Some of the Atlanta Braves top prospects had some truly remarkable performance, most-notably a breakout day from John Gil to lead the Augusta GreenJackets to a double-header sweep. Of course, how can we forget pitching, with both Rayven Antonio and Owen Hackman dominating in their starts in Low-A. The upper levels were home to some great performances on the mound as well, with Davis Daniel throwing seven innings in Gwinnett and Blake Burkhalter striking out eight batters for Columbus.
(22-34) Gwinnett Stripers 3, (34-22) Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 1
Carlos Rodriguez, LF: 1-3, BB, RBI, .282/.344/.324
Eddys Leonard, 3B: 0-2, 2 BB, .206/.296/.442
Davis Daniel: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 3.30 ERA
Wander Suero, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1.25 ERA
The long losing streak for the Gwinnett Stripers is finally over. The pitching staff carried behind Davis Daniel’s seven innings, vanquishing former Striper Freddy Tarnok in the process. Tarnok had a rough day on the mound but the Stripers offense largely didn’t take advantage of it, though they did enough to win. The biggest swing came from Matthew Batten in the second inning, who got a look at a hanging slider and was able to line the ball over the left field wall for a two-run home run. That early lead was enough for the Stripers to hang on, though they would manage a bit of insurance in the fifth inning. Gwinnett loaded the bases against Tarnok to force him from the game, bringing up Carlos Rodriguez in a matchup with a tough lefty in John Rooney. Rooney managed to jam Rodriguez on an 0-1 sinker, but Rodriguez fought it off into center field for an RBI single to push the Stripers lead up to 3-1. Rooney ultimately was able to limit the damage from there, getting Jason Delay to roll over one to third base for an inning-ending double play.
Davis Daniel had a remarkably efficient outing, managing to rock through seven innings of one-run ball on just 72 pitches. The Jumbo Shrimp failed to string together any hard contact against Daniel, and as a result he had just one inning in which he allowed multiple runners to reach base. That inning would be the lone time that Jacksonville scored. Daniel lost it briefly and allowed a leadoff walk in the fourth inning, and after a stolen base and a fly out that runner would come in to score on a sacrifice fly. The second runner of the inning was a base hit immediately after the sacrifice fly, though he was erased when he took off to second and Daniel was able to step off and easily pick him to end the ending. Much of Daniel’s success came from his ability to land his slider on the glove-side third of the strike zone, where hitters frequently swung at and failed to make solid contact. This slider is a recent development for Daniel. First appearing in his May 18th outing, Daniel is throwing his slider with more vertical movement and less horizontal movement, and in those three outings he has allowed only one run in 15 innings. While he hasn’t produced many whiffs with the pitch in these three games, the contact quality from hitters has been absurdly poor with them producing a 75.6 mph average exit velocity and .085 xwOBA on his slider in these three outings. This is a very small sample, but it also marks a significant change in his arsenal that has generate by far his best results this season.
Swing and Misses
Davis Daniel – 6
Wander Suero – 3
(21-25) Columbus Clingstones 1, (24-22) Chattanooga Lookouts 7
David McCabe, DH: 1-3, 2B, BB, .245/.376/.367
Ethan Workinger, RF: 1-4, .234/.325/.476
Blake Burkhalter, SP: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 3.22 ERA
Elison Joseph, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.45 ERA
Blake Burkhalter put together his best outing in over a month, but it wasn’t enough as the Columbus lineup couldn’t get anything going against Chase Burns and the Chattanooga staff. Burkhalter has not been putting up strong swing-and-miss numbers over his past few outings, but he went to the bread-and-butter of parking his fastball and cutter up and the zone and was able to get great results this outing. Even his one inning in which he allowed two runs weren’t a result of terrible pitches, though he hadn’t yet honed in the location of his sweeper at this point in his outing. Early on he was allowing more contact as he wasn’t feeling the edges, and especially was tending to leave that sweeper out over the plate. Then he really hit his stride into the third inning when he started putting his sweeper off of the plate and giving hitters fits with that three pitch mix. Burkhalter has been able to find more success getting whiffs with his sweeper this season when he does locate it, but his command has really been the sticking point. He has outings where he is fantastic top-to-bottom and others where it seems he can’t find it at all. His stuff is definitely on track to make him a starter, with those inconsistencies in his command being the biggest hurdle to keeping him out of a bullpen role.
Columbus previously met Chase Burns in his first Double-A start, and it didn’t go well at all for the Clingstones. The hope that a second look at Burns would improve their results was quickly dashed, and he carved through them rather quickly with six shutout innings. Recent minor league free agent signee Jose Cuas got his first action for Columbus in the bottom of the sixth inning, and this is when the Lookouts really put this game away. Cuas had no command and walked three batters, and though he was able to get a couple of strikeouts to close his outing out on a high note he still left Blane Abeyta with something of a mess to clean up. Abeyta did no such cleaning, allowing all three inherited runners to score (two via base hit, the other a wild pitch) to put the stamp on a five-run debut for Cuas. Now handed a 7-0 lead there was no chance of the Lookouts blundering it away with the bullpen, though they almost seemed like they were trying in the seventh inning. David McCabe, Drew Compton, and Geraldo Quintero drew consecutive walks to open the seventh inning, suddenly making for a dangerous appearance for the offense. They managed only one run, with two strikeouts ending the inning in a disappointing fashion. Cal Conley had a leadoff single in the eighth inning to give a little spark of life, but that was quickly dashed by a double play ball from Ethan Workinger. David McCabe followed with the most well-hit ball of the evening for Columbus, driving a ball into the left-center field gap for a double, a great look for him as his numbers have continued to plummet over the past few series. Elison Joseph struck out two batters in the ninth inning, yet added another walk to finish May with a walk rate allowed of 21.6%. Joseph has been dominant yet again any time he hangs around the strike zone, but after seeming to turn a corner last year and through 2025’s first month he has been atrocious at locating the ball over the past month.
Swing and Misses
Blake Burkhalter – 17
Blane Abeyta – 6
Jose Cuas – 5
Elison Joseph – 3
(25-25) Rome Emperors 1, (22-28) Asheville Tourists 2
Lizandro Espinoza, CF: 1-4, .230/.278/.382
Patrick Clohisy, RF: 1-3, BB, .254/.367/.365
Adam Maier, SP: 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 4.78ERA
Samuel Strickland, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 2.33 ERA
Three hits doesn’t often do the trick offensively, and the Emperors found out Saturday that it certainly wouldn’t play. Lizandro Espinoza gave Rome a little something to work with in the first inning. He smashed the first pitch he saw down the third base line, and though the third baseman made a diving stop to save extra bases he had no chance of getting Espinoza running down the line. Espinoza then got his base back by swiping second, and a terrible throw from the catcher put him in prime position to score the first run of the game. A Titus Dumitru ground out did score him to give the Emperors the lead, but it wouldn’t last long and Rome didn’t really threaten at all until right at the end. Rome was not finding the barrel and didn’t look good offensively, only finally getting some action in the ninth inning when Dumitru was hit by a pitch and Will Verdung drew a walk. With two runners on, the trail runner the winning run, the Emperors had a gasp left to take control of the game. The next three batters struck out in order, and for Ambioris Tavarez that was his fourth of the game. Coming into this game Tavarez had done a relatively good job of limiting his strikeouts in May, and overall he has been a ton better this season, but this was one of those days where he seemed completely unprepared at the plate. One of the bigger focuses for Tavarez is simply limiting those kind of days, and this May was his most consistent month of his career up until this slip up.
Adam Maier once again didn’t produce a lot of swing-and-miss, but outside of the third inning when his control got away from him for a spell he looked solid overall. In that third inning he really started to have trouble with his sinker, and he left a 3-1 sinker up in the zone that got hammered for a solo home run. The other big hit of the game, a triple in the next inning, was one of his better pitches, a curveball that landed below the zone, but the hitter just chopped down on it and was able to drive it off of the wall in right field. Maier’s lack of refinement at the bottom of the zone is really holding him back from taking a leap, but he is throwing more strikes. His pitches are mostly forcing weak contact as they have enough movement to miss barrels, he just needs to refine the finish of his breaking balls. Too often they’re sticking in the zone instead of falling out of it, and hitters are able to make contact and that leads to some of these innings where they’re able to string together hits. He’s been much better over the past few outings at keeping the ball in the lower half of the zone, especially on his sinker, and there is real progress being made even if he hasn’t yet gone through a strong streak. His sinker command is inching towards being ready for Double-A, but that gap between the raw metrics of his secondaries and their actual performance is increasingly frustrating. He has done a great job of landing the splitter for called strikes, he’s just not making the critical pitch his his curveball often enough.
Swing and Misses
Adam Maier – 7
Samuel Strickland – 3
(26-21) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (18-29) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 2
John Gil, SS: 3-3, BB, .259/.344/.325
Owen Carey, RF: 1-4, RBI, .282/.359/.395
Isaiah Drake, CF: 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI, .280/.357/.416
Owen Hackman, SP: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 5.13 ERA
(27-21) Augusta GreenJackets 2, (18-30) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 0
John Gil, SS: 3-4, RBI, .259/.344/.325
Colby Jones, 2B: 0-2, 2 BB, .209/.318/.268
Rayven Antonio, SP: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 2.62 ERA
Adam Shoemaker, RP: 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.86 ERA
Augusta gave us plenty to cheer for in their double-header, and that was especially true for John Gil who had two of his three-hit performances this season on the same day. In one swoop Gil added 24 points to his on-base percentage and 47 to his OPS, pushing him to a 101 wRC+ on the season. Gil was aggressive in his first two at bats attacked mistakes in the zone, and it paid off with a couple of hits including him helping set up a big inning in the third. After his and Alan Pineda’s hits Owen Carey hit a hard grounder to first which snuck under the glove of the defender for an error to break the scoreless tie. Isaiah Drake then delivered the hit that broke open the inning, turning on a slider down and in and roping it into the left-field corner for a triple. This was another example of the progress Drake has made this season, as we’re slowing starting to see those pull side hits get elevated and hit harder. He had a 140 wRC+ in May, but perhaps even more impressive was his .189 isolated power without his having to sacrifice his contact stats. This same quartet made up the fifth inning rally for Augusta, this time with Pineda starting by drawing a walk. Gil hit a rocket at the shortstop that he couldn’t handle, and once again the GreenJackets were in position to cobble together a crooked inning. Carey rolled a hit through the right side to drive in the first run, and after a wild pitch Isaiah Drake had another opportunity to bring in runs. Drake didn’t get a great swing in this time, but his pop to the left fielder fell out of reach and Gil scored to make it 5-2 in favor of the GreenJackets. Carey would score on a double play, wrapping up the scoring for the first game.
Owen Hackman has had some hiccups this month as home runs suddenly became a burden on him, but this outing, though short, was his most dominant of the year. Hackman found a little taste of trouble in the first after an error then a soft bounder that rolled through for a hit, but he responded. He picked off the runner at second base, then finished off the final hitter by blowing a fastball by him then burying two nasty splitters for three straight whiffs. That kicked off a stretch with four consecutive strikeouts by Hackman, where he showed the tightest command of his three pitches that we have seen all season. Hackman got swinging strikeouts from all three of them, though even still his ability to locate his slider is trailing behind the other two pitches. In the fourth inning Reibyn Corona came in to relieve Hackman, and Corona immediately got into danger that led to Myrtle Beach scoring two runs. Corona managed to keep the Pelicans from tying the game, though, and the bullpen shut out the final three innings to get a game one win.
In the second game the Augusta pitching staff was untouchable, largely due to the abbreviated but incredible outing from Rayven Antonio. Antonio was absolutely unbelievable on Saturday. 6 of his 7 outs came via strikeout, and of the 21 pitches Myrtle Beach hitters swung at they whiffs on 14 of them. The first hitter of the game notched a single, the only hit Antonio allowed, and he responded by just blowing three fastballs by the next guy for a strikeout. A portent at-bat, as the strategy for this one was just to have Antonio pound the Pelicans with fastballs and there was little they could do with it.
Augusta’s offense had to face off against the chaotic Kevin Valdez, a player who can rack up strikeouts but will give you just about as many walks. That was the case in this one, as Augusta drew five walks off of Valdez and it was two of them in the second inning that triggered their scoring rally. Valdez walked the first two batters of the inning, giving him four already with only three outs recorded, and after a pop out it was the top of the order who had a chance to do damage. The GreenJackets only managed to go 1-9 with runners in scoring position, but you can probably guess who that one was. John Gil got a slider that stayed a bit over the plate, and though he was out in front of it he was able to keep his hands back and hit a solid liner into right field for an RBI double. Gil’s speed then put a bit of pressure on Valdez, who bounced a throw to first base that would go for an error to score the second run. Gil had three of Augusta’s five hits in this game, and the final one was his prettiest swing of the day. Gil kept a great attack path towards a slider on the outer corner of the plate, rocketing the pitch back up the middle for a single. Myrtle Beach finally got Gil out in the seventh inning when he got under a curveball and flew out to right field.
Swing and Misses
Rayven Antonio – 14
Owen Hackman – 9
Seth Keller – 8
Adam Shoemaker – 5
Reibyn Corona – 5