This week I made it back out to Midland, Michigan for a few games to see the High-A affiliate of the Dodgers take on the affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. This was my second series looking at Great Lakes over the last month, and my second extended look at Peoria this season. There were some interesting names, particularly on the pitching side with guys like Emmet Sheehan, Inohan Paniagua, and the Dodger organization debut of Nick Frasso. That’s on top of bats like Diego Cartaya, Jorbit Vivas, and more.
Diego Cartaya, C (LAD)
Cartaya showed why he has the upside to be one of baseball’s best prospects. His biggest asset is his bat. He commands the zone really well as a hitter and recognizes pitches, too. He can hit with power to his pull side or wait on offspeed pitches and drive them the other way. He did exhibit some swing and miss on breaking balls away, but he’s a very talented hitter. The power is the carrying tool for his offensive profile. Cartaya likely has plus in-game power at his ceiling with an average hit tool. His arm is very strong and mostly, it’s a 70 arm. His skills defensively are still a work in progress. There are skills that show the upside, but he can get lazy on balls in the dirt with runners on base. He’ll block his share of pitches, but every now and then he attempted to backhand low pitches and they would get past him. Cartaya can catch long term, but his glove is lagging behind his bat at this point.
Jorbit Vivas, 2B (LAD)
The same things I loved about Vivas the first time around are still there. His hands are quick, he covers the zone well, and shows exceptional bat to ball skills. On top of that he’s got a very strong understanding of the strike zone and is able to be very selective, even in two-strike counts. His power is gap to gap, but with his bat-to-ball skills he can potentially grow into some more power, though he’s hit over power in the long term. Vivas is a good second baseman. His reactions are good, he moves very well laterally with soft hands and his arm is strong and accurate. While second is his natural position and likely his long term home, I also got a look at him at third base. He played well there too. His reactions and movements gave him solid range. His arm will limit his ability there. It’s strong enough to make the plays, but it’s not strong enough to make him an asset at the corner. Though I believe he can play there in a pinch. This is the difference between a potentially above average glove at second or a fringe defender at third.
Emmet Sheehan, RHP (LAD)
This is the second chance I’ve gotten to see Sheehan. While the first he was nibbling the corners and trying to get batters to chase the whole time, this outing he was attacking hitters a lot more and was in complete control. His fastball sat 95-97 MPH through most of the start, and even hit 99 MPH in his first inning. He’s a low release guy with a flat fastball plays well to the top of the zone. He also threw a cutter in the low-90s on top of a very good slider and changeup. Even his fourth pitch, a 74-76 MPH curveball was getting whiffs. When he’s attacking the zone with this whole arsenal, he keeps hitters off balance and he misses bats. His changeup, while not consistently the best secondary, was carving up the Peoria hitters in this outing. He showed good feel to sequence this pitches with location and velocity. He looked every bit of a rotation arm in this outing. Though it’s worth noting this velocity was not this good the first time I saw him.
Inohan Paniagua, RHP (STL)
After dominating in Single-A, Paniagua was recently promoted to Peoria. This was his third start in the Midwest League. He showed a three-pitch mix that was very effective against the Loons hitters. His fastball was 91-93 MPH with some armside run, and he had a mid-80s changeup with similar movement. Though he didn’t utilize the changeup as much. He relied heavily on his 76-79 MPH curveball that was a ton of slurvy movement. He sequenced the fastball up and curveball down extremely well, which really contributed to his success. Lucky for him, the curveball was working. Most of the hits he allowed came via his fastball. It’s a pretty smooth operation with a low release. Based on a single start, Paniagua seems like a future two pitch bullpen arm, potentially in long relief. Though he could be a strike throwing backend rotation arm.
Nick Frasso, RHP (LAD)
The Dodgers sought out Frasso at the deadline, trading away another High-A player and Mitch White. The Dodgers. That bodes well for Frasso’s ability on the mound because that team is good at this. Turns out, Frasso is pretty darn good at pitching, too. His fastball was 93-96 MPH with a plus changeup in the mid-80’s. The changeup has tons of armside fade and good velo separation. Frasso creates deception with good arm action as well. His third pitch is a slider with two plane break at 83-84 MPH. He was able to get whiffs against righties off the plate. When he threw it armside, it had a tendency to back up. This is a legit three-pitch mix for the Dodgers development team to work with. Fresso has legit weapons against both handed hitters that play well off of his fastball. He threw strikes, but his command within the zone could still improve from this start. He has a ton of crossfire in his delivery. He projects out as a rotation arm.
Wilfredo Pereira, RHP (STL)
It looked like it was destined to be a short day for Pereira when he loaded the bases in the first inning. He worked out of it, though, and went on to have a strong start. His fastball was 90-93 MH with a 81-82 MPH slider that had short movement. He also threw a changeup at 77-79 MPH. He battled well and showed maturity on the mound. His stuff played well at this level, but there isn’t any projection left for him. He’s likely just organization depth, but he put together a good outing showing solid command and sequencing.
Eddys Leonard, SS (LAD)
This is one of the top prospects in the Dodgers system because of his bat. Leonard has lightning quick hands at the plate. Perhaps the fastest I’ve seen. That is one of his biggest assets to the profile. In all the looks I’ve had on him, he hasn’t exhibited the best barrel control. That causes him to swing and miss or just make weak contact. When he does hit it well, he can drive the ball to all fields, but that has happened only a few times in all of my looks. He can get passive, especially when behind in the count. It could just be hunting for fastballs, but offspeed pitches late in counts caused him to freeze up. Defensively he has a decent arm, but I don’t believe he’s a shortstop. His movements are okay, but his glove is inconsistent. His defensive home could change.
Osvaldo Tovalin, 1B (STL)
This is my favorite bat in the current Peoria lineup. There’s plenty of pop to his pullside when he gets ahold of the ball. The question is if he will hit enough for that pop to matter. Likely he’ll never have more than above average in game power at most, despite plus raw power. He’s shown some decent bat to ball skills in all of my looks, but never consistent ability to hit. Tovalin can draw walks. Truthfully, his biggest asset right now is his defense. He can play either corner, though with Jacob Buchberger occupying third base he’s mostly playing first base. Tovalin moves very well laterally and has excellent range on either corner. He has soft hands to make plays. If his hit tool comes around, he can be the next hyped up corner infielder in the Cardinals system, but there’s a ways to go before he gets there.
Jacob Buchberger, 3B (STL)
An undrafted free agent from the shortened draft 2020 class. There are some interesting parts to Buchberger’s game. He is a very talented defender at the hot corner with incredible reactions. This was on display when a hard liner was hit his way with one out and the bases loaded. He made a diving play on the third base line then stepped on the bag for a double play. Buchberger made all the plays with a great arm. His bat has some interesting parts, too. He didn’t hit much of anything in my looks, but he’s a .260 hitter to this point on the year. What I can say is that he had some of the loudest batting practice I’ve seen in some time. There’s plenty of raw power to tap into. His offensive skillset is raw, but there’s a lot to like here.