5/18/15 MINOR LEAGUE FINAL: Carolina idle again; Banuelos starts (3-0)

rico43

rico43

<B>Director of Minor League Reports</B>
Where's Weber Been?

Quite a bit of buzz surrounding Ryan Weber's promotion to Gwinnett, mostly surrounding his Class AA stats: 1.93 ERA in nine games, but especially with 23 strikeouts to ONE walk in 23 IP (18 hits allowed).

So why was he below the radar? For starters, he was a 22nd round pick in 2009, a 6-0, 180 RHP out of the juco ranks -- the very definition of nondescript, even though one draft service ranked him as the No. 2 junior college pitcher available.

Don't remember what his 2011 injury was that held him to 15 games and 50 innings, but it wasn't Tommy John.

MONDAY'S GAMES

ALL TIMES EDT

CLASS AAA

Gwinnett 8, Toledo 2

WP: Banuelos (3-0) 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.

Fisher (Save, 1) 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.

Kleinknecht 2-3, 3 R, HR (2nd), RBI; My. Jones 3-4, HR (2nd), 2 R, 2 RBI; Castro 2-3, 2B, RBI; E. Perez 2-5, 2B, 3B, R, 3 RBI.

CLASS AA

Pensacola 4, Mississippi 3

SP: Brigham 0.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.

LP: Reyes (4-2) 4 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K.

Ahrens 1-2, HR(1st), 3 RBI; Mx. Smith 1-3, R; Ruiz 1-3, BB.

ADVANCED CLASS A

Carolina, idle

CLASS A

Charleston 6, Rome 2

LP: Webster (0-1) 5 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 7 K.

F. Gonzalez 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ('15 debut)

Nevarez 1-4, HR (1st), RBI; Obregon 1-3, BB; Gaylor 0-3, R, BB, SB. .

MOVES: Weber to Gwinnett, Texiera to Miss.

Webster signing, Gonzalez up from extended spring to Rome.

Zavala back to Rome from Carolina; Marte, Osnowitz to Danville roster from Rome.

Adonis Garcia to ATLANTA!
 
Mallex with another hit tonight. I really like this guy although he's striking out a little more than I would like.
 
thethe said:
Banuelos is really starting to get it into gear. Any reports on his velocity?
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I watched the game tonight on MILB.tv and it was the road feed that didn't give mph on pitches. So I had to go by what the announcers said and they didn't comment enough on his velocity to say what he averaged tonight. But I can tell you that other nights I've seen him hitting 93-94 mph at times while mostly staying around 91-93 mph. Plus Gwinnett's pitching coach said earlier this month: "Reed said he's pleased with the growth Banuelos has made."It's going to be really interesting when that arm starts to get back to where it was," Reed said. "My opinion of it is that he had a tendency to get away with some things at the lower levels when he was throwing 97, 98. Now he's in the upper levels, he's facing guys who can turn a 94, 95, 96 mph fastball around. When that velocity starts creeping up a few more notches, he has a chance to be special." Banuelos was sitting around 91-92 mph on Saturday, according to Reed, who said he touched 93-94 but was unsure if, or when, his velocity would ever reach pre-surgery highs. But the pitching coach noted the development of his curveball and improvement of his changeup -- which is in the low 80s -- will lead to more success than relying on one fastball, no matter how hard he throws it."

That said, Man-Ban must be pretty tough because he took three line drives off his body in this game and stayed in and pitched well. One of the liners was a bullet off his back right under his number 13 too. That had to hurt but he shook it off just as he shook off a liner off his thigh and another off his leg in the game. I cannot remember seeing a pitcher take three liners off his body in one game and shake it off like "Hey np I am fine" but he did. He actually looked to be okay each time too but I would bet he'll be sore in the morning.
 
Braves1976 said:
I watched the game tonight on MILB.tv and it was the road feed that didn't give mph on pitches. So I had to go by what the announcers said and they didn't comment enough on his velocity to say what he averaged tonight. But I can tell you that other nights I've seen him hitting 93-94 mph at times while mostly staying around 91-93 mph. Plus Gwinnett's pitching coach said earlier this month: "Reed said he's pleased with the growth Banuelos has made."It's going to be really interesting when that arm starts to get back to where it was," Reed said. "My opinion of it is that he had a tendency to get away with some things at the lower levels when he was throwing 97, 98. Now he's in the upper levels, he's facing guys who can turn a 94, 95, 96 mph fastball around. When that velocity starts creeping up a few more notches, he has a chance to be special." Banuelos was sitting around 91-92 mph on Saturday, according to Reed, who said he touched 93-94 but was unsure if, or when, his velocity would ever reach pre-surgery highs. But the pitching coach noted the development of his curveball and improvement of his changeup -- which is in the low 80s -- will lead to more success than relying on one fastball, no matter how hard he throws it."

That said, Man-Ban must be pretty tough because he took three line drives off his body in this game and stayed in and pitched well. One of the liners was a bullet off his back right under his number 13 too. That had to hurt but he shook it off just as he shook off a liner off his thigh and another off his leg in the game. I cannot remember seeing a pitcher take three liners off his body in one game and shake it off like "Hey np I am fine" but he did. He actually looked to be okay each time too but I would bet he'll be sore in the morning.
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Great report...I think we have another starting pitcher for next season that needs to be in the rotation:

Tehearn
Wood
Miller
Folty
Wisler
Banuelos

Thats already six guys for 5 spots and that doesn't even consider some fringe guys who could get a shot like Perez/Jenkins/Martin/etc..

Its pretty incredible how much pitching depth Hart has accumulated.
 
Teams almost always need more than five starters. On average teams give eight guys at least 10 starts over the course of a season. As of now we have these guys as internal candidates for 2016: Wood, Teheran, Miller, Folty, Banuelos, Wisler, Williams Perez, Martin. That's eight, which is about the right number. One or two can start the season in AAA and one or two in the pen. I'm assuming Cahill's option won't be picked up and Minor is non-tendered.

Eight is about what you need and what you have to base your planning around. It does not represent a surplus of starting pitching for 2016. Now if we pick up a veteran starting pitcher over the off-season then we can start thinking about moving a starter to fill other needs.
 
Banuelos' strike-to-ball ratio was good last night and he was on the right side of the GO/AO equation. I watch those things fairly closely with some prospects. Good to see him pitching well. Outside of two rough starts in late April, the most earned runs he's given up in a start is one.
 
50PoundHead said:
Banuelos' strike-to-ball ratio was good last night and he was on the right side of the GO/AO equation. I watch those things fairly closely with some prospects. Good to see him pitching well. Outside of two rough starts in late April, the most earned runs he's given up in a start is one.
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Historically, he has not been a ground ball pitcher. Btw, I was checking Ryan Weber's stats and he does have a consistent pattern of high GO/AO ratios. For his career it is at 2.5 versus 1.0 for Banuelos.
 
nsacpi said:
Historically, he has not been a ground ball pitcher. Btw, I was checking Ryan Weber's stats and he does have a consistent pattern of high GO/AO ratios. For his career it is at 2.5 versus 1.0 for Banuelos.
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And that's my worry about Banuelos. Potentially great stuff, but I guess I prefer guys who can get the hitter to pound it into the ground.

Weber has been a ground ball machine. I think his problem is that his fastball may not even be average. Great control and location though. He was on a couple of US Junior National teams, so he has credentials.
 
nsacpi said:
Now if we pick up a veteran starting pitcher over the off-season then we can start thinking about moving a starter to fill other needs.
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I think this is exactly what will happen either this offseason or next when 1 or 2 of the young guns are used in a trade package to acquire a RHed bat to pair with Freeman in the middle of the order. It's a matter of who/when, not if, in my opinion.
 
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