We could have easily had a three-way tie for the Pirates Prospects Pitcher of the Month in July. Radhames Liz dominated in Indianapolis, with one down start skewing the fact he allowed one run over 30 innings in his other five starts. Yeudy Garcia was dominant as well, with an 0.70 WHIP and .155 BAA in his 30 innings of work, allowing just three earned runs in six outings. If you think one of them should have won, well you don’t have to try to convince us, we went back and forth a few times before finally settling on Chad Kuhl, who posted an 0.60 ERA for the month.
Kuhl didn’t have the WHIP/BAA numbers the other two players had, but he kept runs off the board all month long. He threw shutout ball over six innings on July 5th, then followed that with another six shutout innings against first-place Bowie, the team that Altoona is now chasing in the standings. On the 17th, facing Richmond on the road, Kuhl made it three straight appearances with six shutout frames.
In the lone outing in which he gave up runs, Kuhl allowed two earned over 5.2 innings. He does have a bit of an excuse, as Edward Salcedo made three errors behind him (then made a fourth after Kuhl left), which extended Kuhl’s pitch count in three different innings. He finished off his month with another six shutout innings, this time allowing three hits, no walks and striking out six batters. With a little defensive help, we might be talking about an 0.00 ERA this month.
Kuhl throws a three-pitch mix, fastball, changeup and slider. After his last start, Altoona pitching coach Justin Meccage said that he is starting to put together the whole package. Throwing all of his pitches for strikes and keeping the ball down in the zone. When he is on, Kuhl is more of a ground ball pitcher, who picks up his share of strikeouts. He has improved his slider this year and it is now a pitch he can use to put away batters, so he has seen a slight increase in his strikeout rate over last year at Bradenton. His fastball has recently touched 97 MPH, and it sits in the 93-95 range.
The idea is to get through innings quicker, so by working down in the zone more, he was able to post a 2.05 GO/AO ratio in July. That was easily his best month this year and it helped him put up that 0.60 ERA. For the year, he has a 1.59 GO/AO ratio, compared to 1.85 last year. If he continues his recent trend, he’ll be right back where he was last year and that’s a terrific ground ball ratio for AA.
Kuhl had a solid season last year and has improved this year while moving up a level. He is also 22 years old in AA, which makes him about two years younger than the average age throughout the league. He gets lost behind the big names in the organization and the rotation at Indianapolis already looks crowded for next year.
If Kuhl can keep improving, then he will force his way to the majors, whether it is with Pittsburgh or through a trade. The Pirates won’t make the move too soon with him, but you can picture a mid-90’s/wipeout slider combo in the bullpen someday, especially from someone who keeps the ball on the ground. For now, you have someone who looks more and more like he will be able to reach that back of the rotation projection that was put on him when he was drafted.
PITCHERS OF THE MONTH BY LEVEL
Indianapolis – Radhames Liz, RHP (1.29 ERA, 41:11 K/BB, 35.0 IP)
Altoona – Chad Kuhl, RHP (0.61 ERA, 23:6 K/BB, 29.2 IP)
Bradenton – Montana DuRapau, RHP (1.06 ERA, 17:1 K/BB, 17.0 IP)
West Virginia – Yeudy Garcia, RHP (0.90 ERA, 23:5 K/BB, 30.0 IP)
Morgantown – Jonathan Brubaker, RHP (2.43 ERA, 23:5 K/BB, 29.2 IP)
Bristol – Christopher De Leon, RHP (2.16 ERA, 23:12 K/BB, 16.2 IP)
GCL – Gerardo Navarro, LHP (1.48 ERA, 23:6 K/BB, 24.1 IP)
