It’s been an insane season so far for Didier Fuentes. He was the star of the Atlanta Braves spring breakout game and hasn’t looked back since, getting to Triple-A despite missing time with a blister. At every step he has been nothing short of dominant, and that was the case again as he made his Gwinnett debut with six strikeouts over 4 ¹⁄₃ innings. Fuentes is the youngest pitcher in Triple-A this season, and the first teenager to ever pitch for the Stripers.

(25-33) Gwinnett Stripers 0, (38-28) Memphis Redbirds 3

Box Score

Statcast

• Jarred Kelenic, CF: 1-3, BB, .214/.305/.317
• Eddys Leonard, DH: 2-4, .205/.284/.405
• Didier Fuentes, SP: 4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1.93 ERA
• Kevin Herget, RP: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.13 ERA

It’s difficult to find new ways to describe how incredible Didier Fuentes has been. Three days shy of his 20th birthday he made his Triple-A debut and was clearly the best player on the field for Gwinnett. It was our first chance to get full Statcast data on Fuentes and it was no surprise to find that he was impressive. In the first inning Fuentes topped out at 98.4 mph with 17 inches of induced vertical break, threw a curveball at 2700 rpm, and threw a splitter at 90 mph and 1128 RPM. Triple-A is typically the level that guys with dominant fastballs have to start figuring out different ways of getting hitters out, but at least for this one start Fuentes was able to rely on his to be the backbone of his arsenal. He got nine whiffs on his fastball and threw it 58% of the time, and the impressive thing for his is just how well he commands his fastball at this age. He just consistently hits the top of the strike zone with his fastball, and for a guy with his velocity, carry, and flat approach angle it’s no surprise to see him have success even at this level. His curveball was a bit sprayed at the strike zone this outing and that will definitely be something to work on moving forward, but it’s hard to complain about where he is right now. Even his splitter, which he only threw three times and generally hasn’t worked on much in games throughout his professional career, has a great shape though a mediocre velocity gap with his fastball. That is something to work on, but it’s still a major-league quality offspeed pitch and he just needs to dial in more consistent command with it. Fuentes is really an astonishing talent and there is no reason the Braves shouldn’t give him a chance to prove himself in the major leagues if the need presents itself.

Now that the good in Fuentes is out of the way, we can talk about the rest of the system on Saturday. That’s a bit dramatic, I do admit, but the losses are really piling up at every level right now and Gwinnett in particular has just been awful. That’s to be expected with the losses to the rotation and the poor lineup, and with no Nacho Alvarez there was even less to be excited about. We’ll certainly take the two 100+ mph hits from Eddy Alvarez in this game, because as he has lost playing time he has hit a horrible slump. On May 23rd Alvarez had a respectable .713 OPS after going 1-3 with a couple of walks. That date marks the last time Alvarez got a hit until the fifth inning of this game. For those counting at home that is an 0-33 stretch at the plate, though only getting 33 at bats in 20 days certainly doesn’t help get anyone out of their struggles. Gwinnett didn’t have an extra base hit in this game, but they did actually string some of their baserunners together. Two hits in the first inning went to waste on a strikeout by Matthew Batten, then with two outs in the eighth they got the train rolling a bit. Gwinnett loaded the bases on a couple of hits and a walk, but Carlos Rodriguez watched a called strike three nip the inside corner and their last chance to make noise was over.

Swing and Misses

Didier Fuentes – 12

Kevin Herget – 3

(25-32) Columbus Clingstones 2, (28-32) Knoxville Smokies 3

Box Score

• David McCabe, 3B: 1-4, RBI, .258/.378/.401
• Drew Compton, 1B: 1-1, 3 BB, .254/.342/.345
• LJ McDonough, RP: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 4.50 ERA
• Elison Joseph, RP: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 3.15 ERA

(25-33) Columbus Clingstones 1, (29-32) Knoxville Smokies 5

Box Score

• David McCabe, 1B: 0-3, BB, .258/.378/.401
• Brett Sears, SP: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 5.12 ERA
• Kobe Kato, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 0.00 ERA

It’s a mighty shame that the stormy weather cut off a good-looking outing from JR Ritchie on Friday, and in picking up those scraps the Clingstones got swept thanks to another poor offensive showing. Trailing 2-0 in the continuation of Friday’s game the Clingstones did do something in the fifth inning, with Chandler Seagle and Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. notching hits to lead off the inning. With the top of the order up and no outs this was their chance, and they seized it. Cody Milligan’s fly out chased home Seagle to cut the lead in half, and with two outs David McCabe presented a last effort to get the game tied. McCabe made a great swing to turn on a first pitch fastball, lacing a base hit into right field to tie the game. McCabe has done a great job reversing the slump he got into during May, and it’s really a result of the timing of his swing and getting his bat path shortened back up. For awhile he was getting his front foot down late and tending to drop his back side and pull off of the ball which is why we started to see him rolling over pitches more often. This particular swing was a great example of him getting that foot down and driving through a fastball on the pull side and we’ve seen so much more of that this month.

Unfortunately that was the extent of the offense in both games. Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. had another hit in game one, but he was caught stealing and Columbus would fall in game one. Elison Joseph had one of his poor command days and walked three batters, though it was the leadoff double in the eighth inning that was pivotal in him giving up a run to lose the game. Despite the poor command Joseph did a great job of resetting and battling, staying competitive with his pitching and not letting his poor eighth inning get into his head. Joseph has really struggled with his release point and consistency for a couple of months now, but has done well to keep his composure, take his time on the mound, and not let innings spiral away from him. Game two was hard to find much to be positive about. The offense got no-hit and Brett Sears had a second-straight bad outing. Sears has been a model of consistency to start this season but for the first time has hit a road bump, with walks being a surprise issue during his poor innings.

Even though Sears was able to get through the first three innings with no issues at all, the foundation of his fourth inning was starting to build itself. Sears was especially missing hard on his glove side with all of his pitches, and on a few occasions hung sliders in the middle of the plate and just got away with it. With another look at Sears the Smokies were a lot more patient at letting the cutters and sliders run off of the plate and jumping on the mistakes he left over the middle. Sears allowed two walks and three hits to chase home four runs, and he was just a bit all over the place mechanically. Sears has a closed off landing point and for most of the season he’s done a fantastic job of still getting the proper rotation in his front leg and upper body to allow him to maintain good command. These past two outings have been a bit of a different story as he hasn’t been getting that rotation and has had to throw across his body a bit. It’s not really a major mechanical concern because we’ve seen him be typically consistent and I expect him to make the adjustment quickly. The positive note for Sears is that he hasn’t hit a barrier with his raw stuff at Double-A. He’s maintaining solid whiff rates throughout his arsenal and especially when he locates his sweeper. If and when the command gets back to where it was prior to the last couple of starts he should settle back in and perform similarly to how he did at the lower levels.

Swing and Misses

Brett Sears – 8

JR Ritchie – 7

LJ McDonough – 7

Blane Abeyta – 5

(28-34) Rome Emperors 7, (41-20) Greensboro Grasshoppers 10

Box Score

• Lizandro Espinoza, CF: 3-6, HR, 2 2B, 4 RBI, .216/.269/.377
• Patrick Clohisy, LF: 2-5, 2B, RBI, .238/.337/.339
• Adam Maier, SP: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 5.55 ERA
• Jacob Gomez, RP: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA

Against a lineup as good as the Grasshoppers team is there was no room for Adam Maier to make mistakes, and unfortunately he just wasn’t good. Konnor Griffin — last season’s ninth overall pick — took advantage of a hanging slider to lead off the game with a home run and the outing just spiraled from there. To be fair to Maier here, for a guy who already has a tendency to struggle with his command it is unfortunate to have to throw while it was consistently raining. After the first couple of innings (in which Maier allowed five runs) the weather cleared out a bit and Maier was much, much better. He started snapping off those breaking pitches and keeping them out of the strike zone, and it turns out being able to actually grip the baseball can make a huge difference. Maier started front-dooring nasty sinkers and looked solid for that stretch, but he started to leave pitches up in the zone again in the fifth inning and this time didn’t have the rain to blame as directly though he still seemed to be having some major issues gripping the ball. Maier allowed three more runs in the fifth inning before being pulled, and the Emperors couldn’t catch up despite a great offensive day. So it’s yet another outing in which it’s difficult to figure out just what’s going on with Maier. There was a two inning stretch where his sinker and sweeper were as good as they’ve been all year — his sweeper in particular — and three where he was awful.

Lizandro Espinoza had a massive day at the plate, a sorely needed breakout that will hopefully get him moving in the right direction again. Espinoza got a hanging slider in the third inning and launched it to center field for a home run, in a part of AdventHealth Stadium that the ball really does not like to carry. One inning later he came to bat in a huge spot with a couple of runners on base and a two-run deficit, and he delivered another big extra base hit. Espinoza smoked a pitch into the gap in right-center field for a double, clearing the bases and tying the game up at 5-5. That tie would not last long, but Espinoza was back to his hitting ways in the sixth inning to at least get Rome into the game. Espinoza popped a first pitch slider into the gap for his second double of the game, giving him his best game by hits (3) and total bases (8) since his April 26th breakout. Espinoza’s swing this season has been wildly inconsistent, but he does a great job for someone his size of generating power and leverage with his trunk and lower body. His contact rates are abysmal and really the thing holding him back at this point, but the adjustments he’s made to lift the ball with authority this season have paid dividends. Patrick Clohisy also had a good day with a couple of hits, one a double. He has also been suffering through an extended slump, but has begun to heat up this series. Clohisy has five hits and a couple of doubles in his past five games and it’s the power that has really stood out. He’s generating much better quality contact and while it took awhile for him to adjust and his contact rates suffered over the past two weeks or so the whispers of a resurgence have started to show up with his contact rates getting back to normal. With a bit more pop in the bat he could go on a tear in the next couple of weeks given his hitting ability and plate discipline.

Swing and Misses

Adam Maier – 10

Jacob Gomez – 4

(30-29) Augusta GreenJackets, (31-30) Charleston RiverDogs POSTPONED

(11-20) FCL Braves 1, (19-11) FCL Rays 5

Box Score

• Juan Mateo, 2B: 0-3, .274/.354/.319
• Jose Perdomo, SS: 1-3, .229/.277/.303
• Luis Guanipa, CF: 0-3,.000/.500/.000

Jhonly Taveras allowed five runs in the top of the first inning and that was all she wrote for this game. Offensively the Braves just struggled this game with only two hits throughout the lineup and only one at bat with a runner in scoring position. Luis Guanipa went 0-3 in the leadoff spot, but the more important takeaway was him playing the full seven innings in center field. He’s only played a couple of games so far in his rehab down there, but I would not be surprised if this is the last one if they already have him playing seven innings in the field. Juan Mateo has been on a streak of hitless games, cutting into his numbers, though he is still making contact and drawing his share of walks. There is some reason to be concerned that Mateo’s contact quality hasn’t really improved this season, but I still wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a chance to get more reps in Augusta once the FCL season is over. It’s clear his contact and a plate discipline is full-season ready and given how successful the Augusta coaching staff has been at getting guys to hit the ball harder it would be the perfect place for him to end the year off. Of course that’s awfully premature considering it’s still June. Jose Perdomo has a base hit in this game which is definitely a positive, but he hasn’t really had any notably good games in awhile.

(5-5) DSL Braves 0, (6-4) DSL Rays 3

Box Score

• Diego Tornes, CF: 3-4, 2B, 2 3B, .242/.342/.424
• Manuel Campos, SS: 1-4, .226/.368/.226
• Edwarlys Hidalgo, RP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA

Three extra base hits in a game will certainly make a guy’s numbers look good, and Diego Tornes had his breakout game for the DSL Braves. It felt like a matter of time for him to go off. The reports have been glowing throughout camp and heading into the season, and while he had a few games in a row with some hits it was a matter of waiting for him to go off. Three hits — all for extra bases — will catch anyone’s attention, and Tornes has basically done exactly what he has expected to this summer. He was also the only guy on the team who did much of anything, and the DSL Braves as a whole went 0-6 with runners in scoring position.