... you might not appreciate them)
1. CARLOS CASTRO. Nay-sayers can gear up, but I gotta shout Castro's season so far from the rooftops. Stuck in extended spring, he did not even play in a game until May 23 when injures led to his promotion to Rome. He was homerless in his first six games, but since then ....
BOOM!
Castro, prospect or not, has been far and away the most potent power bat in the system. Since May 31st, he has hit 10 home runs good for 19 RBIs in 22 games. That translates to nine homers in June. He is hitting only .208 with a strikeout per game, but home runs are where you find them and this is an amazing run of long balls.
Castro is listed as a catcher, but has played first base exclusively at Rome. He turned 22 in May, 6-1, 195.
2. JARED JAMES. The Braves 34th-round pick out of Cal Poly, the 1009th players selected, and many assumed he was a courtesy legacy pick as the son of former Brave Dion James. He was also drafted one round after heralded non-signee Handsome Monica. But James has had the best start to his pro career of all the non-pitchers.
James, 22, is a lefty hitting outfielder who has shown skills in every area. He had two hits and two RBIs in his pro debut, and has eight RBIs in his first eight games, batting .296 with a stolen base and more walks than strikeouts. Importantly, he is hitting .333 against lefties.
He is a transfer from Long Beach State. As a senior at Poly, he reached base in 58 of 61 games, stole 14 of 18 bases and did not commit an error.
3. PARKER DANCIU. The Braves 39th round pick, surprise signing? But big lefty from Marshall (6-4, 215) earned a win in his pro debut by working three innings and not allow an earned run. He has yet to appear again, but it would seem that the Braves did not make a lot of late, frivolous picks the way they did when Frank Wren and his lackeys were running things.
Small wonder he was a late pick. Had 5.74 ERA as senior with more than a hit allowed per innning and only 43 strikeouts in 85 innings. But a tip of the hat for so far, so good.
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FRIDAY'S MINOR LEAGUE RESULTS
CLASS AAA
Gwinnett 5, Louisville 3
WP: Weber (1-3) 5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Janas 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Cunniff (Save, 1) 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R,0 BB, 1 K
Recker 2-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI
Lipka 2-5, 2B, R
Mustelier 2-4, R, RBI
Tuiasosopo 1-4, HR (11th), RBI
Rojas 1-2, RBI
CLASS AA
Mississippi 3, Jackson 1
WP: Whalen (6-5) 7 IP, 5 , 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Phillips 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Younginer (Save, 8) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Swanson 2-4, R
Peterson 2-3, RBI
Franco 1-3, RBI
Albies 0-3, R , SB
ADVANCED CLASS A
Lynchburg 7, Carolina 3
LP: Clark (0-10) 4.2 IP, 4 H,4 ER, 5 BB, 4 K
Salazar 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
Johnson-Mullins 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
Minter 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Mendez 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K
Gaylor 1-4, R, RBI, SB, BB
Daris 2-4, 2B, R, RBI
Tejeda 1-3, 2B, R, BB
CLASS A
Rome 3, Lexington 1
WP: Sanchez (4-6) 7 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K
G. Jones 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Graham (Save, 2) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
(2-hitter, 14 Ks)
Dykstra 1-4
Herbert 1-4, HR (3rd), 2 RBI
Castro 0-3, R, BB
SHORT-SEASON
DSL Braves 3, DSL Brewers 1
SP: Lopez 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 1 K
WP: J. De La Cruz (1-0) 3 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
Bautista (Save, 1) 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K
Olmos 1-3, RBI (.097)
Salazar 1-4, 2 RBI (.132)
Michel 0-5 (.282)
Morales 0-4 (.167)
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GCL Phillies 3, GCL Braves 2
SP: Heredia 4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
LP: Vega 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K
D. Cruz 1-4, HR (1st), RBI (.393)
Pokorney 1-3, 2B, RBI
Concepcion 1-3, BB (.429)
Ventura 0-3, BB, SB (.320)
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Johnson City 1, Danville 0
LP: Mora (0-2) 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Kennedy 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Clouse 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K
Mooney 2-3, SB
James 1-3, BB
Cumberland 0-2, BB
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No-hitter details
Rob Wooten, Matt Marksberry and Jose Ramirez etched their names into the Gwinnett Braves' record books on Thursday night, combining to throw the second no-hitter in club history in a 3-0 win over the Louisville Bats (39-41) at Louisville Slugger Field.
It's the first no-hitter for the G-Braves (36-45) since right-hander Todd Redmond accomplished the feat over 9.0 innings on May 28, 2010, also at Louisville.
Wooten (W, 1-1), making just his second career start in spot duty, was nearly perfect in his 6.0 innings. The right-hander set a career high for both innings pitched and strikeouts as he fanned eight. He did not walk a batter and threw 45 of his 61 pitches for strikes.
Louisville got its only two baserunners of the night against him in the fourth. Wooten struck out Jermaine Curtis, but strike three bounced away from catcher Anthony Recker, allowing Curtis to reach first base. Scott Schebler then got to first on a fielding error by shortstop Sean Kazmar Jr., putting runners on first and second.
But Wooten would get Steve Selsky to fly out to center and Kyle Waldrop to ground out to second to end the inning. Wooten completed two more innings before Marksberry (H, 4) entered to begin the seventh.
Marksberry proceeded to strike out two over his 2.0 perfect innings and Ramirez (S, 4) retired all three batters he faced in the ninth, including Curtis on a game-ending fly-out to Matt Tuiasosopo in right field.
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Originally Posted by Pugfan
