Many times early in the season I was told by various people that the Clearwater Threshers were the worst team in affiliated baseball and that they had never seen a team with so little talent. During the first half of the season the Thresher’s 17-51 record bore out that statement. The team itself had one player (Dan Child) off of Baseball America’s Top 30 prospects and no players off of my list. The team in the first half saw rehab and roster cameos by Top 30 prospects Andrew Knapp, Malquin Canelo, and Deivi Grullon, but the first real impactful talent to arrive was Roman Quinn (.252/.330/.361). After that in the second half, top prospect J.P. Crawford (.278/.354/.430) arrived, and then there was a quick stop by 2014 top pick Aaron Nola. The Threshers are currently 28-36 over the second half and it is not just the top prospects that have made the difference. A group of players of of prospect watcher’s radars have had good second halfs taking the Threshers from historically bad to just mediocre.
Who is Making the Velocity Jump
Yesterday Chris King wrote a piece for Fangraphs detailing the increase in velocity and stuff for Williamsport right hander Franklyn Kilome. Kilome is obviously the most prominent member of the following group, but he is not the only player to keep an eye on this season. So I went through our pitch database and found … Read more