Punching Tickets: the Minor League Transactions Report

What a crazy, horrible, terrible, no-good very bad couple of weeks for the Braves.  Dan Uggla‘s eyes don’t focus, B.J. Upton can’t make contact – much less hit, Jason Heyward can’t chew, Brandon Beachy is down again, and Elliot Johnson is a starter.  With all of this stuff going on, I realized that we hadn’t had a transactions report for a while.  It’s time.  Players are moving.  Progress is being made!

Let’s start in Orlando with the Gulf-coasters:

• Jordany Santana (RHP) was voted off the island:  graduating from the Dominican Summer League to the GCL Braves (8/3)
• Gerald Chin (2B) likewise was brought stateside from the DSL (8/16)
• Ryan Weber (RHP) is rehabbing an injury with the GCL club (from Lynchburg; 8/9)

Three players were brought back to Orlando from Danville:

• Matt Kimbrel (RHP, 8/7 – 0.00 ERA in 3 innings, 2 hits, 0 walks)
• Hector Garcia (RF, 8/5)
• Carlos Salazar (RHP, 8/6)

Moving up to Danville, Virginia – 4 graduations:

• Cody Livesay (CF, 8/22 – and he promptly went 3 for 5 in his first game!)
  
• Luis Monasterio (2B, 8/16)
• Victor Reyes (OF, 8/5)
• Andy Otero (LHP, 8/4)

Meanwhile, Ronald Luna brought back from Rome (8/18)

In Georgia….

• Lefty Paul Maholm spent a day in Rome for a rehab start (8/16).  As we know, he’s now in St. Louis
• 2B Ronald Luna was promoted from Danville (8/10)
• LHP Sean Gilmartin was assigned for a rehab stint (8/9) – this has now ended – he’s back with Gwinnett.

A couple of their players were brought back from Lynchburg:

• C Chase Anselment assigned to Rome Braves from Lynchburg Hillcats (8/17).  He had been called up to Lynchburg on 8/8 to support them when Shawn McGill went on the DL.
• RHP Zach Jadofsky assigned to Rome Braves from Lynchburg Hillcats (8/16)

Bouncing back to Virginia – the Lynchburg Hillcats…

• brought in LHP Jose Lugo, from Rome (8/17)
• activated RHP Ryan Weber (8/14)
• placed LHP Carlos Perez on the 7-day DL (8/14).  Still on the DL.
• placed C Shawn McGill on the 7-day DL (8/8) [right bicep tendinitis].  Still on that list.

Here’s a weird one:

• SS Daniel Castro loaned to Lynchburg from Saraperos de Saltillo, which is a ‘AAA-level team in the Mexican League’ – playing in Saltillo, Coahuila.  Interesting.

The Mississippi Braves have a few things going on:

• CF Mycal Jones sprained an ankle pretty seriously, and was placed on the 7-day DL (8/11).  Still nursing that injury.
• RHP Shae Simmons was bumped up all the way from Rome (8/5)

• Meanwhile, RHP Joe Bisenius was sent to AA from Gwinnett (8/10 – see below as well), and
• on the same day, RHP Jason Rice was released.  We wish him well.

And finally, with all the injuries and such, the Gwinnett team has a roster written in pencil these days:

•  2B Philip Gosselin was added to the 40-man roster for the purposes of being promoted to the Atlanta Braves (8/16), then optioned back to Gwinnett (8/22)
• OF Todd Cunningham was likewise optioned back to AAA from Atlanta (8/11) and this afternoon recalled to the majors again (8/23).
• 2B Tyler Greene was signed to a minor league after being released from the Chicago White Sox, and assigned to Gwinnett (8/17)
• Joe Bisenius was brought back from Mississippi on 8/14 after going down to help them out on 8/10.
• LHP Sean Gilmartin completed his Rome rehab and was activated on 8/14.  First game back?  Excellent (no runs in 5 innings; 4 hits).  Second?  not so good – 4 earned in 4 innings; 7 hits.
• RHP Cory Gearrin was placed on the 7-day disabled list (8/10)
• RHP Gary Moran was promoted from Mississippi on the same day (8/10)
• RHP Andrew Russell was added from Mississippi (8/5)
• I’ll skip the other rehab stints by B.J., Gerald Laird, and Jordan Schafer