Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 4-1-26

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Game (Central Time):

Iowa at Louisville, 11:05 am

Probable Starter:

Iowa: RHP Connor Noland (2025 at Iowa: 132.2 IP, 4.07 ERA, 4.37 FIP, 115 K, 55 BB)

[Bertz]

Noland pitched early in ST a couple times and had some extra juice on his fastball.  Curious to see how much of that survived being fully stretched out.

Noland was at 90.3 MPH last year.  Especially since his primary fastball is a cutter just getting up to 91 and change probably makes him big league viable.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Pedro Ramírez followed with a single. All off Chase Petty.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Long grand slam!

Kevin Alcántara hit an RBI double too.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Pedro is 3/5 on his bday 

[Jason Ross]

2 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Pedro Ramírez followed with a single. All off Chase Petty.

And somewhere, a Tom got his wings at this very same moment.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Bertz]

Kevin Alcantara has

- 13 balls in play this season

- 7 hit 100+ MPH

- 6 of THOSE are in the air

- NONE of THOSE have a launch angle above 25 degrees (30+ is when you start getting into too high territory)

It's 5 games.  He's been in AAA for a bit.  But this is still fun, exactly what you'd ask for.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

5 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Kevin Alcantara has

- 13 balls in play this season

- 7 hit 100+ MPH

- 6 of THOSE are in the air

- NONE of THOSE have a launch angle above 25 degrees (30+ is when you start getting into too high territory)

It's 5 games.  He's been in AAA for a bit.  But this is still fun, exactly what you'd ask for.

Keith Law looking smug somewhere

[craig]

That would be so cool if all three of Long, Alcantara, and Ramirez hit the ball hard and racked up some HR's.  Go go go.  

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Bertz]

Stupidly early but Pedro Ramirez has a 90.5% contact rate and a 24.1% chase rate.  For MLB comparison those are 99th percentile and 72nd percentile respectively.

He also, if we cheat and look back to ST, has a 113 MPH max exit velocity, which is 69th percentile.

Whatever Pedro did this winter worked because we increasingly appear to have some sort of Nico Hoerner / Steven Kwan hybrid on our hands

[We Got The Whole 9]

Or maybe the other superstar with his namesake?

[Bertz]

3 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Or maybe the other superstar with his namesake?

He'd need to cut his groundball rate substantially without breaking anything else.  Doesn't seem likely but at the rate he's developing....

[CaliforniaRaisin]

2 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Or maybe the other superstar with his namesake?

[CubinNY]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

I was thinking Aramis. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

35 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I was thinking Aramis. 

Nah, José Ramírez.

[We Got The Whole 9]

4 hours ago, Bertz said:

He'd need to cut his groundball rate substantially without breaking anything else.  Doesn't seem likely but at the rate he's developing....

Unsurprisingly Jose hit a lot of gbs as a prospect. He really came into his own at the MLB level when Launch Angle gained prominence. One can dream...