{"id":6101,"date":"2017-05-21T20:13:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T00:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=6101"},"modified":"2017-05-21T20:13:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T00:13:20","slug":"rio-ruiz-receives-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2017\/05\/21\/rio-ruiz-receives-promotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Atlanta Braves Farm Report: Rio Ruiz Receives Promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to the latest installment of the weekly report on the Atlanta Braves farm system from Last Word on Baseball. Unfortunately, this week was an especially rough one for Atlanta. The injury bug claimed two top pitching prospects, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=gohara000lui&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luiz Gohara<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=wentz-000joe&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Wentz<\/a><\/strong>, and put their immediate futures\u00a0on hold. Braves fans also welcomed back one familiar face in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/medlekr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kris Medlen<\/a><\/strong>. Medlen is working his way back to the majors via a rehab assignment, and he began his assignment with the Florida Fire Frogs this week. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ruizri01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rio Ruiz<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is the player of the week after receiving a promotion to Atlanta!\u00a0(Prospect ranking listed in parenthesis. All rankings taken from MLB.com&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/m.mlb.com\/prospects\/2017\/?list=atl\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves Prospect Watch Top 30<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Weekly Atlanta Braves Farm Report:\u00a0Rio Ruiz Receives Promotion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Gwinnett Braves\u00a0Announce Name Change<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Gwinnett Braves had one special, off-field announcement this week. The Gwinnett Daily Post\u00a0tweeted that the team will be choosing a new name prior to the start of the 2018 season! It will be a total re-branding effort, and fans are asked to participate in selecting the new name.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gwinnettbraves?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@GwinnettBraves<\/a> will have a new name. Fans can make suggestions on the team&#39;s website beginning Monday. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CqOKeVtq2q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/CqOKeVtq2q<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gwinnett Daily Post (@GDPsports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GDPsports\/status\/866291481715380224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Gwinnett Braves (Triple-A)<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Gwinnett posted a 2-4 record this week, and the most exciting news for the team involved a player currently in Atlanta. Third baseman Ruiz (22<sup>nd<\/sup>) was called up to Atlanta following <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2017\/05\/18\/freddie-freeman-injury-atlanta-shaken\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the injury to star<\/a> first baseman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/freemfr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Freddie Freeman<\/a><\/strong>. Ruiz has appeared in three games (two starts) and is off to a decent\u00a0showing. The youngster went two-for-four on Saturday with a two-run home run off Washington ace <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Scherzer<\/a><\/strong>. Ruiz will likely get lots of playing time over the course of Freeman\u2019s stay on the DL\u00a0to improve on his strong start.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=newcom000sea&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Newcomb<\/a> <\/strong>(fifth) posted the best start of the week for Gwinnett. Newcomb went five and a third innings with just a lone earned run against him. The lefty scatted three hits and two walks alongside six strikeouts. Newcomb received a no-decision for his efforts, and Gwinnett wound up losing the game in walk-off fashion.<\/p>\n<p>The other big news for Gwinnett is the season debut of outfielder <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=peters000dus&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dustin Peterson<\/a> <\/strong>(17<sup>th<\/sup>). Peterson was competing for a spot on the big league roster in spring training before a broken hand sidelined him. He began his season Friday evening going one-for-two with a double and two walks. Peterson will hopefully hit his stride quickly and may debut in Atlanta at some point this season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mississippi Braves (Double-A)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Mississippi Braves went 2-4 this week, but the bigger story is Gohara\u2019s (10<sup>th<\/sup>) status. Gohara had completed two innings with a strikeout and a lone earned run when a biceps injury forced him to exit early. He has been placed on the DL, but the severity of his injury remains unknown. Braves fans will hold their breath and hope that it is a minor setback in Gohara\u2019s development. Mississippi\u2019s rotation as a whole pitched solid this week, but their numbers were slightly less impressive than the video game stats they have put up thus far. The pitching performance of the week came from <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=parson000wes&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wes Parsons<\/a> <\/strong>(unranked) who allowed two hits, one walk, and a lone earned run with five strikeouts over five solid innings.<\/p>\n<p>Infielder <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=demeri000tra&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Travis Demeritte<\/a> <\/strong>(ninth) continues to display inconsistent results. Demeritte began the week with a multi-hit night that included two RBI and three runs scored. He followed that up by going 1-for-15 with eight strikeouts, a home run, and two runs scored over his final four games this week. Demeritte now has a .258 batting average, .790 OPS, and 44 strikeouts in 40 games this season. Demeritte continues to look like a talented player, but a rising strikeout rate is certainly cause for concern.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Florida Fire Frogs (Advanced-A)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Fire Frogs struggled this week with a record of 1-5. The lone win of the week came after a seven-game losing streak that saw the Frogs score three total runs and get shut out four times. The pitching remained strong despite a stagnant offense. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=toussa000tou&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Touki Toussaint<\/a> <\/strong>(11<sup>th<\/sup>) took a tough loss this week despite posting his best start of the season. Toussaint struck out eight with one walk and one earned run over six solid innings. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=pike--000tyl&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Pike<\/a> <\/strong>(unranked) continued his fantastic season with six strikeouts over six shutout innings in his start this week. He received a no-decision, but Pike now has a 3-1 record with a 1.99 ERA and 51 strikeouts in eight starts. Medlen is obviously no prospect, but his first rehab start went incredibly well. The veteran starter posted six shutout innings with one hit, three walks, and three strikeouts. Medlen will hopefully be able to help out in Atlanta at some point this season, either as a starter or reliever.<\/p>\n<p>There is not much that can be said about Florida\u2019s offense this week. Outfielder <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=seymou000anf&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anfernee Seymour<\/a> <\/strong>(30<sup>th<\/sup>) did notch two multi-hit games, but he managed to score just one run this week. Third baseman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=riley-000aus&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Riley<\/a> <\/strong>(12<sup>th<\/sup>) provided the run support in Medlen\u2019s start with two hits, two RBI, and a run scored. Catcher <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=jackso000ale&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alex Jackson<\/a> <\/strong>(23<sup>rd<\/sup>) played in four games this week and recorded just three hits without an extra-base hit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rome Braves (Single-A)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Rome Braves were the most successful in a rough week for the Braves farm system, but even Rome only managed a record of 2-3 this week. Rome\u2019s pitching staff was up-and-down this week with 24 runs allowed in their three losses. Wentz (13<sup>th<\/sup>) was placed on the DL after leaving his start early due to taking a line drive off his leg. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=lawlor000rya&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Lawlor<\/a> <\/strong>(unranked) produced the best start of the week for Rome with nine strikeouts and three earned runs allowed over six innings. Lawlor\u2019s performance was enough for him to pick up his third win of the season.<\/p>\n<p>18-year old outfielder <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=pache-000cri&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cristian Pache<\/a> <\/strong>(14<sup>th<\/sup>) is certainly in his groove for Rome right now. Pache went 10-25 with a triple, double, four RBI, and three runs scored for Rome this week. He is now hitting .413 with six runs scored and eight RBI over his last 10 games played. The other big news out of Rome this week was the trade of infielder <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=yepez-000jua&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juan Yepez<\/a><\/strong> (unranked). Yepez was used as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2017\/05\/20\/atlanta-braves-acquire-matt-adams-st-louis\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the trade piece<\/a> to bring in first baseman <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adamsma01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Adams<\/a> <\/strong>from the St. Louis Cardinals. The 19-year old Yepez has some solid upside, but Atlanta needed to make a move in the wake of Freeman\u2019s injury. Adams is a solid replacement piece, and Yepez was the price that had to be paid. Rome, and the entire Braves organization, may miss Yepez\u2019s presence, but he will now move on to a career with the Cardinals.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 417px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/686101350\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 142.446043% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/686101350?et=MFMegbmyTxxPfKS90y1ESw&amp;tld=com&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=9QvN-_jwk05b-CNnxEsDdEbjelt4kR2Gf49uZa7yVCY=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"417\" height=\"594\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rio Ruiz Receives Promotion: The young third baseman has reached the big leagues with Atlanta and homered off of veteran ace Max Scherzer in a full week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":6102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,926],"tags":[48,1306,1305,942,884,219,451],"class_list":["post-6101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-milb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-joey-wentz","tag-juan-yepez","tag-kris-medlen","tag-luiz-gohara","tag-minor-league-baseball","tag-rio-ruiz"],"modified_by":"Paul Harvey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}