7/1 MINORS FINAL FRIDAY: 3 Guys I Gotta Write About (or ...

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
... 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.
 
Looking at the numbers, I didn't realize how good Rob Whalen has been this year... really one of our best pitchers. He's been really good his whole career thus far... at what point do people start looking at him as a major prospect? He has pretty good stuff.
 
Looking at the numbers, I didn't realize how good Rob Whalen has been this year... really one of our best pitchers. He's been really good his whole career thus far... at what point do people start looking at him as a major prospect? He has pretty good stuff.

I already do. He is younger than I thought.. but would like to see him cut down on the BB.. coming off an average start last time out and facing a good team.. I would like him to shut them down to really establish himself as a legit prospect and someone who can crack the top 100 by end of season.
 
Didn't Jared James father kill a bird against the Mets?

Indeed he did. First highlight in this set of odd Mets' moments.

[video=youtube;UlJXwe2QFsw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlJXwe2QFsw[/video]

But this is the all-time bird kill from the Big Unit.

[video=youtube;Ca4unXtfoqU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca4unXtfoqU[/video]
 
Bryse Wilson was added to the GCL roster today. He's listed as active and isn't on the DL, so it's probably safe to assume Rowland is the injured draft pick in the Anthony saga.
 
Bryse Wilson was added to the GCL roster today. He's listed as active and isn't on the DL, so it's probably safe to assume Rowland is the injured draft pick in the Anthony saga.

I wonder what the Rowland injury is and just how much he didn't disclose. No matter how you slice it; that's not a great way to start your career.
 
I wonder what the Rowland injury is and just how much he didn't disclose. No matter how you slice it; that's not a great way to start your career.

I don't want to dump on the Rowlands, but are there grounds for fraud if the injury is big enough? I have to believe that Rowland passed the physicals necessary to compete for his high school, but I wonder what it could be beyond that. Something congenital would have shown up in those physicals and I'm sure they are looked at. I wonder if it was a late-season arm problem.

If it is indeed the Rowlands. It could be that Becherer's elbow is worse than expected.
 
I don't want to dump on the Rowlands, but are there grounds for fraud if the injury is big enough? I have to believe that Rowland passed the physicals necessary to compete for his high school, but I wonder what it could be beyond that. Something congenital would have shown up in those physicals and I'm sure they are looked at. I wonder if it was a late-season arm problem.

From what I understand from my readings. whoever it was, did have his contract reduced because of this injury.. but the total that was originally signed for still counted against the pool. So the Braves paid him less money, but still got dinged for the total original. I could be misinterpreting what I read.
 
From what I understand from my readings. whoever it was, did have his contract reduced because of this injury.. but the total that was originally signed for still counted against the pool. So the Braves paid him less money, but still got dinged for the total original. I could be misinterpreting what I read.

That would point to Becherer, whose signing bonus was initially reported as $275,000, but then came in officially at $175,000.
 
I don't want to dump on the Rowlands, but are there grounds for fraud if the injury is big enough? I have to believe that Rowland passed the physicals necessary to compete for his high school, but I wonder what it could be beyond that. Something congenital would have shown up in those physicals and I'm sure they are looked at. I wonder if it was a late-season arm problem.

If it is indeed the Rowlands. It could be that Becherer's elbow is worse than expected.

The thing that confuses me is that the contracts are contingent upon the physical. So I'm guessing there is something that the player knew about that did not come up during the physical.
 
I have some hopes for Isranel Wilson, which were stoked after seeing him a bit this spring. He seems like a nice kid, too.
 
The thing that confuses me is that the contracts are contingent upon the physical. So I'm guessing there is something that the player knew about that did not come up during the physical.

It's puzzling to me as well. I don't want to pin it on a player or a family. This is just something odd that has happenend and it led to a tempest in a teapot vis-a-vis Josh Anthony. I doubt anyone acted in bad faith.
 
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