Category Archives: Rookies

February 22, 2023

First Coat

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Andrew Painter impressed in live batting practice against his Phillies teammates:

Hoskins was not one of the three batters scheduled to face Painter, but he stayed to the side to take it in.

“It was electric from the side. Just the reactions of the hitters in the box tell you all you need to know, ” Hoskins said. “I saw Schwarber after his first at-bat, kind of just mouth ‘Wow.’”

Garrett Stubbs, who caught Painter, said he was hitting 99 to 100 mph with his fastball.

PhilliesNation.com

He will pitch 2023 at seasonal age 20 with an April 10 birthday. So far in his minor league career he struck out 13.7 batters per nine innings while walking just 2.1 per nine innings. In 28 1/3 AA innings last season, he struck out 37 and walked two. I don’t know how he fits into the Phillies plans this season. I suspect he’ll start the year at AAA, and if he keeps posting that K/BB with a low ERA, he’ll be in the majors quickly.

September 2, 2022 August 31, 2022 August 28, 2022

Real Power and Speed

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The Diamondbacks call up prospect Corbin Carroll to play on Monday:

But throughout his now 142 games across 3 seasons in the minors, Carroll has done nothing but hit. Across all levels, he’s combined for a .310/.426/.588 slash line, including missing a season for injury as he healed from surgery on both a posterior capsular avulsion and a labrum tear as well as the 2020 season missed due to COVID.

AZSnakePit.com

What impresses me is that he not only knocks out a good number of home runs and doubles, but triples as well. In 657 minor league plate appearances he collected 32 doubles, 28 home runs, and 17 triples. In addition, he stole 52 bases in 59 attempts. He can mash the ball, and add to his effective slugging percentage with his speed.

August 1, 2022

No Shortage of Shortstops

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The Royals make a minor trade, moving a third baseman Emmanuel Rivera to the Diamondbacks for pitcher Luke Weaver. The real reason for the trade was to make room for rookies:

The 26-year-old Rivera was hitting .237 with six homers and 22 RBI in 63 games for the Royals this season. But he was mostly used as a backup in Kansas City, and his trade could mean a move back to third base for elite youngster Bobby Witt Jr. and more time in the lineup at shortstop for rookie Maikel Garcia.

ESPN.com

Garcia is six for his first 16 in the majors, while Witt showed impressive power so far. Those two might be playing next to each other for a long time.

July 31, 2022 July 31, 2022 July 22, 2022 June 25, 2022

The Appel Falls Far from the Tree

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Mark Appel, in his seasonal age 30 season, gets called up by the Phillies:

Mark Appel, the 2013 No. 1 overall pick whose baseball career included a three-season absence from the sport, is getting his first major league call-up Saturday at the age of 30.

The Philadelphia Phillies are bringing in the right-handed Appel from Triple-A Lehigh Valley because reliever Connor Brogdon is on the COVID-19 injured list, interim manager Rob Thomson told reporters Friday night.

“Completely overwhelmed. I have so many thoughts I want to share but can’t find the words, so I’ll just say this: I’m thankful,” Appel tweeted Saturday morning. “Today, I get to play a game I love as a Major League Baseball player.”

ESPN.com

Appel owns a 5.01 career ERA in the minors, 4.72 at AAA. This season his ERA stands at 1.61 in 28 innings, as he finally stopped walking batters. This, however, is a small sample size. While I hope his does well at the major league level, I won’t be surprised if he gets banged around a bit.

June 19, 2022

Mr. Home Run

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Pirates rookie outfielder Jack Suwinski hits three solo home runs for the Pirates, his final one leading off the bottom of the ninth inning beat the Giants 4-3. Suwinski now owns 34 hits, eleven of which are home runs and a total of sixteen for extra bases. His slash line now stands at .230/.296/.486 in 162 PA. That still a small sample, so we’ll see if he can pull his OBP into more respectable territory. His power comes at a high cost of outs right now.

June 19, 2022

Debut a Hit

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Jerar Encarnacion debuted for the Marlins Sunday afternoon against the Mets. He provided a huge hit:

Jerar Encarnacion had the bases loaded in the seventh inning and the Miami Marlins trailing the New York Mets by a run. A ball into the outfield ties the game. He did more than that. On the sixth pitch of his third at-bat, Encarnacion lifted a 93.3 mph Seth Lugo sinker that was near the middle of the strike zone toward right field. The ball carried. And carried. And carried a little more. Finally, Mets right fielder Starling Marte finally stopped running and watched as the ball landed in the Citi Field seats.

MiamiHerald.com

The Marlins beat the Mets 6-2.

Encarnacion did not show much power in the minors until this season as a seasonal age 24 player at AA. He may not hit many homers in the majors, but he has one he’ll always remember.

June 14, 2022

Land of Canaan

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d may have the greatest hyphenated name ever. Smith is the most common last name in the US, while Njigba does not make the top 5000! The 23-year-old make his Pirates debut today and collected a pinch-hit double in the first game of a doubleheader. Despite his success, the Cardinals took the game 3-1 thanks to a Paul Goldschmidt home run.

Smith-Njigba is an on-base god, owning a minor league .387 OBP. That was also his mark at AAA this season. Given that Pirates lead-off hitters owned a .305 OBP coming into today, Smith-Njigba may get a chance to claim that slot.

June 4, 2022

Suwinski for the Win

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Rookie Jack Suwinski of the Pirates was off to a slow start, with a high strikeout rate driving his batting average down to .208 and his OBP down to .266. He came up big on Saturday, however, with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to beat Arizona 2-1. Overall in the minors, Suwinski did not put up great numbers, but in the last couple of seasons he started to show selectivity and power. In his final plate appearance of the day, he worked the count, got his pitch, and crushed it. At seasonal age 23 he still has some development in front of him.

May 23, 2022

Catching Tradition

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When Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman came up on Saturday, I was reminded about the hype surrounding Matt Wieters. Rutschman immediately impressed recording a triple as his first hit. I’ve been trying to figure out how often a catcher gets a triple as his first hit, and in doing so I noticed that Matt Wieters tripled for his first hit. It came in the fifth inning of his second game. Wieters, as a hitter, didn’t really live up to the hype, but Orioles do seem to have a tradition in the making.

Update: Between Weiters and Rutschman, Brad Davis of the Marlins was catching when he collected a triple for his first hit.

May 1, 2022

Rookie First

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Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners comes up in the top of the sixth against the Marlins with two out and two on. J.P. Crawford doubled with two out, then the Marlins walked Abraham Toro. The Marlins announcers speculated that this might be the first time someone was intentionally walked to face Rodriguez, since it was unlikely to happen in the minors. Rodriguez then launches a 450 foot home run to extend the Mariners lead to 5-0. The homer is the first of his major league career. He’s two for three in the game with a single as well.

April 28, 2022

Calling Out Rodriguez

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The Mariners voiced their displeasure with called third strikes against rookie Julio Rodriguez, first with a letter to MLB, and today with an ejection rant by manager Scott Servais:

“What’s going on with Julio Rodriguez right now, it is not right,” Servais said angrily after the game. “I sat at home for a week and watched it while I had COVID. It’s frustrating. I give all the credit in the world to Julio, not many people could handle things the way he has. He’s not barked back. He’s not changed his approach. He’s not chasing balls out of the strike zone, but it’s wrong. He’s (a) 21-year-old. Let the kid play.”

…

Per Statcast data on Baseball Savant, Rodriguez has had 10 called third strikes that are considered out of the strike zone. Servais believes there might be even more calls. Coming into Thursday, Rodriguez had taken 44 total called strikes in his plate appearances with 14 of those coming on pitches considered out of the strike zone by Statcast. He had two called strikes on him in Thursday’s game, which both registered out of the strike zone.

SeattleTimes.com

The article points out that other rookies have seen fewer missed calls. We’ll see what comes of this. The Rays took the game 2-1, so those missed calls might have made a difference.

April 26, 2022

Pinto Debuts

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Rene Pinto of the Rays makes his major league debut when Mike Zunino leaves the game against the Mariners with an injury:

Zunino struck out in his lone plate appearance Tuesday before exiting after the fourth inning. The Rays are already without Francisco Mejia (illness), who is on the COVID-19 injured list, leaving Rene Pinto as the only option behind the plate.

CBSSports.com

Pinto made the most of the opportunity, homering in the seventh inning and singling in the ninth for a 2 for 3 day at the plate. It wasn’t enough as the Mariners take the game 8-4. He slugged .500 in 260 AAA plate appearances.

March 18, 2022

The Mental Game

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Red Sox prospect Jarren Duran discusses how he changed his mindset on being called to the majors in 2021, and why that was the wrong decision:

“In the big leagues, it just felt like more,” Duran said. “Instead of taking it as ‘It’s just still a game,’ I took it as, ‘This is the big leagues. I have to be smarter. I can’t play with my hair on fire like I did in Worcester. I can’t scream and yell at my teammates.’ But I can do that. They want me to… I made it way bigger than it needed to be. It’s literally just going out with the same group of guys and having fun.”

MassLive.com

Of course, MLB is a tougher game that AAA, and 100 PA isn’t much time to adjust. We’ll see if playing hungry like the wolf works it’s magic.

September 7, 2021

One Hit Wonder

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A.J. Alexy of the Rangers made the second appearance and second start on the mound on Monday. He repeated his first start by allowing just one hit and no runs, this time going six innings. His MLB line so far is eleven innings, two hits, five walks, and eleven strikeouts. This is consistent with his minor league career, where he gave up 218 hits in 300 1/3 innings, walking 147. It looks like he uses four pitches, a four-seam fastball and three off-speed pitches. So far, the mixture is working well.

He also got his cliches down:

“There’s still a lot of stuff that I can work on, but it’s definitely a good start, and (I can) build off of that,” Alexy said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

ABCNews.Go.com

It’s fun for the rest of the team, too. Texas beat the Angels 4-0.

August 14, 2021

Gilbert Great

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Tyler Gilbert of the Diamondbacks, making the first start of his major league career, no-hit the Padres through five innings so far. Gilbert walked two and struck out three, throwing 63 pitches. He first three apperances were in relief, throwing a total of 70 pitches. We’ll see how deep he is allowed to go if he keeps the no-hitter intact. Matt Moore of the Phillies came out of the game against the Reds earlier today with a no-hitter intact, and Archie Bradley gave up a hit in the eighth.

The Diamondbacks lead the Padres 6-0 after five innings.

Update: Gilbert retires the Padres 1-2-3 in the sixth. He’s up to 73 pitches. He has yet to allow an earned run in the majors.

Update: The Padres broadcast just showed three outs on hard line drives that were right at a fielder, including one right at the box that landed in Gilbert’s glove. The Diamondbacks lead 7-0 as Gilbert comes out for the top of the seventh inning.

Update: Tommy Pham leads off the seventh inning with a walk, his third of the game. He’s the only Padres batter to reach base.

Update: Adam Frazier hits a hard line drive, but right at Arizona third baseman Drew Ellis.

Update: A popup and an ground force play end the inning. Gilbert completes seven no-hit innings. He’s at 88 pitches.

Update: Austin Nola hits the ball hard leading off the top of the eighth inning, but the ball comes down in a glove just short of the wall in leftfield.

Update: Padres swing and make contact on all three first pitches in the eighth inning, and they result in two deep fly outs and a ground out. They give Gilbert a break as he is now through eight inning with just 91 pitches thrown.

August 3, 2021

Gil Did

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Luis Gil makes an impressive major league debut for the Yankees. New York called him up to face the Orioles when Gerrit Cole came down with COVID-19. Gil pitches six shutout innings, walking one and striking out six. The Yankees offense came to life as well, scoring nine runs so far as they lead Baltimore 9-0 in the seventh inning.

Gill posted a 3.06 ERA in the minors, with a high K rate but also a high walk rate. He was in control tonight, however, and he’s in line for his first win in his first start.

June 27, 2021

Perfect Start

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Max Kranick makes his major league debut for the Pirates against the Cardinals and pitches five perfect innings before a long rain delay forces him from the game. He struck out three and threw just 50 pitches, 36 for strikes. The game has resumed with the Pirates leading 7-0, so Kranick has a very good chance to get the win, and we’ll see if the Pirates can be the team to pitch the eighth no-hitter this season. That would set a modern record for no-hitters in the majors in a season.

Update: The perfect game remains intact as Duane Underwood Jr. gets the Cardinals in order in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Update: There has never been a combined perfect game.

Update: Dylan Carlson leads off the bottom of the seventh with a double to break up the no-hitter and the perfect game.

June 26, 2021

Short Goes Long

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Rookie Zack Short of the Tigers picks up the first two extra-base hits of his major league career, a double and a two-run homer that proved the game winning hit as the Detroit defeats Houston 3-1. As an added bonus, Short is a shortstop! As far as I can tell, he is the first player with the last name of Short to play the position, although Shorty Des Jardien and Shorty Fuller played the position as well.

June 22, 2021 June 22, 2021

Games of the Day

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Washington trails the second place Phillies in the NL East by one game as Max Scherzer faces Zack Wheeler. Scherzer missed a start due to a minor injury. In nine starts in Philadelphia, Scherzer is 6-1 with a 2.45 ERA, walking just 1.7 batters per nine IP. Wheeler is not so lucky, 6-12 with a 4.44 ERA in 22 starts against Washington. He struck out just 7.9 batters per nine against the division rival.

The Red Sox lead the Rays by 1/2 game in the AL East as the team meet in Florida. Eduardo Rodriguez faces Andrew Kittredge. The big news in this game, however, is the premier of Wander Franco, the young infield prospect for the Rays. He comes to the majors at seasonal age 20 after hitting .315/.367/.586 at AAA. That’s at an age where many players are still in A Ball. The teams meet for just the second time this year, as Boston swept the first three-game series in April.

Enjoy!

June 20, 2021

The Wanderer

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The Rays called up Wander Franco, their 20-year-old top rated shortstop prospect. The Rays start a series hosting the first place Red Sox on Tuesday. None of the Rays shortstops posed offensive threats this season, although Taylor Walls walked enough to post a good OBP. We’ll see if Franco lives up to the hype. At AAA this season, he posted a .323/.376/.601 slash line, so there’s nothing left to prove there.

June 7, 2021 May 13, 2021

Fly Ball Gilbert

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Logan Gilbert makes his major league debut for the Mariners and retires the Indians in order in the first on three weak fly balls. The Indians so far are getting under his pitches. Jarred Kelenic makes his MLB debut next as he leads off the bottom of the first inning.

Update: Kelenic swings at the first pitch he sees and hits a low fly ball into the stands down the rightfield line, but Josh Naylor makes a great play for the out.

May 12, 2021

The New Garcia

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Stephen Hawkins profiles Adolis Garcia, the rookie star in Texas:

“He’s not a 20-year-old phenom coming up here,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “He’s been around a little bit and he’s getting a chance to play. And I think that this is the first time he’s been given the opportunity to kind of get out there every day and see what he can do.”

With bulging biceps and his passionate approach, García has put on quite a show since getting called up April 13. His nine homers and 26 RBIs are the most in the majors during that stretch, and the expanding highlight reel of impressive long balls for the player nicknamed “El Bombi” also includes several defensive gems.

Chron.com

Garcia used a chance to play in Japan to defect from Cuba. Now, at 28, he is in his prime and raking. StatCast has 52% of his balls in play as hard hit. I suspect this will drop as pitchers learn his tendencies and adjust, but Texas will take the highlight reel plays as long as they last.

May 11, 2021

Call for Kelenic

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The Mariners plan to promote outfield prospect Jarred Kelenic later this week. Kelenic accused the Mariners of manipulating his service time earlier this year:

In late February, Kelenic indicated that his service time was being manipulated by the Mariners based on comments from former team president and CEO Kevin Mather that drew the ire of the MLBPA. Among multiple controversial comments made in an online video that led to his resignation, Mather divulged information about contract negotiations with Kelenic to a Bellevue, Washington, Rotary Club on Feb. 5. In the video, Mather said neither Kelenic nor pitcher Logan Gilbert would be with the major league club on Opening Day as a way to keep club control for longer.

ESPN.com

A call up a this point in the season means the club will get seven years of service from the player, but will go to arbitration four times if there is no long-term contract. I suspect Kelenic will be a major part of the collective bargaining agreement talks on when a player becomes a free agent. I expect the time to free agency to go down after this round of talks.