Just in time for the end of the minor league seasons is the beginning of another series here at Walk-Off Walk. Similar to my Saturday Stats Pack that is semi-regularly added to my About.com blog is this Minor League Stats Pack updated here at WOW. Each week, I'll focus in on one player per level and something I find interesting about their numbers. Simple enough, no? Let's take a look at this week's report.
Gwinnett - Carlos Fisher
Gwinnett as a team has a 3.10 ERA and some of it comes as a direct result of a shutdown pen. We've already seen David Carpenter, Ryan Kelly, Matt Marksberry, and a bunch others that have either been traded or released, but Fisher could also be in line for a look. Plucked out of the Atlantic League last year, Fisher has been excellent this year for Gwinnett and has appeared in 35 games with 45 K's in 46.2 ING. His ERA? Oh, just 1.54. Now, his walks are a bit on the high side so his FIP and SIERA aren't nearly as interesting,
Mississippi - Tyler Jones
Tyler was one of my first Random Prospects of the new season and he has had an impressive run in his age-25 season. It began the year with Carolina and after ten scoreless innings there, he has moved up to Mississippi - his first taste of AA ball. He has paced Braves with 13 saves, giving him a franchise-best 19 overall, while striking out 54 total batters in 47.1 ING. I wrote about Jones that he has the tools to be an interesting player, though he needs to be a good deal less hittable. Once he joined Mississippi, the latter has been an issue. His groundball rate has tumbled as well. Still, Jones could be a name that we could see in spring training as a dark horse.
Carolina - Dustin Peterson
Acquired in the Justin Upton trade last winter, I was not that enamored with Peterson. Then he got off to a rocket start that included an OPS over .800 and five homeruns by early June. He has struggled since, however, and his overall numbers look pretty substandard (.243/.318/.336) and he's added just one homerun since June 9. However, one number remains impressive and that is his 10% walk rate. Considering he walked in just 4.6% of his plate appearances over his first 164 professional games, that's definitely something to take away from this season. Also notable is that his K% has gone down this season from 24% to 20%. While that mark is not significant on its own, it does suggest his walk increase is not completely dependent on just taking more pitches, but taking more pitches he ought to take. While his overall numbers won't impress too much this season, he doesn't turn 21 until after the regular season closes. To show advanced plate discipline while playing a couple of years young for a level is exciting.
Rome - Braxton Davidson
A hat tip to my friend Nick B. for pointing this out. Similar to Peterson, Davidson is playing very young for the level he's in. The dude just turned 19 fifty-eight days ago after all and he's in the South Atlantic League. It's aggressive of the Braves to push Davidson, but he has maturely answered the call by walking in 18.2% of his plate appearances this season. He's only hit .242 with 7 homers and yes, he does K a lot (27.3%), but to be able to show such advanced plate discipline at his young age is very impressive. If the power does come, and he supposedly was among the best raw power hitters from the 2014 draft, the Braves have a young Adam Dunn on their hands. Sure, J.P. Ricciardi will think Davidson hates baseball, but hey, in Dunn's first six seasons, he hit 198 homers with a .892 OPS. I wish more people hated baseball like that.
Danville - Austin Riley
The 41st overall selection of the 2015 draft has displayed rather exciting power so far. After pummeling Gulf Coast League pitchers over 30 games with 12 extra-base hits, including seven homeruns, Riley was promoted a couple of weeks ago to Danville. He's added two homers there over his first 56 AB and on the year, Riley is slashing .268/.356/.510. That kind of right-handed power could be very useful for a team that can count on one finger the number of right-handed power hitters it has developed over the last five years. Defense continues to be an issue for Riley, but the Braves like him better there than they like fellow 3B prospect Juan Yepez (who has played a lot of first base this year).
GCL - Kolby Allard
He made his professional debut on August 10. He struck out all three batters he faced. Today, he made his second start. He struck out the first batter of the game, hit the next, got a grounder for a second out, and struck out three of the final four he faced while the other was retired via a flyout. To sum up, 2 GS - 3 ING - 7 K - 1 HBP. Yeah, it's not a lot, but as I consider my post-season Top 30, every good appearance by Allard provides me the confidence to push his name into the Top 5 discussion.
DSL - Randy Ventura
Switch-hitting 5'9" outfielders rarely will attract too much attention, but Ventura should garner some prospect interest after the season he's having in the Dominican. In 52 games, he has stolen 51 bases and has been caught 8 times. He's also hit .348 and walked 30 times to 26 K's. Yes, he has displayed little power and no, we won't see Ventura get into full season ball for another year at the earliest, but Ventura could be an interesting player to keep an eye on next year in Florida or, if the Braves are feeling really aggressive, the Appalachain League.
No comments:
Post a Comment