Beck's Minor League Threecap: 5/6/24

Beck breaks down three major things you need to know from yesterday's MiLB action.

May 06, 2024

Merry Monday, my friends. The only games today are at the Complexes as their game weeks run Monday to Saturday while all other levels play Tuesday to Sunday. I believe this is in part to more easily facilitate travel between levels when a player is promoted, but I’ve had difficulty finding any literature on the subject. In any event, you’ll be getting a rare Tuesday Threecap (albeit a slimmer version) this week.

Let’s talk about Sunday’s studs!

Cleveland Got a Red Ryder for Christmas in July (This is a Deep Cut).

I’d really like to sound the alarm on Ralphy Velazquez (CLE). His underlying data is solid, especially from a power perspective, and it’s coming together in games very early on in his professional career. On the other hand, he’s a sort of positionless, defensive question mark that must hit at every stop to eventually find value at the big league level, and that’s a hard hurdle to crest. In any event, I like him a lot. He’s got a left-handed stroke that is simply gorgeous and it’s producing results, which doesn’t hurt. He was 2-for-4 with a pair of solo home runs on Sunday in a game that snapped a 2-for-25 skid over the previous six contests.

Coby Morales (NYY) was an 18th rounder out of the University of Washington last summer as a draft-eligible sophomore, and rather than return for another collegiate campaign in hopes of improving his draft position he opted to sign for the maximum allowed without impacting the Yankees’ draft bonus pool ($150K). The 6-foot-1, 225 lb left-handed hitter collected 11 doubles, 12 home runs, and a lone stolen base in his platform year en route to a .980 OPS, but he’s limited defensively to a corner outfield position or first base. He got off to a great start at Single-A as a 21-year-old last year by managing to rack up 10 RBIs in 10 games, but has been much slower in the early-going this year. He’s striking out in 34.7% of his plate appearances to date and has a .665 OPS in a league he’s a touch old for, but is also contending with the 20-inch wide ABS zone. He went 3-for-5 with a home run and six RBIs on Sunday.

One of my favorite examples of nominative alliteration is Hudson Head (PIT), who has been kicking around in Pittsburgh’s system since he was selected in the third round of the 2019 draft out of a Texas high school. He’s been perfectly cromulent since, posting OPS figures between .700 and .800 at every stop, and while it might be natural to give him the benefit of the doubt given his uneven development resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and associated stoppages in minor league competition, it’s hard not to think he’s been underwhelming regardless. He’s currently with High-A Greensboro where he spent 46 games last year and is off to a relatively promising start. His 4-for-5 night that included a home run, three RBIs, and two runs scored lifted his season line to .234/.388/.489.

Just a few days ago I wrote about the trade that sent Manuel Margot to the Twins through the lens of Noah Miller, and today I get to talk a little about Rayne Doncon (MIN). He was the additional piece that came to Minnesota in the deal and was considered a better offensive talent than Miller but significantly behind in future defensive value. He had a down 2023 with Rancho Cucamonga that saw him strike out 103 times in 107 games, but he’s seemingly enjoying his new threads thus far. He has a near career-high .816 OPS through his first 26 games as a Mighty Mussel. His seven total bases (single, double, home run) on Sunday snapped a 1-for-24 miniature slump he’d fallen into over the last week.

Old, err… New friend alert! It’s back-to-back Threecap appearances for Dylan Jasso (NYY), who capped his prolific weekend with a 3-for-5 night that included a double and three RBIs. Here’s what I had to say in yesterday’s column:

“It’s rare we get an undrafted free agent on the Threecap, but hats off to Dylan Jasso for a big time night at the dish. Jasso (which I understand is pronounced HOSS-oh) signed with the Yankees last summer after slashing .453/.575/.915 with 25 home runs and five stolen bases at New Mexico Junior College in his platform year. I don’t know much about him other than that he’s been hitting the cover off the ball for Single-A Tampa and striking out a lot (27.4% through 24 games). I have to imagine the pitching he’s seeing now is significantly better than he saw last Spring. He went 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI on Saturday.”

He was 5-for-10 with a pair of home runs and a double on the weekend. Pretty good!

Jace, Jaden, Jacob, Jackson, Josh.

Sometimes the stars align and you get a quintet of ‘J’ names on the rundown. Jace Kaminska (COL) earned his appearance with 6.0 innings of shutout ball with eight strikeouts. It was busy on the basepaths by way of six hits, a walk, and two hit batsmen, but he emerged unscathed on 87 pitches. He was a tenth rounder out of the University of Nebraska where he started 14 games but managed just 57 strikeouts in 72.0 innings. It’s unclear whether his stuff has taken a jump since his final collegiate season or his 30.9% strikeout rate through 23.2 innings this year is small sample variance.

It may be a bit disorienting to visit Jaden Hamm (DET)’s baseball reference page and try to come to terms with the fact that this is just his second Threecap appearance given his 1.14 ERA and 37 strikeouts over 23.2 innings. The explanation is actually rather simple: he’s not going long into games. In fact, he’s averaging a little under four innings per start this year, which is not uncommon for arms at the Single- and High-A levels, and it’s difficult to rack up a truly outstanding line when you’re collecting fewer than 12 outs. That said, he’s simply been one of the most effective arms in baseball on a per-inning basis. He went 3.1 innings on Sunday – tied for his shortest outing by inning count – while striking out seven, walking two, and surrendering three hits. He did not surrender an earned run. His 70 pitches were the second-highest total of his season.

For Jacob Misiorowski (MIL), everything but the walks are great. I placed him at 41st in my off-season rankings despite a 13.4% walk rate because he has the best stuff in minor league baseball and even a 10.0% rate may mean he can stick in the rotation, but that figure has moved in the wrong direction and currently sits at 17.7%. Nevertheless he has a 2.70 ERA and 36 strikeouts in his 23.1 innings. I’m not saying he can’t start by any means, but he’ll need to really demonstrate control gains and lengthen out before I’m confident he can. He went 5.0 innings on 87 pitches on Sunday without allowing an earned run. He struck out eight and walked four.

Jackson Finley (OAK) might be the most interesting player on this list, not necessarily for his potential as a big leaguer but for his exploits as an amateur at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I’m told we like two-way players around here, and Finley qualifies after carrying a 1.069 OPS over 224 plate appearances while tossing 48.2 innings his platform year. Those innings weren’t spectacular, but the A’s decided to develop him as a pitcher based on his frame (6-foot-4, 222 lbs) and full array of offerings. He’s been middling at Single-A Stockton thus far but had his strongest outing as a professional on Sunday by going 4.1 innings and striking out eight while allowing one earned run on five hits and a walk.

The 2020 draft left a lot of interesting talents available at the conclusion of its shortened five rounds, and Josh Stephan (TEX) was one of those unpicked and subsequently signed in the days following the formal draft process. He’s at Double-A to start the year after a successful 2023 in which he pitched to a 2.17 ERA over 62.1 innings at High-A and got a late-season promotion to make a single start with Frisco. He looks like a back-end rotation arm if all breaks right, primarily because his fastballs (two-seam and four-seam) are squarely below-average. He does have a very nice slider that is a great weapon against righties but he doesn’t have much in his bag to neutralize lefties. He went 5.0 scoreless on Sunday with seven strikeouts and six hits allowed.

It’s All a Little Complex.

No games on Monday save for the complexes, which have no scheduled starters posted. If you watched any of the recommended arms from Friday’s article (listed below), you had a very good chance of catching a gem! Lara and Maier didn’t make the pitching section of today’s Threecap, but both were excellent.

Sunday’s results: