3 pitching prospects with surging stock: Wilmy Sanchez: only 13 innings but has been dominant as a 20 year old in hitter-friendly Asheville. 16 k/9 against 3 bb/9. 1.35 xfip. Ethan Pecko: only 21 and already in AA, he’s been better in Corpus than Bloss was. Forrest Whitley: our old friend’s resurgence in AAA has been well-documented on this thread, but he looks like he could be a legitimate star big league RP.
Yes of course, a huge difference. But Bregman was a much more polished prospect coming in and my point was really that Matthews’ career is off to a very good start. Matthews will almost certainly not be the type of contact hitter Bregman has been, but he is likely to offer more power and speed if he is able to reach his ceiling.
He's also has had less than a season in the minors and he's doing pretty well. He's most likely starting next season in AAA with a chance to join the big boys in his second season out of college. The fact that we are comparing him to Bregman who was the consensus number 1 pick and an MVP candidate behind only peak Trout is a good sign.
Alex Bregman played 146 minor league games before he got called up, so essentially one full MiLB season. The last stretch was one month in AAA before they moved him to Houston.
Forrest Whitley is again having an odd season. His strikeout numbers are exception at nearly 13 per 9 innings and his walks are down to what they were before he ****ed up his delivery - at a manageable 3 per 9 innings. The odd numbers are that he has given up 14 runs in 27 innings - which isn't good ..... BUT only 8 of those runs are earned runs. His overall era is a very good 2.6 but he is still giving up too many homers (1.6 per 9) and he is giving up 8 hits per 9... so his WHIP is a pedestrian 1.24 Whitley is about to turn 27 years old, and is a great story........ after not pitching for two seasons, and having 5 other poor ones, he has pitched well enough to deserve a call up. Some of his raw numbers still are a little concerning, but with a sample size of 27 innings it is hard to know if those are statistical outliers. I will trust Miller and Murphy and Brown to determine when he should get a chance - but at this point he has made himself a useful prospect with potential high-end relief upside.
I keep thinking that his stock isn't very high because he's strictly a reliever at this point, but it feels lik Sanchez is having a year that's somewhat similar to Bryan Abreu's breakout minors season. Obviously not nearly as dominant as Abreu in 2018 (mainly as he's exclusively a reliever) but it wouldn't surprise me to see him jump on the same route as Abreu... Sanchez will most likely head back to Asheville to start 2025 too. He'll definitely be on the radar if he can survive there.
Anderson Brito with the worst outing of his young career: 3.2 IP, 6 H (solo HR allowed), 3 ER, 6 K On the bright side... no walks!
Trey Dombroski vs. Tulsa: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 K Miguel Ullola: 4 IP, H, unearned run, 3 BB, 5 K A.J. Blubaugh vs. Salt Lake: 5 IP, 5 H (solo HR allowed), ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Luis Baez finally figured something out in AA, in the last 3 games he’s 7-12 with 2 doubles, a HR, and just 1 strikeout. Logan Cerny also has been really good in AA recently. Since Aug 11, he’s 15-47 with just 10 k. That’s big progress for him.
Baez, to me, seems like he’s hitting every progress mark you’d like to see from him, right? do you have him penciled in as opening day starter in RF in 26?
