Eric Longenhagen at Fangraphs with his Top 100 Prospects list (which is actually a Top 133 Prospects list as he includes every player with a future value of 50 or higher)…
#66 SS Jeremy Pena
#106 RHP Forrest Whitley
#120 RHP Hunter Brown
(note that he’s got FVs of 50 on each of those guys so I wouldn’t necessarily give a whole lot of thought and emphasis on the fact that Pena is 40 spots higher on the list than Whitley)
Longenhagen along with Kevin Goldstein identify 42 players who they think will develop enough this season to be on the 2022 Top 100 Prospects list. Among them, righty Jairo Solis.
Excerpts from today’s Fangraphs interview with Whitley:
David Laurila: Let’s start with your height and weight. Where are you at right now?
Forrest Whitley: I’m 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds.
Laurila: That’s low for you, right?
Whitley: Compared to where I was the last couple years, it would be considered low. But I’ve experimented a lot, in many different ways. This is where I feel the most comfortable.
Laurila: Was that part of your pitcher plan, or was it more self-driven?
Whitley: Everything I’ve done since I’ve been with the Astros has been pretty much been self-driven. I haven’t had much outside influence. I’m pretty stubborn. I don’t always like to listen to people.
Laurila: What is your health situation right now?
Whitley: Everything is fine. I didn’t had any hiccups this offseason, and that’s really exciting for me. Again, I did everything I could to translate to having the healthiest season possible. It goes without saying that this season is super, super, important for me.
Laurila: Where was your velocity last summer?
Whitley: It was anywhere between 94 and 98 [mph]. I think I got up to 99 one time, but I hovered mainly around 95-96.
Laurila: Do you know what your spin rate and spin efficiency were?
Whitley: I know my fastball hangs around 98-100% efficiency, and I think my average spin rate was somewhere just south of 2,600 [rpm]. I did get one up to 3,000 though, and that was pretty sick.
Laurila: What are you thinking in terms of percentages?
Whitley: I’d like to hang around 40% fastballs, 30% cutters, 25% changeups, and 5% curveballs.
I encourage you to click thru and read the entire interview and if you do you may come away with conflicting views of him. One is an arrogant prick who certainly has not been humbled by his struggles over the last few years (as suggested by that one quote above). But another view is somebody who’s finally realizing all the work that’s needed to become an MLB pitcher and has achieved the necessary mindset to get there.
Fascinating read. These guys and their focus on spin rates, spin angles and usage rates. The game has really passed me by.
I didn’t get either a positive or negative feel from what he said though. I’m just going to hope, hope that the guy I saw years ago in CC returns and plays a major role on the staff.
This pretty much sums up the situation.
Completely too early MLB comparison for Pedro Leon based just on what I’ve read:
Raul Mondesi?
Mr. 3TO?
In “A” game action prior to today, Daniels had walked 3 times and whiffed once in his 4 plate appearances.
(3TO = three true outcomes)
The following occurred in “B” game action tonight…
https://twitter.com/Its_Meshach/status/1367930995471704067
ETA:
Daniels “only” doubled off Flaherty in his second AB.
New nickname: D3TO?
Gets my vote.
The odds of a nickname successfully sticking are 7,620 to 1!
So you are saying there is a chance?
I guess you guys aren’t ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it.
Never tell me the odds.
The MLB Pipeline Top 30 Prospects list cited at the beginning of this thread was an end of season update. Today they issued their preseason Top 30 Prospects list for the Astros.
Pedro Leon at #2 is really the only significant add to their list.
Guys whose stock has risen in ST per this Q & A (Solomon and Hansen are already on prospect lists of course but not LaRue)…
Right-handed prospect Peter Solomon, who had Tommy John surgery in 2018, drew raves from Correa earlier this week, along with pitcher Austin Hansen. Solomon was sitting at 94-96 mph with his fastball when he threw earlier this week and appears to have continued what he started in the instructional league last year. Right-hander Carson LaRue has shown a bump in his velocity (94-95 mph) and is putting himself more on the map.
Baseball America with an anonymous scout on Jairo Solis:
Scouts Take: “He impressed people at instructs and he impressed me in spring training. If you look at the track record and numbers, they don’t really tell you this guy can be a pretty good starter and relatively soon for a guy who pitched in A ball last. He showed me the stuff you need for a starter. The delivery, the body. The three pitches are all good. It’s a solid mid-90s fastball, feel for a change, a good breaking ball and command. For a guy that hadn’t pitched much it was pretty clean, pretty polished. He can get a little more physical with his body but it’s a projectable sort of body. As some of their older pitchers retire or their contracts expire these next two years, he’ll be in their rotation.”
In the print version of the Prospect Handbook BA added a “More Prospects to Know” section with the following players:
So BA just shuffled their list to add in recent international signees (i.e, Pedro Leon) and reflect the return of Jose Alberto Rivera to the org. So the new list looks like this:
Seems kind of odd given all the positive reports on Peter Solomon from spring training that they wouldn’t have done some reshuffling there at the bottom (like they did at the top re Whitley) to keep him on the list.
Very encouraging effort from Bielak yesterday in Oakland.
One could make an argument that Hunter Brown is now the top pitching prospect in the org and he recently sat down with Fangraphs for a conversation…