, 2010
Many college kids have been drafted and would be playing A ball if they had chosen to do so. I think it’s fair to say that some of the better college players are better than some of the A Ball players.
Again, my original point was that a player’s college experience, especially in a competitive conference, gives him quality experience which can justify skipping low levels of the minor leagues.
DawgB - May 23, 2010
Not that many college kids have been drafted. Or, anyway, being drafted in the 30th round and after doesn’t mean much.
cbwilk - May 23, 2010
A lot of college players don’t get drafted or get drafted late because teams already know they are planning on going to college.
ajones2522 - May 23, 2010
I guess that’s a factor, but if a guy is good they’ll usually draft him anyway, even if it’s late, just to take a chance. The Braves draft HS guys all the time, knowing they won’t sign him, just to let the guy know they like him.
cbwilk - May 23, 2010
Mike Piazza might disagree.
DawgB - May 24, 2010
So might the other 6 guys who’ve actually been successful out of later rounds. Pointing out the handful of guys who’ve done it in the 40+ year history of the draft really only reinforces my point about how impossible it is.
cbwilk - May 24, 2010
And many first round picks don’t pan out. It’s all a crap shoot.
DawgB - May 24, 2010
Apparently, that’s an understatement. He’s proving people out there that he is a legit pitcher. I know this has been said before but what does this guy throw and at what speed?
romone_braves91 - May 22, 2010
Fastball ranging from 88-92 but bas been pumping it up to 95 this year. Very good changeup that’s a good 10 MPH slower than his fastball along with a curve and slider.
ajones2522 - May 22, 2010
thanks a lot.
romone_braves91 - May 23, 2010
When will Masters get the call to MB?
chopc - May 22, 2010
Jordan Schafer
Is there anything wrong with Jordan Schafer? I noticed that he was 0 for 4 yesterday with three strike outs. I just hope he is healthy because I look forward to him playing center in Atlanta in the future.
JimH - May 22, 2010
I think he is relatively healthy. He just needs to get some at bats. I’d like to see him stay at AAA for the rest of the year and hopefully regain some confidence. If he does well then bring him up in September.
chopc - May 22, 2010
This is becoming a more likely scenario and it’s probably better for his future.
mdhenshaw - May 22, 2010
Love that line by Cody Johnson...
and I thought Gerardo Rodriguez was playing a corner OF spot for Myrtle, not 1B.
Mr. Sanchez - May 22, 2010
Well now he’s not playing anywhere. He had 13 games in LF, 11 at 1B, 9 in RF and 8 as DH.
timmy3 - May 22, 2010
Rodriguez
Suspended for 50 games now
BlueVol03 - May 22, 2010
Eh, whatever.
cbwilk - May 22, 2010
Future braves
Am I the only one that thinks Myke Jones is the SS of the future and Salcedo is the 3B of future.
atlbraveschamps - May 22, 2010
I think a lot of people here have Myke down as a 2nd baseman in MLB.
and it’s more of a hope for Salcedo as no one knows hardly anything about him..
bwellnjonesco - May 22, 2010
I think its really a “hope” for both these guys to be MLB players. Not saying they won’t be but Jones is 22 or 23 already and hitting around .200 in low A ball though he’s making progress recently. Salcedo though full of potential has yet to get an at bat in the minors. Really hope they both pan out though.
chopc - May 22, 2010
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