Minor League Baseball Featured Series of the Week: Buies Creek vs. Carolina
Mar 14, 2017; Mesa, AZ, USA; (EDITORS NOTE: caption correction – Brewers player misidentified in original) Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Issan Diaz (94) singles in the second inning against the Chicago Cubs during a spring training game at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Two "new" organizations in the Carolina League face off in minor league baseball, and they have very talented rosters that will lead to a very intriguing weekend!
Our MLB coverage at Call to the Pen is fairly well-balanced, but in an effort to give you better breadth and depth of coverage of minor league baseball, we will begin a number of weekly posts.
The first will examine the big news items along with the top performers in the minor leagues each Monday. Tuesday will bring a review of the weekend highlight series. Wednesday will bring draft news and college baseball news until that is complete. Thursday will preview the weekend series of note in minor league baseball to watch. Friday will feature a new series, "The Video Room", where CTTP contributor Benjamin Chase will examine one game from the week from a scouting perspective and break down the game.
Scouting reports will be scattered throughout the week and weekends, so keep on the lookout for those as well. As always, if there is anything you would like to see covered more thoroughly here at CTTP, let us know in the comments section below!
This week's featured series will be our third consecutive high-A level series, and we'll have covered each one of the high-A leagues after this weekend.
This week's minor league baseball feature series features the Buies Creek Astros, a new organization in 2017 after the Astros moved to the Carolina League from the California League. Meanwhile, the Carolina Mudcats are in their first season of a new affiliation with the Milwaukee Brewers after spending the last two seasons as the high-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.
Let's take a look at each squad…
Buies Creek Astros Offense
The Astros have a very deep system with excellent balance that can be found at each level of their system, but without question their top offensive prospect is outfielder Kyle Tucker, who headlines the Buies Creek offense.
Tucker has opened the season, hitting very well, with a .286/.352/.612 line with three home runs and three stolen bases. His biggest issue on the season so far has been a 3/13 BB/K ratio, something a bit surprising for Tucker, based on his excellent zone judgement he's displayed previously.
Per MLB Pipeline, the next highest-rated prospect in the Astros system that's on the roster is shortstop Anibal Sierra, a Cuban import who was just promoted this week after opening the season in the Midwest League. Sierra's glove is ahead of his bat for sure, though he had a lot of positive reports after putting up a .972 OPS in the Dominican Summer League after time away from the game last season.
Center fielder Jason Martin is rated #27 by MLB Pipeline, and he has shown well so far this season, with a .289/.370/.356 line as the table-setter for the offense.
The Astros do have excellent team speed, with four players who have stolen at least three bases on the season so far. That could be an element that comes into play during this series.
Astros Pitching
On the pitching side, the best-rated prospect on the team, righty Franklin Perez has seemingly taken another step in his development this season, and he looks to be joining the true elite of pitching prospects. He takes the mound to open the series on Thursday for the Astros.
Yoanys Quiala will take the hill Friday. The 23-year-old Cuban righty is in his second full season in the Astros system after having an up-and-down 2016 in the Midwest League. So far, he's thrown 10 scoreless innings with a 3/13 BB/K ratio to open the year.
The real story for the Astros has been the outstanding pitching of Akeem Bostick, Saturday's scheduled starter. Bostick was a very raw athlete when he was selected by Texas in the second round out of high school in 2013. The Astros acquired him before the 2015 season, and he's in his third season at the high-A level.
With guys who are more athlete than pitcher, often it takes a bit for things to "click", and it looks as if things may have done just that for Bostick in 2017 as he's come out with a much sharper two-seam fastball, better handle on his change, and a bit of extra zip on his four-seam fastball. That has led to 14 2/3 scoreless innings to open the season with a 4/13 BB/K ratio.
Sunday sees the scheduled start of likely the starter in Buies Creek that has struggled the most this season in Elieser Hernandez. He has been part of the Astros system since signing as an international free agent in 2012. Thus far, Hernandez has struggled to an 8.71 ERA over 10 1/3 innings, walking six batters while hitting two more batsmen and allowing a .349 average to opposing hitters.
The one early season top performer that won't be part of this series is lefty Alex Winkelman. A 21st round selection in the 2015 draft, Winkelman jumped up four levels in 2016. With Carolina thus far in 2017, he has thrown 14 1/3 scoreless innings, with just one walk and 21 strikeouts.
Now let's take a look at the Mudcats…
Carolina Mudcats Offense
Carolina may have one of the deepest lineups in all of minor league baseball as many of the best prospects in the Milwaukee Brewers system are either at AAA or high-A in 2017.
Last season's top pick, outfielder Corey Ray, is the highest-rated player on the MLB Pipeline Brewers top 30 prospects list at #2, but he's joined by four more members of the top 30 in the lineup, including three more top-10 players.
Ray was slow to open the season as he returned from a knee injury that he suffered last season. He made his debut in the last week, and in 11 at bats, he's slashed .273/.333/.545.
The pair of prospects I'm watching closest in Carolina are on the left side of the infield, shortstop Isan Diaz and third baseman Lucas Erceg.
Diaz was acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Jean Segura trade, and he's been a revelation for the team. While he's opened with rough numbers at the plate in 2017, he hit 20 home runs while flashing solid speed at low-A in 2016. He has played some second base this season as well as that will be his likely major league home, should he make that level.
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Erceg was the Brewers' second round selection in the 2016 draft, and he's shown to be an excellent choice. After posting an .895 OPS in 2016 across two levels, he's hitting .3016/.342/.389 to open the season. While the power hasn't shown this year, Erceg controls the zone well and has legit 20-25 home run power in his bat.
Patrolling the outfield along with Ray is Trent Clark, a seemingly forgotten prospect in the Brewers system. Clark was the Brewers' first round selection in 2015, and he's flashed solid athleticism along the way, though with mixed results at the plate, though his 2016 could be viewed through the lens of injury as well.
The last top-30 guy in the lineup is first baseman Jake Gatewood, a competitive balance selection in 2014, who has progressed well, albeit with some considerable swing-and-miss concerns. This year, he's really calmed those concerns thus far, slashing .310/.420/.476 to open the season with an 8/13 BB/K over 42 at bats.
Mudcats Pitching
The real depth of the Mudcats is in their pitching. While top prospect Phil Bickford is out due to a suspension currently, their staff still contains six members of the Brewers' top 30 prospects.
This has led to some starter piggy-backing and some interesting pitching alignments that has left the series starting assignments in question currently.
The one sure assignment is Cody Ponce on Thursday. Ponce has opened the season with two solid starts, throwing 14 innings, allowing just two earned runs with a 0/10 BB/K rate.
The rest of the series is currently marked as "to be determined" on the Carolina Mudcats website. Part of that is due to a double header on Wednesday this week that threw off the pitching rotation some, and part is due to starter-pairing that the Brewers have done this season.
Friday would be the normal spot for where Marcos Diplan and Freddy Peralta have been paired this season. Both are electric young arms, with Diplan having just ridiculous stuff. They've combined for 23 strikeouts over 17 innings.
Saturday could see one of Diplan or Peralta or one of the guys that have been doing piggy back starts this season in righty Eric Hanhold, a sixth round selection out of Florida in 2015, or righty Conor Harber, also selected in the 2015 draft in the 16th round out of Oregon.
Sunday still says TBD, but that would fall on Corbin Burnes' rotation spot, and that's one of the few guys who has been making every single start this season. Burnes, the #20 Brewers prospect, per MLB Pipeline, had some helium early in the process last season, but ended up being selected in the fourth round out of St. Mary's. He threw very well across two levels in 2016 and has thrown 16 innings this season already with an 0.56 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, and a 6/14 BB/K ratio.
We will look back on Tuesday and see how things went between these two clubs!
