a step back

Cody Johnson homered Saturday. For Class A Myrtle Beach, where the erstwhile Mississippi Braves left fielder is now playing. Atlanta’s No. 9 prospect was a disaster during his stay in Double-A. He hit 10 homers, but the last of those was on May 15. When he departed on Monday, he was hitting .189 with 114 strikeouts in 233 at-bats. And he spent a long time on the shelf with a hamstring injury. With Jordan Schafer — another scuffling one-time prospect — back (from a sore wrist) to man left field, there really was no place for Johnson in Pearl. Besides, he needed to go somewhere else. “It was time,” said M-Braves manager Phillip Wellman. “He wasn’t making progress. You can’t keep running into a brick wall. He was as frustrated as anybody. I told him sometimes you have to take a step back to get moving forward again. He understood. Hopefully, he’ll get back on track. He was going to have to repeat here next year anyway.” Johnson had some success (.242, 32 homers) at Myrtle Beach in 2009, and through four games there he is hitting .308 with five K’s in 13 ABs.
P.S. Happened to see where Hattiesburg native Joey Gathright, who had been in Triple-A with Baltimore much of the season, is now in independent ball, playing for the Long Island Ducks in the Atlantic League.