Beck's Minor League Threecap: 5/9/24

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

Hello, all! Welcome back to the Threecap. One day away from the weekend! Let’s dive into yesterday’s performers.

Over the River and Through the Wood.

The Nationals’ 40-man roster stands at 39 as Cade Cavalli, Jose Ferrer, and Mason Thompson are on the 60-day IL. James Wood (WSH) is doing everything he can to prove that last spot belongs to him by running a 108.9 mph 90th percentile exit velocity, an 83.5% zone contact rate, and a 27.9% chase rate through 31 games at Triple-A. That combination of underlying metrics has led to a 10.3% decrease in his K-rate, which was the last real detractor in his profile. He’s squarely a top-10 global prospect, and he made a statement with a 2-for-3 night that included two home runs, a walk, three RBIs, and zero strikeouts on Wednesday.

Truthfully, I don’t know much about Brett Squires (KCR). He went undrafted in 2022 and later opted to sign a minor league contract with the Royals for $75K, forgoing the opportunity to return to Oklahoma for a second season. He had been an All Big-12 honorable mention in his platform year and was a big contributor during their Super Regional against Virginia Tech, going 5-for-11 with three RBIs and four runs scored. He spent his time after signing at Low-A Columbia, where he put together a solid if unspectacular campaign before arriving at High-A Quad Cities this season. He’s off to a stellar start and kept it rolling on Wednesday with a pair of home runs in four plate appearances. There’s likely not much to see here unless in the deepest of leagues.

I saw Aidan Miller (PHI) during a spring breakout game in Florida in March and came away super impressed with his frame and approach at the plate. Since then he’s done nothing but hit, posting a .342/.400/.566 line with three home runs through 18 games and a 17.6% K rate. He’s strong, fluid, and has one of the most prolific high school track records I can recall. I think he’s on his way to top-50 fantasy prospect status if not there already. He went 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles on Wednesday.

Anderson De Los Santos (BAL) signed with the Orioles in 2021 for $350K and got off to a fantastic start to his professional career by compiling a .324/.409/.496 slash over 36 games in the Dominican Summer League later that year. He’s had less success in the years since and doesn’t project for much fantasy value moving forward, especially in a system as loaded with infield prospects as Baltimore’s. That said, I tip my hat to him for his best day at the dish this year in which he went 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs.

All Yinz Love Yilber.

I made a video breakdown of Yilber Diaz (ARI)’s start yesterday and I’d strongly recommend checking it out. The 6-foot righty has a huge fastball and an extremely impressive curveball with a ton of vertical break and depth that are devastating when he’s locating. He leveraged both to strike out 10 over 6.0 innings of work on Wednesday, marking his second consecutive outing with 10 or more K’s. He can be inconsistent in his release point and often struggles with control in individual starts, largely as a byproduct of his herky-jerky delivery, but it’s hard to argue with the quality of his stuff.

I don’t know what’s up with the pitching in Colorado’s system, but between Chase Dollander, Sean Sullivan, and Carson Palmquist (COL), they’re eating up a lot of column space for me this year. This is Palmquist’s second Threecap appearance as he’s been largely stellar through 32.0 innings with Double-A Hartford. Yesterday’s outing was his second strongest of the young season and the second time he’d sat down 10 batters by way of the strikeout. This time he did it over 5.0 innings but allowed a pair of earned runs. My read coming into the year was that he was likely to find a role in long relief, but it’s becoming more and more likely that he could sneak into a back-end starter’s role.

Today is the second consecutive day with a Ball State alum. Tyler Schweitzer (CHW) joins his former teammate Ty Johnson as Threecap appear-ers after throwing 6.0 innings of one-run ball and striking out nine on Wednesday in what was easily his best start of the year. He’s pitched to a 4.76 ERA through 22.2 innings thus far, though the reports coming into the season had a lot of optimism about the quality of his stuff improving as a pro.

Ryan Murphy (SFG) was a fifth rounder in 2020 and came out of the gates ablaze by pitching to a 2.52 ERA and 164 strikeouts in 107.1 innings split between Low-A and Single-A in 2021. His next season was marred by back and elbow issues, limiting him to just 42.1 innings. He’s returning to Double-A Richmond to open 2024, where he spent all of last year, and it feels like his competition has caught up to him. The 39.3% K-rate he had in 2021 has atrophied to 22.3% so far this year and it’s unclear whether he has a future role as a starter. In any event, he went 5.0 strong innings on Wednesday, allowing just one earned run and striking out eight.

Full Plate Friday.

There are a ton of really interesting games on Friday night, so much so that I had to restrain myself in the viewing guide. Strongly recommend flipping through the scheduled starters for tomorrow evening so you can plan accordingly!

Wednesday’s results:

Friday’s viewing guide, with my particular interests italicized as usual:

• Blade Tidwell (1.23 ERA) for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies (NYM) at 6:00 ET

• Brock Selvidge (1.73 ERA) for the Somerset Patriots (NYY) at 6:00 ET

• Troy Melton (3.60 ERA) for the Erie Seawolves (DET) at 6:05 ET

• Thomas White (4.58 ERA) for the Jupiter Hammerheads (MIA) at 6:30 ET

• Nolan McLean (2.84 ERA) for the Brooklyn Cyclones (NYM) at 7:00 ET

• Jarlin Susana (5.51 ERA) for the Fredericksburg Nationals (WSH) at 7:05 ET

• Darren Bowen (4.00 ERA) for the Cedar Rapids Kernels (MIN) at 7:05 ET

• Mick Abel (6.23 ERA) for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (PHI) at 7:05 ET

• Josh Knoth (3.07 ERA) for the Carolina Mudcats (MIL) at 7:05 ET

• Brett Wichrowski (12.00 ERA) for the Biloxi Shuckers (MIL) at 7:35 ET

• Robby Snelling (3.68 ERA) for the San Antonio Missions (SDP) at 8:05 ET