Penn League Report

Scouting Notes: Lehigh Valley IronPigs vs. Buffalo Bisons

A few days ago I was on hand for Tyler Cloyd’s start against Jeurys Familia in Lehigh Valley. Triple-A has become more of a taxi squad of players than a haven for prospects, but I was able to catch a glimpse of some very promising arms and here are some scouting notes on the kids I saw.

Tyler Cloyd, RHP, Phillies; Age: 25; Stats: 14-1, 2.07 ERA, 148 IP, 104 SO, 34 BB (Double-A & Triple-A)

Cloyd is the perfect example of a guy whose numbers absolutely lie to you. He’s enjoying a fantastic season in Triple-A, he’s still very young, and he misses bats. What’s not to like? Well, Cloyd doesn’t have a plus pitch. He uses a 40 fastball, a 50 slider, and 70 control to paint the corners and induce poor swings. The fastball sits 86-88 and the slider is 80-82. There’s some glove side run on the fastball and nice bite on the slider, but both are really only good enough for Triple-A. His delivery is somewhat repeatable, with early momentum towards the plate and only slight imbalances with his body and his head. He has a chance to make it as a reliever and deserves a chance to fail at the next level, which might come in September.

Jeurys Familia, RHP, Mets; Age: 22; Stats: 7-, 4.98 ERA, 112 IP, 100 SO, 66 BB (Triple-A)

The polar opposite of Cloyd, Familia uses a plus fastball (94-96 with life), a plus slider (83-84 with excellent depth and plenty of bite), and a show-me changeup (88-89) to get hitters out in Triple-A. Familia is a big boy, regardless of what he’s listed at. The %%%-year-old needs to find ways to use his weight better, as he’s an exceptionally poor fielder and struggles to repeat his delivery, which obviously costs him command. The delivery is pretty violent, but I don’t think a violent delivery is necessarily the kiss of death for pitchers, as many have made it last for years. Familia’s upside lies in the development of his third pitch. The changeup was pretty lousy; I’d grade it a 35. If he can develop an average pitch, we’re probably talking about a #3 starter in the big leagues. If not, he could pitch in the back end or be an awesome late-inning reliever.

Jake Diekman, LHP, Phillies; Age: 25; Stats: 1-1, 0.96 ERA, 18.2 IP, 25 SO, 7 BB (Triple-A); 1-1, 4.64 ERA, 21.1 IP, 29 SO, 15 BB (MLB)

This was the first time I saw Diekman live, and it was a lot of fun. His plus-plus fastball (95-98) and plus slider (84-85) are an outrageous tandem. The fact that it comes from the left side is gravy. It’s a weird, low ¾ delivery, but he hides the ball well, which allows the fastball to play up even more. Ultimately, Diekman should be the type of pitcher that’s used in incredibly high-leverage situations night in and night out. Expect to see him in a few All Star games, too.

Elvin Ramirez, RHP, Mets; Age: 24; Stats: 3-1, 1.98 ERA, 41 IP, 44 SO, 21 BB (Double-A & Triple-A); 0-1, 7.30 ERA, 12.1 IP, 10 SO, 11 BB (MLB)

I saw Ramirez throw three pitches, so I didn’t get a great feel for his mechanics, but I saw him throw a hard biting slider (flash of plus) that grabbed the outside corner (82), then two fastballs (both 95) to generate swings and misses. Nothing definitive, but has the makings of a solid reliever.

Phillippe Aumont, RHP, Phillies; Age: 23; Stats: 2-1, 3.63 ERA, 39.2 IP, 53 SO, 32 BB (Triple-A)

11th overall pick? Sure, I get it. Long levers, plus-plus fastball that sits 94-95 and touches 97, and a plus slider are the things that once made Aumont a top prospect. Aumont showed a changeup (87) that looked average, but it was random and he didn’t go back to it. The Phillies are in an awkward spot with relievers, as Jonathon Papelbon is entrenched in the closer’s role with a bad contract, and folks like Antonio Bastardo and Michael Schwimer are solid pieces in the back end of the pen. Thinking about how much teams have paid for relief pitching in recent years, the Phillies could be sitting on a pair of gold mines in Aumont and Diekman. Six years of controlled relief should have huge value and the Phillies could eventually flip one of these arms for Josh Reddick, Raul Alcantara, and Miles Head*.

*Sorry Boston, I had to do it.

Sebastian Valle, C, Phillies; Age: 22; Stats: .252/.273/.476, 14 HRs, 12 BBs, 90 SOs

Valle was the only position player that stood out for me. The Mets had a few guys who have been up and down, but nothing I feel like dropping more than six words on. Valle is an athletic catcher, and he’s pretty good at blocking balls in the dirt and preventing wildness. He flashes a plus arm with pop times in the 1.9 neighborhood and a quick transfer and release. At the plate, he couldn’t get the bat on breaking balls and looked a bit lost. He was able to make contact with premium velocity, but Buffalo pitchers recognized his inability to hit the breaking ball and attacked him. Valle has above average power potential, but there’s plenty of swing and miss in his game. Valle’s upside as a hitter lies in how he adjusts his approach. He’s going to have to get better at pitch recognition if he wants to hit even a lick. Ultimately, I think we’re looking at a Rod Barajas type, who plays over a decade in the show, hits plenty of home runs, but never garners a Hall Of Fame vote.

Overall, my experience at my first (and probably last) Triple-A game of the summer was not terrible. There are some guys who are very close and just need to continue logging innings or ABs. I sat about five feet away from Mets’ top prospect Zack Wheeler, but didn’t realize it until I saw a picture of Wheeler after the game. The Mets and Phillies are both teams that clearly still value Triple-A development, so it wasn’t a bad night for a prospect junkie like myself.

Jammers-Lake Monsters Notes

Jamestown won its fourth in a row behind another solid outing from their starting pitcher, this time from Mason Hope. Hope, 20, threw his longest outing of the year by going six strong innings and allowing just two runs (one earned). He picked up his first win of the season — only the second by a Jammer starter — and dropped his ERA down to 4.09.

He doesn’t throw overly hard, but good control kept him ahead of hitters most of the night. Nothing was hit real hard, either, besides a double from Bruce Maxwell.

He kept the ball inside, especially to righties, and also kept the ball low. It showed as he registered 10 outs on the groundball.

Not helped a whole lot in the first, as leadoff man Chris Bostick hit a leadoff single that probably should have been ruled an error. He then advanced to second on a passed ball from catcher Sharif Othman. But, Hope limited the damage to one run. Overall, a pretty good outing from the fifth round pick last year.

• The bullpen did another stellar job for the Jammers. Three scoreless innings from Frankie Reed and Nick Wittgren lowered the bullpen ERA to 2.19.

But, it was Wittgren nailing down his sixth save of the year to preserve the win. He’s been particularly impressive closing out games and now has a 0.77 ERA on the year. With two more strikeouts tonight, he’s now sat down 16 and is yet to walk a batter. The eight hits he’s allowed in 11.2 innings means opponents are hitting just .186 off him this year.

He throws the hardest of any Jammer, getting up around 95. It’s also evident that he’s working hard on a breaking ball. It can be a knee-buckler at times and a hanger at others. Interesting to keep an eye.

But, he’s arguably been the team’s MVP so far this year.

 • Cameron Flynn was the big stick tonight. He went 3-for-4 with his three-run homerun with two outs in the fourth standing up as the gamewinner. It was the first three-run homerun by a Jammer since the season finale in 2010, a stretch of 99 games.

Flynn fell a triple short of the cycle and really crushed two balls to leftcenter, one that was almost robbed by Vermont’s centerfielder Brett Vertigan, but fell off his glove, in for a double. He struck out on his last at bat.

Word is still out on Flynn. He was hitting just .170 (8-for-47) coming into the game with one extra-base hit. His batting average jumped 46 points thanks to the three-hit day.

 • Defensively, I have to mention Pedro Mendoza who did a marvelous job at third tonight. He had six assists on my count and showed both a solid arm and range.

It was his third straight start there after primarily playing second. Although he has virtually no power, he might stick at third for the time being if he keeps playing like that.

 • First time I got to see Vermont, the wild card leaders (until tonight) out of the Stedler Division. Bruce Maxwell, a second round pick this year out of Birmingham Southern, went 2-for-3 with a walk and looked like he had unlimited power. He mashed a double in the sixth inning to center. Certainly looked liked he was better than the .186 hitter he showed up as.

 • Also paid close attention to second baseman Chris Bostick, a second year player from nearby Rochester, N.Y. Bostick was third in the league in steals and showed his speed on the first play of the game with a slow chopper to short that Anthony Gomez had to hurry up on.

It got by Gomez and was generously ruled a hit, but it showed Bostick’s speed played a factor. He was also thrown out by a step on a potential infield single thanks to a nice play from Mendoza.

Bostick looked fine defensively as well. He has to be considered a decent prospect considering he's still only 19 years old and playing at a fairly high level here in the New York Penn League.

Notes from Jammers-Muckdogs

Batavia dropped Jamestown 8-1 in rather easy fashion Friday night. They jumped all over Jamestown starter Ramon Del Orbe (with all of one hit) to grab a 4-0 lead before Jamestown even got to hit. It was basically over right there.

Ramon Del Orbe

The Jamestown starter had been pretty solid this year in two starts, allowing 10 hits and just two walks, but the 20-year-old native of the Dominican Republic simply didn’t have it tonight.

Routinely falling behind in the first, Del Orbe walked four of the first six hitters he faced with a David Washington lined single in between. Four runs scored in the frame despite Del Orbe only allowing the one single, but first pith balls to six of the eight hitters he saw will come back to haunt you every time.

In the second, he grooved a fastball to leadoff man Steve Ramos, which was crushed for a homer just to the left of the batter’s eye. If you’ve never been to Diethrick Park, that’s a shot. He threw just the two innings, allowing five earned.

Overall, I saw Del Orbe Sunday when he went six innings and scattered seven hits. His command was much better then to say the least, but Batavia hit him pretty hard again tonight. Even the outs were loud.

Jheyson Manzueta

It’s boom or bust with Manzueta. He has a pretty good fastball and compliments it with what looks like a slider. He threw three innings tonight, struck out four (including striking out the side in the fourth) and allowed four hits. Like Del Orbe, he grooved a fastball which was a hit a country mile by Jesus Montero to left-center. 

But, three innings and just one earned (off a homerun nonetheless) is nothing to complain about.

Here’s what I’m talking about, though. He’s allowed 11 hits (and some loud ones) in 9.2 innings pitched, but has a — get ready for it — 14:1 strikeout to walk ratio. The guy is racking up the K's, but doesn't avoid contact nearly as much as you'd think by looking at those numbers.

 Collin Cargill

First look at the righthander who is on a rehab stint after getting hurt June 3 for Jupiter. Cargill allowed lined shot singles against his first two batters but impressed me from there on out.

He got Garrett Wittels to ground one up the middle, which Anthony Gomez made a nice scoop and flip to Rony Peralta to start a double play.

He then sat down Batavia 1-2-3 in the 7th. The sidearmer threw pretty hard. With the year he’s having in Jupiter, he won’t be here long.

Slight complaint: He didn't move on a pitch that got away from catcher Brian Dice. The runner scored from third, beating a diving Dice.

Hitters of note

Juancito Martinez continues to have a solid year. The centerfielder walked twice and stole his fifth bag of the year. He’s 11-for-37 on the year with six walks. Really has been the lone bright spot of the offense.

Night off yesterday did Austin Nola well. The rookie out of LSU went 2-for-4 tonight to bump his average to .179. He's got a nice swing and a pretty good eye at the plate so you have to assume the hits will start coming.

Batavia Notes

Loved Steve Ramos, the Muckdogs leadoff hitter. He came into the game hitting .314 and had another nice day at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a walk. He came around to score all three times and lined a bullet of a homerun.

Best part of his night, though, was with two outs in the sixth when Ramos sprinted home on a passed ball to score Batavia’s seventh run.

Cleanup hitter David Washington is a bit of a free swinger, but he ripped a single early and crushed a double in the ninth to score a run as well.

But it was Breyvic Valera who had the best night, albeit quietly. The second baseman went 4-for-5 with four singles. He also showed nice range at second when he went to his right to backhand a well-hit ball off the bat of Rony Peralta. He set himself easily and had the throw beat Peralta by a few steps.

Draft Outlook - Pat Light

 

Pat Light is a right-handed starting pitcher at Monmouth University. The 21-year-old is a power pitcher with mid-90s velocity on his heater, that, according to one scout, hit 99 last season. He stands at 6'6", 200 lbs. so there might even be some projection left in him. 

Light has some feel for a changeup, but he's going to have to work on his secondary stuff to succeed at the next level. He knows how to mix his pitches to get college hitters out, but he's going to see plenty of challenges in affiliated ball. 

When I saw Light he went inside and outside against hitters, painting the plate with above-average control. His mechanics seem just fine to me, but we'll see how he develops from here on out.

With his mixture of stuff and ability, Pat Light is certainly worthy of a high draft pick. Whoever nabs him will be very lucky. 

Scouting Report on Red Sox Lefty Henry Owens

 

Henry Owens is your typical projectable left-handed young starter. His fastball sits 90-92 and he has, in my opinion, a very good curveball. There are times when his mid-70s breaking ball looks filthy, so it has plenty of potential. Owens also used a few changeups when I saw him, but he didn't seem very confident in it. 

Owens does all of this from a 6'6", 190 lb. frame and from the left side. He's a different kid, and has a totally different body, but think of how Tyler Skaggs matured as he added muscle to his frame. The same is possible for Owens. I won't pretend to be an expert on pitching mechanics, but Owens seems to have a repeatable delivery and be pretty athletic on the mound. 

One thing of note–watch Owens' back leg as he finishes his delivery. He sort of drags it accross the mound, rather than gliding it all the way through. 

Owens has the talent and athleticism to work out whatever kinks there are and develop into a frontline starter, but there's a chance his fastball never sees a tick in velocity, which would obviously diminish his value. 

Scouting Report on Red Sox Prospect Matt Barnes

 

Matt Barnes is really, really good. While he was charting pitches yesterday, Barnes got to talking about Jackie Bradley Jr. as a centerfielder. Bradley's instincts in center are off-the-charts, so he's able to be a great defensive centerfielder despite his average speed. Barnes, in a similar sense, has great instincts on the mound. The difference with Barnes is that he has elite stuff to go with it.

Barnes uses a fastball that sits 94-96 and touches 97 and features plenty of movement. His curveball, which you can see a couple times above, sits in the mid 70s and and features plenty of late break. Most of the time it had 12-6 action and looked like a plus pitch. The UConn product also showed a high 80s changeup that played up because of his fastball velocity and might end up an average pitch.

Barnes showed plenty of pitchability, mixing his pitches well and missing bats. Many Sally League hitters just don't have the bat speed to hit that type of velocity, and often can't track breaking balls into their bats, so Barnes's success could be a product of poor competition. That could change by the time he takes the mound again though, as he is rumored to be headed to High-A Salem for his next start.

Draft Outlook - Travis Jankowski

Travis Jankowski emerged as a potential first round pick after his performance in the Cape Cod League last summer. Jankowski caught scouts’ attention with his league-leading 57 hits, 7 of which were triples.

Jankowski, in a nutshell, is an athletic outfielder who makes plenty of contact. A left-handed hitter, Jankowski has a solid approach and should not last longer than the sandwich round in this year’s draft.

The 20-year-old has a wide receiver’s build, checking in at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds. Not to be cliché, but he looks great in a uniform. Jankowski has been an integral part of a very talented Stony Brook team and has the skillset to be a top prospect at this time next year.

Defensively, Jankowski has good instincts and sees the ball well off the bat. He’s almost selfish in the outfield; his range has him getting to just about anything in right or left center field. Defense will always be a strength for Jankowski, even if his hit tool doesn’t translate to the upper minors or the big leagues.

I clocked Jankowski at 3.9 seconds from home plate to first base, so his excellent base running numbers are not just a product of good instincts. I took some video of him, but the quality isn’t as good as some of the other stuff that’s out there. You can get a pretty good luck of him at the plate here.

Stony Brook played in a double-header at Albany when I had the chance to scout Jankowski. In the two games, he went 4-for-9 with 5 RBIs and a triple. He’s never going to have anything more than 10-15 home run power (and he may never get there), but it won’t matter if the rest of his tools get where they should. 

On the whole, Jankowski is a really nice prospect who could shoot up the prospect scene with a nice showing in the minor leagues towards the end of this season. 

Prospect Notes - Trevor May

Trevor May got the start in Richmond and he certainly did not have his best stuff. His line tonight was: 5 INN., 4 H, 1 R, 2BB, 7 K's. Certainly not a bad outing, but it took him 92 pitches (53 strikes) to get through those five innings. So what was wrong? Some notes from the game;

- May struggled with his command of his secondary pitches. His fastball was fine, but he fought the breaking ball all night. A couple of times he slowed his arm speed down to try and control the change-up better.

- A lot of that struggle came from the stretch. He rushed the delivery, leaking his front-side a bit. Either  he was trying to get to the plate quickly or he just was not comforatable. This caused, of course, his arm to lag behind his body. Which leads us to the next note;

- His breaking ball was not as sharp tonight, and he did not seem to have a feel for it. You could see him fighting to stay on top of the pitch and get it on a downward plane, often it would either turn into a spinner in the dirt or it would just be a cement mixer. The times that he just threw the pitch and trusted it, it was very good. 

-As for his fastball, it is a good one. Late, heavy life that can, and did, destroy some bats. He will work off of that pitch often. 

Of course I am not going to leave you without some video. Below you will find him facing Gary Brown as well as one of his pre-inning warm ups. (May I suggest you view it in the 720 Quality Setting? Just looks nicer and easier to see everything)

 

 

Prospect Notes - Tyler Cloyd and Jay Johnson

As pitcher in the Phillies organization, Tyler Cloyd is an interesting prospect. At 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds he has decent size. By the numbers he has good control, which he does. A career 3.98 K:B, a BB/9 of 1.92, and K/9 of 7.67. But what about his stuff? Does he posses anything special? Let us take a look at his start in Richmond last night. 

 Line: 4/16 Richmond - 6 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K's // 87 pitches, 60 strikes
               4/11 New Hamp - 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 6 K's, 1 HR // 88 pitches, 56 strikes

Pitches: FB, SL, CH

Quick Hit: Cloyd will pound the strike zone and challenge the hitter. However, he wants to induce weak contact and have the hitter get themselves out. 

Cloyd took the mound for Reading last night, and to me, did not show overpowering stuff. His fastball sat 86-88 and topped out at  90. The fastball had a little arm-side run, but not a whole lot. He did cut the fastball a couple times last night, but I am not entirely sure that it was on purpose. The change was at 81 for most of the night and had more fade and sink than the fastball. His slider was on and off all night. Sometimes he stayed behind the pitch, other times he got around it. At 77 MPH it seemed to be more of a 'show me' pitch than anything else. 

Cloyd very much wants to work by sequence. Not having overpowering stuff he looks to speed you up, only to slow you down. He will throw his secondary pitches early in the count, but also will work back to them late. He does leave himself vulnerable to the opposite field when he missed up. In one sequence in back-to-back hitters Cloyd missed his spot away on Tommy Joseph and Johnny Monell both went to the opposite field gap for doubles. 

Below in one of the at-bats between Gary Brown and Tyler Cloyd. You see all of his pitches in this at-bat. 

 

 

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 Jay Johnson grabbed the attention of his fellow pitchers last night and might be on the verge of making a name for himself in the organization. He made the jump from Low-A Lakewood to AA Reading this year. He had some command troubles last year, but he also missed a lot of bats. It is easy to see when you see his stuff. If he can sure up some of his command problems, this could be a guy to keep an eye on, in my opinion.

He came into the game last night after Cisco left the game with an apparent leg injury. He got one-third of an inning of work and threw all fastballs, although he did show a hard slider in warm-ups. His fastball sat a 92 and he touched 94 last night. That reading is not from the stadium, that was from the Reading team gun. And that is what caught his teammates eye. "He has never thrown this hard," said one pitcher. Is it sustainable? I do not know. But if he does, keep an eye on him. 

Below is from his warm-up.
  

Scouting Report on Mets Prospect Richard Lucas

It's important for me to, more than simply reporting, continue my scouting reports. Not only that, but also touch upon teams and players I've failed to cover. And the Brooklyn Cyclones, a team I've seen nearly fifteen times this season, definitely fall under that category. One of the Cyclones' players I've been rather impressed with more than others is third-baseman, Richard Lucas. Here's a scouting report on him using the template utilized by professional scouts.

Overall Grades

Offense/Hitting Grades

Richard Lucas' Grades

Summary: Richard Lucas is, as of now, a bat only third-baseman with above average power, who projects to be a below average hitter. Lucas' defense isn't anything impressive, but he has a strong enough arm to potentially remain at the hot corner. He has a very leveraged swing and displays a patient, non-aggressive approach at the plate. Additionally, he has good makeup and plays real hard on both sides of the ball. I had the chance to see Lucas around a dozen times during the 2011 season and was impressed, most notably with the power. He doesn't feature much upside, but projects to progress, especially with his defense. Lucas has a compact swing and although it's rather uppercut and busy, he still makes solid contact.

Lucas was drafted in '07 and has made his way to High-A, only to eventually make his way back to the Penn League. That's by no means impressive, but he still has a relevant ceiling. Also, he's 23-years old and yet to hit in the higher levels of the Mets system, which is another integral issue. But if he was selected out of college this year he'd be of similar age, so he still has a chance, albeit a slim one, to reach his potential. If I'm part of an organization, Lucas is someone I would look to acquire.