Well, if there was any better indication of just how bad the farm system is … you can go look at the records of our four minor league affiliates through two weeks.
- AAA: 2-10
- AA: 4-8
- High-A: 6-6
- Low-A: 0-12
Your Fredericksburg Nats are Oh and Twelve. 33 runs scored, 121 against. They’re giving up an average of 10 runs a game, with a current run differential of -88 runs. Wow. So far, the owner of the franchise is reeeaaaallly digging the talent level he’s got to open up his $35M stadium. (Ah who am i kidding, he didn’t spend a dime of his own money, the taxpayers did! I digress).
The only team in the system actually trying (High-A Wilmington) is “only” 6-6. But we’ll get to them.
Ok, so who is hot and who is not after two full 6-game series? We’ll go by level. Here’s who’s “Hot” by level:
AAA:
- Raudy Read: 5-15 through first 12 games. But he’s on the IL. And listed as a 1B. I mean, is the guy actually catching anymore? Tres Barrera seems to be getting the bulk of catcher ABs, which makes sense since he’s the only guy on the 40-man.
- Most of the back-end of the bullpen: Bacus, Bonnell, McGowin, Miller and Lobstein all have decent numbers in their few innings of work so far.
AA:
- Cole Freeman has had a nice start to the season
- Teel, Sanchez and Reyes in the rotation all have had two decent starts.
- Sanchez in particular: 15Ks, 1 BB so far in 3 starts.
- Sterling Sharp rebounded from his awful opener to be pretty stellar in his second start.
- Gabe Klobotis: 5IP, 2 hits, 7/0 K/BB. How was this guy a 36th rounder??
High-A:
- Henry and Cavalli: well, they’ve lived up to the hype. Henry has given up 9 base runners in 11 innings and 4 of them scored; his K/BB is actually better than Cavalli’s.
- Zack Brzycky: where did we get this guy? $10k NDFA last season just shows up at high A slinging dots. 9IP, 4 hits, 14/4 K/BB? yes I’ll take that.
- Alex Troop: 5ip, 10 Ks, zero BBs, 1 hit. And that one hit scored.
- Matt Cronin: picks up where he left off in 2019; 5.1 IP, one hit, 11/2 K/BB. Move him up with Henry and Cavalli at the end of the month.
Low-A:
- Well, Michael Cuevas has had a nice start; 4ip, 1 hit.
- Mitchell Parker started decently but got hit hard in his 2nd start. He still has 15 Ks in 7innings … to go along with 7 walks.
OK, who is NOT Hot? Well, mostly everyone, but i’ll highlight a few in particular.
AAA:
- Luis Garcia: hitting just .205 albeit with three homers.
- Carter Kieboom: he’s only appeared in 7 games?!? What is going on? Hitting .222. We care about basically two bats in the whole of AAA and these two are it, and the opening to the season has been rough.
- The entire Rotation: the best starter in AAA is Sean Nolin, who the team acquired with like a few days notice to be the AAA opening day starter. Can you feel the excitement?
- Ryne Harper: the guy was good in 2019 for the Twins; now he’s 32 and struggling in AAA. He’s currently occupying the #1 position on the “first guy to get axed from 40-man when we need to make room for someone.
AA:
- The entire offense: the team is hitting a collective .151/.235/.247 for the season. .151 team batting order. Some how they’ve won 4 games hitting .151 as a team.
- Tim Cate: 3 starts and struggling. 1.85 whip, a .315 BAA.
High-A:
- Again, the entire offense. they’re hitting a collective .208
- Yasel Antuna: He’s 2 for 40. Two for Fourty!! This is one of our top hitting prospects, a guy who was a MLB spring training invite. What is going on?
- Israel Pineda: slightly better at 5 for 42. 3 of those 5 hits are homers. This is perhaps the 2nd best prospect on the team.
- Jackson Rutledge: who had him with an 11.32 ERA through three starts?
- Evan Lee: two starts, didn’t make it out of the 2nd in either start.
- Todd Peterson: for a guy who hung around MLB camp as long as he did … he’s not starting well.
Low-A:
- Everyone.
- The offense is .167/.280/.222 as a team
- The pitching staff has a collective 8.12 ERA and a 1.95 whip. As a staff they’re putting on 2 guys an inning.
- The rotation is so bad they don’t have a single qualified hurler.
- They have more guys with double digit ERAs than they have guys who have sub 7.00 ERAs.
- Leif Strom has perhaps the most unimpressive pitching line: 3 appearances/2 starts, a 19.29 ERA. He’s thrown 7 innings, given up 18 hits and 9 walks. 23 runs allowed, but only 15 earned thanks to some stellar defense behind him
It can only get better from here right? A team can’t go winless for 140 games can they? 🙂
Next to get promoted: Cavalli, Henry, Cronin
Next to get demoted/released: Strom, maybe Harper getting DFA’d.