With so many of the players I had been tracking at Rome now bumped up to Double-A, the scene shifted to Columbus and my first trip to Synovus Park, about 300 miles from Asheville. It was worth the drive.
The ballpark, which dates to 1926 but was badly damaged in the 2000s and rebuilt, is a nice place to watch a game. The pulled pork souvenir nachos, served in a mini-batting helmet, were expensive but excellent, the beer list didn’t stand out, and while prices were higher than Rome, they still came in at about two-thirds of what you’d pay in Cobb County.
The seats are also noticeably wider than what you get at many other parks.
The biggest reason to pay attention here is the wave of promotions that finally gave this AA club some life. Earlier in the year, I didn’t even bother making the trip to see them in Knoxville because the system felt thin. That has changed.
Tate Southesene broke his hand in his second at bat after his promotion last month, so the double-play picture has changed again. John Gil, who had already been discussed before, looked worn down on my last look, but he has clearly perked back up.
He has opened well at the plate and has been strong defensively at second base. In this game, he narrowly missed a homer and also picked up a single on a ground ball.
The strikeout rate is still too high - 27% here, 26% on the season - but he continues to draw walks. Even with that swing-and-miss, this has been a good start for him at the level, and second base looks like his future MLB home.
Eric Hartman has climbed onto the national top-30 lists, and he showed why here with one drive that looked headed for more before the wind held it at the wall. His other at bats suggested a solid plan, though the strikeout and walk numbers are both a little too high right now, sitting at 11 walks and 19 strikeouts in roughly 60 plate appearances at Double-A. He also didn’t seem to get a fastball all night.
Alex Lodise, up just two games ago, has been the most intriguing of the bunch. The adjustments in his game are obvious.
Fastballs up still give him trouble, but he’s no longer chasing pitches away, and that’s helped knock his strikeout rate way down from 33% at Augusta to 10% between Rome and Columbus. He looked smoother in the field too.
At the plate, he launched his 25th homer of the season, a line drive to right-center instead of the usual pull-side shot, and that matters. I still want more looks before fully buying in, but this is the best he has looked in the Braves system.
Owen Carey has started slowly, though that’s nothing unusual for him; he tends to need time to settle in at each new level. His approach and defense looked fine.
Garrett Baumann’s season has been a mess mechanically, and at 6-foot-8, that’s not a place you want to live. Last start was strong, and he backed it up here, even if the swing-and-miss wasn’t quite as loud as his velocity and extension might suggest.
He generated 18 whiffs on 96 pitches, which is very good, just not elite. At 22, he still has a path to becoming a solid No. 3 starter for a big league team, and a better changeup would help a lot.
In Other News...
Braves Bullpen Squeeze Could End A Veteran Relievers Atlanta Run
The Braves bullpen shuffle took another turn when Tyler Kinley was designated for assignment and then released after clearing waivers, a move driven by the clubs need to recall AJ Smith-Shawver and settle into a six-man rotation. For Atlanta, it was another reminder of how quickly roster math can change when pitching depth and workload management become part of the daily equation.
Kinleys departure leaves open a familiar question for a veteran reliever who spent time in Atlanta: whether the door is still open for a return, or whether another team will jump in first. A minor league deal with the Braves remains possible, but for now his next stop is unsettled, and the bullpen squeeze that pushed him out may not be the last roster decision tied to the rotation plan. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Are Paying For Offseason Mistakes In All The Wrong Spots
The Braves spent the winter trying to patch together a roster that already had a few pressure points, and the early returns have shown how thin the margin was. Atlanta did not add the kind of impact starting pitcher that can steady a staff over a long season, and the move to commit money to Ha-Seong Kim on a one-year deal has left the club trying to justify value in places where it needed cleaner answers. Add in the continued absence of a true right-handed outfield presence, and the roster construction starts to look less like a plan and more like a series of bets.
Those choices have become even more noticeable because the bullpen has not been able to cushion the mistakes. Injuries have complicated the relief mix, and the underperformance from multiple arms has left the Braves without much room to hide when games start tilting the wrong way. For a team built to contend, the frustration is not just what went wrong in the offseason, but how those misses are showing up in the exact spots where Atlanta needed stability the most. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Lineup Debate Is Putting Sean Murphy In The Spotlight
The Braves lineup choices have started to draw extra scrutiny, and Sean Murphy is right in the middle of it. Atlanta has leaned on Jim Jarvis at shortstop instead of Mauricio Dubon, while Murphys role has remained more limited than some around the club would prefer. For a lineup trying to squeeze out every bit of offense, those decisions have become part of the bigger conversation about how the Braves are deploying the roster.
Murphys track record is part of why the discussion keeps circling back to him. When healthy, he has shown the kind of production that makes him look like more than just a part-time catcher, and the argument for getting him into the lineup more often is hard to ignore. The question now is whether Atlanta keeps handling things this way, or whether the recent debate pushes the Braves toward a setup that better matches their offensive ceiling. [Read more 🡒]