Minor League Baseball League Top 10 Prospects: California League
8. Caleb Ferguson, LHP, Los Angeles Dodgers
An impressive physical specimen out of high school, Ferguson had a ton of college interest before he had Tommy John surgery right before the 2014 draft, leading to a number of schools backing away from him. West Virginia stayed with Ferguson, but the Dodgers were able to buy him away from that commitment for $100K.
In 2016, Ferguson really turned some heads when he threw across three low levels, hurling 66 1/3 innings with a 2.31 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and a 5/63 BB/K ratio. That level of control from someone returning from Tommy John is incredibly rare and made Ferguson someone to follow in 2017.
He has not disappointed for sure. He went 9-4 with the Quakes, with a 2.87 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and 55/140 BB/K over 122 1/3 innings this season.
Ferguson has really moved forward in his raw stuff since his surgery, seeing his fastball tick up to sitting 91-94 in starts I saw, touching 96. He was a pitcher with heavy sink in high school, and much of that is gone from his fastball now, requiring him to use excellent control to generate the weak swings that his movement would previously.
His best secondary pitch is a curve that comes in with tremendous location, whether he wants to locate it within the zone or bury it in the dirt. He is especially adept at burying the pitch at a right-handed hitter’s feet and getting the swing and miss.
Ferguson’s change still has work to do, but he has good results with the pitch against lefties. The change is where he saw much of his command issues early in the season, but late in the year, he was nearly always on the catcher’s mitt with each pitch.
Ferguson will get a bump up to AA, opening the season at 21 years old. He has a solid expectation of mid-rotation starter, but his ceiling could climb quite a bit if he could take a step forward with the change.
7. Garrett Hampson, SS, Colorado Rockies
Hampson comes from a long line of Long Beach State shortstops who have had successful pro careers, and while he’s unlikely to reach the heights of former Rockie Troy Tulowitzki, Hampson has a chance to have a solid pro career after being a 3rd round selection in 2016.
Hampson has a very smooth feel on the field regardless of which side of the second base bag he works on. His arm strength is a bit below-average for what you’d want from a shortstop, but more than adequate at second base. However, everything else he does at shortstop is above-average, including his reads, range, and hands at the position.
At the plate, Hampson has seen a lot of growth, and a ton of it has come this season at Lancaster. On a team that ran a ton, Hampson really did solid work driving the ball and using gaps well to use his plus speed to the best of his ability. That said, he does have below-average power that will likely not translate to double-digit home run power, but if he can continue to use gaps well and stay in the Rockies organization, he could really do well in the expansive Colorado outfield, making his 24 doubles and 12 triples this season seem very feasible at the highest level if he continues developing.
With other middle infielders that are young and solid players in the system, Hampson will need to continue showing well to continue moving up in the organization, but he is probably more adept at shortstop than fellow prospect Brendan Rodgers, though Rodgers’ prospect pedigree has him playing the position until he works his way off of it and Hampson’s has him having to earn his way on it.
Most likely, Hampson will open 2018 at AA, and he’ll hope to build on the development he’s seen in 2017 to possibly push his way up to the big leagues by the end of the season. He has DJ LeMahieu ahead of him in Colorado at second and Trevor Story at short, but with both hitting arbitration after the 2018 season, he could seem a cost-saving alternative for the 2019 club.