Late Season Shuffles: Atlanta Braves Minor League Promotions

Several Minor League transactions have been made in the past day for the Braves, including some quick promotions for a couple of International teens.

GOING TO ATLANTA

• Casey Kelly is expected to make the Sunday afternoon start for the A-Braves.  His AAA work this year has been good:  73 innings of 3.58 ERA with a 1.25 WHIP.  In the majors, he’s had 10 appearances included 1 start.  A 5.82 ERA has been punctuated by good and bad outings:  In his last 7 games, he’s given up 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 0, 0 runs.  His lone start came on June 5th.
• UPDATE:  Seems Kelly pitched an inning for Gwinnett tonight… we’ve been overcome a bit by some other news this afternoon and evening, as I suppose y’all are aware.  It is curious that he only went 1 inning… there might be more news behind that.

GOING TO GWINNETT

• Reliever Jason Hursh, who seems to have turned a corner in his transition to reliever.  2.05 ERA this year with a 1.14 WHIP at AA.  He does have 23 walks in 57 innings, but in his last 13 outings, Hursh walked just 5 batters (22 innings).  This will be his second shot at AAA:  a 5.40 ERA in 15 innings in 2015 paused the progress for this 24 year old.

FORWARDED TO MISSISSIPPI

• As preferred, Pitcher Phil Pfeifer was promoted to Pearl. He was pilfered from the Dodgers as part of their Bud Norris pitcher procurement.  Prior, Pfiefer produced a 3.33 ERA in 24 ip; presently, it’s 2.58 in 7.  Passes are problematic (21 in 31 IP), But FIP is fine at 2.40.

GOING TO CAROLINA

• We’ve had a bit of back-and-forth speculation about this, but newly acquired Travis Demeritte has been added to the roster of the Carolina Mudcats.  We’ve written a lot about him this week, so I won’t belabor the point, but we’re kind of curious to see how that goes.

GOING TO DANVILLE

• Cristian Pache.
• Derian Cruz
• These teens were just signed last July from the International Market and already both have been promoted (a) to the US/GCL from the Dominican Summer League; and (b) to the Danville Appy League.  That’s pretty remarkable.
• OF Pache will be 18 in November and hit .283/.325/.377/.702 in the GCL with a pair of doubles and 3 triples over 106 AB.  7 steals in 10 attempts with just 11 strikeouts and 6 walks.
• SS Cruz (18 in October) has been even better:  .309/.336/.445/.782 with 7 doubles, a triple, and 2 homers.  He added 4 steals and 2 walks with 16 RBI.

Both of these kids were well regarded when signed:  here’s hoping that this kind of progress can be maintained as they move up… and also hoping that Kevin Maitan, et al, can blaze a similarly quick path next Summer.

NEWLY SIGNED

It was certainly an emotional time yesterday as Atlanta signed yet another 16-year-old International prospect.

How about a Dominican pitcher who already throws in the low 90’s?  A month ago, BaseballAmerica didn’t know where he’d end up, and opined that he might end up with Cleveland.  But the Braves now have him under contract.  He’s 5’11” and hopefully will grow a bit more, which would make it easier for him to stick as a starter in the long term, but we’ll just have to wait that out.

Next: Morning Chop... with a Forecast?

That’s a wrap for now… lots of Braves – and new Braves – on the move this weekend!