Tracking A Rising Star: Jose Berrios’ First Double-A Start

Jul 14, 2013; Flushing , NJ, USA; Players from the World Team (left to right) Baltimore Orioles prospect Eduardo Rodriguez and Minnesota Twins prospect Miguel Sano and Tampa Bay Rays prospect Enny Romero and Chicago White Sox prospect Andre Rienzo and Cincinnati Reds prospect Carlos Contreras are photographed by Kansas City Royals prospect Yordano Ventura (46) before the All Star Futures game at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

I took the opportunity to catch Jose Berrios‘ first Double-A start on MiLB TV and put together some notes for all of you who had to miss it. Berrios is the #6-ranked prospect (by consensus) for the Minnesota Twins and we had him at #7. Berrios is a 20-year-old Puerto Rican righty who was selected by the Twins in the supplemental round (32nd overall) of the 2012 draft.

In his first year in the Twins system, in 2012, Berrios was pretty much unhittable, posting a 0.62 WHIP and 4.4 H/9 ratio with a 14.4 K/9 ratio in two stops in the Gulf Coast League and the Appalachian League. The Twins jumped him to the Class-A Midwest League in 2013 and, while he wasn’t as dominant, he was very good, throwing 103 2/3 innings for Cedar Rapids with a 3.99 ERA, a 1.40 WHIP and 100 strikeouts.

This season, Berrios started in the Florida State League (a very pitcher-friendly league) and, once again, found his dominance, throwing 96 1/3 innings with an ERA of 1.96, a WHIP of 1.05 and 109 strikeouts with just 23 walks. Berrios made enough noise to be selected for the MLB Futures Game, held the day before the All-Star game, this year, in Minnesota.

Watching on MiLB TV, I was at the mercy of the directors of the broadcast. I missed being able to identify a few pitches because the camera angle changed from the traditional “center field” angle from behind the pitcher, to a side angle or even a long shot from the press box behind and above home plate.

I tallied 98 pitches through Berrios’ five innings of work with 60 of them going for strikes. He was throwing three pitches: the fastball, a slider and a changeup. Because of the broadcast issues (as well as a few pitches that I just couldn’t be certain about), I tallied 53 fastballs, 18 changeups and 19 sliders with 26 pitches that I couldn’t categorize or that I was unsure of. The numbers clearly don’t add up to 98 because I included my guesses in both the “unsure” category as well as the pitch that I was guessing it was.

Berrios was facing the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate. The lineup included minor league veteran Mike McDade, Eastern League All-Star Jon Berti and Kevin Nolan (an Eastern League All-Star last year as well). Also in the lineup was one of fastest-rising prospects in the Jays’ system (and Berrios’ teammate on the World Team for the MLB Futures Game), Gold Glove center fielder Dalton Pompey.

Berrios worked quickly, pounding the zone early but lost his control a bit in the third inning and fourth innings. He walked three batters and struck out four over the course of the game, giving up two home runs despite having only given up four all year in in Fort Myers. The home runs were both fairly loud shots to Mike Crouse and Dalton Pompey. Neither pitch was particularly elevated in the strike zone but the pitch to Pompey was particularly curious because the Toronto-born center fielder had hit a long foul ball on the pitch before that appeared to be in exactly the same place, a little down but over the heart of the plate.

Overall, it was a solid first outing for Berrios. There was no radar gun at the park or on the broadcast (I was tuned in to the radio broadcast by the home team Fisher Cats) but Baseball America’s Ben Badler was at the game and tweeted his velocity, noting that Berrios was clocking in at 93-96 mph and calling his changeup an “out pitch.”

With a very good fastball velocity (although not the best command), the changeup was a really effective pitch, getting (by my count) at least six swings and misses with it. The slider looked to be fairly well developed. I would like to see a little bit of a sharper break — it looks more slurvey right now — but Berrios seemed to have fairly good command of it and he threw it for a strike on several occasions, often as a first pitch.

Obviously, I would be able to get a better idea of his stuff first-hand but, despite the limited ability to judge pitches on the MiLB TV feed, Berrios looks like he’s got a lot to work with and will be able to make an impact with the New Britain Rock Cats simply by making a few adjustments and fine tuning his command.