Pharm Report: 2015 week one summary

A little housekeeping note: I'll only write up Pitchers monthly. Starters get discussed in Jay's daily recaps and most don't get 2 starts in during a typical week. It's better to wait and do it after they've got a half dozen or so starts in the books to look at.

Also, includes games from 4/9 through 4/15.

Who's hot?

Carlos Tocci, OF - Tocci isn't just hot, he's like superheated plasma. Sure he's due for regression, with a BABiP at .400 and nothing in his past performance really suggesting he can maintain a .185 ISO. Still a triple slash of .407/.485/.593 is hella fun and it's easy to see him hitting his way to Clearwater before you even open your swimming pool for the season. The walks are really promising, as is the low K rate. The weight lifting program over the offseason seems it may have paid dividends too.

Roman Quinn, OF - Our two hottest hitters are fast Centerfielders. Quinn ended last season with everyone seemingly questioning his hitting and his ability to get one base and his defense and his speed. All Quinn has done so far is hit .478/.538/.870 for a rather Bonds-esque 1.408 OPS. Admittedly his BABiP is a very absurd .588. Quinn is fast, but he ain't the Flash, that BABiP will come down. He has the speed to maintain a high BABiP, but short of being able to teleport to First, no one can maintain a .600 BABiP for very long. The .391 ISO is probably also a little artificial, but again not entirely. Ben Badler from Baseball America saw Quinn play this week and noted Quinn's ability to consistently turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Of course there's also the element that he can turn any single into a double by stealing second. In fact the mere threat he poses can provide a certain reverse lineup protection making Pitchers worry more about throwing Fastballs and perhaps getting some catchers to focus less on framing and more on being in position to throw to Second. Quinn is stupid exciting. Go to Reading and enjoy folks.

Maikel Franco, 3B - I could really list the entire LHV Offense, but Franco's really the only prospect (except Tommy Jospeh, but he's the only non-hot hitter). The sample's small, but Franco's K rate is the only red flag so far, so keep an eye on that. Otherwise .296/.387/.630 is friggin' fantastic and the BABiP looks fine, the power is a little high, but he's a power hitter, so that won't come down too far, though I wouldn't bet on many more Triples. The Walks are good to see and would be nice to see them continue.

Andrew Pullin, OF - I kind of wrote Pullin off after he moved off Second, but he's gotten off to a bit of a BABiP fueled hot start slashing .421/.500/.526, so I'll keep an eye on him. If he can keep the K's really low he may have some value, but he doesn't have a ton of power and his speed and arm limit him to Left, that's a tough route to an MLB job.

Andrew Knapp, C - .355/.375/.419 looks good, but this is a really scary line when put in the context of a .500 BABiP and a roughly 30% K rate. Still there's time for the average to come down, along with the K's and normalize to something still respectable. Some red flags early though.

Drew Stankiewicz, 2B - In the competition for top Second Base prospect in the system in Valentin's indefinite absence for Domestic Abuse. His line of .333/.455/.444 is about as legit as an 18 AB line can look. I liked Stankie when they picked him as he's a reputed hard worker and smart player. The type that sometimes outperform their tools. He's not a top of the lists prospect, but he's got some potential to keep an eye on.

Who's not?

Cord Sandberg, OF - .208/.296/.208. An insanely small sample, but perhaps after 2 years of scorching starts and big cool downs, Cord's going the other way this year. Nothing alarming. The power will show up I'm sure and he's got a .217 BABiP which seems way too low. No worries for a few more weeks.

Jiandido Tromp, OF - Tromp's line is very similar to Cord's, but includes a Triple and a truly alarming K rate (36%). Similar to Sandberg in that I won't worry for a few more weeks, but when you start getting over 30% with your K rate that a really big red flag if it stays there.

Cam Perkins, OF - Again, small sample, but a .150/.261/.200 line is a far cry from his 2014. Still his BABiP is .167 and he hit in Reading last year, so I assume everything points to a rebound.

Brian Pointer, OF - The good: Pointer has a homer and a 25% BB rate. The bad: a 50% K rate and .133 AVG.

Tommy Joseph, C - I'm rooting for ToJo, but this is a fairly horrid start to the year. A .167/.167/.222 line is bad, but it's such a small sample. The 35% K rate is more alarming, but with all these guys it's best to remember the perspective that it's a marathon and they could all end up with excellent rates. For now, they're just very small red flags to keep an eye on.

Dylan Cozens, OF - This line doesn't worry me too much: .200/.259/.280. Sure it's ugly, but it's also early. The power will show up, the BABiP is likely to rise. Walk and K rates are fine, sometimes you just hit the balls right at people. A few bounce different and he'd be in the .250 range which is fine for him.

Zach Green, 1B/3B - This line does worry me much: .138/.194/.172. Sure his BABiP is low, but not much worse than Cozens. Green is K'ing a lot (34%) and one of the concerns for Green was that his slower than ideal swing and pitch recognition issues would pop up as he rose the ladder. Now, he may still adjust and end up fine, but this is a rather bad week to dig out of.