Salcedo's Walk-Off And Oberholtzer's Gem Highlight Thursday's Atlanta Braves Minor League Action

by cbwilk on Jul 8, 2011 3:18 AM EDT in Braves Minor League Recaps

Brett Oberholtzer pitched a season high 8 innings, picking up his 5th win of the season.

Edward Salcedo hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th for Rome, while Brett Oberholtzer pitched a season high 8 innings for Missississippi, setting up JJ Hoover's first save of the season, and Ronald Luna extended his hitting streak for the GCL Braves to 9 games.

Gwinnett Braves 2, Charlotte Knights 6

Martin Prado LF 0-2, .000 AVG
Ruben Gotay 2B 1-1, 3B, RBI, 2 BB, .259 AVG
Mike Minor 4 IP, 4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 K, 3.21 ERA

Mike Minor allowed a 3 run homer to Dayan Viciedo in the first, which led to a short 4 inning outing for him. In his last 3 starts since returning from Atlanta, he has a 7.20 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP. Martin Prado went hitless in his second rehab appearance, though he did play in the field for the first time. Ruben Gotay reached base 3 times tonight, with a triple and 2 walks, and after a slow start he's come on for Gwinnett, hitting .355 with a 1.072 OPS in his last 10 games.

Erik Cordier will face former Braves farmhand Deunte Heath Friday as the G-Braves and Knights move their home-away series to Gwinnett.

Mississippi Braves 5, Jackson Generals 4

Ernesto Mejia 1B 2-3, HR (12), 3 RBI, E (8), .306 AVG
Brett Oberholtzer 8 IP, 4 R, 2 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 5 K, W (5), 4.03 ERA
JJ Hoover 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (1), 2.74 ERA

Brett Oberholtzer picked up his 5th win of the year, tossing a season high 8 innings while allowing just 2 earned runs. Over his last 4 starts, he has a 1.95 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP, and those numbers could be even more impressive if it weren't for the 4.2 BB/9 rate he's put up over that same period, which is considerably higher than the 2.9 BB/9 rate he's put up for the season. JJ Hoover picked up the second save of his professional career, tossing his 9th scoreless relief inning of the season. Ernesto Mejia hit his team-leading 12th homer of the season, and after a torrid June that saw him hit .349 with a 1.025 OPS, he's gotten even better in July, with a .435 average and a 1.320 OPS through the first 7 games of the month.

The M-Braves head to Mobile Friday, where Paul Clemens will take on the Bay Bears.

Lynchburg Hillcats - Postponed

Rome Braves 5, Greenville Drive 4, 10 innings

Matt Lipka SS 1-4, 3B, BB, SB (15), .234 AVG
Tommy La Stella 2B 2-4, RBI, .273 AVG
Edward Salcedo 3B 1-5, RBI, E (30), .267 AVG
Chris Garcia 1B 1-3, HR (8), 2 RBI, BB, .340 AVG
Gary Moran 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 9 K, 2.33 ERA

Edward Salcedo hit a walkoff single in the bottom of the 10th inning, but he also hit an unfortunate milestone with his 30th error of the season. Matt Lipka reached twice, with a triple and a walk, and stole his 15th base of the season. Chris Garcia homered for the second straight day. Gary Moran had his best game as a Brave, allowing just 1 run over 6 innings while striking out 9 and walking none.

Willie Kempf will take on the Drive Friday night.

Danville Braves 6, Greeneville Astros 3

Brandon Drury 3B 2-5, 2B, .317 AVG
William Beckwith DH 1-3, RBI, BB, .319 AVG
Sam Munson RF 1-4, 2 RBI, .279 AVG
Ernesto Silva 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 1 K, W (2), 5.00 ERA

Ernesto Silva had a solid start, pitching around 4 walks to allow just 1 earned run over 6 innings. William Beckwith extended his hitting streak to 4 games, going 6-10 with 2 homers, 6 RBI, and 2 walks in that span. Brandon Druy, the youngest player on the team at 18 years old, had a pair of hits, including a double, and he continues to excell, hitting .364 with a .909 OPS in his last 10 games.

Lucas La Point will take the mound as the team heads back to Danville Friday night to face the Bluefield Blue Jays.

GCL Braves 2, GCL Pirates 4

Ronald Luna SS 1-3, RBI, BB, .356 AVG
Shawn Bowman 3B 0-2, .000 AVG
Rafael Bricenio 4 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 3 K, 5.60 ERA

Gwinnett's Shhawn Bowman made a rehab appearance, going hitless in 2 at bats. Ronald Luna extended his hitting streak to 9 games, and the 18 year old Columbian is having a fine season, hitting .356 with a .806 OPS. Rafael Bricenio did not have a good start, allowing 4 runs over 4 innings, and the 20 year olf Venezuelan is having a rough year, with a 5.60 ERA and a 1.36 ERA, though he does have an encouraging 9.7 K/9 rate.

Jean Carlos Gil will face the Blue Jays tomorrow.

DSL Braves - Score Unreported

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Comments

I posted this earlier in the MLB game recap...

but this is probably a better venue.

Martin Prado during his first AB Thursday night against Charlotte. He’s coming…

by Aaron Meier on Jul 8, 2011 3:23 AM EDT reply actions

And here are a few more from that game.

Jose Costanza caught stealing to end the 3rd.

Great ranging play by Brandon Hicks for the unassisted double play.

by Aaron Meier on Jul 8, 2011 3:30 AM EDT reply actions

Nice Pictures!

Thanks for sharing.

by Poe76 on Jul 8, 2011 9:04 AM EDT up reply actions

I was at the Rome game last night.

Salcedo looked very thin to me and like he could add a lot of muscle to his frame. Was impressed by his demeanor and thought he had a good game at 3B. His error #30 was on a nice lunging grab of a bouncer directly over the 3B bag and a quickly unloaded, sidearmed throw that tailed away from Garcia at 1B, who is pretty immobile and didn’t leave the bag to even attempt to flag it down. Rohm, BTW, hustled in from RF to retreive the ball and made a strong throw to nail the runner trying to advance to 2B.

Rohm also looked really good at the plate, despite going 0 for 4, with a 400 foot foul ball that looked to clear the LF fair pole by about 30 feet (and while my angle was bad, couldn’t have been foul by much at all) and rocket line-drive that the opposing SS made an excellent play on.

Gattis looked good behind the plate and hit a long HR to left center. Why is he in A ball at almost 25 years of age?

LaStella has the look of a VERY dangerous hitter.

Moran is tall (6’8") and was blowing the opposing hitters away with what appeared to be a heavy sinking fastball. All 3 of the hits he allowed were in the 4th inning and were well-placed bouncers that happened to get through the infield. I’m not sure, but don’t think there was a really hard hit ball off him all night.

Stovall (former 2d round pick) looked to have excellent presence on the mound, but his command was not there at all; walked 2 and had several other deep counts in 1 inning of relief.

by fandave on Jul 8, 2011 9:47 AM EDT reply actions

i've been on the road/out of the country for the past couple weeks

So I’m out of touch. Is JJ Hoover being converted into a reliever now? Please tell me no. He’s maybe our fourth best SP prospect, probably no worse than fifth. There’s no point in diminishing his value by converting him.

My buddy and I just decided that the braves would be set if we could get Matt Kemp, Jose Reyes, and Albert Pujols.

by willlinn on May 17, 2011 2:13 PM EDT

by Bronn on Jul 8, 2011 10:13 AM EDT reply actions

He is being converted to a reliever and it’s the right move. His stuff never would have played in the Majors as a starter.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it:
http://www.amazon.com/Four-C-B-Wilkins/dp/1449578454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257720610&sr=1-1
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by cbwilk on Jul 8, 2011 10:27 AM EDT up reply actions

Am I crazy.

Or was Ronald Luna listed as being 28 instead of 18 on milb.com earlier this season? I thought it was incredibly strange for a 28 year old guy to be in the GCL. If he’s really 18 then that is a heck of a line he’s putting up.

Kid needs to start eating 3 square meals a day though. He’s listed as 6’0", 145 lbs.

by J-Turn14 on Jul 8, 2011 12:29 PM EDT reply actions

I thought the same thing. I remember him being 27 last year in the DSL, and then 28 this year in the GCL, so I always ignored whatever he did. Last night I looked at it again and he’d lost 10 years. I’m guessing it was an egregious error by milb.com. So now all of the sudden the kid is a prospect.

I wrote a novel, it's about baseball, you should buy it:
http://www.amazon.com/Four-C-B-Wilkins/dp/1449578454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257720610&sr=1-1
www.dropoutproductions.com

by cbwilk on Jul 8, 2011 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions