Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Baseball America

Why is Baseball America so low on Blue Jays prospect Orelvis Martinez? @Smitty_Cali Shortstop Orelvis Martinez hit 19 home runs in 71 games and compiled a .942 OPS for Low-A Dunedin in 2021 but struggled after a promotion to High-A Lansing for the final month of the season. Toronto promoted Martinez to Double-A New Hampshire this season. The 20-year-old had produced a blend of excellent power and awful on-base ability in his first try at Double-A. Through 101 games, Martinez hit .204/.283/.470 with 28 homers and a 29% strikeout rate. Martinez has extremely fast hands. His power potential is plus. But he has yet to show that he has an idea of how to single out pitches he can drive. His swing rate is among the highest in the upper…

Chris Colabello’s life in baseball wasn’t always an easy path, but if you ask him, that life was really his only choice. “It’s all I ever wanted to do. There was never anything else.” Colabello’s father Lou played professional baseball in Italy and passed down his love for the game to his son. The younger Colabello possessed a strong work ethic and “hitterish tendencies,” but was a tall, skinny late-bloomer who never jumped off the page to college recruiters. Undeterred by the lack of interest, Colabello enrolled at Division II Assumption in Worcester, Mass. There, he filled out and blossomed into a four-year starter and all-conference performer at first base. Despite playing at a small school, a strong showing the summer before his senior year in the New England Collegiate…

Minor league managers have been completing Best Tools ballots for Baseball America since 1983. This year alone, we recognized players in 21 different Best Tools categories across all 11 full-season minor leagues for a total of 231 honorees. Over the years, nearly 8,000 different Best Tools category entries have been recorded for posterity. The scale boggles the mind. But not all Best Tools categories are created equal when it comes to forecasting future MLB success. Those who have won the Best Batting Prospect category in a minor league have accumulated to date nearly 6,000 wins above replacement in the major leagues. In the pages ahead, pay special attention to that category and Best Pitching Prospect. There, you will likely find the highest concentration of future MLB stars. Career major league…

When Byron Buxton walked into the visitor’s clubhouse in Texas on the morning of July 10, he was wholly unaware of the life-changing news he was about to receive. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli called a team meeting shortly before his club’s game against the Rangers. He had two bottles of Champagne, one for each Twins player he was about to announce was headed to the 2022 All-Star Game in Los Angeles. One bottle went to Luis Arraez, the 5-foot-10 Venezuelan first baseman/second baseman leading the league in hitting. The second went to Buxton. It took a moment for the Twins center fielder to digest the news. After so many injuries and so many setbacks, the 28-year-old Buxton had put thoughts of becoming an all-star far from his mind. Now, 10…

Unicorn. That was a recurring descriptor for 23-year-old Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz and his unique set of skills heading into the 2022 season. Few players are capable of hitting the ball harder than Cruz, running faster than Cruz or throwing a ball across the infield faster than Cruz. At 6-foot-7, he is the only player in MLB history that tall to appear in even five games at shortstop. Like we said: unicorn. In a brief two-game callup to Pittsburgh at the end of 2021, Cruz launched a home run at 118 mph off the bat, an exit velocity in the top 1% of all MLB hitters. This season, Cruz’s max exit velocity in MLB ranked in the 99th percentile, and his Statcast sprint speed ranked seventh. As much raw power…

Some players know how to make an instant impression. Braves center fielder Michael Harris II is one such player. The 21-year-old Harris spent just 43 games with Mississippi yet still won three Best Tools categories in the Southern League: Best Defensive Outfielder, Best Outfield Arm and Most Exciting Player. But it wasn’t solely defense that earned Harris a callup to Atlanta on May 28. While at Double-A, he hit .305/.372/.506 with five home runs and 11 stolen bases. Once he reached MLB, Harris fit right in. He flashed all five tools in his first three months, hitting .286 with 13 homers and 15 steals in 15 attempts. His hard-hit rate was excellent and his sprint speed elite, though his plate discipline needs work. Harris stood just as much for his…

Category wins: Best Pitching Prospect, Best Fastball, Best Breaking Pitch, Best Control Drafted second overall the year before, Verlander emerged as an elite prospect while making his pro debut with Lakeland of the Tigers system in 2005. He won the minor league ERA title with a 1.29 mark that season, spending most of it in the FSL going 9-2 with a 1.67 ERA and 104 strikeouts and 19 walks in 86 innings.…

Few prospects rocket into the mainstream like Brewers 18-year-old outfielder Jackson Chourio has done this season. The youngest player in the full-season minor leagues in the first half, Chourio has exhibited twitch, power and barrel control well beyond his years. He hit .324/.373/.600 with 12 home runs in 62 games with Low-A Carolina before moving to High-A Wisconsin on Aug. 17. Chourio’s ability to generate power that would rank above-average in MLB is nearly unheard of for a player this young. His average exit velocity of 89.2 mph would rank among the top 80. Chourio’s ability to make hard contact is uncanny. His 18% barrel rate would rank within the top 20 in MLB. This is particularly remarkable when considering his overzealous approach. He was swinging at more than half…

The Florida Complex League was a bit lighter in talent than its Arizona counter-part this year. Even so, the Rookie league featured a few potential future stars. The most notable was Red Sox outfielder Miguel Bleis, who drew raves for his blend of five potentially plus tools. Pirates two-way talent Bubba Chandler showed power stuff on the mound and a powerful bat in the box before moving to Low-A. The playing time thresholds to qualify for the FCL ranking were 50 plate appearances or 15 innings. By those parameters, only one 2022 draft pick qualified for the list: Nationals first-round outfielder Elijah Green, who played to his amateur report by showing outstanding tools that will need to be polished into skills. 1. MIGUEL BLEIS, OF, RED SOX Bleis signed out…

HITTING Best Hitter Dylan Crews, Louisiana State Best Power Dylan Crews, Louisiana State Best Plate Discipline Brayden Taylor, Texas Christian Fastest Runner Enrique Bradfield Jr., Vanderbilt Most Exciting Player Enrique Bradfield Jr., Vanderbilt PITCHING Best Pitcher Rhett Lowder, Wake Forest Best Fastball Hurston Waldrep, Florida Best Breaking Pitch Cade Kuehler, Campbell Best Changeup Tanner Hall, Southern Mississippi Best Control Joseph Gonzalez, Auburn FIELDING Best Defensive C Kyle Teel, Virginia Best Defensive INF Tre’ Morgan, Louisiana State Best Defensive OF Enrique Bradfield Jr., Vanderbilt…

A July 17 draft date created a bit of chaos in the summer evaluation window for big league teams. The later date means clubs are forced to simultaneously evaluate two draft classes at once. That’s why events like USA Baseball’s PDP League in Cary, N.C.; Perfect Game’s National Showcase in St. Petersburg, Fla.; the scout-run East Coast Pro in Hoover, Ala.; and the nationwide Area Code Games in San Diego provide an excellent evaluation window—no matter how stretched they may be. While scouts lamented the lack of top-of-the-class hitters akin to Druw Jones and Termarr Johnson last summer, the depth of the 2023 high school class looks promising. A solid blend of hitters and pitchers who should be jockeying for position at the top of the 2023 draft board all…

@JJCOOP36 Ever since the NCAA adopted aluminum bats in 1974, the college game has clearly differentiated itself from the professional version. Love or hate the ping, hitting with metal bats creates a different experience than one with wood bats. So there’s long been an understanding: Once players reached the minor leagues, they would be playing with the same equipment and same rules as the big leagues. In 2022, that is no longer true. The rules in the minors in 2022 may be a hint of what’s to come in MLB. And the chasm between the way the game is played in the minors and the majors is as dramatic as it has been in many years. It’s different in obvious ways. The average nine-inning MLB game in 2022 takes nearly…

BA HOT SHEET WHICH COLLEGES GOT BETTER? Our Teddy Cahill and Joe Healy take an in-depth look to rank the best recruiting and transfer classes. 900 PROSPECT UPDATES! 30 teams. 30 prospects. Check out our final in-season update. GET UNLIMITED ACCESS NOW FOR AS LOW AS $7.50/MONTH! BASEBALLAMERICA.COM Follow and never miss out! @BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmericaMag…

Great teams are composed of great players. And great players tend to catch the attention of MLB managers, who for 33 consecutive seasons have cast votes in Baseball America’s annual Best Tools survey. Some of the toolsiest teams in Best Tools balloting history are obvious. ■ The mid-1990s Braves and their rotation headed by Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. ■ The late ’90s Yankees dynasty led by homegrown stars Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Bernie Williams. ■ The audaciously talented 1997 and ’98 Mariners, with Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez and Alex Rodriguez all at the peak of their powers. In the future, we may look back at the 2022 Dodgers in a similar light. Led by superstars Mookie Betts, Freddie…

Category wins: Best OF Arm (x9), Best Baserunner (x8), Best Defensive OF (7x), Best Bunter (6x), Most Exciting Player (5x), Fastest Baserunner (3x) and Best Hitter (3x) No player is more decorated in MLB Best Tools voting than Suzuki, who won categories for four of the five traditional scouting tools: hitting, speed, fielding and arm. The incomparable Ichiro amassed 3,089 hits in a 19-year career despite not debuting in the U.S. until he was 27 years old after nine seasons in Japan. His accomplishments include two AL batting titles, the single-season hits record (262 for the 2004 Mariners), 509 stolen bases and 10 Gold Gloves.…

Astros righthander Hunter Brown and Dodgers righthander Ryan Pepiot have showed premium stuff throughout the minors but lacked the control and consistency to dominate. The result was excellent outings interspersed with disastrous ones and questions about if either would live up to their full potential. The 2022 season marked a change in the right direction for both. Brown improved at maintaining his delivery and saw an uptick in his command as a result, leading to a career-best 2.49 ERA through 21 appearances for Sugar Land. Pacific Coast League managers unanimously voted him the league’s best pitching prospect and also voted him as having the best fastball and best breaking pitch. Pepiot reined in his fastball command, improved his slider and went 8-0, 2.27 through 15 appearances for Oklahoma City. He…

The Southern League is a pitcher’s league, and this year’s top pitchers lived up to the reputation. Pensacola’s Eury Perez and Montgomery’s Taj Bradley nearly swept Best Tools pitching categories and each rank as top 15 overall prospects. Perez is a 6-foot-8 righthander with exquisite command for a pitcher his height. He has added weight and velocity—up to 99 mph—in pro ball and could develop four plus pitches. Bradley is also a superior athlete with outstanding fastball velocity and command and a sharp slider. Scouts would like to see him master something slower, either his changeup, curveball or perhaps cutter.…

Masyn Winn called his shot. On the Friday before the Futures Game, the 20-year-old Cardinals shortstop prospect told Baseball America that his goal and was to break the MLB Statcast record for the hardest infield throw at the prospect exhibition. Not only that, but Winn wanted to become the first infielder ever to record a 100 mph throw. Winn accomplished his goal on the first ground ball he saw at the Futures Game. He set his feet and uncoiled a throw that Statcast measured at 100.5 mph. One throw. Two predictions fulfilled. “I actually didn’t see it at first,” Winn said. “(Dodgers righthander) Bobby Miller, he came up to me later in the game and asked me how hard it was. I was like, ‘It had to be up there,…

Few prospects receive votes in as many different categories as Fort Myers center fielder Emmanuel Rodriguez did in the Florida State League this year. Rodriguez won the Best Power Prospect, Best Strike-Zone Judgment and Most Exciting Player categories. The 19-year-old Twins prospect also received votes for Best Batting Prospect. Before injuring his knee on June 8 and having season-ending surgery, Rodriguez hit .272/.493/.552 with nine home runs and 11 stolen bases in 47 games. His 28.6% walk rate was the highest for any player in the full-season minor leagues. Rodriguez has promising tools that he was able to unlock by making changes to his approach this season. He cut his chase rate from an average 26% in 2021 to an elite 12% this season, effectively cutting the plate in half…

A later draft date and Aug. 1 signing deadline this year left precious little time for 2022 draft picks to establish themselves before the Rookie complex league seasons concluded on Aug. 23. In fact, not a single 2022 draft pick met our qualifying thresholds of 50 plate appearances or 15 innings for our Arizona Complex League prospect ranking. And just two prep first-rounders played in the ACL: Mariners shortstop Cole Young and Reds third baseman Sal Stewart. The promising young Latin American talent more than made up for the lack of draft picks. It was a strong year for ACL talent overall, headlined by a talented Guardians shortstop and a flame-throwing Padres pitching prospect who went on to become a key part of one of the biggest blockbuster trades of…

After a return to play in 2021 following the lost 2020, it was a return to normalcy for the Cape Cod League in 2022. The schedule stretched to 44 games and the league’s all-star game returned for the first time since 2019. In other ways, it was a season of clarity for the new normal. The July 17 draft set in motion an exodus of draft-eligible players, leaving managers scrambling to address player turnover. This meant a fresh crop of new players and underclassman found their way onto rosters for the second half of the season. USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team plucked a few players from early Cape rosters, but a number of players including Stanford’s Braden Montgomery and Ryan Bruno and Vanderbilt’s Enrique Bradfield Jr. returned to the Cape…

American League ● Astros import control artist Jayden Murray at the trade deadline PAGE 38 ● Twins’ Noah Miller has a lot on his plate at Low-A in his full-season debut PAGE 39 ● Rays first-rounder Xavier Isaac uses skepticism to fuel his competitive drive PAGE 40 Beck Uses Height To His Advantage Orioles area scout Brandon Verley said there’s definitely room for growth with 22-year-old lefthander Jared Beck, drafted in the 13th round this year out of Saint Leo University in Florida. Beck experienced a growth spurt in eighth and ninth grades—about 11 inches in his estimation—and is now listed at 7 feet, 225 pounds. Sean Hjelle and Jon Rauch are the tallest players in MLB history at 6-foot-11. The Orioles are more interested in Beck’s other numbers. He registered a 3.95…

The faces change. The results do not. The Astros won the 2017 World Series and played for a championship in 2019 and 2021. In between, Houston reached the American League Championship Series in 2018 and 2020. Even as stars like Gerrit Cole, George Springer and Carlos Correa have departed as free agents over the years, the Astros have kept right on rolling. In 2022, Houston is once again an AL power. The reasons are myriad, but it helps that Yordan Alvarez has become perhaps the most dangerous offensive force in the AL and that a 39-year-old Justin Verlander has pitched like a Cy Young Award winner in his first post-Tommy John surgery season. YORDAN ALVAREZ Best Hitter (#1) Best Power (#2) Best Strike-Zone Judgment (#3) JUSTIN VERLANDER Best Pitcher (#1)…

When looking at exit velocity data for hitters, it’s important to look beyond average exit velocity. Because so many of a hitter’s EV values are clustered around the median, paying attention to the extremes tells us more about high-end power. That’s why 90th percentile exit velocity data is so valuable. It shows the average EV of a hitter’s the top 10% batted balls and is a far more robust sample than max exit velocity. When it comes to 90th percentile EV leaders in the minor leagues, Cardinals 20-year-old third baseman Jordan Walker stood tall at Double-A Springfield. His 90th percentile EV of 108.1 mph would rank among the top 15 qualified MLB hitters. He also was the only qualified minor league hitter with a 90th percentile EV above 108 mph…

Few pitching prospects have experienced the meteoric rise that Blue Jays lefthander Ricky Tiedemann has this season. Standing an imposing 6-foot-4, 220-pounds, Tiedemann is one of the most powerful lefthanded pitchers in baseball. His average fastball sits 94.5 mph and would rank among the three hardest four-seam fastballs by a lefthanded starting pitcher in MLB this season. Tiedemann reached Double-A on Aug. 5, little more than a year after being drafted in the third round in 2021. A primary reason for the 20-year-old’s rapid ascent is his pitch mix. Tiedemann’s fastball features both velocity and heavy horizontal movement from a tricky lefthanded slot. This has translated to an elite whiff rate of 37% against his fastball, where anything above 30% is considered plus for a fastball. While Tiedemann’s fastball is…

There are few players in the minor leagues more exciting than shortstop Elly De La Cruz. The Reds’ top prospect is capable of incredible, jaw-dropping feats on a nightly basis. Whether it’s bashing balls 500 feet, using his top-end speed to catch the defense sleeping or unleashing heat-seeking throws from across the diamond, De La Cruz makes the sublime look routine. One player who can challenge De La Cruz is Rockies outfielder Zac Veen, who won Most Exciting Prospect in his league for the second season in a row. This year, he added four more categories to his haul: Best Batting Prospect, Best Baserunner, Fastest Baserunner and Best Strike-Zone Judgment.…

Visalia’s Jordan Lawlar and Modesto’s Edwin Arroyo asserted themselves as the undisputed top two prospects in the California League this year before Lawlar was promoted to High-A and Arroyo was traded to the Reds. The teenage shortstops each hit over .300, slugged at least .500, stole 20 bases and displayed the athleticism and aptitude to stick at shortstop. Scouts with coverage across the league were split on who they think will be the better player, with some preferring Lawlar’s explosiveness and others preferring Arroyo’s polish and switch-hitting ability. They all agree both have bright futures, and that the differences between them are small. Here is how they compare from a tools perspective.…

For the first time since 2019, USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team completed a normal summer schedule. After the training camp roster of 50 players played a series of five intrasquad games in North Carolina, the final 26-man roster traveled to the Netherlands to compete in Honkbalweek Haarlem, a biannual international baseball competition, where they earned the bronze medal. As always, the talent level was off the charts on the CNT, with many of the players who donned the stars and stripes in the Netherlands projected to be early draft picks the next two years. Here are the top 10 prospects on this year’s Collegiate National Team. Nine of the 10 prospects are eligible for the 2023 draft, with Vanderbilt lefthander Carter Holton, a rising sophomore, the only member of the…

HITTING Best Hitter Matt Shaw, Maryland Best Power Brock Wilken, Wake Forest Best Plate Discipline Cooper Ingle, Clemson Fastest Runner Enrique Bradfield Jr., Vanderbilt Most Exciting Player Rikuu Nishida, Oregon PITCHING Best Pitcher Grant Taylor, Louisiana State Best Fastball Levi Wells, Texas State Best Breaking Pitch Jay Driver, Harvard Best Changeup Jordy Allard, Northeastern Best Control Bryce Warrecker, Cal Poly FIELDING Best Defensive C Josiah Cromwick, Oregon Best Defensive INF Marcus Brown, Oklahoma State Best Defensive OF Cole McConnell, Louisiana Tech…

National League ● Braves see similarities between Blake Burkhalter and another Atlanta rotation success story PAGE 42 ● Brewers keep their focus up the middle with first-round selection Eric Brown Jr. PAGE 43 ● Mets add another catcher with an impact bat to their system with first-rounder Kevin Parada PAGE 44 De Los Santos Attracts Attention With Bat Third baseman Deyvison De Los Santos was having the kind of offensive season that tends to attract attention. “I think he is about to get famous,” D-backs farm director Josh Barfield said. “I think he’s still kind of under the radar for a lot of people in the prospect rankings. “What he’s doing is pretty special for a kid who is 19 years old in High-A already.” De Los Santos hit .329/.370/.513 with 12 home…