Prospects in April

Written by Sean P | 03 May 2010

April seemed to take forever to get here and only a moment to disappear. Tis the folly of being a baseball fan I guess. It's a small sample remember, but there are some good signs and some not so good ones out there early on. Anyway, here's a quick look at how our top 30 prospects faired in April.

1. Jesus Montero- AAA- .247/.313/.384, 2 HR, .320 wOBA

Montero hasn’t gotten off to the hottest of starts but that’s alright as he’s just 20 years old and it’s only 80 PAs. Some contributing factors need mentioning, including that his BABIP is .278 which is approximately 50 points below his career average. He’s walked a bit more so far, 8.8% of his PAs which is another good sign. It’ll come around for the big guy soon enough.

2. Austin Romine-AA- .354/.425/.492, 0 HR, .413 wOBA

Romine has obviously been very impressive and he’s really hit of late. The power is starting to come around, as he hit his first HR this past weekend as well. He is also walking more early on, but has an unsustainable .435 BABIP to this point.

3. Slade Heathcott- has not played

4. Zach McAllister-AAA- 28 IP, 21 Ks, 8 BBs, 3.95 FIP

McAllister has struggled to adjust early on and these are certainly the worst numbers we’ve seen from him in his career. A sinkerball pitcher with just a 35% GB rate isn’t a good thing, and has already allowed 3 HRs, one less than in all of 2009.

5. Manny Banuelos- yet to pitch with an appendectomy

6. Jeremy Bleich-AA- 22 IP, 14 Ks, 12 BBs, 4.26 FIP

It hasn’t looked real pretty for Bleich early on in his repeat of AA, that’s for sure. More unsettling is his already low .200 BABIP. The command issues are, well, issues and it’d be nice to see him turn it around sometime soon.

7. Mark Melancon-AAA- 15 IP, 15 Ks, 5 BBs, 3.92 FIP

Melancon has been his usual self to this point, except that his walk rate has been a little high as well as his HR/FB%. We’ll be seeing him in the Bronx on Sunday.

8. JR Murphy- Has not played

9. Jairo Heredia-A+ - 14 IP, 11 Ks, 7 BBs, 5.10 FIP

He’s been bad early on for Tampa. Heredia has been hampered by a .404 BABIP but the BB% is out of control. His LOB% is unusually low (34%) and coupled with his BABIP, he should see some improvement in the future.

10. Adam Warren- A+ - 29 IP, 22 Ks, 6 BBs, 2.86 FIP

Warren has been as good as advertised early on. He’s been helped out by a 64 GB% and has been impressively dominating A+ ball. He may be landing in Trenton sometime this year.

11. Hector Noesi- A+ - 27 IP, 32 Ks, 2 BBs, 2.61 FIP

Noesi also has been as good as advertised and should be showing up in Trenton even sooner. The command of 3 solid pitches and fantastic command have contributed to the eyebrow raising early success.

12. DJ Mitchell- AA- 19 IP, 8 Ks, 14 BBs, 4.73 FIP

Mitchell has really struggled in his AA debut. The bad news is his BABIP isn’t crazy enough to explain away the poor results (.281) and command, not usually an issue of his, has been the main culprit. The good news, at least so far is that the GB rate has remained very solid- 64%.

13. Jose Ramirez- A- 23 IP, 29 Ks, 6 BBs, 1.74 FIP

Sleeper no more- Ramirez has been as good as we thought he could be. He’s actually been the victim of a .330 BABIP yet has still posted phenomenal results. Hopefully he can keep this up.

14. Andrew Brackman- A+ - 8 IP, 5 Ks, 1 BB, 4.70 FIP

Well it could be worse. Despite allowing 15 runs so far, Brackman when he has pitched (suffered a cut on his pitching finger) has at least exhibited some control. We’ll see what happens the rest of the year.

15. Dellin Betances- has not pitched yet

16. Bradley Suttle- A+ - .250/.307/.338, 0 HR, .289 wOBA

Suttle missed all of 2009 and so far it’s really showed. Strike outs have been a problem but he’s coming back from a big injury so he’ll have plenty of time to ease back into it.

17. David Adams- AA- .321/.404/.513, 2 HR, .421 wOBA

Adams has been without doubt the systems hottest hitter early on. He’ll probably fall back to earth sometime in the future but the BB% has remained solid which his good and so far he hasn’t hit a wall progressing from A ball to AA.

18. Wilkins de la Rosa- AA- 13 IP, 8 Ks, 8 BBs, 4.73 FIP

De La Rosa has gotten off to a slow start along with the rest of the AA bullpen. Command has always been iffy with De La Rosa but not THIS bad- and the K% is down so far. But it’s not much of a sample and the season is very long.

19. Gary Sanchez- Has not played

20. Kelvin De Leon- Has not played

21. Ivan Nova- AAA- 30 IP, 28 Ks, 10 BBs, 3.30 FIP

He’s been surprisingly good so far. Nova’s K/9 is up and the BB/9 is down. That’s progress folks. Hopefully this keeps up.

22. Romulo Sanchez-AAA- 18 IP, 14 Ks, 12 BBs, 5.98 FIP

Sanchez has not been sharp as a starter so far. Control is, and likely always will be an issue for him. He’s got plenty of room for growth so hopefully he can improve on his early season struggles.

23. Corban Joseph- A+ - .313/.348/.482, 2 HRs, .368 wOBA

It’s looking good for Joseph early so far, showing some power that was missing last year. Weirdly, he hasn’t been walking nearly as much which is not a good sign, although he’s improved on that lately.

24. Caleb Cotham- has not pitched yet

25. Kyle Higashioka- A- .206/.306/.333, 2 HRs, .330 wOBA

He hasn’t hit very well so far but he’s still exhibiting the good plate discipline and hasn’t struck out much. A .206 BABIP has definitely tampered the results.

26. Kevin Russo- AAA- .278/.374/.392, 1 HR, .348 wOBA

Russo has been playing multiple positions and got off to a terrible start but has been much better of late. As long as he’s getting on base and working on his positional utility, I’ll be happy.

27. George Kontos- has not pitched

28. Dan Brewer- AA- .233/.305/.329, 0 HR, .286 wOBA

He has also really struggled to put it together in Trenton early on. 8 stolen bases in April have been nice, but so far he’s been overmatched at the dish.

29. Damon Sublett-AA- .267/.365/.444, 2 HRs, .358 wOBA

Sublett went down with a thumb injury and will miss the rest of the year. It’s too bad since he got off to a nice start before the injury.

30. Greg Golson- AAA- .275/.296/.478, 2 HRs, .341 wOBA

Golson has swung a hot bat so far but the plate discipline shows no early sign of improvement. He has cut down significantly, at least so far, on the strikeouts which is a positive sign, as are the early HRs and 3 triples.