Mississippi 3, Birmingham 2 - Final 11 Innings -  Braves lead 2-0

• K. Kaaihue 2-5 2 K
• J. Schafer 1-4 RBI, SF
• V. Pope 1-4 2B, RBI
• T. Hanson 7IP 6H 2R 0BB 9K

You know I think the thing I like the most about Hanson is his size. Dude is like 6' 6". That means he is probably going to be pretty durable and will be able to eat some innings. Jordan Schafer hit a sac fly in the 11th inning to score Matt Young (whose stolen base had put him on second and then was singled over by Kala) to give the Braves the win. Luis Valdez got the save in the game, his second in the series. There are some very good relievers on this team, especially if you still consider Medlen one. One more win and Mississippi moves on to the championship series.

Myrtle Beach 5, Winston Salem 1 - Pelicans lead 2-1

• E. Campbell 1-4 2B, BB
• E. Mejia 2-5 2B, 2 RBI
• T. Flowers 3-4 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, BB
• J. Heyward 0-2 3 BB, K
• C. Rohrbough 6IP 2H 1R 3BB 3K

So Tyler Flowers has got to be the MVP of this series already. Dude is hitting .538 in the series with a couple bombs and double. Heyward, I think, is doing a great job of contributing without having to get a bunch of hits. Cole Rohrbough showed up to this game and pitched like a man (or Tommy Hanson) as he only gave up 2 hits in his 6 innings. These teams play again tomorrow night and the Pelicans will have the chance to move on to the championship series. I think we will probably see Ryne Reynoso for the Beach.

Mississippi 1, Birmingham 0

• J. Schafer 1-2 2B, BB
• W. Cabrera 1-2 2B, RBI, 2 BB
• T. Redmond 8IP 5H 0R 0BB 9K

Well, in the first game of the playoffs, Mississippi's 'Pitcher of the Year', Todd Redmond, pitched what I would assume was his best game of the season. Redmond was matched for most of the game as the Baron's Justin Cassel 1-hit Mississippi through 8 innings. Cassel was pulled going into the 9th and the Braves offense delivered the run that Redmond needed. Luis Valdez (soon of Atlanta) closed out the game to give Mississippi a 1-0 lead in the series.

Winston-Salem 6, Myrtle Beach 5

• E. Campbell 3-5 2B, K
• T. Flowers 2-5 HR, K
• J. Heyward 2-4 RBI, BB

I am not sure why Carlos Rivas got tossed out there to start this one. Maybe some of the other guys were tired. Anyways, Rivas gave up 4 runs in the 1st inning and after that the Pelicans tried their damndest to claw their way back into the game scoring single runs in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th innings. I like seeing Jason Heyward step up in a big game and get a couple hits even when he struggled at the Beach the last week. I am convinced that coming out of this season Tyler Flowers should be considered one of the top catching prospects in the minors, and if he weren't a catcher he should still be mentioned as one of the best hitters around. Dude walked nearly 100 times, and while he did K in about 25% of his ABs the walks balance out that negative.

Norfolk 3, Richmond 9

• C. Loadenthal 3-5 K
• D. Hernandez 2-5 2B, RBI, K
• J. Perry 1-4 HR(10), 2 RBI
• W. Timmons 2-2 HR(2), 3 RBI, BB

Well the Richmond team ends the season on note after starting the season well. They finish the season at 64-78 and 9.5 games out in last place. To be fair they were only a half game behind the 2nd place team as Durham (Tampa Bay) ran away with the division. I'll be back after the playoffs to do some post season awards and what not with the blessing of Martin.

West. Tenn @ Mississippi - Cancelled

Kinston 4, Myrtle Beach 4 - 10 Innings

• T. Jones 4-5 2B, 2 RBI, K
• T. Flowers 1-5 HR(17), 2 K
• C. Kimbrel 2IP 4H 0R 0BB 2K

HA! Tyler Flowers hit a walkoff homer in the 10th. It wasn't even posted in the boxscore when I looked at it then I hit refresh and it happened! Sorry, probably too excited about that. Craig Kimbrel is on his 3rd level of the season and even the Braves are surprised by the speed at which he is moving. Matt Eddy from Baseball America was saying the other day that he has a similar arm slot to Joey Devine but with better overall stuff, hitting higher on the radar gun and a wicked slider. In his three stops he has an ERA of 0.54 and 54K in 33.1 IP. I guess that is doable.

Columbus 2, Rome 5

• C. Johnson 2-4 RBI
• A. Coe 2-3

Rome finishes the second half of the season at 34-34 which is a marked improvement over the first where they were 22-47. That is 56-81 for the entirety of the season and last place (by 5.5 games) for the year. They were that bad in the first half. In the game there wasn't a whole lot action. Osuna didn't pitch especially well, but the defense wasn't really solid behind him either. He has been the best pitcher on the roster for most of the year. Is he the best prospect? I dunno. We'll see.

Hi guys, I haven't posted here in a while but I just wanted to get a feeler out on the Braves system from the rest of the community. I follow the minors pretty closely, but for the most part the only team whose depth I have any real idea on is the Braves. Outside that I just know the top couple of guys in most of the other systems.

That said I just wanted to do this post to see where you guys think the Braves system ranks in comparison with other teams out there. Personally I feel like we are probably a top 10 team like last year (according to BA at least), but I could just be fantasizing on the potential of some of the guys. Are we top 10? Top 5?

Here are some quick thoughts on a couple guys and their possible top 100 rankings:

Jason Heyward - consensus most places is he is a top 10 guy, maybe top 5 for some people.

Tommy Hanson - Most people see him as a middle of the rotation guy (at least before the season they did) but he added velocity and command of his pitches and dominated (mostly) at two levels. Top 25 prospect doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility?

Jordan Schafer - Obviously the suspension hurt him, but he destroyed the baseball in August and his defense remained stellar for the whole season and his XBH tendencies remained intact. Some might say he is still 25-50. I think he'll end up falling past 50 somewhere till he proves he can do it for more than a month.

Julio Teheran - Injuries plagued him for most of the season but scouts still say he has one of the best arms in the low minors in the past few seasons. Not much to go on so far, but is very young and talented. Possible top 100 guys based solely on projectability.

Freddie Freeman - this dude exploded onto the scene this year as an 18 year old in the Sally League. He benefited hitting behind Heyward for most of the season, but he flashed more power and decent plate discipline than the young OF. He'll be ranked all over the place, but he has to make the 100 I think.

Tyler Flowers - I love this guy. Most people think he won't stay at catcher. I don't think it is because he can't catch (he can from the reports I have read) but simply because he has McCann in front of him. Maybe he'll be trade bait, but either way putting up a .289/.429/.490 line while hitting half his games in a pitchers park and playing a difficult position has to speak for something. He also has a 98/100 BB/K ratio on the season.

Gorkys Hernandez - We picked him up from Detroit in the offseason and he hit well early on but was never quite the same after pulling a hammy and sitting for most of a month. Lots of tools and has Furcal like ability (maybe with a little less speed). I dunno if he is still top 100 material or not.

Other guys - Cole Rohrbough, LHP; Kris Medlen, RHP; Jeff Locke, LHP; Brandon Hicks, SS; Travis Jones, 2B; Jake Thompson, RHP; Kala Kaaihue, 1B; Eric Campbell, 3B

I didn't mean to make this so long, but I just feel like we have a few good prosepcts and I get excited easily. What do you guys think about our system? Top Tier?

Norfolk 1, Richmond 2

• S. Thorman 1-4 2B
• A. Lerew 7IP 5H 1R 0BB 5K

Well Richmond only has one game left in the season and they are most likely going to finish at the bottom of their division. Anthony Lerew had an excellent outing tonight which I find to be a good thing. Maybe he can be a piece of the puzzle again soon.

West. Tenn. 1, Mississippi 6 (Completed early - 6 Innings)

• J. Holt 2-4 3B
• J. Schafer 1-3
• T. Hanson 5IP 2H 0R 2BB 9K

Tommy Hanson might get one more start thus year. Mississippi has 5 more games i believe and it is quite possible that he will pitch in the final game of the season. This was another excellent start, of course, and if he pitches well in his last start he could bring his AA ERA under 2.00 for the season.

Kinston 6, Myrtle Beach 4

• E. Mejia 2-4 K
• T. Flowers 3-4 2B, RBI
• J. Owings 2-3 2B, RBI, BB
• C. Rohrbough 6IP 5H 5R 3BB 7K

Myrtle Beach also has another series before their season ends. Rohrbough actually only allowed 2 EARNED runs, but we don't like the concept of earned runs around here, so I am giving him credit for all 5. Anyways, the Beach is pretty much just tuning up for the playoffs right now.

Columbus 11, Rome 1

• A. Coe 2-4 RBI
  
• C. Shehan 2-3

Eh, there wasn't really anything good here. On the plus side though recent draftee Jacob Thompson pitched 5 innings of 1 run ball. I know some of us are pretty high on him so seeing him pitch well at a higher level is promising.

Richmond 7, Norfolk 2

• B. Lillibridge 2-5 3B, 3 RBI, K
• R. Gotay 2-4 RBI, K
• C. Miller 1-5 HR(5), 2 RBI, K
• J. Parr 5IP 5H 1R 1BB 4K

I'm still not ready to throw James Parr into the top prospect category but he has to have put himself into the Braves plans here at the end of the season. He is definitely on the radar and could be pitching in the bullpen next season. Hell if Jo-Jo and Morton don't live up to some of their potential then they could be watching Parr pitch in their spot. Seriously, the guy doesn't have crazy stuff, he just gets the job done, at least he has at Richmond. (Parr is also only 22 years old, that surprised me). What else is there to say about Corky Miller?

West. Tenn. 4, Mississippi 0

• J. Lyman 5IP 2H 0R 2BB 3K

Mississippi has sown up their playoff spot so they really don't care about winning anymore. So I don't care about writing about them. Amazing how bad this team was in the first month of the season and how they have turned this around.

Kinston 6, Myrtle Beach 10

• E. Mejia 3-5 2B, HR(21), 3 RBI, K
  
• E. Campbell 1-2 2 RBI, 3 BB, K
  
• J. Heyward 2-5 2B, 3 RBI, K
• C. Kimbrel 1.2IP 1H 0R 1BB 1K

Jason Heyward finally gets a hit with the Pelicans, and HEY!!! it was a good one. Mejia now has 73 XBH on the season. I can't ignore that and I will keep beating that horse. He does have 135 K against 26 BB so that part isn't as good, but when you get that many hits when playing at that park (he has 10 less homers at home) someone will take notice, and its me.

Charleston 15, Rome 7

• L. Sumoza 1-5 3 K
• A. Coe 2-5 2B, RBI, K
• J. Gilmore 2-5 RBI
• C. Sheha 1-3 2B, 2 RBI, K

Some of the promotions got some hits tonight against the advanced competition (though I wonder if Charleston had some just promoted guys in also). Gilmore has hit in both games back in Rome so I hope he can keep that up. He is the one guy in this bunch I would most like to see do well at the end of the season. Another horse I will keep beating is Chris Shehan is my sleeper pick for our hitters next year.

Danville & GCL Braves

Both of their seasons are finished.

Charlotte @ Richmond - Rain

Mobile 2, Mississippi 7

• J. Holt 4-5 2B, 2 RBI
• J. Guzman 4-4 2 RBI
• W. Cabrera 2-4 3B, BB, K
• K. Medlen 6IP 5H 1R 1BB 8K

Mississippi got offense from some unusual spots tonight including the new guy, Willie Cabrera. There was an insider article about clubs using relievers as starters in the minors in order to up their learning curve and Kris Medlen was the main focus of the article. I can't post the whole article but I can give a little snipet here:

And so now the Braves, two years after drafting Medlen in the 10th round out of Santa Ana (Calif.) JC, are kicking the tires on whether he could evolve into a starter. They've asked him to add a two-seam fastball, work on hitters, learn situations and so forth.

The article goes on to say that the Braves aren't really sure where his future is right now and Medlen himself waivers back and forth on whether or not he wants to start or relieve. Medlen doesn't necessarily have front of the rotation or back of the bullpen stuff, but he will be hard to ignore if he keeps putting up these stats as a starter.

Wilmington 11, Myrtle Beach 6

• T. Flowers 2-4 2B, 4 RBI, BB
• J. Heyward 0-3 BB

It looks like the Pelicans have gone into 'prepare for the playoffs' mode as they had 7 pitchers in this game. Heyward is now 0-Carolina League, but he did get on base. With the AFL rosters being announced a couple Braves guys were mentioned in their recaps of the teams. Tyler Flowers got the most attention with this tidbit:

X-Factor: Braves catcher Tyler Flowers might be the high Class A Carolina League MVP. Flowers, 22, hit .285/.427/.485 while playing his home games a difficult park for hitters at Myrtle Beach, showing power and the patience to draw walks, with 96 of them to go with 98 strikeouts. It looks like Flowers' bat would play at any position, but the Braves want him to stick at catcher. Of course, with Brian McCann under contract through 2012 with a club option for 2013, they certainly have the luxury to be patient with Flowers.

High praise for our young catcher. This is a reminder too that if Flowers moves off catcher it isn't because he can't catch, it's because we have Brian McCann.

Rome 12, Columbus 3 Game 1 (7 Innings)

• A. Coe 3-4 2 HR(7), 3 RBI
• C. Ludahl 3-4 2B
• F. Freeman 0-4 K
• E. Osuna 7IP 6H 3R 1BB 4K

Edgar Osuna  gets his 10th win of the season and has been very solid for the entire season. I haven't seen him play, does anyone know what his velocity is like and what he throws? I feel like he is going to be getting some publicity in the offseason and I'd like to know what to expect.

Rome 5, Columbus 13

• F. Freeman 2-4 RBI
• C. Johnson 3-4 HR(25), 4 RBI, K
  
• C. Kimbrel 1IP 1H 0R 2BB 3K

Kimbrel likes to live dangerously I guess. He allowed the bases to get loaded but struck out the side in process. He figures if it isn't a real save situation he'll find some way to make it interesting for himself. Cody Johnson ticks me off so much because he has so much talent but he really is boom or bust. Even from game to game. I bet his number of multi hit games rivals Freeman or Heyward simply because he gets them in bunches when he does get them.

Danville - Season Over

This was the first time since 2003 that Danville didn't participate in the Appy League playoffs. We'll have to see if there is any trickle up effect to Rome. Maybe a couple guys will get some ABs in the last few games.

Yankees 2, Braves 1

I wrote about this one on last nights recap because I'm dumb. Ok I didn't really write anything, mostly because nothing worthwhile happened.

Well I was just over at MLB.com and found this little piece of information. Here's the link for those who want to read it themselves:

Braves Deal Kotsay to Boston

In return we get minor league OF Luis Sumoza. I do no know anything about Sumoza other than what the stats tell me. He is having a solid season in the short-season New York-Penn League posting an OPS of .915 and swatting 11 homers in 193 ABs. He also has a 21/59 BB/K ratio, so he K's a bit but balances it with a few walks. He just turn 20 also so he has some time to grow and will probably go to Rome after everything gets finalized.

What do you guys think about the return we got for Kotsay? I like it, simply because we got something for him. I figured we might get cash or a PTBN but Sumoza looks like he could be a decent prospect and we unload the salary that we owe Kotsay. I'll call it a win for now, but was acquiring Kotsay for Joey Devine worth it in the long run?

Richmond 3, Toledo 2

• J. Anderson 1-5 SB(42)
  
• B. Canizares 1-4 2B

Anderson is fifth in the IL with a .314 BA and is tied for third with his 42 steals. Slot him in at leadoff the rest of the year and see what happens.

Mobile 2, Mississippi 4

• M. Young 1-2 RBI, 2 BB
• D. Heath 5.1IP 7H 2R 3BB 4K (1-2 HR(1) as a hitter)

It looks like Heath did everything in this game. Every Mississippi starter got on base at least once in the contest.

Mobile 0, Mississippi 1

• J. Schafer 1-2 BB
• C. Sencion 5IP 5H 0R 1BB 2K

Here is Sencion getting a chance to start again, and again he shows that he is a better pitcher as a starter. When he comes out of the pen his ERA is 6.63 vs 4.07 when he gets to start. We'll have to wait and see if the Braves give him a chance to start next season, and if so will it be in AA or AAA?

Wilmington 0, Mrytle Beach 6

• E. Campbell 2-3 HR(18), 3 RBI, K
• J. Heyward 0-3 K
• C. Rodriguez 1-3 HR(!1)
• S. Diamond 7IP 5H 0R 1BB 1K

Scott Diamond continue to put together one of the best seasons for any of our minor league pitchers. Heyward goes 0fer in his first game at the Beach and Eric Campbell is capping off a pretty damn good season.

Mobile 0, Myrtle Beach 2

• J. Heyward 0-3
• C. Rohrbough 7IP 2H 0R 0BB 4K

Well Heyward obviously will never hit above A ball so we might as well cut him loose now. The Beach gets the double shutout comb behind Cole Rohrbough's best start of the year. It will be nice to get him going right before the end of the season so he can have something to build towards next year.

Rome @ Columbus - Double Header Rained Out

Danville @ Burlington  -  Canceled due to Rain

Yankees 2, Braves 1

I looked, there wasn't much worht mentioning here.

Richmond 2, Toledo 3

• B. Lillibridge 1-4 3B, K
• S. Thorman 2-4 HR(19), K
• B. Canizares 3-4 RBI
• A. Lerew 4.2 5H 3R 5BB 1K

Lerew wasn't very good as he attempts to come back from elbow surgery. A 5-1 BB/K ratio can never bode well. I don't know at this point if we can truly expect anything from him in the future. I wouldn't be surprised to see Canizares get a look in September simply because we have very little offensively at 1B. I'm not at all convinced he is the answer though.

Mobile 0, Mississippi 1 - Game 1 (7 Innings)

• K . Kaaihue 1-2 3B, BB
• J. Schafer 0-1 2BB, K
• T. Redmond 5.1IP 4H 0R 3BB 6K

Redmond continues to impress and raises his season record to 13-5. The idea of anyone allowing Kala Kaaihue to leg out a triple is mind boggling.

Mobile 4, Mississippi 2

• J. Schafer 1-2 3B
• G. Creek 2-3 2 RBI, K
• T. Hanson 5IP 6H 4R 4BB 6K

A little bit of an off night for Tommy Hanson. Only one of the runs he allowed was earned, but he did give allow 10 base runners in 5 innings which is rare for him. Schafer continues to put together a huge August with an OPS around 1.130 for the month. Sure his walk rate is down, but his K rate isn't really up from other months and he is hitting the crap out of the ball. Maybe he is just being more aggressive at the plate. I'd rather have him hitting doubles and triples than walking twice a game.

Wilmington @ Myrtle Beach - Rained Out

Jason Heyward's rise to Atlanta is delayed one more day.

Rome @ Columbus - Rained Out

Freddie Freeman will get lonely over the next week.

Danville 5, Burlington 4 (10 Innings)

• C. Fuller 2-4 2B, RBI, BB
• J. Gilmore 3-4 HR(4), 2 RBI, BB

Jon Gilmore is batting nearly .400 this month and has 2 of his 4 homers. I would like to see him get another chance at Rome, but I fear it is too late now to make any difference.

Phillies 5, Braves 6 - Game 1

Braves 7, Phillies 8 - Game 2

Sorry I am really tired.