Giants Prospect Slater Highlights High-A Week 3 Recap

Welcome to week three of Grading on the Curve’s High-A recap.

In the California League, the Visalia Rawhide stayed hot atop the North Division by going 4-2 to improve to 18-6 and maintain a five-game lead over second place Bakersfield. In the South Division, the Rancho Cucamonga Dodgers jumped into first place by going 4-2, while the Lancaster JetHawks, who led the division last week, went 1-5 to fall to third place at 11-13.

The Daytona Tortugas were white-hot last week as they were 6-1 to improve their lead in the Florida State League North Division to three games. They are now 16-8, while the second place Tampa Yankees sit at 13-11. In the South Division, the Charlotte Stone Crabs also stand at 16-8 and have a three game lead over the Palm Beach Cardinals.

No teams have separated themselves in the Carolina League as of Sunday. The Frederick Keys lead the Northern Division by half a game, while the Myrtle Beach Pelicans lead the Southern Division by one game over the Salem Red Sox. Salem is the hottest team in the division as they’ve won seven of their last ten games.

For notable player performances, we start in the California League…

California League
North
Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks)—18-6
Bakersfield Blaze (Mariners)—13-11
Modesto Nuts (Rockies)—11-13
Stockton Ports (Athletics)—11-13
San Jose Giants (Giants)—8-16

South
Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Dodgers)—14-10
Inland Empire 66ers (Angels)—12-12
Lancaster JetHawks (Astros)—11-13
High Desert Mavericks (Rangers)—11-13
Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres)—11-13

Notable performances:
Giants eight-round draft pick Austin Slater has had a good first month to 2015. The second baseman is hitting .328, good for 10th place in the California League, and hit his first home run Sunday. In his first taste of professional pitching, he combined to slash .346/.411/.457 in 31 games last season. He doesn’t have 200 professional at-bats, but Slater is already exhibiting a promising combination of skills; he’s struck out in only 14.6 percent of his plate appearances and has a combined Batting Average on Balls In Play of .391. It’s a very small sample size and he is unlikely to sustain that all through the minors, but the former All-Pac-12 hitter is off to a promising start.

More from MLB Prospects

In Rancho Cucamonga, pitcher Scott Barlow is putting together several quality outings in a row. He pitched five innings in relief Sunday, allowing two runs, one earned, on five hits. Over his five appearances so far in 2015, he’s pitched at least five innings and has yet to allow more than two earned runs in any one start. Drafted out of high school in 2011, Barlow has moved slowly up the minors, but 2015 is off to a good start.

Much like Raul Adalberto Mondesi is the Royals’ organization, Stockton’s Franklin Barreto is one of the youngest players in the minors. Only 19, his offensive numbers are showing his youth: he’s only hitting .200 and has struck out 18 times in his 84 plate appearances. He had three hits on Saturday and another on Sunday, so there are definitely signs of life in his bat. He was a key piece in the trade that sent Josh Donaldson to Toronto, so Billy Beane clearly saw enough in ship away a MVP candidate, and his physical tools grade out well in the future.

Florida State League
North
Daytona Tortugas (Reds)—16-8
Tampa Yankees (Yankees)—13-11
Clearwater Threshers (Phillies)—12-12
Dunedin Blue Jays (Blue Jays)—11-13
Brevard County Manatees (Brewers)—10-13
Lakeland Flying Tigers (Tigers)—9-14

South
Charlotte Stone Crabs (Rays)—16-8
Palm Beach Cardinals (Cardinals)—13-11
Bradenton Marauders (Pirates)—12-12
St. Lucie Mets (Mets)—12-12
Jupiter Hammerheads (Marlins)—10-14
For Myers Miracle (Twins)—9-15

Notable Performances:
Bradenton catcher Jin-De Jhang had three hits Sunday to raise his average to .403, tops in the league. Jhang’s production has included very little power, as he only has four extra base hits, all of them doubles. He has drawn seven walks in his 77 plate appearances and only struck out three times, exhibiting plate discipline he hadn’t shown in previous seasons.

Ben Verlander, younger brother of Tigers Cy-Young winner Justin, is doing the family name right by jumping out to a blazing .356/.424/.508 line in 2015. He was 3-for-4 with a double and drove in two runs Sunday and was 6-for-11 with four RBIs in the weekend series against Tampa. It’s an encouraging start after he combined to hit only .220 from 2013-14.

As the writers at MLB.com’s Prospect Watch point out, Daytona pitcher Amir Garrett is really taking off now that he’s not playing basketball anymore, but at one time he showed promise in both sports. Once he became fully devoted to pitching, he took off: in 2014, he had career lows in ERA (3.65), WHIP (1.25), average against (.231) and K/BB ratio (2.49). He’s had three effective starts so far in the 2015 season, posting a 2.41 ERA and 4.8 K/BB ratio in 18 2/3 innings.

Carolina League
Northern
Frederick Keys (Orioles)—13-11
Wilmington Blue Rocks (Royals)—12-11
Potomac Nationals (Nationals)—10-14
Lynchburg Hillcats (Indians)—9-14

Southern
Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs)—13-9
Salem Red Sox (Red Sox)—12-10
Carolina Mudcats (Braves)—11-10
Winston-Salem Dash (White Sox)—11-12

Notable performances:

More from Call to the Pen

Over the past seven games, 2014 Red Sox second-round draft pick

Sam Travis

is hitting .519 (14-for-27), highlighted by three hits on both Saturday and Sunday. For a first baseman, Travis isn’t much of a power threat—he has a .418 slugging percentage thus far—but he’s also not a regular strikeout victim. He has 17 strikeouts in 89 plate appearances, which is a much higher rate than in 2014 (32 Ks in 289 PA) but still very manageable.

Fellow Salem teammate Kevin McAvoy has now allowed only one run in each of his four starts. The 2014 fourth-round pick boasts a 1.66 ERA and .188 average against, but that has come from being effectively wild: McAvoy has walked 15 batters while he has only struck out 13. It could be that he needs to acclimate himself to a minor-league strike zone, but he struck out 23 batters and walked only three in an abbreviated 2014. Regardless, his K/BB ratio must flip as the season progresses if he wants to continue to strings quality starts together.

UCLA product Adam Plutko had another stellar start Sunday for Lynchburg. He went 6 1/3 innings and gave up two runs on six hits. He now has a 1.50 ERA, .70 WHIP and .170 average against in 30 innings. He’s also been pounding the strike zone, leading to an uncanny 7.67 K/BB ratio.

All stats taken from MiLB.com, FanGraphs.com and Baseball-Reference.com