8/3/2015 MONDAY MINORS FINAL ... Lowdown on Thurman; G-Braves win 9th of 10

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
MOVES:

LHP Mitch Lambson goes on Gwinnett DL
Danville adds Juan Yepez, Justin Ellison from GCL
Leudys Baez promoted from Danville to Rome

From MiLB:

After a month of caution, Andrew Thurman finally got a chance to turn himself loose Sunday. The Braves' No. 20 prospect (MILB.com) retired 21 batters in a row, allowing one hit while striking out seven over a season-high seven innings in Class A Advanced Carolina's 6-0 blanking of Wilmington. After allowing a leadoff double to Carlos Garcia, the 23-year-old kept the Blue Rocks off the basepaths for the remainder of the game to improve to 5-3.

Thurman had been unable to go more than four innings in three starts since coming off the disabled list. The right-hander missed much of May and all of June after being one of six Mudcats players to head to the disabled list after a May 15 bus accident.

"The bus accident happened, and then coming back, my pitch count was a little bit lower then, which allowed me not too really go too far into games," Thurman said. "But tonight I was getting ahead and getting guys out pretty quickly, so I was able to go a little bit later in the game. It's a blast. Pitching deep into ball games is always fun. Just to come away with a win, especially when we're trying to make a run for a playoff spot here. I think we've won six or seven in a row, so we're rolling right now."

One of three prospects sent to Atlanta in the trade that moved outfielder Evan Gattis to Houston, Thurman utilizes a four-pitch mix -- fastball, slider, curveball and changeup -- and noted he felt confident throwing all four Sunday.

"My defense played great behind me and I was able to just work quick and efficiently," Thurman said. "Changeup was working well. I was using that pretty much in any different count. Late in the count, both my breaking balls were working well. I was getting ahead with the fastball most often, so I was throwing a lot of strikes and that really helped out a lot."

One of those pitches in particular caught the attention of Wilmington manager Brian Buchanan.

"He had a decent curveball," Buchanan said. "He could throw it for strikes when he wanted to and kind of bury it when he wanted a strikeout or an out. He threw the ball well."

The UC Irvine product was 4-2 with a 2.51 ERA before going down with the injury. He struggled initially after returning, posting a 7.50 ERA in his first three starts spanning 12 innings back with the team.

"If I have a rough start or a rough inning, I move past it pretty quickly," Thurman said. "After tonight, I'm just looking forward to my next start and working toward that for the next five or six days."

Even so, Sunday's start felt pretty good for the California native and his Carolina teammates, who have won six straight.

"Everything feels good," said Thurman. "My arms feels good, ribs feel good. Just ready to keep this kind of rolling. This start, I feel good about it. I feel good and we're feeling good as a team right now."

Mudcats first baseman Jacob Schrader went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored. Leadoff man Keith Curcio added two hits and two RBIs.

MONDAY SCHEDULE

ALL TIMES EDT

CLASS AAA


Gwinnett 3, Rochester 1

Gwinnett wins 9th in 10 games.
WP: V. Mateo (1-0) 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. (AAA debut)
Moylan (Save, 3) 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.
Bethancourt 2-3, 2B, HR (3rd), 2 RBI; Hunter 2-4, 2 R, HR (8th), RBI; Terdoslavich 0-4, 3 K.

CLASS AA

Montgomery 1, Mississippi 0 (12)

Official Box said it was 100 degrees at gametime.
M-Braves: only 3 hits over 12 innings.
SP: Bird 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K. (Braves debut)
Barbosa 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K.
T. Jones 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K.
LP: Reyes (6-6) 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER 0 BB, 1 K.
Landoni 1-5, Kennelly 1-3, BB.

ADVANCED CLASS A

Carolina, idle.

CLASS A

Savannah 7, Rome 4

LP: Gil (1-5) 6.2 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
Albies 0-1, SAC (left game for PH in 4th)
Tellor 3-4, RBI; Baez 1-4, R; Murphy 1-3, R, RBI.
Gil a combined 2-13 in 2015.

SHORT-SEASON

GCL Braves (14-19) @ GCL Phillies, ppd.

DSL Braves 7, DSL Marlins 3

SP: Henry 3 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K.
WP: A. Sanchez (4-0) 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K.
Pantoja (Save, 2) 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K.
Ventura 2-5, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI (.329); Michel 2-5, 2 RBI, OF assist; Concepcion 2-4, 2 RBI, SB; Fernandez 3-4, R; Boeldak 2-5, 3B, 2 R, RBI.

Danville, idle.

GCL Braves have been rained out seven times since July 16.
 
Cautiously optimistic on Bird honestly. The scouts seem to think there is a lot more there than the numbers at this point. Hoping we hit gold on one of these "throw in" arms. With how we develop pitchers, this guys arrow should be pointing up!
 
Cautiously optimistic on Bird honestly. The scouts seem to think there is a lot more there than the numbers at this point. Hoping we hit gold on one of these "throw in" arms. With how we develop pitchers, this guys arrow should be pointing up!

Everyone's heard about the bird.

[video=youtube;2WNrx2jq184]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNrx2jq184[/video]
 
Bethancourt providing reasons to believe he can contribute next year. Double and home run.
 
Bethancourt providing reasons to believe he can contribute next year. Double and home run.

It's great to see. I wouldn't mind going into next year with the same AJ/Bethancourt duo, and I would start with Bethancourt again and let him play 4 of every 5 games.
 
Leudys Baez is an interesting case. I'm always curious about guys from Latin America who didn't sign at 16 or 17. Baez signed as an 18-year-old in December. Wonder why he flew below the radar. He did well in Danville except for his inability to take walks.
 
Leudys Baez is an interesting case. I'm always curious about guys from Latin America who didn't sign at 16 or 17. Baez signed as an 18-year-old in December. Wonder why he flew below the radar. He did well in Danville except for his inability to take walks.

The story with him is that he signed a year earlier with the Gnats but the contract was not approved. Not clear why. But a year later he signed for the Braves. The name and birth date had not changed, so it was not a question of that. I believe he signed for quite a bit more with the Braves than he had with the Gnats.
 
C-Beth still hitting well. Any chance we give him a FT shot with the big boys this year?

I think he has an outside shot of becoming a starting major league catcher. But if we want to build a contending team, we shouldn't make that kind of assumption. I'm happy to pencil him in as our backup catcher and if he forces the manager to play him more that's great.
 
I think he has an outside shot of becoming a starting major league catcher. But if we want to build a contending team, we shouldn't make that kind of assumption. I'm happy to pencil him in as our backup catcher and if he forces the manager to play him more that's great.

As a prospect, he had a lot of tools. Speed, build, arm, etc... I think the package is worth waiting for, but like you said I'm not pushing my chips in the middle on him. The level of serviceable catcher in MLB is pitiful.

He needs to sure up the mistakes, know what he wants to do with hitters out there and hit a bit more to be very useful.
 
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