Today’s Trivia: Freddie Freeman is just 11 games into his LAD career, leaving him 589 away from joining what two players as the only players to play at least 600 games for the Braves AND 600 games for the Dodgers? One is the only player with at least 75 HR for both franchises while the other is the only player to steal 100 bases with each team.
While you ponder that, onto the latest transactions…
4/18: Signed 2B Tyler Krieger to a minor league contract; Assigned Krieger to AA Mississippi
A 4th round pick in the 2015 draft, Krieger got an honorable mention in Eric Longenhagen’s 2016 Cleveland prospects list, with the prospect maven writing:
A 40 runner with good bat-to-ball skills, Krieger lacks the speed to play a premium defensive position or the power to profile at a lesser one. Cleveland has players like this littered throughout the org. Krieger has had shoulder surgery.
He had an auspicious debut that summer (.299/.377/.417), earning Midwest League All-Star honors, but slammed into a wall at AA the next year, as minor leaguers often do. In ‘17, after starting for Israel in the WBC, he slashed .225/.303/.337 in the Eastern League. The following year, it improved to .276/.332/.372, but things regressed in 2019 (.208/.291/.309), and Krieger was even worse in his brief taste of AAA. A lost year of development in 2020 did him no favors, and everything bottomed out in 2021, with Krieger hitting .169/.223/.238 for AAA Columbus. After a brief stint in the White Sox system this winter, Krieger has signed with Atlanta.
Stop me if this sounds familiar, but Krieger is a product of metro Atlanta, hailing from Johns Creek. He went to Clemson, where he was 2nd team All-ACC as a Sophomore. Now he returns to his hometown organization, although he’ll be a couple of states west until he can improve at the plate. Now 28, the switch-hitter is likely organizational depth, and a best case scenario is probably a utility stint with Gwinnett at some point so family and friends can see him play a little. This is an era of re-invention, however, so you never know for sure. It’s nice to see the Braves give the hometown fella what is likely to be one last shot at some upper minors success.
4/19: ARI claimed RHP Jacob Webb off waivers
In the last edition, where we discussed Webb, I wrote this:
My feelings haven’t changed. I’d rather Webb have made it onto the Gwinnett roster, but Arizona makes a lot of sense for him as well. He’s 29, so it’s probably better for him to just find his way onto a non-contending roster to get some regular innings at the MLB level. Arizona is already nearly eliminated from postseason eligibility, so they should be able to afford those innings just fine. Best of luck to the 2021 World Champion.
4/19: Optioned RHP Huascar Ynoa to AAA Gwinnett
Something is broken with Ynoa, so the Braves will try to figure that out in Gwinnett. Let’s look at some important numbers from 2021 to 2022:
Zone Swing Rate | Chase Rate
MLB Average: 66.8% | 28.3%
2021 Ynoa: 65.6% | 30.8%
2022 Ynoa: 83.3% | 11.1%
That is… alarming. Batters are recognizing pitches better from Ynoa than they ever have, and it’s hard to pinpoint a single issue, because nearly everything is trending the wrong way:
He’s throwing fewer strikes - 44.9%, down from 48.3%
He’s throwing fewer pitches along the edge of the zone - 36.1%, down from 40.9%
He’s throwing fewer first pitch strikes - 54.1%, down from 58.9%
He’s missing fewer bats, with a 21.9% whiff rate, down from 28.6%
One possibility is that Ynoa is tipping both his fastball and his sinker. While looking at his release point data, I found this:
As you can see, Ynoa has always had some distinction between his release points for his fastballs (4-seam and sinker) and his slider and changeup. However, he was generally consistent in grouping them together, so even if batters picked up on the release point, they still wouldn’t know for sure which pitch was coming. As you can see, the sinker has drifted lower this year, about halfway between his typical release points. That could be noise after just two starts, but if batters are able to pick out the sinkers, it makes the four-seamer much easier to recognize. Given that they’ve hit .500 and slugged .900 against the pitch so far, I don’t think it’s out of the question that Ynoa’s release mechanics might be hurting him in 2022. Whatever the culprit(s), Ynoa will attempt to figure them out ASAP in Gwinnett.
4/19: Outrighted C Chadwick Tromp to AAA Gwinnett
I wrote last time that I didn’t find an outright in Tromp’s transaction history, so I thought the Braves might be able to get him through to AAA if they wanted, and voila! He’ll continue to serve the same role, that of a competent safety net in case of a rash of injuries at the MLB level.
4/19: Designated LHP Sean Newcomb for assignment
Fans were pretty upset on Monday when Brian Snitker brought Newk in to relieve Ynoa. I was not as upset, for a few reasons. When Ynoa was pulled, Atlanta had a 13% win probability and, per Fangraphs, the leverage index of 0.7 was classified as “low leverage”. That is precisely the situation to use the relievers you’re going to need to make a roster decision on when the team shrinks from 28 to 26 players. It’s not “waving a white flag” - that would be putting in a position player, ye hot take hyperbolists of Twitter. It’s finding an opportunity to get a better look at a player on the fringe of the roster, which can be frustrating to watch in real time when it doesn’t work out, but I do think it has some longterm value. That’s what April is sometimes about, especially after a shortened spring training: gathering further information on the players you have so you can know what kind of role they’ll have going forward. The Braves got that information, and now Newk has been DFA’d.
Newcomb’s career in Atlanta is a fascinating if disappointing one, and it’s probably too complicated to get into in depth in this particular edition. After a pretty decent 2018 as a starter, I always thought the team bailed on him too quickly in 2019. He salvaged the season by turning into an excellent reliever, but for some reason they returned him to the rotation in 2020, where once again he had a short leash, albeit justifiably short given the 60-game schedule. In 2021, it was back to relief work, where he struggled to find the strike zone.
You might think he had the same problem this season, with his 4 walks in his final 5 innings, but they’re misleading. Newk pounded the strike zone in 2022, throwing 58.8% of his pitches over the plate. His problem wasn’t throwing strikes; it’s that his pitches, whether in or out of the zone, weren’t fooling batters at all. Remember Ynoa’s terrible Zone Swing:Chase ratio of 83:11? Newk’s was an astonishing 89:5. That’s right: five percent. It just doesn’t matter if you pound the zone like Newk did when batters are swinging at only one out of every twenty pitches you throw outside the zone. And when they did swing at his pitches, they made contact over 87% of the time, easily the highest rate he’s allowed. If Newk called out the pitches as he was about to throw them, I don’t know that batters could have done any better. It’s as if they already knew what was coming.
It’s hard to say if his career is salvageable at this point, but I hope for his sake it is. Perhaps he can go to an organization that can afford to give him a clear plan forward, whether that’s as a starter or a reliever. With championship contention on Atlanta’s mind, Atlanta couldn’t give Newcomb the leash he likely needed to get fully back on track. It’s clear Newcomb was no longer a good fit for the Braves (and probably vice versa), and Monday’s appearance sealed that fate. Best of luck to the 2021 World Champion.
4/19: Recalled LHP Dylan Lee from AAA Gwinnett
The World Series starter cannot be denied, and after 5.1 innings, 4 Ks, and nary a walk at AAA, he’s back. I’d imagine the team will want to save his starts for situations he’s familiar with - a matchup with the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Lakewood BlueClaws, or the American League Champions - and instead let him take over Newk’s role for a bit. He should be able to avoid walks better than the departed, but the bigger question to me is whether or not he can stretch his appearances across multiple innings the way a low-leverage reliever often needs to. Last year, Lee got at least 4 outs in 13 of his 37 MiLB appearances, so it’s not out of the question.
4/19: Recalled RHP Touki Toussaint from AAA Gwinnett
Toussaint started this season with a pair of solid outings for Gwinnett, earning him this callup:
Those walks are scary, especially from a pitcher who has struggled badly with control over the years, but the 16 Ks in 8.2 innings are pretty tantalizing. Touki’s about as predictable as a box of chocolates, so your guess is as good as mine as to how this goes. He’s a likeable player who’s still only 25, so I really hope we’re watching it all come together. It’s unclear if he’ll take Ynoa’s next start or wind up in the pen after someone else is jettisoned. Either way, ladies and gentlemen, it’s Touki Time!
(I wrote a little on Touki here in the offseason)
4/19: Assigned Ronald Acuna Jr. to AAA Gwinnett on a rehab assignment
Well, that was satisfying. We’re getting close, y’all.
4/?: Signed RHP Jesus Cruz to a minor league contract; Assigned Cruz to AAA Gwinnett
Technically, this signing was on April 6, but I didn’t see it reported until yesterday, three days after Cruz made his debut for the Stripers. The most difficult thing about writing about transactions is, infuriatingly, the lack of available and timely information when a transaction actually occurs.
Assigned to Gwinnett on his 27th birthday, the righty made his MLB debut in 2020 with the Cardinals, throwing a single inning. Last year, with AAA Memphis, Cruz threw 35.1 innings, striking out 38 and walking 26. He’ll slot into the Gwinnett bullpen and there’s a non-zero chance he could make his way into Atlanta this season, though I wouldn’t think he’s particularly high in the pecking order. Depth with MLB experience isn’t bad to have, and now the Braves have a little bit more.
Odds and Ends
Trivia answers: Dusty Baker and Rafael Furcal both played over 600 games as Dodgers and 600 games as Braves.
The greatest Brave to play for the Dodgers? Greg Maddux. The greatest Dodger to play for the Braves is harder to answer. Matt Kemp had over 200 HR as a Dodger, but I’ll go with ol’ Stubblebeard, Burleigh Grimes. The Hall of Famer went 105-69 in a 5 year span with Brooklyn from 1920-1924. He went 3-5 with a forgettable 7.35 ERA for the Braves 6 years later.
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