Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Wrap Up, April 17th

Atlanta Braves Minor League Weekend Wrap Up

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4/13 – RHP Joel De La Cruz placed on 7-Day DL by Gwinnett
4/13 – IF Emerson Landoni activated from 7-Day DL to Gwinnett
4/13 – LHP Andrew Albers assigned to Gwinnett Braves from Danville Braves
4/14 – RHP Luke Jackson recalled to Atlanta Braves from Gwinnett Braves
4/14 – RHP Jason Hursh optioned from Atlanta Braves to Gwinnett Braves
4/14 – RHP Enderson Franco assigned to Rome Braves from Danville Braves
4/14 – RHP Matt Custred assigned to Danville Braves from Rome Braves

Hitter of the week: Since Chipper Jones retired, Atlanta Braves fans have been looking for their next great third baseman. A franchise with two of arguably the top 5 all-time third basemen is understandably eager to find the next great.

Carlos Franco had that sort of make up at one time, though he was behind guys like Edward Salcedo in that pecking order. He’s established himself as a solid organizational guy, and weeks like he just had are exactly why.

Franco beat the stuffing out of the ball, posting a .318/.375/.863 line, and while his OPS isn’t the highest on the week, and he had a batting average 200 points lower than others in consideration on the week, Franco just smoked what he did hit, leading the entire system in total bases on the week as he smacked 3 doubles and 3 home runs, driving in 11 runs.

Honorable mention: Trying to separate one from the other seems impossible, so I chose to group all three high minors outfielders that had big weeks together.

Xavier Avery hit .500/.524/.850 for Gwinnett on the week with 2 doubles, a triple, a home run, and 3 steals.

Lane Adams really showed well for Gwinnett, hitting .450/.476/.750 with a double, 3 home runs, and 2 steals.

Last, but certainly not least, Connor Lien had a big week for Mississippi, hitting .350/.423/.850 with two doubles and two home runs. The biggest thing for Lien was that he posted a 4/6 BB/K ratio on the week.

Pitcher of the week: With an aggressive promotion to AA at just 19, many pitchers would struggle out of the gate. Not so with Mike Soroka. He posted two starts on the week, but he didn’t just accumulate numbers, he had two dominant outings.

Combined between his two starts, Soroka threw 11 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 run on 5 hits, avoiding even a single walk while striking out 14 hitters. Of interest, Soroka has not faced a single batter younger than he is on the season. It will be interesting to see if he goes the entire season maintaining that.

Honorable mention: Many Atlanta Braves fans saw Aaron Blair‘s 2016 major league results and thought that he was not going to be much. Hard to fault those thoughts as Blair posted a 7.59 ERA and 1.66 WHIP over 70 innings.

However, Blair was a pitcher that had gotten off track from his best use of his arsenal, and having a full offseason working with the Braves staff really has shown well. After a rough first outing, Blair was very solid across two outings this week, throwing 11 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 5 walks, striking out 13 batters.

Next: Gwinnett Braves