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thecrow124
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I thought I would start a thread to note some of our prospect in the lower minors and get some feedback on what everyone else thinks of them. I am probably higher on some than most of you and not as high on some as most of you. I will try to keep my personal opinions out of the original post, and just give the facts so that it can be an open unbiased discussion, but it may be hard baecause I am very excited about some of these guys.
I will warn you all, I am going to focus on one level at a time, so if you don't really care about the GCL Pirates, or State College Spikes, you may want to stop reading now. In all actuality, I will probably choose not to do anything with the GCL, just because that is nothing but a crap shoot, guys may put up good numbers there and be nothing and guys may put up crappy numbers there and turn out to be very good.
Today I will focus on State College, I am not sure the frequency with which I will start a new thread, but my goal is just to give everyone that wishes to read and discuss a look at the numbers each player is putting up. That is really all I have is their numbers and my opinion, so numbers here and opinion in the discussion.
Hitters:
Barrett Barnes - .283/.390/.425. Drafted out of college this year as a junior. He seems to have a pretty good judge of the strike zone with 14/18 BB/K. Leads the team with 4 HR and 10SB, but has been caught 4 times. Not sure what to make of the fact that he only has 4 doubles and 0 triples.
Tyler Gaffney - .333/.536/.500. Yes you read that right, .536 OBP, he has walked 12 times in 60 PA's while striking out only 8 times. Even for the NYPL, it is an extremely small sample size, so no reason to delve into to many numbers right now. He was also drafted this year, and is 21, I don't remember if he was a junior or a senior.
Jacob Stallings - .292/.331/.434. Drafted this year, college senior, but I put him here because he is still interresting right now. He is a catcher that played for NC, and has caught pitchers that were drafted in the first round. He is here to work with our young pitchers, and they seem to love throwing to him(more on this later). Leads the team, by a large margin, with 14 doubles. Not much plate discipline 7/31 BB/K in 113 AB's.
There are other hitters of interrest, but none that currently have any glaring numbers that are worthy of discussion.
Pitchers:
Luis Heredia - 34.0 IP, 1.03 WHIP, 1.85 ERA. He is 17, the youngest player in the NYPL. He is giving up less than 1 hit per inning and about 1.4BB/9IP. He was sent here basically to get used to starting every 5 days and work 3-4 innings per start, or hit a predetermined pitch limit. After his first start when he wasn't even close to his pitch limit after 4 innings, the organization decided to let him work more innings as long as he felt good. Since then he has been going 5 innings per start. If you want to nitpick, he only has 19 K's.
Clay Holmes - 33.2 IP, 0.86 WHIP, 0.80 ERA. He is 20, so still on the low end of the age group for this level. He was drafted last year out of HS in Alabama. He is big with a large trunk, legs and backside. He was also his class valedictorian, not that it matters, but is fact, so I add it. He, like Heredia, was here for the same purpose and same rules. He is givng up roughly 3BB/9IP, but is allowing less than 1 hit/2IP. He went a stretch of 3 consecutive starts giving up 1 hit over 5 innings.
Jake Burnette - 21.0 IP, 1.33 WHIP, 4.71 ERA. He is injured, so it is hard to tell anything from his numbers, he could have been hurt all year, or his numbers could be inflated from a couple bad outings before he got hurt. He is here because he is young, drafted last year out of HS. He is also like every HS pitcher we draft tall and projectable.
Joely Rodriguez - 33.2 IP, 1.13 WHIP, 3.21 ERA. He is 20, signed out of DR in 2009. He is a lefty, but other than that there isn't much to tell. He didn't have great number any of his years in the DSL. He really has never pitched as well as he is this year. He is age appropriate for this level, so there is some hope.
This level is really hard to get a picture of when only looking at the numbers for any of these players. Heck, it is hard at any level of our system, just the way we try to develop our players makes it hard to tell anything at all from the numbers. I am positive that Holmes and Heredia could be strinking out a lot more hitters, they have the ability, but the organization seems to want every pitcher to throw fastballs down and make something happen in 3 pitches. No wasted pitches.
I do believe though that the succes we see here with these young pitchers can be attributed directly to Jacob Stallings. From day one he has studied his pitchers, and what they are capable of. He calls his own game, doing so in a manner that the organization wants. He probably tells the manager when a pitcher has had enough or if he can throw another inning. He coached Heredia through his first 5 inning start, when even Heredia admitted he was tired. I doubt very much if Stallings makes it above High A, but I do believe that he has a future as a pitching coach, or bench coach of some sort.
Now for some personal opinion. I personally do not like the organizations approach on pitching. We draft guys because of the pitches they throw and their body type and projectibility. Then he have them pitch like they can't throw the ball 96+ MPH, or like they don't have a plus plus breaking pitch. We develop them to pitch sinkers sinkers and more sinkers. Now at this level, along with fastball command, they also have them working on change-ups. This makes a lot of sense, but I am not sure the sinker, change-up combination is the best way to develop a pitching staff.
I will warn you all, I am going to focus on one level at a time, so if you don't really care about the GCL Pirates, or State College Spikes, you may want to stop reading now. In all actuality, I will probably choose not to do anything with the GCL, just because that is nothing but a crap shoot, guys may put up good numbers there and be nothing and guys may put up crappy numbers there and turn out to be very good.
Today I will focus on State College, I am not sure the frequency with which I will start a new thread, but my goal is just to give everyone that wishes to read and discuss a look at the numbers each player is putting up. That is really all I have is their numbers and my opinion, so numbers here and opinion in the discussion.
Hitters:
Barrett Barnes - .283/.390/.425. Drafted out of college this year as a junior. He seems to have a pretty good judge of the strike zone with 14/18 BB/K. Leads the team with 4 HR and 10SB, but has been caught 4 times. Not sure what to make of the fact that he only has 4 doubles and 0 triples.
Tyler Gaffney - .333/.536/.500. Yes you read that right, .536 OBP, he has walked 12 times in 60 PA's while striking out only 8 times. Even for the NYPL, it is an extremely small sample size, so no reason to delve into to many numbers right now. He was also drafted this year, and is 21, I don't remember if he was a junior or a senior.
Jacob Stallings - .292/.331/.434. Drafted this year, college senior, but I put him here because he is still interresting right now. He is a catcher that played for NC, and has caught pitchers that were drafted in the first round. He is here to work with our young pitchers, and they seem to love throwing to him(more on this later). Leads the team, by a large margin, with 14 doubles. Not much plate discipline 7/31 BB/K in 113 AB's.
There are other hitters of interrest, but none that currently have any glaring numbers that are worthy of discussion.
Pitchers:
Luis Heredia - 34.0 IP, 1.03 WHIP, 1.85 ERA. He is 17, the youngest player in the NYPL. He is giving up less than 1 hit per inning and about 1.4BB/9IP. He was sent here basically to get used to starting every 5 days and work 3-4 innings per start, or hit a predetermined pitch limit. After his first start when he wasn't even close to his pitch limit after 4 innings, the organization decided to let him work more innings as long as he felt good. Since then he has been going 5 innings per start. If you want to nitpick, he only has 19 K's.
Clay Holmes - 33.2 IP, 0.86 WHIP, 0.80 ERA. He is 20, so still on the low end of the age group for this level. He was drafted last year out of HS in Alabama. He is big with a large trunk, legs and backside. He was also his class valedictorian, not that it matters, but is fact, so I add it. He, like Heredia, was here for the same purpose and same rules. He is givng up roughly 3BB/9IP, but is allowing less than 1 hit/2IP. He went a stretch of 3 consecutive starts giving up 1 hit over 5 innings.
Jake Burnette - 21.0 IP, 1.33 WHIP, 4.71 ERA. He is injured, so it is hard to tell anything from his numbers, he could have been hurt all year, or his numbers could be inflated from a couple bad outings before he got hurt. He is here because he is young, drafted last year out of HS. He is also like every HS pitcher we draft tall and projectable.
Joely Rodriguez - 33.2 IP, 1.13 WHIP, 3.21 ERA. He is 20, signed out of DR in 2009. He is a lefty, but other than that there isn't much to tell. He didn't have great number any of his years in the DSL. He really has never pitched as well as he is this year. He is age appropriate for this level, so there is some hope.
This level is really hard to get a picture of when only looking at the numbers for any of these players. Heck, it is hard at any level of our system, just the way we try to develop our players makes it hard to tell anything at all from the numbers. I am positive that Holmes and Heredia could be strinking out a lot more hitters, they have the ability, but the organization seems to want every pitcher to throw fastballs down and make something happen in 3 pitches. No wasted pitches.
I do believe though that the succes we see here with these young pitchers can be attributed directly to Jacob Stallings. From day one he has studied his pitchers, and what they are capable of. He calls his own game, doing so in a manner that the organization wants. He probably tells the manager when a pitcher has had enough or if he can throw another inning. He coached Heredia through his first 5 inning start, when even Heredia admitted he was tired. I doubt very much if Stallings makes it above High A, but I do believe that he has a future as a pitching coach, or bench coach of some sort.
Now for some personal opinion. I personally do not like the organizations approach on pitching. We draft guys because of the pitches they throw and their body type and projectibility. Then he have them pitch like they can't throw the ball 96+ MPH, or like they don't have a plus plus breaking pitch. We develop them to pitch sinkers sinkers and more sinkers. Now at this level, along with fastball command, they also have them working on change-ups. This makes a lot of sense, but I am not sure the sinker, change-up combination is the best way to develop a pitching staff.
