10 Observations: Rest of minor league affiliates began season over weekend

The other three full season affiliates began their season over the weekend, what stood out?

Photo Credit: WTM

Murphy - There were times I felt legitimately bad for the Bradenton hitters. They faced some advanced pitching in their first couple of games, one of which was Orion Kerkering. He has some of the nastiest stuff in the game and was in Bradenton on a rehab assignment.

Those front-hip sweepers/sliders he was throwing to the Marauders were unfair. He got four outs, all by strikeout, and it wasn’t much of a surprise.

Javier Rivas is an interesting name to follow this year. He can hit the ball hard but mostly beats it into the ground. Although he has struggled against spin, he’s also one of the better defensive infielders in the system.

It finished as a strikeout, but I thought he put together a strong at-bat against Kerkering, fighting off a few pitches and taking a close one.

It would be nice to see him take a step this year, especially anyone on the hitting side of things.

Murphy—The stat line didn’t finish well, but I was impressed with Antwone Kelly’s first appearance of 2024.

He averaged around 95 MPH, got up to 96.7 with the fastball, and picked up seven whiffs on 13 swings between the four-seam and sinker.

Looking back to his statcast numbers from last year, he averaged 90 MPH with his fastball during his brief time in Bradenton to close out the 2023 season, which is quite the jump.

He pitched well in the FCL last year and is even more someone to watch if the velocity has made that jump.

Murphy - Patrick Reilly spent most of his career at Vanderbilt as a reliever but is now getting an opportunity to start at Greensboro. You can’t argue most of the results - eight strikeouts in 3.1 innings pitched.

Control was his biggest issue in college. He only had one walk, and 36 of his 58 pitches went for strikes.

He blew the fastball past quite a few hitters and put up a near 60% whiff rate overall. He already had a filthy fastball/cutter combination, but if he can mix in a few other pitchers as he continues to start, that will be fun to watch.

Murphy - When they moved Jaden Woods up to Greensboro, I assumed it was to let him start, but at least for now it looks like he will be coming out the bullpen as a multi-inning guy.

He gave up a home run with a fastball, but I was impressed with his slider and change-up, which got some whiffs.

I’m still not fully convinced they won’t stretch him out at some point, but as is I feel like he could move quickly in the role he is at right now.

Murphy—Michael Kennedy got the start on Saturday, and it will be interesting to watch him over the next couple of years. The fastball was mostly 89-91, which isn’t quite ideal, but the slider and change-up both looked like potential above-average pitches, at the very least.

Being 19 years old and having a super late birthday, I was surprised at how advanced the secondary pitches seemed at times.

But if he wants to be more successful, he’ll have to command the fastball better, especially at that velocity.

Murphy - I fully believe that Garret Forrester could draw 100 walks in a season at this point; he has shown that kind of awareness at the plate.

I also still want to see him swing the bat a little more aggressively, even if it means some strikeouts.

He’s a college draft pick in Low-A, go out and rake. Drawing the walks is good, and that’s a big part of his game, but can he make an impact swinging the bat?

I still haven’t been able to get a feel for that.

Murphy - I don’t know what criteria they use to determine someone’s power tool, but I’m beginning to believe Lonnie White Jr. has a little more than the ‘average’ grade that Pipeline gave him.

He has some work to do on the swing and miss, but he sent two baseballs the other way into right-center for home runs this weekend, an impressive feat no matter the ballpark.

I thought he could feast on First National Bank Field, but those kinds of hits would be impressive no matter where he plays.

Nola Jeffy - Magdiel Cotto, the Pirates 11th round pick in 2023 out of the University of Kentucky, had been somewhat of an unknown coming into the 2024 season with only 6.1 IP to his docket and only 3.1 IP with Bradenton. He made his first appearance of 2024 with Bradenton on Sunday, and he did not hold back. Cotto threw two scoreless innings and struck out two batters. He only generated two whiffs on seven swings and 18 pitches, but his 4-seam got up to 95.5 MPH and his sinker up to 95.3 MPH. Now, this is one of those areas where it’s hard to tell if Statcast is properly labeling his pitches, and they may be changed in the future. Depending on the horizontal break, they’d appear to be a sinker/two-seam that gets tabulated as a 4-seam. Either way, he’s throwing some easy gas from the left side.

Nola Jeffy - In his second taste of High-A, Jack Brannigan has so far been having a blast. Known for quite a bit of swing and miss in 2023, Brannigan has yet to strike out through three games. In fact, he’s walked four times with zero strikeouts. He has been leading off for the Greensboro Grasshoppers and added one stolen base in three games to go with scoring five times. For the weekend, he finished 4-for-9 with a home run and three RBI. Between the three games, he played 3B once, SS once, and a game at DH. Considered one of the most defensively gifted fielders in the minors for the Pirates, he handled all 11 chances he saw cleanly.

Nola Jeffy - Charles McAdoo is here not necessarily because of a huge weekend — he went 3-for-8 with two walks and a strikeout — but partly because of a continuation of a trend in 2023. With Bradenton, McAdoo had a 7.8% swinging-strike rate. So far in 2024, he hasn’t swung and missed once. We are still in the small sample size opening portion of the season, so I’ll be curious to follow along if his very low whiff rate from 2023 continues.

This is just a fun observation for the weekend; previously noted, Jack Brannigan was known for quite a bit of swing and miss in 2023, but between McAdoo and Brannigan, they had only one whiff all weekend. Mitch Jebb, known for making contact on everything, surprisingly whiffed quite a bit this weekend (3 strikeouts to 1 walk). Maybe it has something to do with the fact I wrote about both McAdoo and Brannigan in the Minor League Guide (shameless plug for you to purchase one).

Murphy - Oddly enough, Khristian Curtis was perhaps the pitcher I was most interested in seeing this season. He got an over-slot deal in the 2023 draft class after being a 12th-round pick.

The numbers weren’t pretty, and he dealt with many injuries, so he was overlooked by many people despite being fairly highly ranked by Pipeline and Baseball America.

He made his official pro debut on Sunday, and while his stuff looked electric, there was little to no control. Barely over half of his pitches went for strikes, but he hit 97 multiple times and showed a big breaking curveball, a cutter, and a change-up.

There’s something to work with there, it will just be a matter of control.