Tavarez has had a good start to 2025, and down in Double-A Columbus finally earned their first win.
Tuesday was an exciting slate of games on the farm system for the Atlanta Braves, each level featuring some sort of unique result from the game. Two big comebacks, a home run from a player hoping to restore his prospect status, and a no-hitter (okay, not from the side we wanted) highlight a busy day in the farm system.
(3-6) Gwinnett Stripers 7, (5-5) Norfolk Tides 8 F/10
- Alex Verdugo, RF: 1-3, HR, .250/.250/.750
- Garrett Cooper, 1B: 1-3, 2 BB, 3 RBI, .154/.371/.154
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, 5.00 ERA
- Domingo Gonzalez, RP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 6.75 ERA
Ugly is the most accurate way to describe Hurston Waldrep on Tuesday. Waldrep was terrific in his debut last week, but could not find any consistency with his mechanics and struggled to throw strikes or get consistent movement on any of his pitches. Waldrep’s release point was all over the place, as was his fastball, even moreso than normal, and the final result from that is about what you would expect. There’s not really a ton to dwell on here, because even for Waldrep this was a particularly bad game with regards to his release point, and there’s a good chance this is the worst we see him look all season.
Gwinnett found themselves down in this game four runs heading into the ninth inning, with the only real notable offensive showing coming from Alex Verdugo early in the third inning. Verdugo didn’t get perfect contact on the hanging slider, but he was able to turn on it and lift it over the right field wall for a 337 foot home run to cut the Tides lead down to 4-2 at the time. Eddys Leonard, who had the Stripers hardest-hit ball this season at 114.3 mph on Saturday, led off the ninth with a home run. Leonard fished at a low changeup and turned on it, hitting a 105.3 mph, 391 foot home run for his first Stripers home run. The lineup followed suit behind him by scraping together three runs on an error, a couple of walks, and a couple of singles, tying the game and sending it into extra innings. In a big spot leading off the 10th inning Leonard smoked one at 109.5 mph, but hit it straight into the ground and at the second baseman for the first out of the inning. Gwinnett failed to score, and Enoli Paredes allowed a walk-off single in the tenth to waste the comeback effort from the Stripers.
Swing and Misses
Wander Suero – 6
Hurston Waldrep – 5
Domingo Gonzalez – 1
(1-2) Columbus Clingstones 7, (0-4) Biloxi Shuckers 6 F/10
- Carlos Rodriguez, CF: 3-6, 2 RBI, .400/.438/.400
- Geraldo Quintero, LF: 2-4, 2B, 3B, BB, 3 RBI, .286/.444/.714
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, 2B, 2 BB, .444/.600/.889
- Jhancarlos Lara, SP: 3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 3.00 ERA
- Rolddy Munoz, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 5.40 ERA
Columbus followed an eerily similar path to their first ever win as a franchise, falling behind early due to a wild starter before a furious ninth inning comeback sent the game into extra innings. Jhancarlos Lara made his season debut a few days later than expected due to last week’s bad weather, and whether it was this delay or Lara’s general history of struggles that were the main culprit, Lara could not locate his fastball to save his life in this game. Lara’s slider looked solid, and though it was not commanded in a way I would consider “good”, it was serviceable and he was able to find strikes more consistently with that pitch than with his fastball. As a result of that and just how nasty that slider is he was mostly able to survive spraying the ball in the general direction of home plate, managing to miss a number of Shuckers bats along the way. In the third inning back-to-back strikeouts from Lara almost made it seem like he was going to turn the corner in this start, but it was not meant to be as he then issued a couple of walks along with a two-run single that ballooned the Shucker lead to three.
Offensively the Clingstones weren’t able to get themselves going for most of the game. and Biloxi was bombing the Columbus pitching staff early. Each of the first three pitchers in the game issued a home run, growing the lead to 6-0 as the game entered the last half. Here, the bullpen for Columbus finally started to limit Biloxi, and in the 8th inning the bats came to the rescue. Columbus had been able to string together hits throughout the game, but it was Geraldo Quintero’s triple in the eighth in that finally broke the ceiling, and Columbus was able to cut it down to 6-2. Still, they had plenty of work to do, and that’s when the offense really got to work. David McCabe’s been on fire to start the season, with a home run and already five walks contributing to a .600 on base percentage. He laced a double into the gap to put he and Drew Compton into scoring position with no outs in the inning, and though the middle of the order wasn’t able to make much of it, Kevin Kilpatrick drew a walk to load the bases and with two outs Geraldo Quintero came to bat representing the game’s tying run.
Facing former Braves prospect Justin Yeager (Sean Murphy trade), Quintero saw a familiar face opposite him. When Yeager hung a slider on the third pitch of the at bat Quintero jumped all over it, smoking a liner into the right field corner for a double to score two runners and put the tying run in scoring position. This flipped the lineup over to Carlos Rodriguez, who already had two hits to his name. Yeager worked ahead of Rodriguez 0-2, but couldn’t put him away. On a 2-2 pitch Rodriguez was able to flip one down the left field line, falling just too far away from the left fielder for a game-tying single. Rodriguez was caught stealing to end the inning, but after a shut down ninth inning the Clingstones kept it rolling. Danger brewed as they made two quick outs without advancing the runner from second, but Drew Compton was able to come through in a big spot. Compton smacked the first pitch up the middle for a base hit, and when the center fielder slipped and was unable to make the throw Rodriguez scored easily from second to give Columbus the lead. Rolddy Munoz came in to close the game out, and the second batter of the game nearly sucked the life out of Columbus. Darrien Miller smoked a high fly ball out to right field, but Kevin Kilpatrick drifted back to make the catch right in front of the 350 sign, just a couple of feet short of what would have been a walk off home run. Munoz bounced back to ring up Eric Brown Jr. on strikes, closing out the first ever Columbus Clingstones win.
Swing and Misses
Jhancarlos Lara – 10
(1-3) Rome Emperors 3, (3-1) Bowling Green Hot Rods 10
- Patrick Clohisy, RF: 2-4, .429/.471/.500
- Ambioris Tavarez, SS: 1-3, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .231/.375/.538
- Adam Maier, SP: 4 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 9.00 ERA
- Riley Frey, RP: 4 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 11.25 ERA
It’s unfortunate that due to some streaming difficulties we weren’t able to get a look at this game, though given the results maybe it’s best that we didn’t have to witness it. There were meager positive events, the most notable being the first home run of the season from Ambioris Tavarez in the second inning. I said it in a previous recap that Tavarez’s approach this season has looked significantly improved, and though the strikeouts remain high and likely always will, Tavarez has worked walked in three straight games, has yet to have one of those blow up days that were the signature of prior seasons, and has seen 4.56 pitches per plate appearance this season. It’s right to still have skepticism towards Tavarez’s bat, and there’s nothing to be proven from a game I didn’t even see with my own eyes, but so far the results and the observations from the games we do have match the work we’ve been told Tavarez has been doing to improve. Tavarez’s power and defense are enough that if he is able to draw enough walks to maintain a reasonable on base percentage he could still profile as a major league regular even if the hit tool remains his weak point. It’s important to remember despite what has seemed like a long struggle, he is just now the age of draft-eligible college bats, and has had his early professional career devastated by injuries to the point he’s barely racked up a full season of games played.
Beyond Tavarez, Patrick Clohisy is one of only a few players off to a good start for Rome this season. Clohisy’s performance shouldn’t come as a surprise — a 23 year old draftee from a Division I school with his history of hitting should be doing this — but you can never discount a player meeting expectations. What we’ve yet to see from Clohisy is signs he can make impact contact, which given his limitation to a corner outfield spot at the professional level will be necessary to judge him as a player with major league potential. Undoubtedly though, he can hit and he can control the strike zone, two traits we’ve seen are not too easy to teach players of any age. On the mound the season debut for Adam Maier doesn’t seem to have much positive to glean from. His control was bad, he didn’t miss bats, and he got hit hard, all of which are the exact opposite of what we’re hoping to see from him this year. Maier is the player in the system, along with possibly also David McCabe, who really has to take that next step this season in order to not just be seen as an organizational piece. McCabe has done everything he can so far. Maier, unfortunately, can’t say the same about his season debut.
Swing and Misses
Adam Maier – 5
Riley Frey – 4
(2-2) Augusta GreenJackets 0, (3-1) Hickory Crawdads 6
- John Gil, SS: 0-4, .118/.200/.118
- Eric Hartman, LF: 0-3, .353/.389/.765
- Luke Sinnard, SP: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 0.00 ERA
- Jacob Gomez, RP: 3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1.93 ERA
Augusta always managed to get no hit every year it seems like, and we have an early one to talk about this season. This is the most talented Augusta lineup we’ve seen in a long time, even with Luis Guanipa out for an extended period, but it’s also the youngest. In fact, they’re the youngest offense in the entire Carolina League, and with that comes a host of raw players who sometimes are going to combine to have really, really awful nights. This was one of those nights. Luis Sanchez drew a walk with two outs in the third inning for the first, and only, GreenJacket runner of the day. The next 19 batters were retired in a row, 11 via strikeout, with only one batted ball leaving the infield. I think we can collectively agree that this never happened.
Luke Sinnard made his season debut, and to him I will extend the same courtesy I have to many pitchers in past seasons. He was not good. His command was awful, he struggled to throw strikes, and as a result he cleared 30 pitches and wasn’t able to make it out of the first inning. This was also Sinnard’s first game back from Tommy John surgery, so really for at least the first half of this season just being healthy makes every start a success for his development. Despite the miserable result of his outing, I can’t help but come away impressed with Sinnard. The ball jumps out of his hand, he’s able to create impressive carry on his fastball, and those breaking balls of his have a ton of spin and movement. His fastball command was actually okay, not great but he mostly was in the zone and was able to elevate a few effectively. When he did it was jumping above the bats of the Crawdads hitters and producing whiffs in and above the zone. He just did not control those secondary offerings at all and that’s often one of those things that takes a long time for pitchers to get the feel for after these long injury layoffs. It’s a very small sample but I’m happy with where Sinnard is right now and I look forward to his progression this season.
The best performer though, and this has become a trend for his outings, has been Jacob Gomez out of the bullpen. Just look at the whiff numbers below for what it looked like, that’s 12 whiffs on 25 swings. Gomez has been lighting it up and the command wasn’t as crisp as his first outing but it seems like Single-A isn’t going to be much of a challenge for him. The Braves have this issue with a few of their relievers where there are just so many of these fringe relief prospects floating round they’re struggling to find jobs for them all, and Gomez may have the role of the dominant player who’s here to clean up whenever the starter has an off day. Still Gomez really needs to go up a level probably by the end of the month once all of the starters are more stretched out, where High-A hitters will actually have an inkling of a plan to handle the extreme plane on his fastball.
Swing and Misses
Jacob Gomez – 12
Luke Sinnard – 6