RE: Kent Baseball Players in the Pros - 2018 edition
And getting to the guys in the bigs:
* Taylor Williams spent the vast majority of the year with the Brewers, pitching solidly but not great. 56 Gs, 53 IPs, 25 BBs, 57 SOs and an ERA of 4.25. He was basically their mop-up man the entire year, rarely pitching in important situations and, in the end, was left off of the Brewer's postseason roster. Digging deeper, he was quite good in the first half, pretty darn lousy in the second half, dominated righties and got killed by lefties. Now, my take would be that he's got a power arm and the Brewers do seem to love his arm, but isn't doing the things he needs to do to stick in the bigs yet. But, let's keep in mind that he didn't pitch a lot last year after missing a full two years due to injury. I think he could go either way and would expect him in the same role next year while he sees if he can figure out what it takes to be a strong major league reliever.
* Travis Shaw (241/340/485) - Another really good year for Shaw and I even wonder if he underperformed given his low BA. His SO rate was the lowest of his career, his walk rate being the highest and power being just fine. His D at third was really good, but the Brewers decided to jerk him around and stick him at 2nd Base when they traded for Moustakas. He had never played 2nd and was ok there (his range was not great, but he only made 1 error in 39 games). The only negative thing I see is that Shaw didn't hit lefties last year at all, compared to previous years where he was at least ok if not quite average. I think he's near his ceiling, which is to say, he is a near All-Star 3rd baseman and vastly exceeded any expectations I had for him when he was in the minors.
* Andrew Chafin (3.10 ERA in 49.1 IP; 25 BBs, 53 SOs). Chafin was 3rd in the NL in games pitched with 77 and I can't help but think that his late fade (11.12 ERA in September) had something to do with that because it's happened before. Chafin went from a 1 inning guy to more a LOOGY towards the end of the year when nothing was going right for the D'Backs. He was really good against righties and lefties (before Sept), didn't give up a HR the entire year and kept the running game in check (5 SBs in 8 attempts) - all things to love in a reliever. I think the D'backs need to change his usage pattern to not burn him out because he really is one of the better relievers in the game.
* Eric Lauer (4.34 ERA in 112 IP; 46 BBs, 100 SOs) - At times it was a rough rookie year for Lauer as he was shelled a lot, which isn't really reflected with his overall stats as he pitched so well at the end of the year. What I read consistently was, when Lauer had the fastball going at 92-93 mph, it was moving great and he was dominant. That's what we saw towards the end of the year, but there was also a stretch in the middle of the year where he had it going. When his fastball was 89 mph, it flattens out and he gets killed. If it's a question of mechanics, injury or otherwise, who's to say, but the Padres have a good pitcher in the making if he reaches his potential. The other problem I see is that he runs up the pitch count really fast and was typically hitting 100 pitches by the sixth, which means he needs a lot of bullpen help to get him through his starts. He averaged less than 5 innings per start. But the reality is that only 3 starting pitchers from the 2016 draft have made the majors (teammate Joey Lucchesi and the Indians Shane Bieber), so, even though 2018 was a mixed bag, Lauer will likely have a fruitful major league career ahead of him if he can stay healthy.
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