Down on the Farm - 6/1/22

Prospect spotlight on Nick Gonzales of the Pirates, Tommy Henry (ARI) punches out 11 hitters, Dodgers’ prospect Diego Cartaya promoted to A+, Heliot Ramos (SF) recalled, Dom Smith heads back to AAA

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Player of the Day

Tommy Henry, LHS (24) - ARI (AAA)

Arizona picked Henry 74th overall out of the University of Michigan back in the 2019 draft. Henry is a pitchability lefty who, despite having underwhelming stuff, was in complete control last night. He pitched six scoreless innings giving up just one hit and one walk. Henry also punched out a career high 11 hitters, getting 14 swing and misses on 44 swings. While he’s had better results this season, Henry has struggled to limit baserunners for most of his professional career — he has an ERA of nearly 5.00 with a FIP even higher across 160 innings pitched.

MLB Pipeline @MLBPipeline

Tommy Henry sets a career high with 11 K's! The No. 14 @Dbacks prospect had his entire arsenal working for the @Aces:

Notable Performances

Hitters

CSW% = percentage of pitches that are called strikes and swinging strikes — (SwStr + CalledStr) / Pitches

Pitchers

BF = Batters Faced; BIP = Balls in Play; GB = Ground Balls

Daily Prospect Report

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Prospect Spotlight

Nick Gonzales, 2B - 23 y/o, R/R, 5'10" / 195 - Pirates (AA)

Last week: .250/.357/.292, 28 PA, 6 H, 2B, 2 BB, 9 K

The Pirates selected Gonzales 7th overall in the 2020 draft out of New Mexico State. Although Gonzales put up an impressive collegiate slash line of .399/.502/.747, he did so in an extremely hitter-friendly ballpark while facing below-average pitching. Clubs that rely on models as a part of their draft process likely down-weighted that performance, but the Pirates saw enough to pop him with the 7th overall pick. In his two professional seasons Gonzales has hit a combined .285/.379/.504 (.384 wOBA) with 22 home runs in 552 plate appearances across High-A and Double-A. While collectively he’s hit for power and drawn walks at an above-average rate, he’s also struck out in nearly 30% of his professional plate appearances.

Gonzales has a short, compact swing he can get off with explosive force that generates power to all fields. So far he’s struggled to get to that power consistently in games at the Double-A level, slugging just .382 across 152 ABs. Perhaps more concerning is his increasing propensity to swing and miss — coming into yesterday Gonzales had a swinging strike rate of 17%, which was among the highest rates in the Eastern League. As you can see in the plot below, that’s a rate 35% higher than the league average hitter. What’s kept Gonzales afloat this season has been has ability to draw walks, which he’s done so at a rate also close to 35% higher than the Eastern League average.