The Week in Bradenton: Getting Underway
The Week in Bradenton: Getting Underway
Well, the weekend, at least
This will (hopefully) be a regular piece this season. Bradenton having two teams — the Marauders and the FCL Pirates — is certainly convenient. Before long, they’ll both be in action because the FCL season is moving up about two months to late April. This means that 2024 draftees will not be playing in complex ball because the season will be over.
The Marauders opened their season with three games against Clearwater. The most striking thing about this Bradenton team is the fact that almost nobody got promoted from the FCL. This is not a feather in the cap of the Pirates’ scouting and development efforts, to put it mildly.
There are some pitchers on the roster who were drafted out of college last year who either didn’t pitch or pitched only briefly in the FCL, but apart from them, the only player on the opening-day roster who hadn’t played in full-season ball before (and he still hasn’t) is utility infielder Jeral Toledo.
Despite being relatively experienced for this level, the offense didn’t exactly show well during the opening series — 17 hits (two of them by a rehabbing Ji Hwan Bae) and a .189 average.
They’re the only team in the league that has yet to go deep. My initial impression is that the team may not get much offense from anybody besides Shalin Polanco and Esmerlyn Valdez.
The pitching is a little more interesting, mainly due to the three starters in this opening series: Carlson Reed, Michael Kennedy, and Khristian Curtis. Reed and Curtis threw shutout ball for four and three innings, respectively. Kennedy had a rougher outing.
Last year’s fourth-rounder, Reed, went heavily with a sinker that averaged a little under 93 mph, below where the scouting reports had him in college. He also threw a slider that had a good spin rate of 2719 rpm and a change. He didn’t throw an overabundance of strikes, just 33 in 67 pitches. Despite that, he allowed only two hits and two walks in his four innings while fanning six. What Reed did do was make big pitches when he had to, usually in the form of throwing the slider or change for strikes. He got two whiffs and four called strikes on nine pitches with the change.
Curtis resembles Reed in some ways, including his weak control. His three innings took 61 pitches, only 31 for strikes. Curtis allowed three hits and two walks, with two strikeouts. He helped himself by picking a runner off second. With the fastball, Curtis sat at 95-97 mph in his first two innings, then dropped a tick in his third. He threw three secondary pitches: curve, cutter, and change.
The fastball didn’t miss bats, producing just one whiff in 15 swings. What Curtis may have going for him, though, is the fact that his secondary pitches don’t look very easy to distinguish from the fastball. The cutter got put in play twice, the other secondaries not at all. Getting ahead more in the count would let him mix the four pitches better.
Kennedy was going well through three innings, allowing just a hit and a walk, but he suddenly started getting pummeled in the fourth. Three hits and a walk produced three runs, and it would have been worse if not for a line-drive double play. Kennedy threw mostly fastballs, and the pitch averaged just under 90 mph, down from last year. The hitters didn’t have trouble making contact with the pitch. The concern with Kennedy when he was drafted was that he didn’t offer a lot of projection.
Several relievers from last year’s draft had good outings. Peyton Stumbo, a 20th-rounder last year, threw two scoreless innings, fanning four. He threw his curve nearly half the time and got a whiff or called strike on eight of 14. Magdiel Cotto, a lefty drafted in round 11, threw two perfect innings on Sunday with just 18 total pitches.
Cotto sat 94-95 with his fastball and mixed in a slider and change. He got eight whiffs or called strikes on those 18 pitches. Landon Tomkins, a tenth-rounder, finished the Sunday game with two perfect innings, fanning four. He did it by throwing a lot of curves, getting whiffs, or called strikes on eight of 11.
If Herman doesn’t hit enough to advance in a couple weeks he should be released. Same as they did with Cederlind. Get healthy, go back to Low A and if you perform and move up, great. If not, see ya!!
Campana and Custodio should be gone as well. I don’t mind keeping one as a 4th OF but either Juan Machado or Jhonson Pena should be up in Bradenton. If not Suero.
I’ve seen enough of Braylon Bishop already too but they won’t release him. He should at least be sent back to the FCL until he’s able to make some contact in game. The Bradenton OF should be Polanco, Valdez and Eddy Rodriguez(when healthy).
I don’t see the fascination with Jesus Castillo either. He can’t hit the ball out of the infield. I thought, well maybe, he has some value if he can slap around some singles and doubles as a switch-hitter, get on base at a really good clip, steal some bases and he does play everywhere defensively, even some 1B, so I thought maybe he does have some value. But my original thought was right. He’s just not good.
Kalae Harrison is much better. Kalae raked his Senior year at NC ST as well as on the Cape, he plays a good SS, and can move to the other side of second too(even has a good enough arm for 3B). He has terrific bloodlines(both his brother and Dad were really good players) and at least he can sting the ball some with gap power.
They shouldn’t be catching Forrester either. He looked lost at the plate last night and I’ve never seen him look like that and I’ve watched him at Oregon State for 3 years. He looked like he had too much on his plate. Let him concentrate on hitting, which he can definitely do well.
I think even Endy’s offense struggled from him concentrating on his catching and handling the big league staff. Forrester is never gonna be Endy behind the plate though. But he can hit for a high average with 12-16 HR a year.
I comp him to last year’s Tyler Locklear; when Locklear wasn’t selling out for power, was taking his BB and not chasing. I think Locklear’s 2023 stats are possible for Forrester. But not if he continues to look like he did last night!!
Didn't go to the Friday game, but saw both Saturday and Sunday games. On Sunday, Cotto was much more impressive than Curtis. Lefties who throws 95 are not common. Also fielded well despite being, well, kind of beefy. As for hitters, I don't know if Valdez will hit, but he sure looks the part. Wide shoulders and narrow waist. Only 20, which, in the current environment, is young for the league. The bar is high for 1B prospects.