10 Observations: Pitching performances through the system, the first base position.

A look at some of the pitching performances across the system this past week.

Murphy 5/28—While he may never be a guy who is going to put up a lot of strikeout numbers, I do sometimes wonder, watching Sean Sullivan pitch, if there is a little more in the tank if he wanted to reach to get those punchouts. He’s at his best when attacking the zone with his above-average command, hitting his spots to induce weaker contact.

He’s done well at that this year, but it also feels like the secondary stuff has looked a bit sharper. So, if he committed to it, could Sullivan get more chase/whiff?

Murphy5/29—The results haven’t always been there, but you can see Antwone Kelly continuing to evolve as a pitcher. His fastball is excellent, and he’s learning how to use the rest of the pitches off of it and which ones work the best.

Statistically speaking, it wasn’t his prettiest outing, but he had to pitch his way through the start, and he did, giving the Marauders a great chance to win.

Murphy 5/29—It sounds like an old surgery flared up on Bubba Chandler, and there isn’t much concern over it. The week off probably helped reset himself, as the command looked much better with the fastball, and he was getting it up to 97 mph.

It makes you wonder if it had been bugging him for longer than that one start. Regardless, it will be interesting to see if he can build on that going forward. Pitching on Wednesday, he should be slated for a double-start week this time, so we will see how they handle him.

Murphy 5/29—I’m unsure if Nick Cimillo is a legitimate prospect, being 24 and doing what he’s doing at High-A (Greensboro, no less), but it may be time to find out. Now may be a good time for a system-wide first base shuffle.

Seth Beer really has no business being in Double-A right now, and he’s been showing that lately. Whether or not Jake Lamb will be any better or worse at first, having a 30-year-old first baseman at Triple-A also makes little sense.

We know Rowdy Tellez hasn’t been good, and that subject has been tirelessly covered elsewhere so that I won’t go too far in it, but this system is poised for one giant, unison jump up the ladder from each first baseman.

Murphy 5/30—I think Thursday showed why I’m higher on Thomas Harrington than many others. It wasn’t the prettiest of the first innings, but he rallied and threw four shutout frames afterward.

The fastball didn’t jump as much, but that’s where having such a solid and deep pitch mix takes over. He got a lot of misses with the slider and change-up. Harrington still hasn’t walked anyone in each of his last three starts.

Murphy 5/30—I also wrote about Matoma on Saturday, but he’s been so impressive so far in the FCL. He hit 98 mph a couple of times in his last start. He even mixed in a change-up, which, from the little I have seen of him, was the first I had noticed.

He’s someone you will not want to push, but at the same time, it will be intriguing at the end of the season if he should get a taste of Single-A. If the FCL schedule ran its usual timeframe, it wouldn’t be a question, but with it starting early, some will want to see him with the Marauders.

Murphy 5/31—I don’t know when any roster shuffling will occur. It would make sense after the FCL is done, but we don’t know. There are a lot of players pushing for something earlier than that.

At the top of that, Braxton Ashcraft. He’s been fantastic in Altoona and has answered our main question heading into the season—can the stuff play deeper into games?

He’s been fantastic as of late, and it’d be nice to see him get pushed to the next level. It also opens up the ability to get a little more sense of where the velocity is at with the fastball, especially once we get past the fourth inning. The Altoona broadcast doesn’t have the radar on its display, so it is hard to tell.

There’s a conspiracy theory out there that it’s on purpose, too, I'm just saying.

Murphy 6/1—Some MLB Draft stuff. I know that the Pirates are deep in pitching, but watching Trey Yesavage going seven innings of one-run baseball against Wake Forest in an elimination game, outdueling Chase Burns, makes him all the more tempting at the ninth pick.

Pitching is your thing, go with it.

Murphy 6/1—They slid Anthony Solometo back into the ‘rotation’ on Saturday for Altoona. Control has been his biggest issue this year, and you saw some of that in the two innings he pitched.

Many pitches were either well out of the zone or right down the pipe. He jumped ahead of a hitter 0-2 and hit him with a slider.

It hasn’t been an encouraging start to the season for Solometo, who has 16 walks in 24 innings pitched this year. He had 19 in 47.2 innings as a teenager in Single-A two years ago.

Murphy 6/2—Scott Randall started for Bradenton on Sunday. Threw 46 pitches, 25 of which were fastballs, which averaged around 91 mph. He was consistent with the velocity, sitting 90-92 the entire time.

Acquired in the Diego Castillo trade, Randall missed all of last year due to an injury. He’s never really had overpowering stuff, so it will be interesting what exactly he can bring to the organization.

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