Dispatch No. 1 from the desert, where it’s 100-plus degrees and game times are moving to the mornings and evenings so no one dies on the field …
The first Cactus League Spring Breakout Game took place Thursday morning, as Cleveland Guardians prospects headed to Tempe Diablo Stadium to play the Los Angeles Angels prospects team. Cleveland brought just about all of their prospects who aren’t in big-league camp, rotating the starters out after six innings to let a second group get at least one at-bat apiece.
Their only extra-base hit came from DH Wuilfredo Antunez, who wasn’t on their top 20 this winter. He homered to right off a hanging curveball in the fourth inning. Most of their bigger names didn’t do much: Ralphy Velazquez was 0 for 3, punching out on 96 middle-up and rolling over later on a 100 mph fastball, catcher Cooper Ingle walked twice but struggled badly with his throwing to second, Jaison Chourio saw 15 pitches in three plate appearances, with a walk and a strikeout. Even Angel Genao, their No. 1 prospect and No. 33 overall, just had an ordinary day, with a walk, a strikeout and a groundout to first, although I was pleased to get an above-average run time on him.
The Guardians’ pitching stood out, however. Right-hander Joey Oakie was No. 84 on my top 100 this winter, and he’s taken another step forward already. He was 96-99 in his two innings with a new sweeper and changeup along with the slider/cutter that was his main secondary pitch last year; the sweeper might be a 60 (on the 20-80 scouting scale), and the fastball misses bats in and on top of the zone. It’s a long, fast arm, and because he was struggling to get to a consistent landing spot, he yanked several pitches to his glove side and didn’t throw enough strikes overall (56 percent).
Right-hander Braylon Doughty followed him and showed more pitches than I’d seen from him last year, although his main weapon, the mid-80s curveball, had backed up slightly. He’s throwing a cutter and a changeup right now, and is still 92-96. He struggled a little with his command of everything, eventually giving up a homer when he left a breaking ball right over the heart of the plate. I still like both of these guys quite a bit, to be clear — both showed premium stuff with starter deliveries.
Lefty Josh Hartle came over to Cleveland from Pittsburgh in the Spencer Horwitz trade, and naturally, the Guardians have helped him add some velocity already. He was 91-93 in his two innings, throwing a lot of breaking balls, both a slider and a cutter, and I don’t think he showed the changeup at all even though that was his best pitch when he was an amateur. He’s way more interesting at that higher velocity and with functional breaking stuff that makes him less dependent on the changeup and on deception.
The Guardians started Yorman Gómez, an undersized right-hander from Venezuela who throws a lot of strikes but didn’t show anything plus beyond his velocity. He was 95-97 from a high three-quarters slot, coming back over his front leg a little when he lands, with an average slider at 87-89 and a true curveball I think he threw just once. He’s had success up through Double A, although I don’t quite see how he’s striking so many guys out with this arsenal.
Nelson Rada can really run and has a solid hit tool, but he hasn’t developed power yet. (Chris Bernacchi / Diamond Images via Getty Images)
The Angels had two of their top three pitching prospects on the roster in right-handers Tyler Bremner (the No. 2 pick from last year’s draft) and Chase Shores (who closed out LSU’s championship in June), but neither appeared in the game, so as a result, only four of their top 10 prospects ended up playing. Outfielder Nelson Rada, who is second in their system behind Bremner, led off and played the entire game, bunting for a hit in his first at-bat and collecting a single on a soft line drive the other way off a 99 mph fastball. He’s pretty much the same player he’s always been — he can run, he’s going to stick in center, he can hit but doesn’t have much power.
Shortstop Denzer Guzman was No. 3 on my Angels list this offseason and was responsible for the only runs the Angels scored with his home run in the bottom of the ninth off Doughty. It came on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, when Doughty tried to freeze him on a breaking ball and left it right over the heart of the plate. Guzman hit it off the left-field foul pole with an exit velo of 105.8 mph, one of two balls he hit at 100-plus on the day. He saw 19 pitches in total in his four at-bats and made an impressive stop on a groundball to his left, although he didn’t have time to get the runner at first.
Third baseman Gabriel Davalillo was 19th on my list … and that was too high. I said at the time he had “a thicker body,” and he’s gotten bigger since then. He’s 18 years old and is already too heavy to play anywhere on the field. I’m not sure what you do with a player like that — unless he’s Tony Gwynn with the stick, he’s not a prospect.
Angels pitchers did show some velocity over the course of the game, although there wasn’t much actual pitching. Right-hander Dylan Jordan (No. 12) has seen a big velo jump, sitting 94-98 with an average slider at 82-84. He has a long arm action and stays very online to the plate, allowing him to work in the zone. I’d have him over all of the other pitchers who followed him in this game.
Righty Trey Gregory-Alford (No. 8) was 96-100 with no life, and his 81-83 mph curveball is really easy to see out of his hand. He had maybe 30 command and gave up all four Cleveland runs, with two walks followed by a homer. Right-hander Nate Snead (No. 18) was 96-100, also without much life, also without much command, along with a short slider at 89-91. Chris Cortez (No. 20) sat at 98, faced five batters, struck out three and walked two. Righty Najer Victor is back from pitching for Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic and was 94-98 with a slider at 85-88, coming from a very high slot without a lot of life on the fastball.
Without Bremner, Shores or lefty Johnny Slawinski, it’s not a promising group of pitching prospects for the Angels, with Jordan the only one I would project as a potential starter.
Ethan Holliday still struggling in Rockies camp; Roldy Brito impresses
On Tuesday, I checked in on the Colorado Rockies’ Low-A team to see two of their top prospects: shortstop Ethan Holliday and infielder/outfielder Roldy Brito.
Holliday still doesn’t look good, unfortunately, as his bat speed is just fair, and he had a lot of trouble in the field. He looks like he doesn’t see the ball well at the plate or on defense; he flinched once on a practice throw from the catcher that second baseman Ashly Andujar caught, then flubbed a routine play to his left at shortstop. He did hit one ball somewhat hard, golfing a single off the right field wall that maybe should have been a double if he’d run harder out of the box. He also still rolls that front ankle pretty hard through contact, not too dissimilar from what Carson Benge had and corrected last spring. I’m concerned about this one.
Brito looked really good, however, running close to plus and showing excellent bat speed as well as some selectivity at the plate. He does set up very wide and comes unmoored sometimes because he swings so hard, but there’s feel for contact already, and there’s going to be power here, especially if the Rockies can get him to stay more balanced, maybe closing him up slightly before his leg kick.
Outfielder Cristian Arguelles, who hit .422/.528/.652 in the DSL last year with 34 walks and 25 strikeouts in 52 games, showed some real selectivity in this game, taking multiple close pitches while walking twice and then taking a pitch away down the left field line for a double. He was in a corner with Brito in center, so I didn’t get any read on whether Arguelles could stick up the middle other than that he’s not much of a runner.