The Dynasty Digest: May 16, 2024

Chris Clegg breaks down everything you need to know from Wednesday's MiLB action.

Let’s talks some pitching right off the top. I traveled to Columbia for the Blake Wolters against Santiago Suarez matchup in what I thought would be an incredible pitchers dual. Instead we got a home run barrage but there were still flashes from both arms, so lets break them down plus everything else that happened across the Minors.

Live Looks

Going to games nearly daily at this point, I figured I would mix in live looks section to talk about what I saw from the players I saw in the previous day.

Santiago Suarez, RHP, TB, 19, A

It was easily Suarez's worst start of his career to this point. After allowing a total of ten earned runs and just one home run in all of 2023, Suarez was tagged for eight earned runs and three home runs in 4.1 innings pitched on Wednesday.

It was a hot day, and the ball was traveling, but that does not make up for the fact Suarez was not missing bats and allowed ten hits on the day. The first inning started out strong, and really, the second inning went smoothly before things began to unravel.

The nice thing about getting a live look at a player is that you can find the good in a bad box score. There was good in Suarez’s start.

His fastball sat in the 94-96 range before tapering down to 93 on the bottom end by the end of the start. Suarez’s fastball gets ridden, and in a general sense, he locates it well. There were some misses, and those mistakes were punished, like a Blake Mitchell home run on a 94 mph fastball.

Suarez’s curveball flashes being a plus pitch, sitting between 78 and 82 on the high end with nice depth and horizontal movement. The two-plane breaker did get some ugly swings and chase out of the zone.

The changeup sits in the upper 80s, and Suarez also flashed a cutter that reached 91. He has a highly athletic delivery that he repeats well. All the makings are there for Suarez to be a solid starting pitcher long term. He is a young 19-years-old and has plenty to like in his arsenal.

I won’t let the rough live look deter me from still valuing Suarez fairly high among pitching prospects.

Blake Wolters, RHP, KC, 19, A

It is pretty crazy to think that Wolters is actually older than Suarez despite being in last summer’s draft and Suarez having 135 professional innings under his belt.

Wolters was selected in the second round, 44th overall in the 2023 MLB Draft. The Royals gave him a solid $2.8 million signing bonus as an arm with plenty of upside to dream on.

He took the mound on Wednesday for the first time in 12 days and only pitched three innings because of it. The results were a mixed bag as Wolters allowed two earned runs on two hits with three walks. He struck out just two batters and generated only four whiffs.

Wolters fastball sat in the 94-96 range the entire start, topping out at 97. The command was inconsistent, but when he located it up in the zone, it played well. The fastball was the dominantly used pitch for Wolters, being used over 60 percent of the time.

From a secondary standpoint, Wolters mixed in a slider that sat 83-86 with some horizontal movement. The changeup flashes as a plus offering, though. When he really snapped it off, it showed a nice tumble and fade sitting 85-87 mph.

The strike throwing was inconsistent and Wolters landed under 60 percent of his pitches for strikes, but it is possible that was due to the long layoff between starts and he was just a bit rusty. Still, you could see the potential and Wolters is still an arm I want to bet on long term.

Blake Mitchell, C, KC, 19, A

Mitchell was the Royals first rounder in 2023, selected eight overall. Lauded for his skills behind the plate and developing bat, Mitchell struggled out of the gate at the complex post-draft.

He put in work this offseason with the bat and has been solid so far this year in Single-A Columbia. Mitchell was the designated hitter on Wednesday after catching on Tuesday night and having a quick turnaround for a noon game the next day.

Mitchell mashed a 94 mph Santiago Suarez fastball for a home run and collected two more singles on the day. He can hit the ball hard, but he also hurts himself when he does not jump on hitters’ pitches early in counts.

He is a patient hitter and knows the zone well. That is evident so far by his low chase rate and 19 percent walk rate. On the other end of the spectrum, he currently has a 37 percent strikeout rate, largely due to working so deep into counts.

He has a power stroke and is highly athletic. If Mitchell can tame the strikeouts and jump on pitches early in counts like we saw several times on Wednesday, there is something here.

Austin Charles, SS, KC, 20, A

Charles was quite the buzzy name last year when he moved from the complex to Single-A rather quickly. The 6’5” shortstop has extremely long legs and at times last year looked like a baby deer who has grown too fast. I don’t say that as a bad thing at all, Charles just grew very quickly and was figuring out how to make his body work on the baseball field.

His swing last year was also a bit discombobulated, with his lower and upper half working against each other. You can see the comparison in the video below of how much he has cleaned things up from last season. Charles looks like a different hitter.

He has a big day on Wednesday, leaving the yard against Santiago Suarez, but also collecting two more hits and driving in three. With his 6’5” frame, there is still room to fill out, but Charles is also turning more batted balls into home runs already this year and is showing better bat-to-ball.

I don’t think Charles is going to be a stud fantasy player but he could be an interesting deep-league target.

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