Pittsburgh Pirates minor leaguers own leaderboards
The Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates have minor league pitchers impersonating the game’s premier strikeout artist, plus more minor league notes.
On Saturday, Yonny Chirinos of the Charlotte Stone Crabs, the Tampa Bay Rays Class A Advanced affiliate, tossed six innings and allowed one run on five hits and six strikeouts. The start was just a blip on the minor league radar considering Chirinios isn’t ranked among the Ray’s top 30 prospects.
But it was an interesting start considering he is impersonating one of the greatest pitching performances we’ve ever seen.
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is threatening to break the single season record for strikeout-to-walk ratio. According to FanGraphs, the single season record was set in 1884 by Lady Baldwin. Baldwin struck out 21.00 hitters for every walk that season, and entering Wednesday’s start Kershaw was sitting at 20.33. (Baseball-Reference says the record is 11.6250 by Phil Hughes in 2014, in which case Kershaw will obliterate the record.)
Chirinos, among other pitchers, is paying homage to Kershaw with his ridiculous K/BB ratio. Among all minor league pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched, Chirinos has the highest K/BB at 18.00. That insane level of control has led him to a 1.77 earned run average and 2.81 Fielding Independent Pitching between Class A and Class A Advanced. Furthermore, Chirinos hasn’t walked a batter since May 14.
Entering Wednesday, Mitch Keller of the Pittsburgh Pirates had walked six batters in 62 innings for an 11.50 K/BB, fourth in the minors. Keller started yesterday and threw five innings and allowed two runs with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Striking out a lot of hitters while issuing few free passes is one of the hallmarks of a good pitcher, so it should come as no surprise that most of the pitcher’s atop the minor league K/BB leaderboard are among the best pitchers. For example, at sixth on the list is Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon, who made his major league debut June 8 and nearly tossed a no-hitter Tuesday against the New York Mets.
For the second week in a row, strike-throwing machines kick off our minor league notes. Let’s see what’s happening around the rest of the minors.
Next: Triple A
A few weeks ago, the Pirates’ offense was firing on all cylinders, and it looked like the experiment of hitting John Jaso at leadoff was yielding positive results. Every team goes through offensive lulls, but the Pirates have come crashing down to earth. In the month of June the Pirates are 19th in on-base percentage (.312). Even more concerning is the lack of power, as the Pirates are second to last in the majors with a .342 slugging percentage.
Which brings us to Indianapolis Indians first baseman Josh Bell. Bell is among the top five in the International League of almost every important offensive category with a .312/.398/.502 slash line, including 2-for-3 with a home run yesterday.
With his high OBP and low strikeout rate—just 17.3 percent of plate appearances entering Wednesday—Bell could fill the exact same role as Jaso in the Pirates’ lineup. Bell is a career .306/.374/.457 hitter, hasn’t struck out in more than 18 percent of his plate appearances since 2012 and is putting up the highest isolated power (.190) of his career.
Even if the Pirates decide to abandon the experiment and move Starling Marte or Josh Harrison to leadoff, the thought of Bell in the Pirates’ lineup is an intriguing one.
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Cody Reed might be the steal of the Johnny Cueto trade. Brandon Finnegan and John Lamb have been pitching with mixed success this season, but Reed has been mostly consistent. Reed has allowed more than three earned runs in a start only two times and has a 3.20 ERA and 3.37 FIP. In Monday’s start he went six innings and allowed one run on three hits.
Dan Vogelbach could be turning himself into trade bait. The Chicago Cubs first base prospect is slashing .313/.434/.545 and is sixth in the Pacific Coast League in wOBA (.430). (He hit his 11th home run of the season Wednesday). Considering the Cubs have Anthony Rizzo slated at first base for the foreseeable future, flipping Vogelbach for a reliever may be a possibility.
Next: Double A
The top 15 hitters in OPS in the Texas League are populated by hitters who play positions that traditionally provide lots of power. Most are outfielders or first baseman, plus Houston Astros shortstop Alex Bregman, who might win Minor League Player of the Year.
There is one outlier in the group, and that’s Dodgers second base prospect Willie Calhoun. Calhoun is a 2015 fourth round draft pick out of Yavapai College, and the 5 foot, 8 inch second baseman is slugging with the best of them.
Calhoun was the TL Player of the Week last week, and the award highlights Calhoun’s improvement as the season has progressed. At the end of April, he was slashing .244/.298/.372 with two home runs. In May, he improved dramatically and hit .284/.345/.529 and hit five home runs. So far in June, he’s been even hotter, and entering Wednesday he was slashing .286/.386/.653 with five home runs, giving him 12 on the year and the league’s seventh best wOBA (.370).
Bregman is the best player in the league, and even though Calhoun’s numbers aren’t quite as gaudy, he shows some of the same skills. The most notable of those skills is the high rate at which both players put the ball in play: Bregman has the lowest strikeout rate in the league (8.7%), and Calhoun is fourth (12.5%).
Rays shortstop prospect Willy Adames is having a career year for the Montgomery Biscuits. MLB.com No. 73 prospect was a career .261/.364/.404 hitter entering 2016, but his .285/.381/.504 line this season is easily his best yet. His .405 wOBA entering Wednesday was tied for fourth in the Southern League.
Minor league hitters beware, because San Francisco Giants pitcher Tyler Beede appears to have gained control of his lighting arm. After walking 4.35 hitters per nine innings in Double-A last season, Beede has cut that rate down to 2.08. The 2014 First Round draft pick has gone at least six innings in each of his last five starts.
Next: Class A Advanced
Third baseman Miguel Andujar of the New York Yankees was recently promoted to Double-A, but not before ending his time in the Florida State League on a high note. From May 27 through Monday, his last game before his promotion, Andujar slashed .333/.424/.561 and hit three home runs.
Andujar was promoted after hitting .283/.343/.474 in 58 games. More importantly, he hit 10 home runs after hitting eight all of last season. That added power plus a slight increase in walk rate helped Andujar, who also played in the FSL in 2015, raise his OPS more than 160 points.
He also got off to a good start in Double A. Batting third for the Trenton Thunder Tuesday, Andujar went 2-for-5 with a double in a 7-4 win over the Harrisburg Senators.
The Astros’ California League affiliate plays in one of the most hitter-friendly stadiums in all of baseball. That explains why the Lancaster JetHawks had four of the top 15 hitters in the league entering Wednesday. Based on wOBA, Ramon Laureano (.403, third), Garrett Stubbs (.395, fourth), Jason Martin (.384, 11th) and Bobby Boyd (.379, 12th) have enjoyed their time in The Hangar. Martin, an eighth round pick in 2013, leads the group with 11 home runs.
Braves pitcher Max Povse is having a season that illustrates the frustrating gulf between sabermetrics and traditional stats. He leads the Carolina League in FIP (2.54) but his 3.82 ERA is 1.28 runs higher, the third largest positive difference in the league. (Entering Wednesday, three pitchers had ERAs that were at least 1.65 runs lower than their FIP.)
Considering Povse leads the league in K/BB (4.67) and is tied for third in home run rate (0.26 per nine innings pitched), Povse should be able to keep runs off the board. However, he’s allowed 14 earned runs over his last three starts.
Next: Class A
Cleveland Indians catcher Francisco Mejia is catching fire, which is why he was the Midwest League Offensive Player of the Week last week. Mejia is back in Lake County after hitting .243/.324/.345 there last season. It was a down year for the Indians’ No. 8 prospect after two productive seasons in Rookie and Low A Ball in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
This season, Mejia is putting up career numbers, and he’s been scorching hot the past couple weeks. While he cooled down for most of the month of May, Mejia has been hitting .433/.460/.750 since May 27 and homered in five of seven games from June 7 to June 13.
Mejia isn’t the only hot-hitting catcher in the Midwest League. Juan Kelly of the Toronto Blue Jays was hitting .281/.343/.519 entering Wednesday and led the league in isolated power (.238).
Next: Jose Reyes designated for assignment
Over in the South Atlantic League, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Luke Leftwich has staked his claim as the best pitcher in the league. He leads the league in FIP (1.93), strikeout rate (11.49/9 IP) and is one of five pitchers who hasn’t allowed a home run. Over his last two starts, Leftwich has pitched 15 shutout innings and has struck out 19, including 11 in Monday’s outing.