2015 Pharm Report: Week 2

House cleaning: This covers the dates from 4/16 through 4/22. Also I don't include Pitchers, because they don't make enough appearances in a week. I'll cover them during the monthly review.

Who's hot:

The usual suspects start off our list.

Maikel Franco, 3B - Frasnco spent his week going .387/.406/.516 with 4 doubles, 8 K's and 1 BB. That's a decent pile of K's, but Franco walked a lot last week and didn't K much, so it all balances out to be around his career averages.

Roman Quinn, CF - Mercury was the Roman god know for his speed and cunning, capable of effortlessly shifting between the world of mortals and divine. Roman Quinn is the Double-A Centerfielder capable of many of the same things. He remained among the divine for a second straight week, going .333/.385/.375 with a double, 2 BB, 4 SB and showing how effortlessly he can be mortal he also had 2 CS and 7 K. He did still keep a nearly .500 BABiP, but there have been a few scouting reports noting he had more bat than previously thought and his speed was so good that he can turns outs into hits. Could top out as a first division regular and thorough terror at the top of the lineup.

Carlos Tocci, CF - Look, we're roughly 10% of the way through the season and final numbers could change dramatically, but Tocci's profile looks waaaay different so far this year. This week he went .333/.385/.500 with 4 doubles, a walk and a strikeout. It's again a very small sample, but he has a 5.2% K rate and 10.3% BB rate so far along with a .176 ISO. That's double his previous ISO, a third of his career K rate and twice his career BB rate. If he keeps those even vaguely similar he turns back into a top 5 guy in the system and one of the more intriguing prospects in the Org.

The new hotness:

Aaron Altherr, OF - Back from the DL last Friday Aaron is scorching out of the gate. with a .350/.519/.600 line with 2 doubles, a HR, 7 BB, 4 K and a SB. This is reminiscent of his start in 2013 in Clearwater when he rocketed up prospect lists. He's sporting a 37.5% LD rate, which is pretty absurd, so the BABiP is reasonable given the crazy high LD rate. That kind of LD rate is pretty unsustainable, but even cutting that rate in half he'd still have a really good line.

Willians Astudillo, C -  The Spherical Splinter spent the week tearing it up with a .387/.394/.516 line with 1 SB and 1 CS (2 attempts, Willians?), plus 4 doubles and, for Willians, a whopping 2 K's. He had some Defensive hiccups, but if he can just get mediocre on Defense his contact skills are special.

Rhys Hoskins, 1B - First Base is a tough route to take in pro ball as you have to absolutely rake to even get noticed. Rhys raked this week to a tune of .321/.367/.714 with 2 doubles, 3 HR, 6 K and 1 BB. Yeah, that'll get you noticed. The power is legit and I'm a big fan of Hopkins, but the absurd OFB rate is probably not sustainable. Still, there's nothing blocking him up the ladder (frankly at any level of the Org.) so he can move as fast as his bat takes him.

Harold Martinez, 3B/1B/DH - Because I've written about H-Mart's struggles a lot in the past, well he had a good week and it's only fair to give credit when due too. H-Mart went .500/.539/.900 with a double, a Homer, 3 K's and 2 BB's. H-Mart is a part-time Org. guy at this point, but he's having a really good year so far at the plate and at 25 he could just be a late bloomer, but with only 22 PA's it's way too early to get excited about anything.

Who's not - a longer list than I'll cover, but here's the high(low?)lights:

Grenny Cumana, 2B/SS - An ugly .111/.200/.111 line this week, but Cumana is doing some things well, as he's drawing walks and his K's are pretty low. He's just making an awful lot of really weak contact. Cumana's never going to be a power hitter, but he'll need to fill out a little bit to improve a 6.3% Line Drive rate. He's currently hitting a lot of ball types that turn into easy outs (59+% fly balls). His defense at Second is still a work in progress, but he has the tools to stick there on D.

Zach Green, 3B/1B - Cold starts happen, but what's a little eyebrow raising about Green's is the complete lack of power. His total power output thus far is a lone Double in nearly 60 Plate Appearances. The K rate's ugly too. The silver lining is that his batted ball profile actually looks much better than in prior years, so it's entirely possible that he's been insanely unlucky and is due for a huge breakout.

Deivi Grullon, C - Grullon is more highly regarded for his glove, so a .190/.227/.286 week isn't as concerning as it is for some other prospects. Still he'll need to hit much better as he moves along. Smallest of red flags for now.

Tommy Joseph, C - He's healthy, he's still pretty young and it's still early. Otherwise it's a seriously horrid line so far. I searched his line for bright spots, but that first sentence is pretty much it. Just have to hope it's slump and he snaps out of it and stays healthy.

Andrew Knapp, C - This section of the update is like the island of misfit Catchers. Andrew Knapp's line (.148/.172/.222) is pretty bad without further context. Now, add to that a K rate this week of nearly 50% (34.4% on the season) and it gets seriously alarming. Hopefully he'll adjust to the level and settle at a reasonable line.

Cord Sandberg, OF - The good: Cord is just not Striking out and he's drawing a respectable number of walks. The bad: There's no power so far, it's all singles. The ugly: He's not hitting for singles very much either. The silver lining is that his underlying numbers suggest he's just been really unlucky and it'll be hittin' season soon.

Jiandido Tromp, OF - Tromp strikes out a lot. That's part of his game and has been at each level. You live with that though for a guy with average Power (or better) potential in Center Field. I think Tromp's been mostly unlucky so far.

Not not hot, but worth a mention:

Dylan Cozens, OF - His line is fine .250/.314/.375 I envision his eventual ceiling as that line, but with a bit more slugging. Deeper into his line come the more interesting parts. Cozens struck out at a 33+% rate this week, but he struck out so little the first week that he's settled back at his career rate. So, no big deal there, but a closer look at his batted ball rates makes him look like an extremely large Ben Revere. A 60% Ground Ball rate suggests he may be rolling over a lot of pitches and having problems identifying some of the more advanced pitches. He's got time to adjust and over a larger sample some of these issues may be balance out like his K rate did.