One player that has gotten off to a good start this season has been left-handed pitcher Anthony Solometo.
The Pirates don’t have a wide array of left-handed pitching prospects, and he is seeing his success in High-A at just 20-years-old.
Pitching in Greensboro this year wasn’t going to be easy, it rarely is for any pitching prospect, but Solometo did show signs that he may be able to handle the confines of First National Bank Field back in Bradenton.
Solometo was one of a handful of pitchers in the system last year to have a Swinging Strike rate of at least 13%, as well as a ground ball rate of over 50%.
Basically, he missed bats and kept the ball on the ground. Hard to get hit hard in either of those two scenarios.
The ground balls dipped a tad under the 50% mark in the early parts of the season, but that has been offset by a jump in the strikeouts. Solometo has among the best SwStr% in the system, and has a strikeout rate of over 30%.
Control has been a bit of an issue to start, but Solometo did something over his last two starts he had yet to do in his professional career — complete six innings in back-to-back starts.
Facing the Bowling Green Hot Rods — a team that has two Top 100 prospects on MLB Pipeline — Solometo was fantastic, striking out six batters across six shutout innings all the while allowing just three hits and one walk.
I took a look back specifically at the matchup against the two Top 100 prospects, Carson Williams and Junior Caminero, and Solometo got them out all five times they faced each other on the day, including two strikeouts.
Carson Williams
Williams is a former first round pick, taken in the same draft as Solometo — 28th overall. He’s currently ranked 57th on Pipeline, and 45th on Baseball America.
He faced Solometo three times that day, striking out twice and grounding into a double play to end the sixth innings.
Control may be an issue at times for Solometo this season, and there are good reasons for it as well, but it wasn’t a problem for him against Bowling Green.
As we can see in the video, he is able to control the outer half of the plate perfectly, painting the corners in a way that made it difficult for Williams to offer at anything, and when he did he either missed, fouled it off or buried it into the dirt to start a double play.
Solometo got the hitter looking on the corner for both strikeouts, utilizing all three of his pitching in the process.
Junior Caminero
Another example of the Rays fleecing another team for a teenager playing in the Dominican League, Cominero is 19-years-old and absolutely destroying the ball in High-A this year.
He faces Solometo twice on the day, grounding out both times.
Like Williams, Solometo worked the outer half of the plate against Caminero, forcing him into a couple of softly hit ground balls (side note, that was a strong collect, transfer, and throw by Maikol Escotto on the first one).
Both hitters are known for their power, grading out plus in both cases on Pipeline, and Solometo did what he needed to eliminate each prospect’s greatest hitting tool.
After a fantastic debut season last year, Solometo is off to a strong start in year two. He was a guy that I really felt could force himself into the Top 100 picture, especially if his velocity was reading higher than it was last year (all reports pointing to that being the case).
If he continues to dial back the walks, he could really throw himself into the mix as one of the better pitching prospects in the system, especially if one or two are able to graduate.
