Bradenton vs. Tampa Series Notebook
Bradenton‘s may be towards the middle of the pack in the Florida State League, but they have a few young players worth paying attention to but overall, are a long ways off from the Majors.
Omar Alfonzo was probably the player I was most interested in. He’s playing as both a catcher and first basemen. It’s his second go at Single-A and it is a near identical performance offensive wise, with a few more strikeouts. He one hard line drive and several hard groundballs, which tracks with his season performance. He’s very comfortable working the count and is not an easy out even if a pitcher gets him into a two strike count. He hits the ball to all fields. If he can elevate the ball a little bit more than he is right now, then that power could actually be realized into damage for an offense. He looks much bigger than his listed 180 pounds, and took quite a few foul tips and errant balls in the dirt. Even on his day off he ended up catching as Justin Miknis left in the first inning with an injury. Due to his size, I do see risk of him moving off to first base, which would require a higher bar for his offense but he has the tools to contribute offensively.
Javier Rivas is a tall shortstop and third basemen, that hasn’t shown much offensively in his now 300+ plate appearances between multiple seasons, but has shown some hard contact in terms of exit velocities. He’s lanky and fairly lean, so there’s room for him to add some power. He doesn’t make a ton of contact to actually demonstrate it and especially struggles against secondary pitches. He did hit a line drive at 113mph in one of the games I watched, but of the 12 swings he had, he missed on 6. Defensively, he was fairly fluid for his size both at third and shortstop and turned a clean double play. This will be a common refrain but Rivas is a ways off, and hopefully Pittsburgh’s player development can help him with swing decisions and making more contact.
Esmerlyn Valdez is a corner outfielder/first baseman/DH with one of the better approaches for Bradenton. He is still striking out 30% of the time, and he struck out more than he walked in this series, with one loud out to left field on a slider.
Keiner Delgado was a member of the Yankee organization three weeks ago and was facing former teammates. He’s a short and fairly stocky middle infielder. He makes a fair amount of contact, and doesn’t really look to walk and he will chases outside the zone. He’s got quick hands and has a max exit velocity of 108mph on the season. All of his whiffs came against change-up and sliders against righties.
Sergio Campana only registered two swinging strikes in the two games I saw him play. He can absolutely fly, I had him 3.95 down the first base line out of the right handers box, though it was on an attempted double play ball. He’s older at 22 years old and still swinging and missing a lot. He didn’t play a full season last year, so staying healthy will be key for him.
Shalin Polanco is an aggressive swinger who consequentially chases a lot and misses on, you guessed it, secondaries. He’s currently got a .198 BABIP on the season, which should improve. He impacted the ball several times, hitting it 100mph or faster on 4 different balls. One of which went 396 feet for a fairly long out. He pulls the ball heavily and tries to elevate. His strikeout rate has taken a step back this season compared to his partial season at Single-A last year but he’s only 20.
Eddy Rodriguez had a double down the line that Cade Smith loudly disagreed with the home plate umpire about regarding whether it was fair or foul. He’s statistically one of Bradenton’s better hitters and makes good swing decisions but he’s hitting the ball on the ground 56.5% of the time right now. The foundation for a good hitter is there, and he’s only 20.
Pitching wise, I saw a couple guys that I want to keep an eye on. Carlson Reed is a (relatively) young college draftee from West Virginia University who throws the ball hard and got a lot of swings and misses with his slider. The sinker has some interesting characteristics, with a spin rate that dropped down below 1700 rpm and averaged 1889rpm. It wasn’t a swing and miss tool, but got soft contact from Tampa. He basically pitches out of the stretch with a fairly repeatable motion with a big arm circle. The slider had good downward movement and he got a fair amount of arm side run on his sinker and change-up.
Hung-Leng Chang is a young 6'2 right hander with a strong splitter that generated a lot of whiffs. It was a 3/4 arm angle that was easy and clean. He was pitching well until he lost the zone at the end and was hit in the leg with a line drive. He stayed in, but only for two more batters. The slider was also strong and he showed the ability to throw it for a strike. The fastball really isn’t anything special and he gives up a lot of contact with it. Pittsburgh will handle him gently but there is a potential back end starter here.
Antwone Kelly is having a rough year statistically, with too many walks and homeruns but he touched 97mph with his fastball. He will emphasize his cutter against righties. There’s nothing really plus that gets a ton of whiffs and he misses the zone too often. I want to believe that if he keeps the four seam fastball up in the zone, it has the shape and ride to get whiffs. Right now there’s very little command or control to harness it. The change-up he showed wasn’t that great but on the season he has a 17.2% swinging strike rate.
Ocean Gabonia pitched well in his outing for Tampa. He had the most whiffs of anyone with 10 in the game. He had a ton of success with his change-up and his cutter, getting a ton of swing and misses and soft contact on the former and whiffs on every pitch of the latter. He’s an older pitcher for the level and the ERA looks bad, but he’s cut down on his walks from the previous season while also increasing his strikeouts, leading to a FIP of 3.00 on the season. He’s used in longer stints of up to three innings and even as short as one inning, so there’s versatility out of the bullpen even if it’s not stuff enough to be even a back end starter. It’s a clean and simple motion with very little violence and repeatable.
