Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month

[adamzimmer]

To be eligible for the Pitcher of the Month award, a pitcher must have completed fifteen innings and started at least two games.

Pitchers to pitch at least fifteen innings and record an ERA under 3.50: 

Garrett Stallings, Chad Patrick, Bruce Zimmermann, Tate Kuehner, Travis Smith, Manuel Rodriguez, Jayden Dubanewicz, Bryce Meccage, Melvin Hernandez

 

Honorable Mention: Tate Kuehner

Kuehner lost the Pitcher of the Month award today after allowing 6 H and 8 R (3 ER) in just 2.1 IP. To be fair, it wasn’t necessarily all his fault. Kuehner allowed a leadoff home run in the bottom of the second, but the inning snowballed into a six run frame due to a bad misplay by 1B Eric Martinez, a fielding error by SS Cooper Pratt, a passed ball by C Darrien Miller, and a throwing error by Kuehner himself. Still, the outing inflated his numbers enough to keep him from earning the award for the second time this year.

Kuehner, a crafty left-handed pitching prospect, has been lights-out for the Shuckers pretty much all season. This year, Kuehner has had an ERA under 2.50 in every month save for April, but his July ERA before today’s start – 1.59 ERA – was his best mark by nearly half a run. The 2023 seventh-round pick also notched 27 strikeouts in 25 innings, good for 9.7 K/9.

 

Honorable Mention: Manuel Rodriguez

Rodriguez, signed out of Minatitlan, Mexico in 2022, has had the best season of his career this year. While his numbers with the Single-A Carolina Mudcats weren’t half bad (3.23 ERA), he’s taken his game to a whole new level this summer. Rodriguez currently sports a 1.73 ERA this season with the High-A Timber Rattlers, and his numbers this month are even better – 1.59 ERA, 24% K%, 41 ERA- through seventeen innings.

Rodriguez earned a spot on MLB Pipeline’s updated list of the top thirty Brewers prospects earlier this month. His best attribute is his control; the nineteen-year-old right-hander had a BB/9 under 1 last year, and it’s only 1.76 so far since being promoted to High-A. Rodriguez doesn’t throw super hard, topping out at only about 92 mph, but he gets impressive spin on all of his pitches – including a slider that has serious potential.

 

Honorable Mention: Ethan Dorchies

I’m cheating a little bit – Dorchies only pitched 14.2 innings in July, so he’s technically not eligible for the award. With that being said, I still want to highlight his performance since his midseason promotion to Carolina. In those 14.2 innings, Dorchies allowed only seven hits, one run (none earned), and struck out thirteen batters. He does need to improve his control a bit; Dorchies walked eight hitters this month, which works out to roughly 5 BB/9. Still, July was his first full month in Single-A after being called up from the Arizona Complex League. The promising right-hander has a lot of time to work out the kinks.

 

 

July Pitcher of the Month: Travis Smith

Smith, drafted in the fifteenth round last year, started the season off hot but hit a rough patch in May (4.76 ERA) and June (5.57). July, however, has been a different story. The twenty-two year old Smith has been absolutely shoving, with a 0.69 ERA (2.49 FIP) through 26 innings. He allowed sixteen hits and just two earned runs all month, with an impressive K/BB ratio (24/7) to boot. Wins aren’t really a pitcher stat, but Smith picked up the win in four of his five starts, proving that he's been putting the Mudcats in a position to win games.

Smith does a really good job of limiting fly balls, as indicated by his 52.9% ground-ball rate, and walks (2.42 BB/9 this month). The 6’4” right-hander has always had loud stuff, but it’s played less impressively in a game setting. In his final year at Kentucky, Smith put up a 6.21 ERA despite a fastball that tops out around 97 and a solid slider. The fastball has been more of a ground ball pitch than a strikeout pitch, even with its impressive velocity.

One of the most encouraging signs of growth from Smith this month has been the jump in his strikeout rate. Up until June 31st, Smith was striking out a fairly unimpressive 5.94 batters per nine innings. In July, that number jumped up all the way to 8.31. Smith is also in his third season removed from undergoing Tommy John surgery and his first full season in professional baseball; it’s possible this is the start of a breakout for the twenty-two year old prospect. Milwaukee certainly thinks Smith’s improvement is sustainable, as the organization promoted him to High-A Wisconsin yesterday afternoon.

 

 

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