SATURDAY NIGHT FINAL 6/26/21; Javier Anchors M-Braves 2-hitter

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
SATURDAY MINORS SCOREBOARD

All Times Eastern

CLASS AAA

Norfolk 4, Gwinnett 2


SP: Toussaint 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K
Arano 1.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Burrows 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
LP: Horacek (1-2) 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Tice 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
Lee 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Kipnis 2-4, HR (3rd), RBI
Lucroy 2-4, 2B

CLASS AA

Mississippi 5, Tennessee 0

WP: Javier (4-1) 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K
Withrow (Save, 1) 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K

Rijo 2-3, 2B, HR (3rd), 2 R, 3 RBI
T.Harris 2-4, R
SHewmake 1-4, R, SB

ADVANCED CLASS A

Aberdeen 5, Rome 0

LP: Vines (0-1) 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER(5R), 3 BB, 7 K
Crouse 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Schwab 1 IP, 2 BB

Josephina 1-4
Milligan 1-4

CLASS A

Charleston 9, Augusta 1

LP: Van Buren (0-1) 1 IP, 2 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Santos 1.1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Pena 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Acuna 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Thompson 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

Horne 1-4, HR (4th), RBI
 
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Waters is basically a k or bb only at this point. Guess they told him to get his bb rate up, and now he's horrible.

Pache is sporting a 37.9% k rate at AAA.

This season truly is cursed
 
Observations from watching Gwinnett last night...


Pache's been so bad they're not even focused on getting him the most possible ABs at this point - he was hitting 7th last night.

Waters looks just like Waters - he chases EVERYTHING letter-high and gets himself out whether it's swinging-and-missing or popping out.

Touki looked just like Touki - struck out the first two hitters of the game, walked the next guy, and hit the next guy. Bounced about 1/3 of his pitches at least 2-3 feet in front of the plate.
 
Sure, but I doubt it. I think both will be mlb players, but I'm becoming doubtful either will be difference makers

Agree at this point. Pache has always taken instruction pretty well but I got to see him recently and he looks like he did right before Rome. By that I mean, whoever is giving him instruction now seems to have implanted the thought of slap and go again. You don't retool a swing and re-do it AFTER they've had some measure of success before. He's also a guess batter now which is maddening because he's been guessing wrong A LOT.

In any case, I have hope for Pache...some for Waters but aside from Covid killing a year of needed AB'S, these two need an instructional league right now!
 
The Braves have been pretty fortunate with position prospects in the sense that none of the top ones have busted since…I can’t remember the last top position prospect that busted actually. Maybe that catcher bethancourt?

We may not be used to it, but position players do bust quite often, and it could be happening with both Pache and waters. It’s obviously too early to declare either a bust though.
 
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The Braves have been pretty fortunate with position prospects in the sense that none of the top ones have busted since…I can’t remember the last top position prospect that busted actually. Maybe that catcher bethancourt?

We may not be used to it, but pairion players do bust quite often, and it could be happening with both Pache and waters. It’s obviously too early to declare either a bust though.

Also for whatever reason when the Braves do the yo-yo thing, some of the prospects go into shellshock. It's like they forget that it is OK to have success.

For Pache it was set up to let him have some AB'S and if he struggled, the rest of the lineup could pick him up. I liked that thought. Somewhere along the way, the Braves forgot how to hit unless it was Acuña or a woman and things went to h3ll.
 
The Braves have been pretty fortunate with position prospects in the sense that none of the top ones have busted since…I can’t remember the last top position prospect that busted actually. Maybe that catcher bethancourt?

We may not be used to it, but position players do bust quite often, and it could be happening with both Pache and waters. It’s obviously too early to declare either a bust though.

Is it good fortune or good scouting and development?
 
Also for whatever reason when the Braves do the yo-yo thing, some of the prospects go into shellshock. It's like they forget that it is OK to have success.

For Pache it was set up to let him have some AB'S and if he struggled, the rest of the lineup could pick him up. I liked that thought. Somewhere along the way, the Braves forgot how to hit unless it was Acuña or a woman and things went to h3ll.

I feel like there's no doubt it's had a negative effect on the Pitchers. I've mentioned that several times before, and it's been interesting to hear BOTH Glavine and Smoltz mention it in the last week. I get that it's tough to commit to one of the kids when you're in contention, but if you're going to do that with 2 or 3 of them looking for someone to "take the job and run with it", pick one for a month and ride him - no matter the results. Let him throw all his side sessions and pens with the other two unofficial Pitching Coaches (Morton and Tomlin) watching and on hand to offer advice.

It appeared that they had done that with Ynoa before his dumb *ss punched the bench - and even to an extent Davidson after that - and Muller has earned that right for now. Treat him like an important part of your team (last time I checked SPs were) instead of some kind of experiment and see what he does with that opportunity. Stop sending him to Gwinnett to throw side sessions and bullpens. Have Wilson and Wright (for now anyway) pitch on the same day and day after Muller does AT LEAST through the break. That gives him 2-3 more weeks to continue throwing to Contreras and Smith so he hopefully develops even more confidence in them.


I'm not a believer that it has affected Pache in any way - they stuck with him at the MLB level a lot longer than they probably should have, and it cost them. That was probably two weeks too late (his last action was May 13th). He shold have been sent down with a specific list of things to work on when he was hitting .133/.161/.200 after his first two weeks of playing every day. I realize they couldn't have sent him back down in mid-April since he was on the IL, but he should have been sent down as soon as they activated him instead of having him be even worse for two weeks when he came back. Heredia and Almonte are far from great options, but it's impossible to convince me that replacing Pache with either of them for the first two weeks of May wouldn't have given this team a much better chance to be in better position going into the break.
 
I feel like there's no doubt it's had a negative effect on the Pitchers. I've mentioned that several times before, and it's been interesting to hear BOTH Glavine and Smoltz mention it in the last week. I get that it's tough to commit to one of the kids when you're in contention, but if you're going to do that with 2 or 3 of them looking for someone to "take the job and run with it", pick one for a month and ride him - no matter the results. Let him throw all his side sessions and pens with the other two unofficial Pitching Coaches (Morton and Tomlin) watching and on hand to offer advice.

It appeared that they had done that with Ynoa before his dumb *ss punched the bench - and even to an extent Davidson after that - and Muller has earned that right for now. Treat him like an important part of your team (last time I checked SPs were) instead of some kind of experiment and see what he does with that opportunity. Stop sending him to Gwinnett to throw side sessions and bullpens. Have Wilson and Wright (for now anyway) pitch on the same day and day after Muller does AT LEAST through the break. That gives him 2-3 more weeks to continue throwing to Contreras and Smith so he hopefully develops even more confidence in them.


I'm not a believer that it has affected Pache in any way - they stuck with him at the MLB level a lot longer than they probably should have, and it cost them. That was probably two weeks too late (his last action was May 13th). He shold have been sent down with a specific list of things to work on when he was hitting .133/.161/.200 after his first two weeks of playing every day. I realize they couldn't have sent him back down in mid-April since he was on the IL, but he should have been sent down as soon as they activated him instead of having him be even worse for two weeks when he came back. Heredia and Almonte are far from great options, but it's impossible to convince me that replacing Pache with either of them for the first two weeks of May wouldn't have given this team a much better chance to be in better position going into the break.
Meh. Love your post but I still think it has more to do with whatever they told Pache to do. I also would have kept him down though so you're right. I also can't stand Heredia/Almonte but thats a my problem. They've been serviceable for sure. I think AA blew it this offseason but that's another story.
 
Meh. Love your post but I still think it has more to do with whatever they told Pache to do. I also would have kept him down though so you're right. I also can't stand Heredia/Almonte but thats a my problem. They've been serviceable for sure. I think AA blew it this offseason but that's another story.

I agree in hindsight, but will be the first to admit I was all for giving him the job coming out of camp. You KNEW what you had in Ender, weren't sure what you had in Heredia and Almonte, and (some of us) thought Ervin might have been the best random signing out of the group - but Pache had done everything they had asked of him, and his bat looked as "ready as it could be" during spring games. You knew he was going to struggle at times like everyone does, but he was going to hit 8th, and playing him made sense (to me) as long as you were confident that he had the makeup to deal with those struggles psychologically. You didn't think he could be "worse" than Ender, and if he was having a tough time you figured you could at least platoon the two of them and make use of their defense late in games. Ender getting hurt right away is probably a huge contributing factor in all this.

There was plenty of reason to expect SOME regression from the offense, but there was no way to project that every single one of Freddie, Ozuna, Albies, d'Arnaud, and Dansby would ALL start out as badly as they did and that Pache would immediately look so overmatched when the lights came on after the spring he had. I completely understand all those who questioned whether he was actually "ready", but think it was next to impossible to have predicted that he'd have been this bad - he never had been before.
 
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Meh. Love your post but I still think it has more to do with whatever they told Pache to do. I also would have kept him down though so you're right. I also can't stand Heredia/Almonte but thats a my problem. They've been serviceable for sure. I think AA blew it this offseason but that's another story.

Sorry but Heredia has been more than serviceable... 800+ OPS with good defense
 
Sorry but Heredia has been more than serviceable... 800+ OPS with good defense
I said what I said. But you're right.

Btw..I'm not a fan of mirages. We seem to get our share of them. He's never had an OPS over.672 so I'm still meh on him. He'll have to do. Lol
 
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I'm a somewhat broken record on this, but the pandemic year was a real kick in the groin to a lot of prospects. Scrimmaging at the alternate site just wasn't real baseball. Anderson did come out of the alternate site ready to go, but there's a difference between pitchers and every day players. Braves have been aggressive with promoting guys and that has worked better than I expected, but those were normal times. 2020 was hardly normal.
 
We definitely need to upgrade CF if we can. Heredia will pumpkin offensively at some point, and he’s not very good defensively.
 
I'm a somewhat broken record on this, but the pandemic year was a real kick in the groin to a lot of prospects. Scrimmaging at the alternate site just wasn't real baseball. Anderson did come out of the alternate site ready to go, but there's a difference between pitchers and every day players. Braves have been aggressive with promoting guys and that has worked better than I expected, but those were normal times. 2020 was hardly normal.

We knew that was the case when the season was scrapped
 
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