Prospect Watch: Heaney, Pino and Parker Debut

Each weekday during the minor-league season, FanGraphs is providing a status update on multiple rookie-eligible players. Note that Age denotes the relevant prospect’s baseball age (i.e. as of July 1st of the current year); Top-15, the prospect’s place on Marc Hulet’s preseason organizational list; and Top-100, that same prospect’s rank on Hulet’s overall top-100 list.

***Andrew Heaney, LHP, Florida Marlins (Profile)
Level: MLB   Age: 23   Top-15: 1st   Top-100: 31st
Line: (Triple-A) 23.0 IP, 10.57 K/9, 0.78 BB/9, .39 HR/9, 2.07 FIP

Summary
The Marlins have called up their top prospect, Andrew Heaney. He will debut tonight against the Mets and Zack Wheeler.

Notes
After dominating Double-A and Triple-A, Andrew Heaney is set to make his Major League debut two years after being drafted. As an advanced pitcher out of Oklahoma State University, the Marlins expected Heaney would move through their system quickly. The young left hander made a sparse 36 starts across two partial and one full season.

His strength is command/control. Heaney features a simple, effortless delivery from a low 3/4 arm slot that he repeats with consistency. Primarily, he works off his low 90s fastball that features sink and runs away from right handed hitters. It’s complemented by a tight slider and an a change up.

The Marlins have publicly stated Heaney’s workload will be limited to keep him available should they reach the playoffs. As of this morning, Miami sits just two games back of Washington in the loss column.It will be interesting to watch Heaney’s young career bloomsom through the lens of this decision.  Another important note is that Heaney’s call-up should have been late enough in the season to prevent him from becoming Super-Two eligible.

***Kyle Parker, 1B/OF, Rockies (Profile)
Level: MLB   Age: 24.8  Top-15: Top-100: N/A
Line:  277 PA,  19.1 K%, 7.6 BB%, .292/.347/.478 (wRC+ 113)

Summary
Injuries have forced the Rockies to promote former first round pick Kyle Parker.

Notes
At draft time, Parker was thought to be a difficult sign due to his prowess at Clemson… playing football… as a quarterback. It’s an impressive pedigree, on paper. The expectation, or least my expectation, prior to watching Parker was the presence of some semblance of athleticism. More Andrew Luck, less Jared Lorenzen, perhaps. Though, once I had the opportunity to see him, it was clear Parker would provide minimal, if any, defensive value in the outfield.  Lumbering is an apt description of his mobility.

Parker is a short, right-handed power hitter who has benefited, and will continue to benefit, from playing the Colorado Rockies’ organization where the system is littered with hitters’ parks. His power is present in game situations and he has the contact ability to hit home runs at the MLB level, but he’s really a one dimensional player. Colleague Hulet summed him up well: “Parker … has a shot at developing into a modest big league corner outfielder or first baseman. More than likely, though, he’ll end up as a platoon outfielder/first baseman or powerful bat off the bench.”

Thus far, Parker has had 5 MLB plate appearances in 3 games. He’s 0-5 with 4 strikeouts.

***Yohan Pino, RHP, Minnisota Twins (Profile)
Level: MLB   Age: 30.5   Top-15: N/A Top-100: N/A
Line: (Triple-A) 61.0 IP, 9.00 K/9, 2.36 BB/9, 1.03 HR/9, 3.70 FIP

Summary
After nine seasons in the minor leagues, Twins starter Yohan Pino will debut tonight against the Chicago White Sox and Jose Quintana.

Notes
If Pino is not remembered for his debut and the myriad of wine puns surely to follow, Twins fans will always be grateful to him for teaching their top pitching prospect Alex Meyer his pitch-fork change up. The addition of Pino’s change to Meyer’s overpowering arsenal has helped Meyer dominate in 2014.

Pino is unlikely to be as effective as Meyer, but the Twins praise his poise and intelligence on the mound. Of course, Pino has been in the Minor Leagues for nearly a decade, half that time with the Twins, and they never felt he was a viable option in the past.  He’s not overpowering. He works in the high 80s with a big looping curve. In all likelihood, Pino is will only hold the rotation spot for a handful of starters prior to passing the baton to Alex Meyer or Trevor May.