Atlanta Braves Minor League Recap: 9/6

Gwinnett 7, Charlotte 0

In his first AAA start Erik Cordier surrendered 5 earned runs and recorded just 2 outs before being lifted from the game, but in his second he shutout the Knights over 7.1 innings in the league's most notorious hitter's park. Cordier is the most cerebral pitcher in the Braves' organization and if he can combine that mental edge with the 97 mile an hour fastball and solid breaking pitches he possesses, he could be quite a Major Leaguer for Atlanta. Barbaro Canizares won the International League batting title with a .341 average, 22 points higher than the three players who tied for second, one of whom was Freddie Freeman.

Mississippi 2, Birmingham 1

JJ Hoover picked up his 14th win of the season, giving him 3 more than the next closest Brave farmhand. He really turned up the strikeouts in his 4 starts for Mississipppi, with a whopping 14.8 K/9 after putting up a 8.0 K/9 rate with Myrtle Beach. For the year he was 14-7 with a 3.29 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 8.3 H/9, 3.0 K/BB, 2.9 BB/9, and 8.9 K/9 in 153.1 innings between Myrtle Beach and Mississippi. The big righty is one of the Braves most solid prospects, perhaps the most likely of anyone in the system to have a solid Major League career, either in the rotation or the bullpen.

Myrtle Beach 1, Lynchburg 7

Cory Rasmus finished off his first full season with an excellent start, shutting out the Hillcats on just 1 hit over 5 innings. The 22 year old pitched just 64.2 innings in his first 4 seasons, 51.2 of those coming last year with Danville, but he managed to throw 124.1 innings this year between Rome and Myrtle Beach, compiling a 3.18 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 8.3 H/9, 2.2 K/BB, 3.4 BB/9 and 7.4 K/9. It's a testament to his work ethic that even after all his injury woes he's showing the kind of potential the Braves expected out of him when they made him a supplemental first round pick in 2006. Cole Rohrbough's career has been riddled with injuries as well, and unfortunately they're not behind him. It's also unfortunate that he ended the year on a down note, allowing 2 earned runs in just 1 inning. For the year he only pitched 22.2 innings between the GCL and Myrtle Beach, with a 8.34 ERA and a 1.94 WHIP. The Braves signed 25 year old Jason Lowey out of the independent leagues in mid-August and he only pitched in 5 games but he was fantastic; in 7 innings he didn't allow any runs, didn't walk anyone, only allowed 5 hits, and struck out 13.

Rome 5, Lexington 6

Christian Bethancourt didn't show much extra base power this year; his second triple of the year tonight was just his 24th extra base hit. He slugged just .331 and combined with his lowly .279 on base percentage he combined for a very poor .610 OPS. But, he spent nearly the whole year playing as an 18 year old, just turning 19 last Thursday, and with the contextual reality of playing a full season at 18, when most players are either in short season ball or are still in high school, means that everything positive he did this year was a major plus.