Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 4-16-25

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa vs. St. Paul, 12:08 pm
Knoxville vs. Chattanooga, 6:00 pm
South Bend at West Michigan, 11:05 am
Myrtle Beach at Augusta, 6:05 pm

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Iowa: RHP Cade Horton (7.1 IP, 1.23 ERA, 3.09 FIP, 12 K, 7 BB)
Knoxville: RHP Nick Hull (3.2 IP, 12.27 ERA, 11.41 FIP, 3 K, 3 BB)
South Bend: RHP Luis Rujano (2.1 IP, 15.43 ERA, 8.19 FIP, 2 K, 5 BB)
Myrtle Beach: RHP Will Frisch (1.2 IP, 16.20 ERA, 6.36 FIP, 4 K, 4 BB)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Cade topped out at 98 in the first.

1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 whiff

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Cade through 2 scoreless and hitless: 2 IP, 1 BB, 3 K, 32 pitches (22, strikes, 2 whiffs)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

112 off the bat for Alcántara but the highlight was watching Moisés scoot.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Moisés Ballesteros and Kevin Alcántara both have doubles in the third. KA is creeping towards a .700 OPS after a really slow start.

Cade: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 48 pitches (30 strikes, 2 whiffs)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Cade gave up a solo HR in the 4th. Was working 95-96 in the 4th inning.

4 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 61 pitches (39 strikes, 2 whiffs)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

18 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Moisés Ballesteros and Kevin Alcántara both have doubles in the third. KA is creeping towards a .700 OPS after a really slow start.

Cade: 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 48 pitches (30 strikes, 2 whiffs)

 

[Rcal10]

1 minute ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

Ballesteros goes deep to center. He is on fire.

[Bertz]

Moises dong!  OPS up to .934

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Here’s the video:

102.5 EV, 434 ft

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Cade's final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 76 pitches (48 strikes, 5 whiffs)

Was sitting 94-96 in his last few innings. Topped out at 98 today.

Really would like to get the walks down but he has a 13.1 K/9 and a 1.46 ERA through 3 starts.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[JBears79]

Ill take it from him. I think the big thing with Cade right now in the early going is getting his stamina up. Going 75 pitches with 6Ks is a good day.

[Jason Ross]

19 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Cade's final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 76 pitches (48 strikes, 5 whiffs)

Was sitting 94-96 in his last few innings. Topped out at 98 today.

Really would like to get the walks down but he has a 13.1 K/9 and a 1.46 ERA through 3 starts.

I followed the game on stream and on Statcast Live. The walks seem like it's less about really bad command and more like he's just missing by an inch or two. 

Slider was great per his RPM's. I'm really encouraged. I don't think he's ready, yet but I don't think he's far off.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I think this might be the end of the road for Burl Carraway.

[NorthsideAvenger]

14 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

I think this might be the end of the road for Burl Carraway.

I totally forget about him.

[Tryptamine]

10 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

I think this might be the end of the road for Burl Carraway.

Even in a world where 90+% of prospects washout, it's so bizarre to see a guy like Carraway, who was supposedly drafted a couple months from MLB ready, never even put a good stretch together at any point. He was more or less a washout from day 1 despite supposedly being basically MLB ready.

[We Got The Whole 9]

That game has done wonders for our Iowa hitters lines

[squally1313]

2 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

That game has done wonders for our Iowa hitters lines

In the 7th inning alone, we had:

• Long single
• Alcantara double
• Cowles dong
• Strumpf(!) dong
• Caissie dong
• Moises walk
• Long single again
• Alcantara dong

[Bertz]

35 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I followed the game on stream and on Statcast Live. The walks seem like it's less about really bad command and more like he's just missing by an inch or two. 

Slider was great per his RPM's. I'm really encouraged. I don't think he's ready, yet but I don't think he's far off.

Looks like Cade threw 54% of his pitches in the zones, which is pretty good.  He only got 5 whiffs though, which is kind of bad.

So yeah 3 walks overstates the wildness but it sort of evens out because he probably shouldn't have had 6 Ks either.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Mo uno mas

[squally1313]

• Strumpf again
• Ballesteros again

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Some of these were off position players pitching but Cowles hit one, KA hit one, Mo hit two and Caissie hit one HR.

Franklin OPSing .834, Caissie .893, Ballesteros .998, Long .883 and Jaguar has his all the way up to .801.

On the bad side, Neely got roughed up for 4.

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

Looks like Cade threw 54% of his pitches in the zones, which is pretty good.  He only got 5 whiffs though, which is kind of bad.

So yeah 3 walks overstates the wildness but it sort of evens out because he probably shouldn't have had 6 Ks either.

A few things:

1. The whiffs were kind of low, but I'm not entirely blaming him. I'll explain why in a moment. 

2. Here are two of his strikeouts that were of the non-swinging-variety. 

The Cartaya PA obviously had two pretty wasteful pitches, and both had a pitch a bit too center cut (both were fouled). But the K pitches for both were watched and they were nasty and perfectly placed. So on one hand, each guy probably should have done more on those fastballs, on the back end, each strikeout was well earned. That's kind of the Cade Horton experience - he'll bully your ass with fastballs early and then get you looking later. 

I'd like to see more whiffs in general, but just on this start itself, I think it's probably a red herring more than anything.

What impressed me most was that I thought he was done after 4. He left a slider center cut for a HR and a fastball over the heart for a long fly out to RF and thought "oh, he's gassed". Then he came back out and bullied the last three hitters. It was nice to see.

[CaliforniaRaisin]