BP Comment Quick Links
April 7, 2017 Guarding The LinesAggressive Prospect Placements
Minor league opening day is upon us. With it, we get the first hard information on what teams really think of their own prospects: their level assignments. There are always a handful of notable prospects given curious assignments for one reason or another, and this week I’m delving into six of the most aggressive prospect assignments of 2017.
Antonio Senzatela, RHP, Colorado Rockies (MLB)
Senzatela is a very talented arm, and in spring training he didn’t look any worse for wear. There’s an electric fastball here with a slider that flashes not that far behind. But there were already a lot of questions before he got hurt, like whether he’d develop a viable change of speed pitch or whether he’d pitch with enough consistency to remain in a rotation long-term. Throw in the new concerns about said recurring shoulder problems and the lost developmental time and, well, it sure seems like the Rockies are flinging poop at the wall and hoping something will stick. There’s enough raw stuff here not to totally rule that out, but don’t be surprised if he ends up popping back up in a year or two as a reliever either.
Kolby Allard, LHP, Atlanta Braves (Double-A Mississippi Braves)
The Braves are absolutely loaded with pitching prospects in the low-minors. General manager John Coppolella indicated that part of the reason for the lofty promotions here is that they simply didn’t have enough starting innings in their A-ball affiliates to handle how many starting pitchers they had. Given those constraints and the rest of their High-A rotation, the moves make more sense—perhaps Tyler Pike could be moving faster, but even Allard has more of a full-season foundation than Luiz Gohara, Touki Toussaint and Ricardo Sanchez both need time and polish, and Drew Harrington hasn’t pitched in full-season ball himself yet.
It takes extraordinary skill and polish for teenage pitching prospects to survive and thrive in the high-minors. If Allard and Soroka can pull it off, they’ll be a heck of a lot higher than the sixties the next time we do global prospect rankings.
Justin Dunn, RHP, New York Mets (High-A Port St. Lucie)
Dunn looked to be no exception last year, throwing short stints of up to three innings for the Cyclones. But after an impressive-enough spring, the Mets did the sensibly aggressive move and bumped Dunn up to High-A as a starter for 2017—and they also surprisingly sent second-round first baseman Peter Alonso and fifth-round infielder Colby Woodmansee to St. Lucie with Dunn, thus having them avoid the Tim Tebow circus at Low-A Columbia. Given the perilously fraught nature of the Met reliance on young pitching and the liveliness of Dunn’s arm, a hot start could put him in position to be a MLB contributor as soon as very late this year or next year.
Joshua Lowe, 3B/OF, Tampa Bay Rays (Low-A Bowling Green Hot Rods)
Instead, Lowe will head to Low-A, where he’ll reportedly work as an outfielder, an outcome we saw coming this past offseason. Granted, he did field .836 last year at third, so it didn’t take a group of geniuses to call that one. He’ll be playing next to his fellow former thirteenth overall pick Garrett Whitley, one of those six prep draftees the Rays held back from full-season ball for a year.
Sixto Sanchez, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies (Low-A Lakewood BlueClaws)
Sanchez, after two seasons in those complex leagues—one in the Dominican and one stateside—is now skipping over two levels here, jumping Phillies affiliates in both the rookie-level Appalachian League and short-season A-level New York-Penn League to reach full-season ball at age-18. That’s a huge, aggressive move even if it was also expected, one that really speaks to the organization’s belief in the player.
Jarrett Seidler is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @jaseidler
2 comments have been left for this article.
|
Jesus Sanchez is also going to Bowling Green, it seems. I don't think that I've had this much enthusiasm for an A-Ball outfield since the 2013 Hickory team. (The 2013 Hickory team was more exciting overall, to be clear. The Bowling Green outfield will be fun, though).