There was plenty to love on Saturday for the prospects in the Atlanta Braves systems, with some intriguing action at each level. Hurston Waldrep made the start for Gwinnett, but no one outshined Jhancarlos Lara who despite command trouble forced 21 swing-and-misses and 9 strikeouts. Down in Augusta that young offense is finding success, with Nick Montgomery quickly coming into his own with two home runs this weekend.

(10-9) Gwinnett Stripers 6, (13-7) Lehigh Valley IronPigs 3

Box Score

Statcast

• Carlos Rodriguez, CF: 1-4, .286/.375/.286
• Luke Waddell, SS: 1-2, 2B, BB, RBI, .333/.415/.406
• Hurston Waldrep, SP: 5 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 6.62 ERA
• Jesse Chavez, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1.42 ERA

Hurston Waldrep continued the hot and cold play we’ve seen from him over the past couple of seasons with a rough, but not altogether terrible start on Saturday. There is some interesting work going into Waldrep at the moment, and with the Braves backing off of his splitter usage to focus on his fastball and slider development it’s not surprise to see him hitting another rough patch. His two walks, and especially the consistency of his release point, were marked improvements over his prior two starts, and the seven whiffs Waldrep got on his slider were encouraging. This was as well as he has commanded that pitch in a long time, putting the ball right off the edge of the plate on a consistent basis, and it was the pitch that served as his go-to strikeout offering for this game. Another aspect to look at for Waldrep is the shape of his fastball. In prior starts the movement of Waldrep’s fastball had significant variance that was heavily tied to his release point, but over the past two outings he is starting to cluster the movement of his pitches. The most interesting part of that is that his fastball is falling into two separate clusters — one with his prior cut-carry shape and one cluster with significantly more horizontal movement. I’m not entirely convinced the two shapes are an intentional addition of another fastball, given the Braves were already trying to move Waldrep to a more horizontal fastball last season and his history of inconsistent fastball movement, but it does give us some action to watch over his next few starts. The problem still remains that he just doesn’t throw his fastball in the zone enough to have success at this stage and while this was an improvement on his prior starts he still had a zone rate on his fastball of just 42%.

The Stripers got a lot of offense from Eddys Leonard in this game, and for a guy who was a very cheap minor league pickup he has in a small sample done some intriguing things at the plate. He’s been hitting the ball hard and producing power to go along with solid contact rates, and while his defense isn’t great he has intriguing power for a player who can play all over the infield. The drawback is that his bat is a bit slow so he can struggle to hit fastballs consistently and his approach is a bit aggressive, but as a depth infielder he has a much higher ceiling than you would typically see from such a low-stakes acquisition. Unfortunately outside of that, there hasn’t been all that much intrigue though the Stripers are winning games. Luke Waddell’s hot start has faded as his batted ball quality has dropped, leaving Eddy Alvarez as the only consistent contributor. Alvarez has done well at the top of the lineup and you’ll always take a guy who can steal a bunch of bases and has drawn as many walks as he has strikeouts, but averaging an exit velocity of 83.4 mph isn’t exactly a recipe for continued batted ball success.

Swing and Misses

Hurston Waldrep – 13

Enoli Paredes – 3

Jesse Chavez – 3

(6-7) Columbus Clingstones 1, (10-4) Pensacola Blue Wahoos 2

Box Score

• Cody Milligan, CF: 2-4, .500/.600/.500
• Cal Conley, SS: 1-3, BB, RBI, .288/.383/.288
• Jhancarlos Lara, SP: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 9 K, 9.00 ERA
• Craig Kimbrel, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 0.00 ERA
• Elison Joseph, RP: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1.80 ERA

What can we make of Jhancarlos Lara’s season so far? He’s been even wilder than he was last year, and while this was his best game he hasn’t had one yet to really draw your attention. Well, at least until you look at the 21 whiffs he got in this game. Lara has been effective at missing bats with both his fastball and slider, and it’s clear the command is the only thing holding him back, but one big concern has to be when his command issues are happening. He’s struggling the most right at the start of games, typically settling in during the second or third inning, and if we’re looking at him as a relief option in the near future that is a trend he is going to have to reverse relatively quickly. The pure stuff is ready to make the leap to Triple-A, in fact he could get outs at the big league level if the Braves pushed him there, but his command has fallen off of a cliff since he was promoted to Double-A last season. Lara was able to get into the groove for the first time this season after allowing the first two batters to reach in the third inning, and even down to his body language he seemed to be pitching with an edge that was just barely missing in the first couple of outings. Lara retired 11 of the last 13 batters, seven via strikeout with only one walk, and Blue Wahoos batters whiffed on 17 of their 26 swings. Obviously, we can’t expect Lara to have that sort of success over any extended period of time, but hopefully this is a confidence boost that carries over into future outings as it seemed to be the first multi-inning stretch where he was able to find the strike zone with his fastball.

Unfortunately for Lara that success was something that his offense could not match in support of him. Columbus got on base plenty, drawing seven walks and getting a hit batter, and they loaded the bases in the first inning, but they consistently failed to come through with runners in scoring position. They finally scrapped a run together on a Cal Conley ground out to score Keshawn Ogans in the seventh inning, but it was tough sledding for the Columbus offense especially with David McCabe taking the day off. Elison Joseph has been lights out after a poor debut to the season, and in today’s outing he struck out two batters in a scoreless inning with five whiffs on eight swings. Joseph has really been the guy in the system that has made the most notable progress over the past couple of years, and it looks to me like he may be the next reliever outside of the 40 man roster to get a shot in Atlanta. both his fastball and slider can overwhelm hitters, and he has thrown enough strikes to make use of both of them as his ability to hit the zone has drastically improved.

Swing and Misses

Jhancarlos Lara – 21

Elison Joseph – 5

(7-7) Rome Emperors 7, (6-7) Asheville Tourists 4

Box Score

• Patrick Clohisy, CF: 2-3, 2 BB, .298/.424/.426
• Titus Dumitru, RF: 3-5, 3B, 4 RBI, .298/.389/.404
• Adam Maier, SP: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 7.71 ERA
• Luis Vargas, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 2.57 ERA

Rome made their baserunners count, and in a clutch spot in the eighth inning Titus Dumitru came through with a massive hit that propelled the Emperors to a win to get back to .500. The offense was carried by the combination of Dumitru and Patrick, and outside of those two the past couple of weeks have been tough sledding for most of the offense. Clohisy reached base four times in this game, tying a season high, and with that has now reached base safely in seven consecutive games. He only has one game this season in which he has failed to reach base, though lately the strikeouts are starting to pile up more quickly with 11 in the past eight games. Dumitru’s season didn’t quite get off to the same start as he came into this series with a .290 on base percentage, but after reaching base safely three times in the opener he has reached safely in each game and bumped his on base percentage all the way up to .389. In the second inning the Emperors found themselves trailing 4-1 after a big inning from the Tourists, only for them to respond to tie the game up. Dumitru had the tying hit in the inning when he ripped a ground ball over to shortstop, where the defender was playing in and was unable to make the proper read on the ball allowing it past him for an RBI single. Dumitru’s next big chance came in the bottom of the eighth inning with the score still tied at 4-4, and with the bases loaded he cracked a triple into the right center field gap to clear the bases and swing the game over in Rome’s favor.

Adam Maier rolled up for his third start on Saturday, and unfortunately did not do anything to answer the ever-growing list of questions surrounding his future. Maier was solid in the first inning, and certainly it’s nice to see six strikeouts on the register across three innings, but in his last two innings he just could not control the ball well enough to be successful. Maier threw only 25 strikes on 51 pitches across his last two innings, and though his slider is able to miss bats he’s not making the pitches he needs to with his fastball. Maier was able to finish on a high note with strikeouts of the final two batters he faced, but until he starts avoiding walks it’s going to be hard to believe in him. Now that he has had a season to get back into a rhythm he really needs a breakout campaign in 2025 and this hasn’t been the start anyone had hoped for. Luis Vargas did provide a bright spot for the pitching staff, and now that he has moved to the bullpen full time he has been absolutely dominant this season. In five appearances he has struck out 13 batters and walked only two across seven innings, with this being one of his more impressive outings. Vargas struck out three batters as he closed out the game in the ninth inning, and in a single inning was able to elicit nine swing-and-misses on 14 total swings. His combination of an upper-90’s fastball and a solid average slider makes him an intriguing bullpen option and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a quick move up to Double-A soon.

4/9

Swing and Misses

Adam Maier – 9

Luis Vargas – 9

LJ McDonough – 8

(7-7) Augusta GreenJackets 9, (6-8) Myrtle Beach Pelicans 1

Box Score

• Nick Montgomery, C: 3-4, HR, 2 RBI .174/.309/.326
• Eric Hartman, 2B: 2-4, 3B, .239/.364/.435
• Rayven Antonio, SP: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 3.00 ERA
• Seth Keller, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 10.80 ERA

It took a bit of time for him to get going this season, but Nick Montgomery is starting to have fun at the plate for the Augusta GreenJackets. For the second time in as many days he went deep, and this one was an absolutely missile to left field. Myrtle Beach starter JP Wheat left a slider out over the plate and Montgomery didn’t miss by a millimeter, turning and driving one well out of the park in left field to give Augusta an early lead. Montgomery had eight strikeouts in his first four games, but has made the necessary adjustments to his timing over the past couple of weeks and is now on a decent streak of play even if the numbers haven’t quite caught up yet. Montgomery has a 24% strikeout rate and 19% walk rate over his past eight games, and has started to turn on the ball with some authority. Eric Hartman then followed up with an impressive swing, turned on a 99 mph fastball up in the zone and lacing it into the gap for a triple. Hartman continues to put up impressive at bats and showcase athleticism, power, and bat speed, though as I predicted in my last recap he has started to see the strikeouts catch up to his whiff rates a bit. Hartman is able to hit really any fastball and showed that off against Wheat’s velocity, but he’s been as susceptible to chasing breaking pitches as you would expect an 18 year old to be. His tools, though, are something you cannot teach and he has given the Braves so much to like very quickly.

19 year old Rayven Antonio is off to a nice little start this season, and you have to wonder where the Braves keep getting these young pitchers. Antonio is sitting 92-94 on both his four-seam and two-seam fastball, and his command of his fastballs is in a great place for a teenage pitcher. He makes a concerted effort to elevate his four seam fastball and often is able to get it there, and typically when he does miss he is losing his arm slot and missing to his arm side. Antonio is already using a slider and a changeup, though his feel for the latter is a long way from making it an effective pitch. He slows his arm down and often misses badly with the pitch, but it is good to see the Braves have the confidence in his changeup to have him at least attempted to use it in game. He does tend to miss with his slider as well, usually up in the zone, though when he buries it outside to right handed batters it does has solid movement. With that changeup not being a functional pitch at the moment he is struggling to keep lefties off of his four seamer, but the Braves have once again popped up an international teenager to watch in Augusta.

The best news was from Seth Keller, who for the first time in two years went out there and really showed a good performance. He walked the first batter he faced on four pitches, but settled down quickly after getting a double play ball and started throwing strikes across his two scoreless innings. His changeup looked as good as it did prior to all of his injury trouble, though as you would expect he lacks the finer points of command on all of his pitches still. His fastball shape looked lively, but the big sticking point was that his velocity is not there. Hopefully with health he can start to get back up into the low-to-mid 90’s, but right now he is sitting 90-92 and that’s not where we want him to be.

Swing and Misses

Rayven Antonio – 9

Reibyn Corona – 5

Seth Keller – 3