Daily Prospect Notes: 7/2

Notes on prospects from lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen. Read previous installments here.

Today is July 2, the first day of the new international signing period. Both our rankings and scouting reports on the top players signing today are available by means of this ominous portal.

Brailyn Marquez, LHP, Chicago Cubs (Profile)
Level: Short Season   Age: 19   Org Rank: 14  FV: 40
Line: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 R, 8 K

Notes
Marquez has a 20:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio at Eugene. I saw him up to 96 last year, but he was 88-93 in extended spring training, and his body had matured and gotten somewhat soft pretty quickly. It didn’t affect his advanced fastball command, though, or his arm-side command of his breaking ball, which comprise a large chunk of Marquez’s current plan on the mound. He projects as a No. 4/5 starter with several average pitches and above-average control.

Brandon Lowe, 2B, Tampa Bay Rays (Profile)
Level: Triple-A   Age: 23   Org Rank: 16  FV: 45
Line: 2-for-4, 2 BB, 2 2B

Notes
Lowe was promoted to Triple-A a few weeks ago and is hitting .341/.431/.716 there in 21 games. His swing had better hand separation last year, which led to a semi-breakout, and now Lowe’s batted-ball profile is also changing, his ground-ball rate dropping from 42% to 35%. We had him projected as an average everyday player at second base, but it appears there might be another gear here.

Notes from the Field
There are lots of interesting players in the AZL right now despite the current inactivity of several early-round draftees. The Cubs have two impressive Mexican middle infielders on one of their two AZL teams. One, Reivaj Garcia (Reivaj is a palindrome of Javier), is still just 16 and will be until mid-August. He has advanced bat-to-ball skills for an AZL hitter, let alone for a 16-year-old, and has been fine at second base and shortstop in my looks. He shares middle-infield duties with 17-year-old SS Luis Verdugo, who is the best defensive shortstop I’ve seen at a complex since extended began. Smooth, rangy, and acrobatic, he projects a plus defender pretty comfortably. Verdugo’s bat is light, though he has added lots of good weight just over the last several weeks, which scouts and I have eyeballed at about 8-10 pounds. He was tied up by a ball inside last night and I noticed him shaking his hand in pain several times throughout the rest of the night while taking weaker swings than he had earlier in the game, so if there’s more power on contact thanks to the added weight, it wasn’t on display last night for circumstantial reasons.

The Cubs also have an interesting teenage arm in Yovanny Cruz. He sat 90-93 with natural sink, which pairs well with his diving, plus-flashing changeup. The shape and quality of the movement on Cruz’s pitches vary significantly, but there’s workable stuff here, and pitchers like Cruz, whose stuff dictates they work down in the zone instead of up, are becoming an endangered species. Lots of high-spin fastball/curveball guys who work up in the zone are in the Arizona right now.

Speaking of high-spin curveballs, the Giants have a teenager who has a 3,000-plus RPM curveball. Julio Rodriguez, 18, sits 85-89 with natural cut and has a low-70s curveball that spins in anywhere between 2,900 and 3,100 RPM on the Trackman laptop visible at Giants AZL home games. He’s a soft-bodied 6-foot-3, 180 and has below-average present arm speed, but knowing he can spin a curveball like that makes him more interesting than the other pitchers in the AZL with 40 fastballs.

Rangers lefty Joe Palumbo has made two rehab starts (Tommy John) in the AZL. I was on hand for the second one, during which he was up to 95 and sitting 92-94 for most of three innings, down to 89-92 near the end. He missed bats with a curveball (plus when he gets on top of it, but doesn’t play in the zone), changeup (average, fine when it’s located down and to arm side), and by blowing his fastball past hitters at the letters. He clearly doesn’t have five- six-, or seven-inning stamina right now, but his stuff is back and that’s what important. He K’d 22 in 13.2 innings last year before he blew out. It’s No. 4 starter stuff.