Beck's Minor League Threecap: 6/6/2024

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

Hello and welcome! We have back-to-back late night Threecaps, this one because I spent my evening after work at the ballpark. The lineups were a little disappointing – Syracuse didn’t play Brett Baty and I only saw Brooks Lee for a few innings – but it was fun to see some guys who previously had big league experience and recently were sent down (Edouard Julien and Louie Varland, namely).

Paying the Brice.

Hey! Brice Matthews (HOU) is back on the Threecap after appearing just four days ago. I yapped a bit about him then, including this blurb about why I liked him coming out of the draft: 

He posted a 20-20 season in his platform year at Nebraska while boasting a 90th percentile exit velocity and chase rate that rivaled the top of the college class. He had some swing-and-miss in his game as an amateur that has carried into his professional tenure (25.2% K-rate over 222 minor league plate appearances split between Rookie Ball, Single-A, and High-A), but the idea was that his eye would offset some of the challenges making contact. This season is going much better for him than his post draft stint and he currently sports a .964 OPS through 66 plate appearances. It's a small sample, and a non-negligible portion of those PAs took place in the FCL, but it’s what you would have hoped for from the 28th overall pick last summer.

The results are really rolling in now. He was 4-for-4 with two home runs, two singles, two walks, and a stolen base on Wednesday.

Parker Meadows (DET) was a popular pre-season breakout pick but stumbled out of the gate to an unsightly .096/.224/.219 slash over 85 plate appearances and was subsequently demoted to Triple-A on May 7th. I get why folks were making that call – in Triple-A this year he’s managed a 105.2 mph 90th percentile EV, an 84.5% zone contact rate, and a 22.4% chase rate – and given where the underlying data is falling, I don’t think the book is closed on his potential as a breakout. His 3-for-4 day with two home runs and a walk brought his slash to .287/.379/.598 through 22 games.

Ferris Whiff Reel.

Jackson Ferris (LAD) was a part of the deal that sent Michael Busch and Yency Almonte to the Cubs in January. Busch has been great for Chicago, no denying it, but between Ferris and Zyhir Hope, the other piece sent to Los Angeles in the transaction, the Dodgers could ultimately come out ahead in a few years. Ferris has found a little less success than Hope in the early going but finds himself in one of the best pitching development orgs in the sport. He’s carrying a 4.94 ERA through his first 47.0 innings in High-A with 59 strikeouts to 24 walks. He went 5.0 innings of one-run ball with 10 punchouts on Wednesday.

I’ve written about Drew Thorpe (CHW) a number of times over the last year, and frankly there isn’t anything new with regard to his arsenal that I feel compelled to cover. He’s pitching extremely well from a run prevention perspective – he’s allowed just nine earned runs in 60.0 innings at Double-A, good for a 1.35 ERA – and that continued on Wednesday with 6.0 innings of one-run ball paired with seven strikeouts. What I think is more interesting is how the White Sox will navigate his progression to Major League Baseball. I personally think he’s ready and that there isn’t much development left in the tank, but the White Sox are on pace for a 39-win season and have almost no incentive to promote him at any point this year. The opportunity may arise if they do in fact deal Garrett Crochet at the deadline, and I certainly wouldn’t rule out a promotion at any point over the summer, but from a pure baseball process perspective I’m not sure it makes sense to start his service clock regardless of the Super 2 deadline. It’s a weird situation made excruciatingly weirder by the state of the big league club.

Maddening. 

…Is what it must have felt like to face Ty Madden on Wednesday. He collected nine outs, eight of which by way of the strikeout. Other arms had very short outings (Solometo and Hence) while Ferris shined over 5.0 one-run innings.

Here’s what to watch on Friday with my recommendations italicized as usual:

• Yilber Diaz (3.10 ERA) for the Amarillo Sod Poodles (ARI) at 5:05 ET

• Adam Serwinowski (2.68 ERA) for the Daytona Tortugas (CIN) at 6:10 ET

• Samuel Aldegheri (2.51 ERA) for the Jersey Shore BlueClaws (PHI) at 6:30 ET

• George Klassen (0.26 ERA) for the Clearwater Threshers (PHI) at 6:30 ET

• Will Warren (8.08 ERA) for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (NYY) at 6:35 ET

• Jonah Tong (3.74 ERA) for the Brooklyn Cyclones (NYM) at 7:00 ET

• Jhancarlos Lara (3.71 ERA) for the Rome Emperors (ATL) at 7:00 ET

• Josh Knoth (4.35 ERA) for the Carolina Mudcats (MIL) at 7:05 ET

• Jarlin Susana (7.47 ERA) for the Fredericksburg Nationals (WSH) at 7:05 ET

• Matt Wilkinson (4.50 ERA) for the Lake County Captains (CLE) at 7:35 ET

• Caden Dana (2.62 ERA) for the Rocket City Trash Pandas (LAA) at 7:35

• Brett Wichrowski (6.27 ERA) for the Biloxi Shuckers (MIL) at 7:35 ET

• Marco Raya (5.06 ERA) for the Wichita Wind Surge (MIN) at 8:05 ET

• David Festa (3.56 ERA) for the St. Paul Saints (MIN) at 8:07 ET

• Chase Dollander (3.43 ERA) for the Spokane Indians (COL) at 9:35 ET

• Carson Whisenhunt (5.96 ERA) for the Sacramento River Cats (SFG) at 10:05 ET