If the goal during the season is to improve, there are few prospects in the system who have progressed during 2022 than Bradenton Marauders right handed pitcher Valentin Linarez.
The 22-year-old is a bit of a late-bloomer, although the 2020 canceled season really set back the progress he had made in 2019, but regardless, Linarez has turned around a rough start to the year to solidify one of the better rotations in the Florida State League right now.
| Month | IP | BB% | K% | Opp AVG | ERA | FIP |
| April | 9 1/3 | 18.2% | 22.7% | .286 | 8.68 | 7.02 |
| May | 20 2/3 | 10% | 31.1% | .241 | 5.23 | 3.97 |
| June | 15 | 12.1% | 27.3% | .211 | 4.80 | 3.75 |
| July | 19 | 8.5% | 19.5% | .222 | 2.37 | 3.90 |
| August | 12 | 11.6% | 27.9% | .108 | 0.00 | 2.73 |
Not only has his ERA dropped each month, so has his fielding independent pitching (FIP), which only supports the strides that he has made. The walks are still high, but he has kept a fairly high strikeout rate while limiting the opposition’s batting average.
Linarez allowed 21 earned runs in 29.1 innings the first two months of the season, but even in the struggles you can see things starting to turn a bit for him towards the end of May. Fast forward to the present and he has completed at least six innings in four of his last six starts, and has allowed multiple earned runs just once in that span.
Looking at Linarez on the mound, he certainly has the build of a pitcher, standing at 6’5”, 226 pounds. He isn’t the most overpowering pitcher, throwing in the lower 90s, but spots it well and pairs it with his slider.
Going back through some of his starts, you can see why he’s starting to find success with Bradenton. Linarez has been able to locate his fastball and slider on both sides of the plate for strikes, and has started mixing in a changeup.
Linarez’s changeup is a work in progress, as you can see in the first clip. He is willing to throw it, however, and changing speeds on the outer corner helped set up the fastball to get the strikeout to end the at-bat.
The next clip showing Linarez using both sides of the plate, all with fastballs and all within the strike zone to get the batter swinging quickly. Next, Linarez starts the at-bat off with a with a slider away, and alternates between that and a fastball throughout. He hits the corner with a fastball and then comes back inside by breaking a slider in for a called strike. Linarez ends it with a slider that broke below the zone.
Finally, he starts the batter off inside with a couple of fastballs before going away with a couple of sliders. At 3-1, he gets the batter to swing and miss at a fastball up high before going back away but this time with a fastball on the corner for a called strike three.
The Bradenton rotation has been one of the reasons for the team’s second half surge. While the names people immediately recognize are Bubba Chandler, Anthony Solometo and Po-Yu Chen, Linarez has been just as good as of late. Bradenton had a couple of other ‘older’ prospects breakthrough for them last year, Adrian Florencio and Luis Ortiz, and Linarez is quickly working his way to follow them.
THIS WEEKEND ON PIRATES PROSPECTS
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Valentin Linarez: Rapid Progression Helping Bradenton Rotation Down The Stretch
Nick Mears looks to rebound during tough season
