Atlanta Braves Minor League Ag Report, August 20th
Atlanta Braves Minor League Ag Report
This weekend marks the first “end of season” as part of the twice weekly reports. The Braves of the Dominican Summer League end their season after Sunday’s game. While the team will likely finish within a few games of .500, this has been a very successful season for many players, especially Randy Ventura, William Contreras, and Anthony Concepcion.
Ventura was a 2015 international signing from Manny Mota, Jr.’s baseball camp, one of those later signings that had the Braves making some trades to pick up additional international slot money. He’s done nothing short of impress, showing surprising power in his slight 5’9, 165-pound frame, but the big story in Ventura’s game wasn’t his switch hitting or even that he walked more than he struck out. It was that he stole a Braves system-leading 52 bases in only 56 games. To put that into perspective, Mallex Smith has a chance to pass Ventura by the end of the season as he sits with 48 steals this year and plenty of time left in the year. The big difference is that Smith has stolen his 48 bases in 107 games, nearly twice the amount Ventura played. It will be fun to see how hard the Braves push the young outfielder to the U.S. and up the minor league ladder.
Anthony Concepcion is what you could call an “old” signee for the international ranks, signing this offseason at 19 years old (he turned 20 before the season began) from Venezuela, typically a well-scouted country. Listed as a catcher at his signing, Concepcion played exactly 0 innings at catcher this year, spending his time nearly evenly between first base and left field. Though his .298/.405/.433 line doesn’t suggest it, Concepcion showed the kind of power to suggest he could continue forward as a corner infielder or corner outfielder, leading the DSL team with 5 home runs. Due to his age, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him pushed to GCL or even Danville in 2016.
William Contreras was also signed as a catcher this offseason, a 17 year-old from Venezuela. He put up a respectable .305/.364/.389 line with a 15/21 bb/k rate, but the real story of this young man was his glove. Outsiders may see 6 errors, 9 passed balls, and a sub-30% caught stealing rate and think the Braves may be forcing the issue with Contreras behind the plate. However, what is tough to know without some scouting (and I only have one person I’ve networked that had eyes on the club, so this is limited eye-on opinion, but I respect it) is that Contreras is extremely raw as a catcher, having caught just in the last year before signing. That said, he had 2 double plays this season and from all accounts, his lateral movement to the ball behind the plate was incredible. He has a very good catcher’s build at 6′ and 180 pounds, so it will be interesting to see how the Braves develop him, whether they’ll have him play another season to work on his receiving skills in the DSL or have him move stateside.
We’ll review some of the DSL Braves pitching standouts on Monday.
Pull up a bale of hay, and enjoy this week’s report!
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