Prospects of the Week: June 24 – June 30

July 1, 2019 Jake Berry General, MiLB, Prospects of the Week 0

Wander Franco - Photo credit Rikk Carlson, @rikkcarl10 on Twitter
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Each week during the Minor League Baseball season we pick the hitting and pitching prospects from each level (AAA, AA, A+, A, A- (Short Season) and Rookie ball who, in our opinion, had the best week. We’re always on the lookout for candidates, so tweet us (@Prospects1500, @berrys_baseball and @Scotty_Ballgame) when you see a great performance.

Jake Berry and Scott Greene award their Prospects of the Week hitters and pitchers for each level, while also presenting other names at each level that are just as deserving of POTW honors. Enjoy, and make sure you’re keeping an eye out for these prospects in your dynasty leagues.


Triple-A

Hitter: Kevin Cron, 1B (Arizona Diamondbacks #18)
Reno Aces (.370/.528/1.037, 10 H, 5 HR, 13 RBI, 9 BB)
It’s always good to see a familiar name at the top. Cron has made an impact at the big league level this year and has been mashing since he was sent back down to Triple-A. The 26-year-old homered five times last week and drew nine walks reaching base on 19 of his 36 plate appearances.

Honorable Mentions:
Randy Arozarena, OF (St. Louis Cardinals #14)
Memphis Redbirds (7 G, 13 H, .448/.467/.586, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, SB)

Mike Ford, 1B (New York Yankees, NR)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (.414/.541/.897, 3 HR, 5 2B, 12 H, 10 RBI)

Yonathan Daza, OF (Colorado Rockies #21)
Albuquerque Isotopes (.438/.471/.688, 2 HR, 14 H, 10 RBI)

Pitcher: Taylor Widener, RHP (Arizona Diamondbacks #8)
Reno Aces (11 IP, W, 14 K, 2 BB, 2 ER, 7 H)
Reno is doubling up on our Triple-A prospects of the week as Widener earns the honors with a solid 11 innings last week. In total, the righty tossed 193 pitches over his two outings, 62% of which were strikes. The first outing was six shutout innings that featured five punchouts with the second being a five frame start where the South Carolina product gave up two runs, but sat down nine via the K.

Double-A

Hitter: Mitch Nay, INF (Cincinnati Reds #36)
Chattanooga Lookouts (.400/.438/.833, 12 H, 4 HR, 11 RBI, 1 2B)
Double-A didn’t feature a bunch of power last week, but Nay led the level in homers and posted the highest slugging percentage among players who played in more than four games. All of Chattanooga’s games except for one took place at home last week as the 25-year-old appears to enjoy hitting at AT&T Field.

Honorable Mentions:
Nick Heath, OF (Kansas City Royals #26)
Northwest Arkansas Naturals (.529/.556/.882, 4 SB, 9 H, 1 HR, 1 3B, 1 2B)

Pitcher: Ian Anderson, RHP (Atlanta Braves #5)
Mississippi Braves (7 IP, W, 0 H, 0 ER, 14 K, 2 BB)
If you follow me on Twitter you probably already saw my over the top tweet thread about Anderson’s performance, but I’m just… passionate about dominant pitching. Anyway, Anderson had perhaps the most impressive outing in the minors last week as he struck out 14 over seven hitless innings. What is even more impressive is how effective he was even when he wasn’t striking people out as 78% of his contact allowed came in the form of ground balls.

Honorable Mention:
Angel Rondon, RHP (St. Louis Cardinals, NR)
Springfield Cardinals (7 IP, 10 K, 3 BB, 0 ER, 1 H)

Deivi Garcia, RHP (New York Yankees, #11)
Trenton Thunder (5 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 9 K)

 

High-A

Hitter: Wander Franco, SS (Tampa Bay Rays #1)
Charlotte Stone Crabs (.556/.609/.944, 10 H, 2 HR, 1 2B, 1 SB, 4 BB, 0 SO)
Ever heard of him?… Franco made his High-A debut this week and probably did exactly what you were expecting him to do. The 18 year old only played in five games over his debut week, but managed 10 hits, two dingers, and oh yeah, zero strikeouts.

Honorable Mentions:
Cal Raleigh, C (Seattle Mariners #16)
Modesto Nuts (.368/.500/.895, 3 HR, 7 H)

Rodolfo Castro, INF (Pittsburgh Pirates #43)
Bradenton Marauders (.348/.375/.783, 2 HR, 1 3B, 2 2B)

Pitcher: Enmanuel De Jesus, LHP (Boston Red Sox #47)
Salem Red Sox“>Salem Red Sox (12.2 IP, W, 1 ER, 18 K, 2 BB)
De Jesus had two equally dominant outings last week, the first of which featured 10 strikeouts and the eight. The 22-year-old walked just one in each outing although he did get hit around a little bit. But hey, that is where strikeout stuff really comes in handy. Overall, it was a solid week for the Salem rotation as one of De Jesus’s teammates had a solid week as well which is referenced below.

Honorable Mention:
Daniel Gonzalez, RHP (Boston Red Sox, NR – Just Missed Top 50)
Salem Red Sox (14 IP, 2 ER, 13 K, 1 BB)

 

Single-A

Hitter: Mason Martin, 1B (Pittsburgh Pirates #27)
Greensboro Grasshoppers (.360/.448/.720, 2 HR, 3 2B, 1 SB)
Single-A has historically provided the most entertaining stat lines for this piece, but that is not the case this week. It was a pretty normal week across the board and Martin displayed perhaps the most power, hence the honor. The three double performance on Sunday ultimately gave him the edge over some other honorable mentions.

Honorable Mention:
Braden Shewmake, SS (Atlanta Braves, NR)
Rome Braves (.478/.500/.783, 11 H, 1 HR, 4 2B, 1 SB)

Pitcher:
Cody Deason, RHP (Houston Astros, NR)
Quad Cities River Bandits (4.2 IP, 10 K, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB)
The underlying numbers tell you Deason’s outing wasn’t the greatest as he wasn’t extremely efficient and he got a lot of called strikes which in MiLB lower levels need to be taken with a grain of salt. Despite all of that, the fact remains that Deason struck out 10 of the 17 batters he faced and that was good enough to earn the 22 year old honors this week.

Honorable Mention:
Matthew Liberatore, LHP (Tampa Bay Rays #6)
Bowling Green Hot Rods (7 IP, 10 K, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 H)

 

Short Season-A

Hitter: Ricardo Genoves, C (San Francisco Giants, NR)
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (.400/.444/.880, 10 H, 3 HR, 1 3B, 1 2B)
An outstanding performance at the dish for the 20-year-old who kicked off the week with a two homer game before ending it with three straight games featuring an extra base hit.

Honorable Mention:
J.D. Orr, OF (Miami Marlins, NR)
Batavia Muckdogs (.579/.652/.632, 11 H, 7 SB)

Pitcher:
Luis Frias, RHP (Arizona Diamondbacks, NR)
Hillsboro Hops (10 IP, 18 K, 3 BB, 2 ER, 5 H)
Frias went five innings in both of his outings last week and threw a combined 143 pitches, 68% of which were strikes. He got a 21% swinging strike rate.

Rookie

Hitter: Alexander Canario, OF (San Francisco Giants #4)
AZL Giants Orange (.375/.375/1.042, 5 HR, 10 RBI)

Honorable Mention:
Zac Taylor, OF (Chicago Cubs, NR)
AZL Cubs 1 (.409/.462/.818, 9 H, 3 HR, 6 SB)

Juan Guerrero, IF (Colorado Rockies #39)
DSL Rockies (6 G, 16 H (most in MiLB), .640/.667/.840, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 SB)

Pitcher: Eduar Segovia, RHP (Philadelphia Phillies, NR)
GCL Phillies West (7.2 IP, 13 K, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 H)

Honorable Mention:
Marcos Encarnacion, RHP (Chicago Cubs, NR)
DSL Cubs 2 (W, SV, 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, 100% Str%, 74% SwStr%)

 

If there’s any player we missed who you think should be honored or mentioned as a Prospect of the Week, please comment below or hit us up on Twitter to let us know. Until next week, thanks for reading and keep prospecting!

Jake Berry

I reside in Carrollton, Georgia and love everything baseball. I graduated from the University of West Georgia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Management. I have a passion for the minor leagues and have high hopes of visiting as many minor league parks as I can. I enjoy the statistical side of the game, especially sabermetrics. I am also an avid baseball card collector and fantasy baseball player.

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