Kyle Manzardo
The Good: He has hit 5 HRs and, until Saturday, he was tied for the league lead and has hit a LOT of tape measure HRs with excellent exit velocity.
The Better: He leads the AFL in XBH and his OPS still over .900
The Bad: He only has 6 BB and 19 K in 67 ABs against AFL pitching (about AA level). That doesn't look like a guy who will be ready for the MLs next spring training.
Chase DeLauter
The Good: He has 6 Ks (in 63 ABs) and 6 XBHs in the AFL. It is always good to have as many XBH as Ks, no matter what the level. He also leads the league in SFs with 6 (the next closest player has 4).
The Better: He leads the league in RBIs by 5, producing 23 RBIs in 17 games
The Bad: That odd swing still has people debating and clearly, as this is AA-level pitching, any flaws in his swing will not be exposed by these pitchers in the desert in October.
Ryan Webb
The Good: He has now passed 100 IP on the year counting Lake County and his AFL numbers. That bodes well for him pitching a full season next year getting his numbers up closer to 120-130 IP in 2024 without vastly going beyond his 2023 IP. To me this means if his stuff holds and he stays healthy he even has a shot to pitch effectively in Cleveland at some point next year without being gassed when he finally makes it there. He has also had moments of greatness like in his first start when the leadoff hitter got a triple and he struck out the 2-4 hitters, stranding that guy on 3rd as well as striking out 9 in 4.1 IP in his second start. Even in his 3rd start, all against Mesa, they rocked him for 5 ER and 3 HRs he still struck out 7. His overall numbers looked a lot like his college junior year.
The Better: As of this point he still leads the AFL in strikeouts AND, by a large margin, in Ks per 9 IP from guys with more than 10 IP. Now that may change depending on how many more starts Webb makes and how he does and how Davis Daniel, Ricky Tiedeman and DJ Herz finish. What can't be taken away if Webb ends the season healthy is that this is an impressive performance from a guy still in A+ ball and it likely isn't a mirage in the desert as he came into this with a high pedigree albeit, due to injury, without a high prospect rating. I watched his last start and while he gave up 5 hits almost all were weak contact and they were all singles. For the most part, he was dealing.
The Bad: He has given up a lot of hard contact and has had periods of wildness. His ERA, as a result, is not that good nor is his W/9 IP.
Ross Carver
The Good: Carver is limiting hard contact. He has not given up a HR in 12 innings and has a .205 BAA and a 1.17 WHIP
The Better: Carver is getting innings in and he is strking out guys with 14 Ks in 12 IP. He is basically being a solid AFL borderline prospect who has not diminished his prospect status by his work in the desert. As the goal was to get him extra innings that goal is being met and without sacrificing performance. If he had pitched like this in AA he would have been a top 30 Guardans' prospect right now (and may sneak in to that over the winter depending on how things play out.
The Bad: He has not done much to distinguish himself from other pitching prospects in this league which puts him in the 3rd tier of prospects for the Guardians. He needs to improve to be able to reach the upside I think he has. That is, Aaron Civale upside.
Christian Cairo
The Good: He is hitting .313 with an OPS of .842 as a very patt-time player (32 ABs).
The Better: Cairo is getting improve against better competition and learning to play LF, both of which will improve his chances of getting to play a priority amount next year at AA, similar to what happened to Aaron Bracho this season. If that happens, maybe the light will go on and he will become a perennial .300 hitter which will help Cairo reach this ML utility man upside (see Jose Fermin of the Cardinals).
The Bad: Still don't understand why an organizational soldier like Cairo is in the AFL. He has shown nothing since his draft year that would indicate he has any chance to get to the majors. He may have upside as a ML utility man but it would have been much better to send Tyler Freeeman to the AFL and let him get ABs and play some LF to improve his versatility for next year.
Bradley Hanner
The Good: He is getting innings in to work on stuff to develop as a middle reliever in the majors. His 2023 regular season numbers do not show him to be a priority relief prospect in how he was used which, following on from being a minor league Rule 5 pick, would support that. Looking more deeply into his regular season numbers and he held RHH to a .172 average and, overall, held hitters to a .634 OPS with a .297 SLG. The fact that he was active the entire season and so didn't need the extra work the AFL provides shows me that maybe the Guardians wanted a longer look at Hanner to see if they wanted to add him to the Columbus reserve list or expose him to the minor league Rule 5 draft again.
The Better: He is performing at a good level and is not overwhelmed by the competition. He has 11 Ks and only 2 BB in 7.1 innings, an improvement over his regular season average of about 4.5 BB/9 IP.
The Bad: While Hanner has been effective in small sample size in the AFL it is not enough so far to move the needle and make him a priority relief prospect. Right now he is still more of an organizational soldier who might repeat AA in 2024
Erik Sabrowski
The Good: Sabrowski put up a decent ERA in the AFL as he tried to get innings as he has missed a lot over the last two years.
The Better: He accomplished that goal which puts him in a good position to get a minor league job in 2024 which is a good thing with the new pay structure for minor leaguers making it more competitive than before to get a minor league job as it is now a viable, year-round employment option.
The Bad: Sabrowski walked 8 in 11 innings so far and his peripherals say that he is a true organizational soldier at this point who would need a gimmick pitch or delivery to have a chance to get to the majors.
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