The Tampa Bay Rays No. 9 prospect Blake Snell saw his amazing run come to an end on Saturday. Grading on the Curve followed Snell’s 49 inning scoreless streak to start the season, right up until when it ended in the first inning of yesterday’s matchup against the Cubs’ No. 19 prospect Corey Black.
Black, who is having quite the season himself, said that his Tennessee Smokies were well aware of what the game meant.
“We definitely knew,” Black told Jake Seiner of MiLB.com. “It was nice to go out and have a lead against somebody like that.”
Black would go five scoreless, striking out 6 Montgomery Biscuits and walking none. Despite Snell seeing his streak come to a close, and his ERA on the season skyrocketing to a whopping 0.17, Snell may have pitched one of his better performances of the season.
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The 22-year old lefty would go six innings, and if you take away the first inning, he was nearly flawless yet again. He allowed just three hits (one after the first) and struck out 12 Smokies. 69 percent of his pitches landed for strikes and he was in the zone, feeding off his fastball.
“My game plan was to attack with the fastball and just kind of play off that,” Snell told Seiner. “I had a good fastball and I just kept attacking all game.”
While Black and Snell would go blow for blow in an excited pitching duel, Justin O’Conner bailed Snell out of his first loss on the season. He would double in the tying run and score the winning run on the ensuing play in the eighth.
Snell now sits at 6-0 on the season over two levels. He is 3-0 over his five starts since being promoted to Double-A with a 0.29 ERA in Montgomery. Snell has struck out 39 batter over his 31 Double-A innings while walking just 10 for a 0.68 WHIP (0.81 combined).
The question arises on how fast the Rays will move Snell along. Thus far in 2015, he has looked sharper since being promoted from High-A to Double-A, what can he do at the next level?
While the Rays are currently winning, and surprising many people sitting atop the American League East, their rotation has been decimated. The current 5-man starting rotation is all right handers. Lefty ace Alex Cobb is done for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Drew Smyly, another lefty from the rotation, is attempting rehab to avoid surgery on his torn labrum and won’t be back until at least July should everything go well. Matt Moore, their other stout left hander, is on his way back from Tommy John surgery. The Rays hope to have him back around the All Star break as well, but as everyone knows, there are no guarantees with that.
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So despite the Rays performing quite well right now, their rotation is void of left handed pitching, and in Major League baseball, a solid lefty has become somewhat of a necessity. Lefty Enny Romero (No. 12 in the Rays system) was just promoted to the Major League roster, but although being a starter in the Minors, he projects more as a long reliever in the bigs.
Snell is the Rays top lefty pitching prospect in the system. Unless they want to move some of their budding infield prospects for a veteran, established left hander, the Rays may have to consider moving Snell more rapidly than planned. Should they be in a playoff run come September, a solid lefty could provide a huge boost.