Apparently, he's put in a lot of work to change his swing, and it sounds like it has been paying off. Per scouting reports I've read, he has raw power but didn't used to elevate the ball much. It appears as if that has changed. I've also heard people who have watched him say he just looks like a pro ballplayer. Have you heard anything about how the scouting department sees him, @Nook ?
DSL last year, I do believe he's stateside and in whatever you want to call the Complex League now. Maybe A-ball later this year, but maybe not?
Lost in the Brantley return, Whitley took the mound today. He went 4.0IP with 4H, 3R/ER, 1BB, 2K's and gave up a dinger. For some perspective, he's already thrown half as many innings this year in AAA as he did in AAA last year. Getting innings/reps in continues to be priority #1.
Probably time to start paying attention to him. Plays 1B/2B/RF/LF. 4 HR in 11 games so far this season. Striking out <20% of his pa. Good speed on the bases. Shay Whitcomb is also having a breakout season so far. Striking out far less than he has in previous seasons and hitting for power. Can handle all the IF positions and has some baserunning value. JC Correa has rebounded after a slow start. He's walking as much as he strikes out. Not hitting the ball hard AT ALL but might be a Dubon-lite who can play catcher. Between Loperfido, Wagner, Whitcomb, and Correa, AA is chock full of potential MLB bench pieces.
Jaime Melendez was placed on the Corpus IL today (retroactive to yesterday); Cole McDonald moved up from Asheville to take his spot. McDonald's spot in Asheville was taken by Zack Matthews, whose spot in Fayetteville was filled by Manuel Urias, a minor league Rule 5 draft pick who came from the Phillies organization.
I know minor league record is not the be all/end all but our org record looks absolutely brutal with some performances that are looking pretty good. What's the problem? Lack of talent? Too many jags? Guys agressively pushed and young for their level? Something else? I guess maybe that's the reason it's so easy for all the national guys to come in and **** on our system and rank us 28th or 29th every year even though we keep graduating top 5 ROY guys.
Corona and Loperfido hit back to back HR in the 6th just now. Both guys big time breakout candidates.
Dude looks legit. Great swing, good looking athlete. He is different from some of these other recent college draftees who’ve had some success like McCormick, Hensley, Wagner, and Dirden. His ceiling is higher. Loperfido has big time upside with the bat and won’t be a minus defensively. Showing some plus plus power so far in AA. Pretty exciting. I was not high on him because of how much swing and miss he showed in college but man he has overhauled his swing and approach and he looks great.
Cole McDonald is 99.8% likely to be just a guy, but I didn't realize that he struck out 100 in 60 innings with Asheville last year. He was somehow better in Asheville than away from it... but he wasn't good regardless of where the game was. Maybe they think McDonald can take a J.P. France-like path through the system, who knows?
