Kenshin Kawakami may have made his final AAA start.
Playoff Hunt
Myrtle Beach -The Pelicans lost tonight and Kinston won, leaving Myrtle Beach a game and a half behind the Indians with 9 games to go.
Danville -Danville lost, allowing the Burlington Royals to knock their deficit back to 2 games with 4 games left in the season.
Gwinnett 4, Durham 3
Joe Thurston had a walkoff single in the bottom of the 9th, capping off the G-Braves' comback from a 3-1 deficit. Thurston is working on a 9 game hitting strea, with a .421 average and 1.213 OPS in that span. Freddie Freeman extended his own hitting streak to 9 games, and Wilkin Ramirez extended his to 7 games, going 6-12 in his last 3. Nate McLouth hasn't done much in his time with Gwinnett, but he reached base 4 times tonight. Kenshin Kawakami made his 5th start for Gwinnett, and he's racked up a 4.35 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 11.3 H/9, 9.1 K/9, and 2.2 BB/9 in 20.2 innings. Compare that to his 4.75 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 9.9 H/9, 6.2 K/9, and 3.0 BB/9 in 83.1 innings for Atlanta, and you see that he's basically the same pitcher, except he's striking out a few more in AAA.
Mississippi 3, Carolina 2
JJ Hoover picked up his first win at AA, striking out 9 while allowing only 4 baserunners in 5 innings. It was the big righty's 12 win of the season, giving him the organizational lead. Mauro Gomez hit his league leading 39th double of the year. 25 year old Minor League vet Orlando Mercado has had a fine season for Mississippi, hitting .291 with a .708 OPS in 258 at bats.
Myrtle Beach 2, Winston-Salem 5
Big Mike Jones collected 3 of the Pelicans' 4 hits on the night. Matt Crim gave up too many hits, but his defense also let him down, as he was charged for 3 unearned runs. Still, after allowing a 8.00 ERA and a 2.00 ERA in 27 July innings, he rebounded nicely in August with a 4.30 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP in 23 innings. Andrew Wilson has been good with the Pelicans, with a 1.93 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP in 9.1 innings over 4 appearances.
Rome 9, Greensboro 3
Kyle Rose extended his hitting streak to 6 games, and he has a .423 on base percentage in that span with 4 steals and 5 runs scored. Joey Terdoslavich extended his hitting streak to 7 games and he's doubled in 3 straight. Dan Jurik pitched great in his second start for Rome, allowing just 1 earned run in 6 innings while striking out 5. In 62.2 innings between the GCL, Danville, and Rome, the 23 year old has a 3.30 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP.
Danville 2, Greeneville 5
Jakob Dalfonso continues to punish baseballs, going 7-13 in his last 3 games. Ryan Delgado has been a bit better, extending his hitting streak to 5 games, going 11-21 in that span. Blaine Sims has had a rough time in his last 2 starts, allowing 7 earned runs in 9 innings.
GCL Braves 2, GCL Yankees 4
The Orlando Braves didn't get much offesne in this one, scoring both of their runs off a Wilson Rivera pinch hit double. Victor Cadette had 3 hits and threw a runner out at home from left field. On the pitching side, well, I didn't know the Braves had a player named Francois Lafreniere.
0 recs | 22 comments
for some reason
I dont think Freddie will get the call. With Glaus hitting better in AAA after his little rest I think the team will just have him and Lee split playing time at 1B. Then if we make the WS one of them will DH, most likely Glaus.
We’ll find out in a few days I suppose.
Also any word on if this Gomez fellow could be a ML starter?
drumzalicious - August 27, 2010
Seems unlikely. He’ll be 26 going into next season, he’s never played at AAA, he’s limited to first base and he’s not that great at it. He’s a very good slugger, and could develop into a backup/fringe guy, but the chances of him becoming a starter are very low.
cbwilk - August 28, 2010
wait
I thought he was the guy we signed who defected from cuba
drumzalicious - August 28, 2010
That’s Yasser Gomez.
cbwilk - August 28, 2010
I have to like Mauro’s chances more than Yasser’s
Mauro is a 6’2" 230 power bat and is about to be 26. Yeah, he’s been limited to A ball, but has now had a very good offensive year at Mississippi (AA) and, overall, in his MiL career, he has 234 XBH in 2366 AB w/ .458 SLG. I’m hoping he will get the chance next year to start at Gwinnett and show what he can do at that level.
Yasser is a very slightly built 30 (?) year old singles hitter from Cuba w/ only 91 AB as a professional.
fandave - August 28, 2010
Either way
I see them both at AAA next year. Freddie will be in Atlanta and I’m assuming Barbaro will be back, but Mauro should be able to be the mostly everyday 1B up there. OF in Gwinnett next year will probably be Ramirez, Cabrera, Schafer or Young (don’t see both being there), Gomez, and Richardson or maybe a minor league free agent pick up.
elucas91 - August 28, 2010
I wasn’t comparing the two. I don’t think either of them have a great shot at making it. Gomez is going to be a Minor League free agent and might not even be back with the team next year.
cbwilk - August 28, 2010
I know. drumzalicious was confused and you unconfused him (or her – whichever the case may be).
Given our paupacity of RH power bats, I sure hope that Gomez is back and playing every day for Gwinnett.
fandave - August 28, 2010
There is no way they won’t call up Freeman at some point with Glaus moving to 3rd.I think they will resign Lee to mentor Freeman next year kind of and platoon with him a little bit.
cjones2010 - August 29, 2010
Lee is gonna get over 10 million dollars as a free agent. You don’t spend that kind of money to have a guy stick around and mentor/platoon with a younger guy. Freeman is going to get the job by himself.
cbwilk - August 29, 2010
The G Braves Corner Infield Report!
Another bad game for Atlanta, but Gwinnett was able to get a walk off win and get over .500 for the first time in like forever.
Glaus
At Bat #1 – struck out swinging on a shoulder high offspeed pitch.
At Bat #2 – deep fly out to center hit well but not crushed.
At Bat #3 – lazy fly ball to center.
At Bat #4 – seeing eye single to left that got the rally started in the 9th. On Barbaro’s single to right, Troy just kinda walked to second without looking at right field or the third base coach. All of a sudden he looks up and "takes off" (takes off is really stretching it) for third because the right fielder had taken a slow route to the ball. He got in safe but it was pretty awful base running.
Defensive Play #1 – broken bat grounder hit to him that he had good concentration on and made a routine throw to first.
Defensive Play #2 – high hop hit by the speedy Desmond Jennings that he handled and fired to first quickly to get the out.
Defensive Play #3 – hard chop hit at him, made a nice start to a 5-4-3 double play.
Summary : Not a great offensive night, but he did start the rally that led to the G Braves win. Defensively he looked solid when the ball was actually hit to him. So his glove and arm are fine, it just is a matter of whether the ball is hit where he can get to it. That’s not something you can count on for him being an everyday third baseman.
Freeman
At Bat #1 – got behind quickly 0-2 and fouled out to third.
At Bat #2 – actually hit a "soft" line drive for a base hit over the second baseman.
At Bat #3 – almost beat out a slow roller to short.
At Bat #4 – medium grounder up the middle that the second baseman was able to make a good play on and get Freddie out.
Defense – caught everything thrown to him, including one very nice pick on a 4-6-3 double play off a bad throw in the dirt from Bolivar. Two balls hit at him, one was caught on a line and the other he took on a bounce for the out at first.
Summary : Not quite as dominant as the past two nights, but had a solid all around game and took a back seat to some others for once.
Adding a new segment here – the starting pitching report. Nothing too in depth
Kawakami
99 Pitches
68 Strikes (12 swinging, 11 taken, 28 foul, 17 in play)
His curve was pretty good tonight, and his fastball was as long as he was locating it. His change wasn’t really working anywhere and he used it a lot less towards the end. Most of the hits were hit very flush, and it was a pretty mediocre effort overall.
Also, he came out with an "injury", though it came on his 99th pitch and he really just walked right off with the trainer not looking at anything. I think it was really just to give Gearrin (came in after him) more time to warm up.
elucas91 - August 27, 2010
thanks
joshant - August 28, 2010
Thanks for the report
As the AAA manager said it would take time for Glaus to get re-acquainted with 3B and less stiff and slow at the position. Its good to see when he gets to a ball he fields it cleanly.
I think he could be just as serviceable as Chipper was at 3B. Chipper didn’t have much range himself. The only thing we would have to worry about is balls bunted at him.
drumzalicious - August 28, 2010
i feel really sorry for KK
KK has been cursed all the year.
He cant win even in minors. The only win of the year came because a ump blown call.
joshant - August 28, 2010
Todd Cunningham
Is he supposed to hit for power at all? I thought he had been hitting pretty well lately, so I looked up his numbers-he’s hitting .313 over his past 10 games, but he’s got nine singles and a double. He’s slugged .344 over that time period, and he’s only slugging .360 since he was drafted. Is he going to end up being just a pure singles/OBP guy? I mean, even as a defensive oriented CF, you’ve got have just a little power just to be able to put balls in the gaps and take advantage of your speed.
Maybe I’m asking too much of him?
Bronn - August 28, 2010
When he was drafted I believe people projected him to hit 15-20 homers a year along with a decent amound of doubles (30-40). He’s yet to show that kind of power but we should give him at least a full season before we can come to any solid conclusion whether he can do that or not.
chopc - August 28, 2010
For his first few seasons I don’t think we’ll see much power simply because he hasn’t grown into his frame yet.
drumzalicious - August 28, 2010 via mobile
I have to wonder...
What will we do with Mclouth? He seems to still not be getting his act togather! I just can’t see paying 6.5 mil for a guys that hits like he does. I don’t know if he can pull it off, but maybe he can fix it this winter. It just seems like it’s not going to happen.
UpstateNyBravesFan - August 28, 2010
He looks rough
I think if they can dump him they will, but maybe he just needs an offseason to work on his swing and get his psyche back to normal. I mean even if he just plays like 2009 McLouth, that’s .260/.350/.440 or so with 20 homers and 20 steals and decent defense. If we just that or even a little less, he’s worth the 6.5 mil. I just don’t know if he can get back to that or not.
elucas91 - August 28, 2010
Who?
Braves24 - August 28, 2010 via mobile
wot?
get swoll yunel - August 28, 2010
LaFrennierre was the lowest drafted player to sign...
taken in the 47th round. Here’s the draft day right up on him…
http://www.talkingchop.com/2010/6/10/1510297/recapping-the-braves-2010-draft
Francois LaFreniere (47th round, 1424 overall), RHP – This native of Quebec, Canada, was drafted last year by the Phillies in the 43rd-round, and the year before by the Giants in the 34th-round.. He played this season at St. Petersburg Junior College, but missed most of the season because of an administrative problem, so not that many scouts got a chance to see him.
Mr. Sanchez - August 30, 2010
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