Player Breakdowns: April 29th
Notable Performances & David Sandlin
Notable Performances:
Blade Tidwell (NYM) - AA: 6.2IP 2H 1ER 2BB 9K
Tidwell is doing what he has to do this year to cement himself into the upper echelon of pitching prospects. He’s keeping his walk rate lower than last year and he’s hovering in the 10% range which is an encouraging sign. His K rate is still over 30% and he racked up another 18 whiffs in yesterday’s outing. I ranked Tidwell 21st in my Projecting the Future series and wrote:
Concerns over command have haunted Tidwell and they are legitimate concerns. What he does well is mix in his fastball/slider combination which are both above-average offerings and improving. The changeup is a work in progress but has shown good flashes.
Tidwell pitched at High-A and AA last year and made 25 starts. 21 out of those 25 starts resulted in 3ER or less. He strikes batters out at an excellent rate (31.4%) and once the walks come down he will be even more effective. Tidwell is another arm in the Mets pitching factory that I keep bringing up, although he’ll be just a bit behind Scott, Vasil, and Hamel in terms of ETA. When he pieces it together, Tidwell is going to be a problem to deal with.
Tidwell seems to be the underrated arm in this Mets factory and I’m wondering if I’m playing a role in it. I’ve definitely been showing some love to Brandon Sproat and Nolan McLean but I’ve yet to give Tidwell his dues. The more reasonable reason for why he’s underrated is probably because he’s at AA and he’s in this middle ground of “not the next arm up at AAA” and “not the sexy young prospect at Low-A or High-A” Don’t forget that he’s younger than Brandon Sproat and the same age as Nolan McLean. Those two should be moving up to AA around the same time Tidwell gets a call to AAA. And the factory keeps churning.
Wikelman Gonzalez (BOS) - AA: 5IP 1H 2ER 1BB 8K
Wikelman spun his first gem of the year last night as he sputtered to begin the season. He’s gone back-to-back solid outings now. The command is still an issue with Wikelman as he’s posting a 14:10 K to Walk ratio this season and although he only walked one batter in yesterday’s start, he also hit two batters — still putting runners on for free.
He racked up 17 whiffs yesterday and threw 90 total pitches to get through 5. These last two outings have been encouraging signs for Wikelman — and potentially portend what is to come.
Andry Lara (WAS) - High-A: 6IP 2H 0ER 1BB 7K
Lara is pitching exceptionally well to begin the season — posting a 2.28 ERA and a 37:8 K to Walk ratio.
He’s made 5 starts and has gone at least 5 innings in four of them and has allowed 3 earned runs or less in all of them. He’s only had one outing in which he’s allowed more than 2 walks (3) and he did that only once. And he’s struck out at least 6 batters in each outing he’s had. He struck out only 66 in 98.1 Innings pitched last year and so far has 37 Ks in 23.2IP this year. The 21-year-old is taking huge strides forward to begin the season and it’s time to start noticing.
It’s time to pay attention to the lesser-known Lara.
Chen-Wei Lin (STL) - Low-A: 7IP 3H 0ER 0BB 7K
Lin needed only 66 pitches to get through 7 innings of work yesterday. He allowed 3 singles and a ton of soft contact mainly relying on his 4-seamer, which he seemingly can do every outing at this level.
He threw his 4-seamer 47 times out of the 66 total pitches he threw. He mixed in the changeup, sinker, and slider at almost equal rates but it was the fastball that he relied on and used to get through 7 innings yesterday.
The 4-seamer averaged 95.8 mph and T - 98.1 mph. He’s getting an interesting mix of ride and run on his fastball as it had an average induced Vertical Break of just 15.1 inches yesterday but had a Horizontal Break of 16 inches. That’s a lot of run he’s getting on his fastball and it seems like these Low-A Cardinals have a slew of arms that are displaying some interesting characteristics of late on their fastballs.
So far on the year, Lin has a 1.64 ERA and a 23:4 K to Walk ratio. His average against is .173 and his WHIP sits at 0.77. Fantastic start to the season by the 22-year-old.
Jake Bloss (HOU) - High-A: 5IP 4H 1ER 1BB 8K
Bloss is an intriguing arm. Last year’s 3rd round pick out of Georgetown went to Houston with the 99th overall selection. It’s interesting to see and I love that he’s from Georgetown since we don’t see many arms like this come out of the Adams Morgan area. Insert The Exorcist them music over a compilation of Bloss fastballs. It has some devilish qualities — he’s not talked about much but he can sit mid-90s and touch 98 with his fastball. He racked up 17 whiffs yesterday which trailed only James Gonzalez and David Sandlin at the level who both had 19. It’ll come down to his secondaries and commanding them to allow his fastball to play at higher levels but I think he’s off to a good start as he has a 25:8 K to Walk ratio over 17.1IP.
I will be checking out Bloss’ next outing and may even chart the outing itself and feature him on a player breakdown. That’s how intrigued I am by his stuff and the potential coming out of the Houston system.
Player Breakdowns:
David Sandlin (BOS) - High-A: