Punching Tickets: Minor League Movements: July 5-15

This edition is a little late, as we spent most of last week helping to get Freddie Freeman into the major league All-Star game.  That worked… although he caught the injury virus being spread by the entire Braves outfield.  Well at least Brian McCann is going!

I missed a couple of All-Star performers last week:  let’s fix that error and congratulate these additional players named to the AA All-Star team from the Mississippi Braves, joining Christian Bethancourt, Mark Lamm, Edward Salcedo, and Gus Schlosser:

• Jose Martinez
• Jaime Pedroza

Assigned to the GCL Braves from Danville:

• Mike Volpe (7/15 – was assigned to Danville on 7/1)
• Luis Monasterio (7/11 – was assigned to Danville on 7/1)

Added to the Danville Braves this week:

• RHP Carlos Salazar (2013 3rd Round pick; from GCL Braves, 7/15)
• 3B Mike Dodig (from GCL Braves, 7/11)

No transactions for the Rome Braves since our last report.

Promoted to High-A Lynchburg this week:

• RHP Williams Perez (from Rome, 7/10)
• RHP Carlos Perez (from Rome, 7/8)

Promoted to AA Mississippi this week:

• LHP Ronan Pacheco (from Lynchburg, 7/9)

Promoted to AAA Gwinnett:

• RHP Mark Lamm (from Mississippi, 7/4 – I misspelled his name last week… sorry about that)

The scrambling you see going on here is directly related to the bizarre spate of injuries on the major league roster.   But, to maintain 25 names in Atlanta, you have to occasionally option guys back to Gwinnett:

• Alex Wood (from Altanta, 7/13).  Wood has been doing a great job in his own “rescue mission” in saving the Braves bullpen.  He’ll be back.  Soon.

Yep, he’s back!  The Braves increased the average age of its outfield by… well, a lot this week:  36-year-old Reed Johnson and this 30-year-old…

• Jose Constanza (from Gwinnett, 7/13)

(from @CraigDesign via twitter)

Hmmm….. how much space have we got left on this page???  Seriously, though, there’s way more minor injuries that so far haven’t resulted in DL-stays…. but it sure feels like there are.

• DEACTIVATED: B.J. Upton (15-day, Atlanta, 7/13)
• ACTIVATED DUE TO EMERGENCY: C/LF/1B Evan Gattis (15-day, Atlanta, 7/14)
• REHABBING: RHP Brandon Beachy (15-day; pitching well in rehab)
• DEACTIVATED: Jordan Schafer (15-day, Atlanta, ankle, 7/4… we now know he has a stress fracture)
• DEACTIVATED:  Cristhian Martinez (shoulder surgery)
• ACTIVATED:  RHP Michael Lee (7/5, 7-day DL, Mississippi)
• ACTIVATED:  RHP Gary Moran (7/5, 7-day DL, Mississippi)
• DEACTIVATED:  RHP Juan Jaime (7/9, 7-day DL retro to 7/4, Mississippi).  This would certainly explain his recent poor outings.  Hope it isn’t serious.

These players were released by the organization this week.  We offer our thanks and congratulations for their time with the Braves, and our hopes for their future – whether continuing in baseball or some other pursuit.

• LHP Brandon Rohde (Danville, 7/2)
• RHP Ernesto Silva (Danville, 7/2)
• 1B Aris Alcantara (Danville, 7/11)

• RHP Ryan Weber was suspended by the organization on July 11th.  The 6′-5″ 23-year-old, drafted in 2009 by the Braves in the 22nd Round.  He has not yet progressed above Lynchburg (High-A), and is currently listed on that roster, having thrown 72 innings with a 3.48 ERA this season.  I have no further information about the details of whatever led to the suspension.