MVN - Most Valuable Network

Weekend Recap

Richmond (AAA):
Francisley Bueno started the weekend off with 6 shutout inning on Friday to lead Richmond to a 2-0 victory thanks to a Barbaro Canizares home run. Saturday saw a lot of offense as Brandon Jones broke out with 3 hits and a home run while Brent Lillibridge had 3 hits as well. But it wasn’t enough though as they fell 10-7. Sunday’s game was rained out.

Mississippi (AA):
Mississippi went 1-2 this weekend but the good news is that Kala Ka’aihue continued to show some progress. He went 3-11 with another homer and drew 3 walks. His average has now creeped up to .196. The bad news is stud relief prospects Kris Medlen and Sung Ki Jung got lit up on Saturday. Medlen gave up 3 hits and 3 runs in an inning of work while Jung was only able to record 2 outs while allowing 5 runs (3 earned). Jason Perry once again lead the offense with 5 hits and 5 RBI including his 8th home run of the season.

Myrtle Beach (A+):
The Pelican continued their winning ways with a weekend sweep thanks to some excellent pitching. Ryne Reynoso had another succesfful start on Friday despite being limited to 4 innings. Chris Vines continued his good work as well this year with 4.1 solid innings yesterday. Kevin Gunderson finished both games on Friday and Saturday while Nick Fellman stepped in for the save on Sunday. Bret Butts recorded the win yesterday with 3.2 shutout innings in relief of Vines.

Rome (A-):
Rome split 1-1 this weekend with Chad Rodgers taking another loss on Friday and Jose Ortegano getting his first win this year on Saturday. Ortegano went 7 and allowed only 1 run while striking out 4. Cory Gearrin loaded the bases in the 9th but Benny Pruneda bailed him out by coming in and striking out the side to preserve the 6-1 win. Freddie Freeman stayed hot with 4 hits including 2 doubles and a homer to lead the offense.

Jason Heyward Watch: 4-7, 3 R, 2 2B’s, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB’s, .319 BA

BA’s Prospect Hotsheet

There was a lot of good stuff about the Braves in this week’s Prospect Hotsheet from Baseball America.

• Tommy Hanson was actually dropped from the list this week for some reason but he did get special mention as he has allowed 1 hit or fewer in 4 of his 7 starts.
• Jason Heyward was also dropped from the hot list this week and even made an appearance on the not hot list after his .185 batting average last week. But they did have this to say however:

The silver lining was that three of the five hits he had this week went for extra bases. Don’t expect to see his name in this spot too often.

• Charlie Morton was singled out in the “Helium Watch” segment because of his quick rise to prospect status. He wasn’t even in their prospect handbook the past two seasons but he is now a legitimate top pitching prospect in the upper levels. They called his low 90’s fastball and curveball combination “murderous.”

5/8 Recap

First Innings’ Daily Organizational Report

Charlie Morton picked a good day to have one of his best outings of the season. I’m not sure why Scott Williamson started and he came on in relief but he ended up pitching 7.1 scoreless innings as Richmond failed to come back from an early 2-run deficit to lose 2-1. It’s a good day because Frank Wren may very well be looking to Richmond for another starter with both Jo-Jo Reyes and Buddy Carlyle leaving yesterday’s game with injuries. The good news is neither of the injuries involved arms or shoulders, but it’s not known how long they will be out. Back to Morton, he didn’t walk anyone and struck out 6 while lowering his ERA to 1.76. It’s hard to see him sticking in Richmond the entire year with all of the our pitchers going down like they are.

• Kala Ka’aihue hit his first home run in AA and it only took him 219 at-bats! His BB% is up this year and his K% is down but he’s still got a lot of work to do on his .188/.331/.287 batting line.
• Freddie Freeman went 1-3 yesterday and has been on a roll lately to get his average up to .295. I’d still like to see some more of that power everyone talked about when we drafted him. He has 1 homer this year and has actually improved his slugging from .378 last year to .426.

5/5 Recap

First Innings’ Daily Organizational Report

The story of the day was definitely Tommy Hanson again. He mowed down the opposition with 6 more terrific innings of work, allowing 1 run on only 1 hits and 1 walk to go with 7 strikeouts. He actually raised his ERA to 0.90 and as a sparkling 49/11 K/BB ratio in 40 innings pitched. The Braves probably want to leave him in Myrtle Beach for half the season but he’s making it hard for them to leave him there as he continues to make high-A batters look foolish.

Another guy who’s been hot lately is Myrtle Beach shortstop Brandon Hicks. He’s batting .381 with 2 home runs so far in May and is now hitting .292/.354/.611 in his first taste of high-A ball. His power is up so far but his walks are down but he actually drew more walks than strikeouts last year so I’m expecting his walks to increase as he becomes more comfortable.

Jason Heyward Watch: 2-3, R, .319/.359/.445