First Look At The Minor Leagues

All the full season teams have played their first series so far, albeit Akron, Lake County and Lynchburg have only played 3 games so we haven't even see the whole rotations for these three teams.

Even with this limited data let's see what we have so far and what we can expect as we enter the first week where all of our minor league teams are playing a full 6-game series.

STARTING PITCHING

Except for the top two levels of the mnors, focusing on the rotations, including piggyback situations, is the way to capture most of the pitching prospects in an organization.  From the first week or so of play, here are the starting pitchers (and relevant AA and AAA relievers) ranked based on their scouting reports, prospect rankings, level and initial performance including grading the stuff they showed in 2023.

1. Tanner Bibee - What needs to be said.  Lights out performance, hit 99 mph

2. Gavin Willams - Almost as good as Bibee but not quite and one level lower

3. Logan Allen - Velo still a question mark although did hit 93 mph

4. Joey Cantillo - Good first outing but not that sharp

5. Tommy Mace - Better command and control as he repeats high A

6. Peyton Battenfield - Solid, solid, solid.  But not spectacular...yet

7. Hunter Stanley - Breath of fresh air at AA.

8. Ryan Webb - A start to build on

9. Alonzo Richardson - Sitting at 93-94 mph but stuff looks really straight to me.

10. Parket Messick - Being hit around at low A to the tune of a 2.0 WHIP

11. Konner Pilkington - Terrible first start in bad conditions but back on track in start 2

12. Rodney Boone - Solid, albeit facing younger competition

13. Luis Oviedo - Flashing stuff at AAA that could make him a De Los Santos-like option this year

14. Ross Carver - Bad outing as command/control was terrible

15. Yorman Gomez - OK outing but not much in the way of swing and miss stuff

16. Doug Nikhazy - In a piggyback role he didn't thrive.

17. Will Dion - Uncharacteristically wild outing, again, in a piggbyback role

18.Adam Scott - I hope he comes out of this but 5 HB in one game and 6 Ks and a HB in another game.  Something is not right there as he is repeating AAA.

HITTERS

Sample sizes are so small but here is a snapshot of what I have seen so far as far as the top PERFORMING hitters (not the top hitting prospects):

1. Bo Naylor 

2. Brayan Rocchio

3. Richie Palacios

4. David Fry

5. Jorge Burgus

6. Joe Lampe

7. Nate Furman