712 Minors Report: Cabrera, 19, Now Has 100 MPH Fastball

rico43

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
A write up on A-Rod's recap appearance against the Rome Braves this past week mentioned that Rome starter Maurico Cabrera was credited with a pitch clocked at 101 mph on the stadium (Charleston) radar gun. Imagine the number of scouts who attended that game and consider that the Braves are fine-tuning their roster for the stretch run.

Still only 19, Cabrera is taking Tehan's place as the favorite son phenom in the farm system. A man-child at 6-2, 180, he was signed in 2010 and is very much on track to be on the doorstep of the big leagues by his 21st birthday.

HIs tools? Allow me to borrow MLB.com's ratings:(present/future): Fastball: 7/7 | Curveball: 4/5 | Changeup: 4/5 | Control: 4/5 | Overall: 4/6. He's rated the Braves' No. 6 prospect by MLB.com (pre-season). Their writeup indicates that his fastball had previously topped out at 96 with more waiting to be unleashed. That appears to be the case, if the Charleston gun was anywhere close to accurate.

His season in Rome is better than his 1-5 record would indicate. He's struck out a team-high 75 in 86 innings, has a 4.48 ERA, has allowed only two homers and less than a hit an inning. He hasn't missed a turn in 16 starts, but he may well be tiring -- he only pitched 58 innings last season. His monthly ERA breaks are April (2.70), May (5.20), June (5.14) and July (5.73, two starts).

But he got A-Rod out!

FRIDAY'S RESULTS

CLASS AAA

Durham 3, Gwinnett (41-55) 0

LP: Hale (3-5) 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K.. Buchter 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K.
Constanza 2-5, SB (18); Leonard 3-4, 2 2B.
Gattis (DH) 0-4, 2 K.

CLASS AA

Mississippi (11-12) 2, Chattanooga 0

WP: Thomas (4-6) 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K. Harper (Save, 5) 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
Martinez 2-4, RBI (.306); La Stella 1-3; Marrero 1-3, RBI; M. Jones 1-4, R, 2 SB.

ADVANCED CLASS A

Lynchburg (5-11) @ Wilmington, ppd.

CLASS A

Rome (7-12) 6, Hagerstown 5

SP: L. Sims 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, WP, 2 HBP.
WP: Jadofsky (6-3) 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 K. Simmons (Save, 21) 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K.
Kalenkosky 1-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Meneses 1-3, R, 2 RBI; Anselment 2-4, R, RBI; Peraza 1-3, R, 2 SB (36), 2 E; Marte 1-4, R.

ROOKIE LEAGUE

Kingsport @ Danville (9-9), DH, ppd.

GCL Braves (6-9) 7, GCL Tigers 6 Walk-off win (Odom 1B).

SP: Leon 4 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
WP: Brosius (1-0) 1 IP, 0 H, 2 K.
Reed Harper 1-2, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI; Livesay 3-4, R (.341); Odom 2-4, R, RBI; V. Reyes 1-3, SAC.* NOTE: Game tied on throwing error on Reyes SAC.

DSL Braves (14-16) @ DSL Brewers

SP: TBA.

Thursday Game
DSL Brewers 8, DSL Braves (14-16) 7 (12)

SP: Matos 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 R. 2 BB, 2 K...
LP: Heredia (1-1) 1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.
Chin 1-5, R, SB; Tejada 2-5, 2 R, 2B; Castro 1-3, 2 RBI; Vasquez 2-3, 2 RBI.
 
I saw a clip on him a while ago and loved his stuff. I think comparing him to Julio is pretty accurate. Though I'm not sure he's got quite as high of a ceiling as Julio since his secondary stuff isn't quite there. But he's really reminding me of Neftali Feliz in terms of having an electric fastball.

My concern with him just looking at his numbers is his BB rate, he needs to get that under control. I guess the upside is even if he doesn't have the control to be a starter, could be a heck of a reliever.
 
Only thing that matters with Cabrera right now is innings. Let him throw whatever he needs to throw to get better and not worry about the results.
 
I don't know if there is a shift in philosophy, but Cabrera is part of a growing collection of power arms who could be in the Braves rotation during the next few years. The others include Wood, Graham, Sims and Hursh. And Teheran is already there. Not all of them will pan out, but I'm hoping in the future we'll have 3 or 4 power arms in the major league rotation instead of just 1 or 2 if you count Beachy.
 
nsacpi said:
I don't know if there is a shift in philosophy, but Cabrera is part of a growing collection of power arms who could be in the Braves rotation during the next few years. The others include Wood, Graham, Sims and Hursh. And Teheran is already there. Not all of them will pan out, but I'm hoping in the future we'll have 3 or 4 power arms in the major league rotation instead of just 1 or 2 if you count Beachy.
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Graham I fear is destined for the pen. It's really hard for someone who's 5'10 to have a long successful major league career. But that could work for us since he could essentially replace (in about as much capacity as one can replace) Kimbrel when we can't afford him. Wood we have yet to see but I hope he stays healthy.

Honestly if there was a way we could keep a rotation of Minor, Beachy, Julio, Wood, and Sims together for a long time, I'd be very excited about that.
 
zitothebrave said:
Graham I fear is destined for the pen. It's really hard for someone who's 5'10 to have a long successful major league career. But that could work for us since he could essentially replace (in about as much capacity as one can replace) Kimbrel when we can't afford him. Wood we have yet to see but I hope he stays healthy.

Honestly if there was a way we could keep a rotation of Minor, Beachy, Julio, Wood, and Sims together for a long time, I'd be very excited about that.
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I'm more worried that Graham is destined for shoulder surgery. He was dismissive that it wasn't a big problem at the time, but he's going on two months on the shelf right now. Too many guys his age are in denial and postpones the inevitable.
 
I hope Cabrera is tough between the ears, because they are pushing him pretty fast. He may look like Teheran physically, but his control issues mark a departure from Teheran's performance. I trust the Braves to do the right thing.

Graham's "minor" injury appears to be more than that. I wonder what's up. Used to be elbow injuries were the harbinger of a pitcher's ultimate demise. With the advances in Tommy John surgery, shoulder injuries are now more troubling.
 
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