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Minor League Daily Update: Friday

By Bluethunder33

We are back to check in on our Friday group of minor league players. After exactly one week of play, this group has turned in some excellent numbers. Carlos Santana is as hot as any prospect right now and is doing a little bit of everything, including stealing a base. There is a really nice young group of catching prospects coming up through the minor leagues and if you include Matt Wieters, there are some excellent things to come in the near future at the catcher position.

Mike Montgomery of Kansas City has probably had the most impressive start to the season as a pitcher in the minor leagues – and that includes Mr. Strasburg and Chapman. With 1ER and a shiny 19:1 K/BB ratio, he has been untouchable.

Below is the rest of the round-up for our players profiled last Friday.

H/AB

R

HR

RBI

SLG

OPS

Yonder Alonso

4/25

4

0

0

0.200

0.500

Starlin Castro

11/33

5

0

9

0.485

0.838

(2) Triple / 4SB

Michael Stanton

8/23

7

2

4

0.652

1.198

10BB / 7K

Jose Iglesias

8/24

6

0

1

0.458

0.866

SB

Jemile Weeks

11/28

6

0

2

0.714

1.166

(2) Triple / 2SB

Pedro Alvarez

7/32

7

3

8

0.531

0.856

Carlos Santana

11/26

8

4

8

0.962

1.478

SB

IP

H

R

ER

K

BB

Jhoulys Chacin

9.2

8

4

4

11

5

Win

Aaron Crow

10.2

10

3

2

7

4

Win

Mike Montgomery

12

4

2

1

19

1

Win

Christian Friedrich

11

10

5

4

8

3

Loss

Kyle Drabek

10.2

11

11

6

10

4

Loss

Trevor Reckling

11

10

4

4

6

6

Win

Montgomery is red hot as a SP right now and is living up to the expectations that come with being an organization’s top prospect. Aaron Crow has had a couple of nice outings to start the year as well. With these two, Kansas City has something to be hopeful for and one can only imagine a perfect world combining these two with the likes of Zack Greinke and Luke Hochevar.

Kyle Drabek has started a bit slow – it’s only two starts, but he is getting hit. Posting 10K’s is nice in 10.2 IP, but if these two starts are any indication, some refinement is needed. If he stays healthy, I fully expect an excellent year and a couple of innings at the big league level is not out of the question. He will be just fine.

Reckling, Chacin, and Friedrich have all be solid, but not spectacular thus far. Chacin’s first start was excellent with the 2nd start not being quite as polished (4ER). Reckling needs to improve his early 6:6 K:BB ratio.

An interesting question was posed during the Red’s game last night on TV. The question was, What is harder to develop in a young pitcher - Control or Stuff? This is posted as a poll.

After a huge first couple games, Pedro Alvarez has cooled off a bit. Nothing to worry about here, he is going to hit for power, and lots of it. His first couple of games have set the stage for what will be a strong year in the minors (with the possibility of some time in Pittsburgh depending on the win-loss record of the big club later in the year).

Carlos Santana is as advertised – many have been writing about him in the last couple of days. Cleveland needs something to be excited about and Santana is exactly that. A lot of people are surmising that May is the call-up time for Carlos, but I don’t think he keeps up his torrid pace and the All-Star break is more likely in my opinion.

Michael Stanton is a personal favorite and he continues to mash the ball. Not much more needs to be said for his first week. There is a reason he is a top 5 prospect on almost any list you look at. Starlin Castro has been amazing to start the year and already has 4SB in the first 7 games. He could force the Cubs to take a look at him around the mid way point if they are still struggling – Castro is a sparkplug that will make any offense better. Love his upside which there is plenty of to go with the copious amounts of talent he has already shown. As he adds some power, watch out.

Note: Diasuke Matsuzaka looks ready to return to Boston. In 2 minor league starts, he has allowed 0 ER and 5 hits in 11 IP. Probably one or two more starts for him at AAA to build up the stamina to go deeper into games, but he should be back in early May to Boston.

Tim Beckham also played his first game of the year yesterday – we will add him to the Monday group of players and take a peek at what the first couple games looked like for him over the weekend.