Every week we have live reports from all over the system, while I provide additional views of the minors via MiLB.tv, which included Indianapolis, Altoona and Morgantown this week. We also had live coverage from Indianapolis, Bradenton, Morgantown and the GCL in the past week. All of these reports are combined, and used each week to highlight the top performers during that time span. This week we went with the top ten hitters and top ten pitchers. With more teams playing, we went with the top ten hitters only to keep the list manageable. In the past, we included everyone who reached an .800 OPS with 20 plate appearances, but the list would have been much longer if we continued that method with eight affiliates playing now. Here are the top guys this week, and the rundown on their performances:
HITTERS
Josh Bell – The only two things holding Josh Bell back from the majors right now are John Jaso and Bell’s defense. It probably won’t be long until we see Bell in the majors, though it’s possible he just ends up being a September call-up this year. I think we see him before that, because the bat could help the team right now. He has improved his stats enough from the right side of the plate that his OPS is actually higher from that side. That is something that didn’t see possible just last September when he really struggled from that side. The defense is much improved over last year, though I’d call him average at best now in Triple-A, which would likely translate to below average for the majors where everything speeds up. At the rate he is improving defensively, a couple months in Triple-A may be all he needs before his glove is ready. If they need him sooner, then the bat should play up just fine.
Edwin Espinal – Espinal wasn’t playing regularly at the beginning of the season, seeing sporadic time at third base, first base and DH. Recently, he has been at first base full-time and that moved Jose Osuna to the outfield. Espinal has earned the playing time though, now hitting .326 on the season, which would lead the Eastern League if he had about ten more plate appearances to meet the minimum to qualify for league leaders. In the month of June, Espinal has hit .403/.431/.657, with ten extra-base hits and only six strikeouts. He has a very strong arm, but limited range due to a lack of foot speed. Espinal is very big, list at 6’2″, 250 pounds, so we are talking about someone who will have to get all of his value from his bat. The potential has always been there for him to hit for average and with power. The average is there now and the power is starting to show up. He’s only 22 years old and hitting well in Double-A, so he could finally be breaking out as a hitter.
Victor Fernandez – When he was in the DSL, Fernandez has speed that was rated off the charts by everyone I asked. He came to the Fall Instructional League that September and had two instances where we really saw that speed, hitting a double in which he was standing on second base in seven seconds flat, and an infield single (he’s a right-handed batter) in which he got to first base in under four seconds. Fernandez did deal with some hamstring issues last year in the GCL, but the speed was just above average, not plus-plus, taking away some of the luster. Fernandez is hitting lead-off for Bristol early on and crushing the ball to the tune of a 1.433 OPS. He hasn’t attempted any stolen bases yet, which will have to be a big part of his game if he’s going to advance to the upper levels. For now, he’s not in the running for a top 50 prospect, but you should still keep an eye on him.
Jordan George – George has a 1.094 OPS early in the season for Morgantown. He was a late round draft pick last year, who hit very well for Bristol, albeit in a platoon role. He seems to be playing regularly this season, which may or may not continue if the Pirates end up signing more draft picks. He’s nearing 24 years old, so it’s hard to see him having upside if the Pirates don’t feel he is ready for West Virginia, where he couldn’t beat out marginal prospects in Carlos Munoz and Danny Arribas. George is the type who could probably skip West Virginia next year if the bat continues to play up, but the same players blocking him from West Virginia this year could be blocking him from being skipped a level next year.
Kevin Kramer – Kramer has been a solid player all year at second base for Bradenton. He is hitting .280/.349/.381 on the season, showing some gap power with 17 extra-base hits, while limiting his strikeouts to 33 in 276 plate appearances. His defense has been solid at second base, but his base running hasn’t been good, going 3-for-11 in stolen base attempts. He’s not a plus runner, but he also isn’t slow, so those numbers should improve as he gets better at reading pitchers and getting good jumps. One concerning thing with him is his hitting against southpaws. Kramer is a left-handed batter and he’s hitting .167/.258/.204 this year against lefties. That wasn’t a problem last year, so it could be due to not seeing them enough this season, with just 54 at-bats all year.
Max Moroff – Early in this season, Moroff was too patient at the plate. That was something that plagued him in the lower minors and it was something we didn’t see last year when he had a big year for Altoona. He has a tendency to just take pitches until it ends up as a walk or a strikeout. That happened a lot early this year and with better pitchers in Triple-A, he was falling behind in the count quickly, setting himself up to be put away. Recently, that patience has turned into a lot of walks, 22 total this month. If Moroff gets back to the approach he had last year, then he should be able to hit well, while still taking his share of walks to get on base. His defense has looked solid at second base, third base and even the occasional starts at shortstop. He has above average speed, though not a burner on the bases. He is second in the International League in walks and tenth in OBP. That’s not bad for someone who turned 23 last month.
Harold Ramirez – Ramirez went through a slump to start this month that dropped his average down to .268 through June 8th. Since then, he has raised that average to .297, picking up hits in 11 of his 12 starts. Ramirez has a .297/.353/.392 slash line on the season, which is impressive for a 21-year-old. As an outfielder with the Pirates, he is blocked by everyone at the Major League level, and he’s behind his former teammate Austin Meadows, who was promoted earlier this month to Indianapolis. That’s okay for Ramirez though, because while the bat is solid, his game is still rough around the edges. He will likely need the rest of this season in Altoona and all of next year in Indianapolis to polish his outfield play and make better decisions on the bases, where his speed is above average, but it’s not showing up in the stats. With all of his missed time during his first few years, you can even say he’s a young 21 as far as baseball experience.
Chase Simpson – Simpson has made the Top Performers list a couple times this year, but it’s been difficult due to not playing everyday. He hit two homers last week, which pushed him over the top. On the season, he’s only hitting .238 and his .311 OBP doesn’t help, but he is clearly hitting for power when he puts the bat on the ball. His .469 slugging percentage would be the fifth best in the league if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. Simpson was playing some third base, but with both Wyatt Mathisen and Connor Joe on the team, he probably won’t see much (if any) time there in the near future.
Erich Weiss – Weiss has been a solid player all season and he had a nice week last week by collecting hits in all five games he played. His defense at second base has been solid all year and he’s shown a bit more power than last year. His .761 OPS is a career high, as is his .413 slugging percentage. He’s 24 years old (25 in early September) and doesn’t have any standout tools, but he does everything well enough to be a future Major League player. He will probably need to add some versatility to his game to get to the majors easier and he has played third base in the past. We may see him next year with Indianapolis add some positions to his game.
Eric Wood – Don’t count out Eric Wood just yet as a potential future Major League player. He may only see very limited time, but there is a better chance that could happen now than at this time last year in Altoona. Wood hit his ninth home run a few days ago, three above his career high and seven more than all of last season. His defense at third base is much improved and he has cut down on his strikeouts. When you combine all of those things, he has made significant improvements over last year, and he is playing this season as a 23-year-old, which is a nice age for Double-A. His OPS went from .706 in April, to .754 in May, to .808 so far this month.
PITCHERS
Frank Duncan -Duncan is becoming a regular in these Top Performer articles because he always ends up giving his team a solid outing. There is nothing flashy about him. He throws a lot of strikes and mixes his pitches/speeds well. That leads to a lot of grounders and quick outs, which allows him to go deep into games. This week Duncan allowed one run over six innings, striking out seven batters. For someone who began the year in Extended Spring Training due to an oblique injury, then went to Altoona’s bullpen, he is putting up some incredible Triple-A stats. In 45 innings with Indianapolis, he has a 2.80 ERA, with 39 strikeouts, an 0.98 WHIP and a 1.44 GO/AO ratio.
Yeudy Garcia – Garcia may have finally broken out in his last start. That seems odd to say about someone with a 2.24 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 64.1 innings, but he was not pitching like the same pitcher we saw last year. His velocity has been down, his command has been poor at times, and he’s been leaning on his slider a lot, which isn’t a plus pitch you can work off of as your main pitch. On Saturday, Garcia threw seven shutout innings with one walk and nine strikeouts. It’s a season high for both innings and strikeouts, and most importantly, he kept his pitch count down. He only reached six innings twice in 13 games before last week, all due to his high pitch count, as he hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a game all season.
Tyler Glasnow – Glasnow has thrown 13 consecutive no-hit innings, though he has walked 11 batters during that stretch. His six inning start back on June 17th wasn’t as dominating as six no-hit innings sounds. He had no fastball control, the curve wasn’t sharp and the changeup was okay, but it’s not a pitch he can lean on at this point. There were also some loud outs. In his seven inning start last week, he was a completely different pitcher. He was commanding his fastball in the zone, he was throwing the curve for strikes, and the changeup gave him a third pitch to work in occasionally. He walked five batters, but it wasn’t as bad as that sounds. He also hit 99 MPH that game and touched 98 late in the start, which is the best velocity we have seen from him this year. There wasn’t any hard contact off him all game. It was as good as I’ve seen from him. If he looks like that in tonight’s start, you may not see him in these top performer articles after next week.
Luis Heredia – Heredia came in to pitch the ninth in a 1-0 game last Monday. He walked the first batter and got a break when Jupiter gave him a free out to get the runner to second. From there he mostly settled down, getting a strikeout and a weak roller back to the box. Heredia threw only nine of 17 pitches for strikes. His velocity was better than I’ve seen before, mainly in the mid-90s, and he enhances it with his 6’ 7” height and with his motion, which is straight over the top. At his best, he got on top of the ball and drove it down in the strike zone, where it looked like a pitch that hitters would have a lot of trouble driving. It’s not surprising that opponents are slugging just a paltry .212 against him. Frequently, though, his release point seemed to be off and the ball sailed well high. I only saw one curve, and he bounced it in front of the plate. Heredia’s fastball is strong enough that it’s easy to see him as an improved version of Jared Hughes if he can improve his command of the pitch just moderately. – Wilbur Miller
Miguel Hernandez – Hernandez is a 6’5″ right-handed pitcher in the GCL. Last year, he had the best fastball among the starters for the DSL Pirates. He can hit 93-94 fairly regularly. Tim Williams covered his first start on Saturday, where he was sitting 91-93 MPH with his fastball, touching 94, while mixing in a slider at 85-88 MPH with some nice tight break, and an 83-85 MPH changeup. Hernandez was signed a little later than usual for a prospect, but he has the size and stuff to be a potential sleeper prospect at this time. He had some control issues at the end of spring, though that didn’t show up in his start last week. Hernandez was very efficient in his five shutout innings, throwing 41 of his 54 pitches for strikes.
Clay Holmes – Holmes didn’t have his best stuff last week, with the fastball slightly lower in velocity from where it has been all season. He also wasn’t sharp with his off-speed pitches, yet he got through five innings with just one run. That was after throwing six shutout inning with nine strikeouts in his previous game. He has shown flashes of why he’s still a top pitching prospect in the system despite some average at best results. Holmes has sat 93-95, hitting 96 with his fastball, which has a nice downward plane coming from his 6’5″ frame. His curve has looked like a plus pitch at times and his changeup has been very effective in multiple outings. It’s just a matter of putting it all together each game and sharpening his command. It’s important to remember that he missed all of 2014 due to Tommy John surgery and saw limited work last year in Bradenton, yet still moved up to Double-A this year.
John Kuchno – I believe this is the first time Kucho made this list and he got here because he looked like a different pitcher in his last outing. On Saturday, he came on as a reliever and threw 3.2 no-hit innings, working quickly through the Buffalo lineup. Due to injuries early, he was pushed up to Indianapolis after just two games in Altoona, where he was expected to spend at least part of the season. Kuchno has been used as a long man for Indianapolis, but he needs to be ready at any point to come into games. He has always been a ground ball pitcher and he has a 1.67 GO/AO ratio in 36.2 innings. Kuchno relies on pitching to contact, but doesn’t have the stuff to be anything more than a future middle reliever in the majors if everything goes right. It certainly didn’t look like that on Saturday though, which was the best I’ve seen from him this season.
Logan Sendelbach – Sendelbach has had a lot of strong results this season, leaning heavily on a strong sinker, while mixing in his slider more often recently. He has picked up seven strikeouts in four of his last five starts. That includes one run over seven innings in his last game. He doesn’t have the best velocity, so he has to command that sinker down in the zone to have success. He wasn’t doing that at all last year after being taken in the tenth round and going to Bristol. This season, he has had very few hiccups, leading to a 3.43 ERA in 14 starts and a 1.14 WHIP. He has lowered his walks from last year and kept the home runs to a minimum.
Stephen Tarpley – Tarpley got two starts last week and allowed one run over 12 innings. In his previous ten innings, he also allowed one run. After five rough starts to begin his season, he has been on quite a roll. Tarpley got a late start this year due to an oblique injury, then struggled his first month back. He had a 5.87 ERA through five games and was averaging less than five innings per start due to high pitch counts. He has gone six innings in each of his last three games and his prior start was limited to four shutout innings due to rain suspending the contest. If he continues to pitch well, he probably won’t be at Bradenton much longer. Even with the slow start, he is holding batters to a .226 BAA this season and he has 42 strikeouts in 45 innings. Tarpley was named the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week for last week.
Live Report From Wilbur Miller on Monday: Tarpley threw six shutout innings, allowing three hits and two walks, and fanning seven. He threw in the low-90s, good velocity for a lefty, without a great deal of effort. His fastball command came and went, although he ended up throwing 61 of 95 pitches for strikes. He mostly kept the ball down, but his mechanics seemed erratic, leading to some pitches well off the plate or up high. His change and breaking ball were hard to judge, because he didn’t command them well enough to use as out pitches, but he was generally able to get by with the fastball. It was effective against batters on both sides of the plate and produced a good number of swings and misses.
Cam Vieaux – The Pirates sixth round pick had a tough first outing as a pro, getting knocked out of the game after 2.2 innings. He bounced back this past week with four no-hit innings. Right now he’s on a 50-pitch limit, so the outing was cut short on purpose. The 23-year-old is a finesse lefty who commands four pitches well, but he doesn’t have any plus pitches. Those type of pitchers usually have success at the lower levels, but it’s tough to predict that same success in Double-A or above. Until he reaches that level and looks good, there will always be some doubts, especially since he’s going to be old for whatever level he ends up at next year.
Brandon Waddell – Waddell has an incredible start to his season with Bradenton, getting promoted to Altoona after just five starts. That’s also while skipping West Virginia this year. His first Double-A start was strong and the next one was almost as good. Then the wheels fell off and Waddell had five straight poor outings. He rebounded nicely this week with seven shutout innings, striking out eight batters. In retrospect, the promotion to Altoona probably happened too quickly. You don’t see too many pitchers make only five starts between Low-A and High-A before reaching the upper levels. Once he had a poor outing for Altoona, it snowballed into him showing some unusually poor command, leading to 18 walks over 21 innings during that stretch. Waddell usually commands all of his pitches well, and while none of his pitches are considered plus offerings, he spots them well and mixes pitches/speeds to keep hitters off-balance. Waddell was named the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week for last week.
