Baseball America Prospect Report — Aug. 18, 2020
Image credit: Luis Robert (Quinn Harris/Getty)
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Atlanta Braves
—Righthander Huascar Ynoa, the Braves’ No. 17 prospect, dazzled in three shutout innings of relief. The 22-year-old whiffed four Nationals hitters, including Victor Robles, to get his team out of a jam in the fifth inning. He also got catcher Kurt Suzuki, third baseman Carter Kieboom and Robles a second time before a double to Trea Turner closed Ynoa’s evening.
Baltimore Orioles
—Righthander Dillon Tate, fresh off the 10-day injured list, made his 2020 debut. Part of the package the Yankees used to get lefthander Zack Britton two seasons ago, Tate was roughed up over the final 2.1 innings of Baltimore’s loss to Toronto. He surrendered a homer to Cavan Biggio as part of two earned runs on a hit and a walk. His lone strikeout of the evening came against Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whom Tate got to wave at a 96 mph heater.
Chicago Cubs
—No. 14 prospect Tyson Miller made his big league debut in the second game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals, pitching two innings, allowing two runs on one hit and three walks. The 2016 fourth-rounder from California Baptist breezed through the first inning, but allowed a two-run home run in the second inning followed by a walk. Miller was 7-8, 4.35 in 2019 between Double-A and Triple-A, striking out 123 and walking 43 in 136.2 innings.
Chicago White Sox
—No. 1 prospect Luis Robert crushed two home runs, a solo shot in the sixth inning and a two-run homer in the eighth, in the team’s win over the Tigers. The center fielder has three home runs in his last three games and five on the year to go with a .286 average, 13 RBIs and 13 runs scored.
—No. 29 prospect Danny Mendick hit his first home run, a line-drive solo shot in the sixth inning. The second baseman has filled in well for Nick Madrigal, posting a .275 average with four runs scored.
Detroit Tigers
—Hours after receiving a promotion to the major leagues, No. 6 prospect Isaac Paredes collected his first career hit and first two RBIs with a two-run single in the fourth inning of the team’s loss to the White Sox. The 21-year-old bat-first third baseman, who was selected to the 2019 Futures Game, hit .282/.368/.416 with 13 home runs and 66 RBIs in 127 games as the second youngest player in the Double-A Eastern League last season.
Houston Astros
—No. 16 prospect Brandon Bielak cruised through six one-hit innings, allowing one run, walking four and striking out four to earn the win against the Rockies. The 24-year-old righthander is 3-0, 1.69 with 15 strikeouts and 11 walks in 21.1 innings.
—Righthander Blake Taylor pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his first big league save. The 24-year-old has excelled to a 1-0, 1.54 mark with 12 strikeouts and five walks in 11.2 innings, and became the fourth Astros reliever to earn a save this season.
Kansas City Royals
—No. 10 prospect Kris Bubic pitched 4.1 innings in the team’s loss to the Twins, allowing two runs on four hits, walking four and striking out four. Bubic allowed just three hitters to reach base through the first three innings, but in the fourth gave up a solo home run and later allowed a run to score via single. The 22-year-old lefthander is 0-3, 5.12 with 19 strikeouts and eight walks in 19.1 innings.
Miami Marlins
—Righthander Sterling Sharp, the team’s No. 24 prospect after being selected in the Rule 5 Draft from the Nationals, lived up to his reputation as a grounder-specialist on Monday. He got four groundouts and no flyouts over 2.1 innings, but he did give up a few costly balls in the air. Specifically, he allowed Robinson Cano’s first of two home runs on the evening in the Mets’ shellacking of the Marlins in Miami. The outing was the third of Sharp’s big league career, and it came after a pair of scoreless efforts earlier in the month.
Minnesota Twins
—No. 12 prospect Devin Smeltzer made his fourth appearance in the team’s win over the Royals, striking out three, walking one and allowing one hit in 2.2 scoreless innings to earn the win. The 24-year-old lefthander is 2-0, 6.17 with 12 strikeouts and four walks in 11.2 innings.
New York Mets
Despite a bout of wildness, righthander Franklyn Kilome earned the save in the Mets’ blowout of the Marlins. New York’s No. 16 prospect struck out four but walked five while allowing two runs over the final three innings.
New York Yankees
Righthander Michael King, the team’s No. 14 prospect, pitched three one-run innings after the game turned into a battle of the bullpens because of a rain delay. King took over for lefty Luis Avilan and struck out a pair in the seventh and eighth innings before handing the ball to Aroldis Chapman for his first outing of the season.
Oakland Athletics
—Catcher Austin Allen, the A’s No. 11 prospect, went 2-for-3 with a double in a 4-3 loss to the D-backs. It was the 25-year-old’s first multi-hit game since joining Oakland last winter in the trade that sent Jurickson Profar to the Padres,
San Diego Padres
—No. 16 prospect Jake Cronenworth doubled home a run and scored another in the team’s win over the Rangers. The 26-year-old, who was acquired with Tommy Pham from the Rays for Hunter Renfroe, Xavier Edwards and a PTBNL in December, has nine extra-base hits in 18 games.
San Francisco Giants
—No. 10 prospect Mauricio Dubon went 2-for-4 with two runs scored against the Angels. It was his third multi-hit effort in his last four games.
Seattle Mariners
—No. 10 prospect Kyle Lewis had his 10th multi-hit game of the season in the team’s win over the Dodgers. The 25-year-old center fielder hit a two-run shot and scored twice. Lewis has five home runs and 17 RBIs to go with 15 runs.
—No. 4 prospect Evan White hit his third home run, a two-run shot in the third inning. The 24-year-old first baseman has hit two home runs and collected three hits in his last four games.
St. Louis Cardinals
—No. 10 prospect Kwang Hyun-Kim made his first career start in the team’s win over the Cardinals in the first game of a doubleheader, allowing one run on three hits and three walks in 3.2 innings while striking out one. The 32-year-old lefthander, who signed a two-year, $8 million deal with the Cardinals in December, gave up a solo home run to Ian Happ to start the fourth and was lifted two batters later.
Max Schrock hit his first career home run in the second game of the doubleheader against the Cubs, hitting the second of back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning. The 25-year-old second baseman is 3-for-5 in two starts since his promotion to the big leagues on Aug. 5.
—Lefthander Ricardo Sanchez made his big league debut in the second game of the doubleheader, striking out three batters and walking two in two scoreless frames while relying on a 90-93 mph fastball. The 23-year-old was a Texas League all-star in 2019, pitching to a 8-12, 4.44 mark and striking out 135 and walking 38 in 146 innings.
—No. 4 prospect Genesis Cabrera made his second appearance, pitching 1.1 innings, allowing a run, walking one and striking out two while relying on his plus fastball that sat 95-97 mph. The 23-year-old lefthander was hit hard in his debut on Aug. 15, allowing two runs in an inning of work.
Washington Nationals
On Monday, Luis Garcia made history twice over. The No. 2 prospect swatted his first career home run—a drive to right-center field off of Braves starter Touki Toussaint. Hitting your first career is an accomplishment of its own, but Garcia’s blast made him the first player born in the 2000s to go deep in the big leagues.
—Righthander Dakota Bacus made his second big league appearance, tossing a scoreless inning with one strikeout. Incredibly, according to StatCast, 16 of the 18 pitches Bacus threw were sliders. The other two were low-90s sinkers.
Carter Kieboom went 1-for-3 with a walk and also flashed some wicked leather at third base.
HITTERS
| TEAM | CLASS | PLAYER | AB | R | H | BI | AVG | NOTES |
| CHC | MAJ | Hoerner, Nico 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .196 | |
| CWS | MAJ | Mendick, Danny 2B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .259 | HR (1) |
| CWS | MAJ | Robert, Luis CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | .284 | 2 HR (5) |
| DET | MAJ | Castro, Willi SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .222 | |
| DET | MAJ | Paredes, Isaac 3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .250 | |
| HOU | MAJ | Stubbs, Garrett C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | |
| HOU | MAJ | Toro, Abraham DH | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .129 | |
| LAA | MAJ | Adell, Jo RF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .188 | |
| MIA | MAJ | Diaz, Lewin 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .250 | BB (1) |
| MIA | MAJ | Harrison, Monte CF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .167 | 2B (1) |
| NYM | MAJ | Gimenez, Andres 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .259 | |
| OAK | MAJ | Allen, Austin C | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .185 | 2B (1) |
| OAK | MAJ | Murphy, Sean C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .222 | |
| SD | MAJ | Cronenworth, Jake 2B-SS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .302 | 2B (5), BB (5) |
| SD | MAJ | Mateo, Jorge 2B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | |
| SD | MAJ | Olivares, Edward LF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .176 | |
| SEA | MAJ | Lewis, Kyle CF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | .345 | HR (5), BB (12) |
| SEA | MAJ | White, Evan 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | .139 | 2 HR (4) |
| SF | MAJ | Dubon, Mauricio CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .267 | SB (2) |
| STL | MAJ | Carlson, Dylan RF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .118 | |
| STL | MAJ | Knizner, Andrew C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | |
| TEX | MAJ | Solak, Nick CF-LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .300 | BB (8) |
| WAS | MAJ | Garcia, Luis 2B | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .231 | HR (1) |
| WAS | MAJ | Kieboom, Carter 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .238 | BB (7) |
PITCHERS
| TEAM | CLASS | PLAYER | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA | NOTES |
| ATL | MAJ | Ynoa, Huascar | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4.26 | |
| BAL | MAJ | Tate, Dillon | 2.1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7.71 | |
| CHC | MAJ | Miller, Tyson | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 9.00 | |
| CWS | MAJ | Heuer, Codi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.24 | W (1-0) |
| DET | MAJ | Funkhouser, Kyle | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10.57 | |
| DET | MAJ | Garcia, Bryan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.86 | |
| HOU | MAJ | Bielak, Brandon | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1.69 | W (3-0) |
| KC | MAJ | Bubic, Kris | 4.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5.12 | L (0-3) |
| MIA | MAJ | Sharp, Sterling | 2.1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3.60 | |
| MIN | MAJ | Smeltzer, Devin | 2.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6.17 | W (2-0) |
| NYM | MAJ | Kilome, Franklyn | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5.14 | Sv (1) |
| NYY | MAJ | King, Michael | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6.59 | W (1-1) |
| SEA | MAJ | Dunn, Justin | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 7.80 | |
| SEA | MAJ | Misiewicz, Anthony | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4.15 | |
| STL | MAJ | Cabrera, Genesis | 1.1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11.57 | |
| STL | MAJ | Kim, Kwang-Hyun | 3.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3.86 |
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