Minor League Baseball Daily Thread for October 1st, 2019
With the Arizona Fall League on a break Monday, there are not any performances to highlight from yesterday, so we’ll explore something of interest for me, and I’m sure for many of you as well – where did the top minor league baseball performers in 2019 come from? (Qualifiers for rate stats are 250 plate appearances and 75 innings pitched)
Minor League Baseball Top Performers
Hitters
Batting Average: David Freitas .381
Freitas turned 30 during spring training this year, so he’s not a spring chicken to the game, but this was definitely an outlier season for him. Freitas has been a catcher, originally drafted from the University of Hawaii by the Washington Nationals in the 15th round in 2010. He was moved in 2012 by the Nationals to the Oakland Athletics for Kurt Suzuki. During the 2013/2014 offseason, Freitas was traded to the Baltimore Orioles as part of a deal for reliever Jim Johnson. The Chicago Cubs drafted Freitas in the 2015 Rule 5 draft in the minor league portion.
He signed with the Atlanta Braves as a minor league free agent after the 2016 season and ended up making his major league debut in the 2017 season with the Braves. He was the victim of a 40-man crunch after the 2017 season for the Braves, however, and the Seattle Mariners claimed him on waivers and had him for all of the 2018 season and the opening of the 2019 season, and he’s spend the heavy majority of his major league time with the Mariners. In April 2019, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for catching depth. Freitas has played for six teams at the Triple-A level over eight seasons at the level. This year he did spend significant time at first base for the first time as well.
On-Base Percentage: J.D. Orr .469
After four seasons with Wright State in which he put together a .418 OBP, Orr was a 10th round selection by the Miami Marlins this season. On top of his impressive OBP, Orr also stole 29 bases after stealing 60 in his final collegiate season, giving him 89 steals on the season as a whole! He will play his first full professional season in 2020.
Home Runs: Kevin Cron 39
If it weren’t for an injury, Cron could have potentially been the first minor league hitter to top 40 home runs in nearly two decades. He’s combined between major and minor leagues in 2019 to hit 45 home runs. Cron comes from a family that’s known in the game, with a father who played and a brother who is an active major leaguer as well.
Cron was a 3rd round selection out of high school by the Seattle Mariners, but he chose instead to attend Texas Christian University. He didn’t show a ton of power in college and that led to him being a 14th round selection by his hometown Diamondbacks. He moved a level at a time, crushing baseballs the entire time and improving his contact skills and strikeout rate at each step. This season he was nearly a 1/1 walk/strikeout rate in the minor leagues. I was going to use wRC+ as well, but Cron also led minor league baseball in that statistic as well!
Stolen Bases: Nick Heath 60
The Kansas City Royals had a lot of green lights in their farm system this year, as many of the top stolen base threats in minor league baseball were part of the Royals system, but none took advantage as often and as successful as Nick Heath in 2019. Heath was a 16th round pick in 2016 out of Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
Pedigree aside, Heath has shown blazing speed the entire time he’s been in the minor leagues, stealing 160 bases to this point, pushing his way to AAA in his third full season last year. He’s not going to likely hit .300 and there are plenty of strikeouts, so there’s a lot of similarity to former Royals speedster Terrance Gore, but with his speed, he could work his way onto the end of a playoff bench.
Pitchers
Earned Run Average: Cristian Javier 1.74
The Astros had a few pitchers really step forward in 2019, but none had as big a season as Javier. A “late” signee, Javier was originally signed by the Astros out of the Dominican in March of 2015, just before turning 18. He worked his way up the Astros system, finally pitching a full year of innings in 2018, splitting his time nearly evenly between Low-A and High-A. In 2019, he opened the year in High-A but was promoted before he tossed 30 innings at the level. He spent most of his year at Double-A before making a pair of starts to close the season along with a playoff start at the Triple-A level. He’ll likely compete for a starting role in Houston in 2020.
Fielding Independent Pitching: Joe Ryan 1.91
A pitcher that showed well in high school but wasn’t an elite prospect, Ryan was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 39th round out of high school. He went to college and ended up struggling at Cal State Northridge before transferring to Cal State Stanislaus his draft season and having a huge year. The Tampa Bay Rays drafted him in the 7th round in the 2018 draft.
After pitching with short-season Hudson Valley in his draft year, most would figure on Ryan spending all of 2019 in A-ball, but instead, he was so good with Low-A Bowling Green and even better with High-A Charlotte that he ended up spending 3 regular-season starts and one postseason start at AA to close out the year, arguably putting together the best overall pitching line in minor league baseball on the year.
Innings Pitched: Tommy Parsons 165 2/3
After 40 rounds of the 2018 draft were completed, Tommy Parsons had not heard his name called. However, less than a week later, Parsons had signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals as an undrafted free agent out of small Adrian College (enrollment of ~1,600 students). The 2019 season was his first full season, and Parsons showed incredible ability to handle workload, opening the year in Low-A and working up every level in the season, finishing with one start at the Triple-A level. While he was hit hard for power in AA, and that could be a hindrance to his long-term future, he was able to pound the zone in Double-A and attack hitters.
Strikeouts: Kris Bubic 185
Coming out of high school in San Jose, Kris Bubic was not drafted. He attended Stanford, and he was stellar in his final two years in the rotation, leading to the Kansas City Royals drafting him with the 40th overall selection in the 2018 draft. Bubic pitched in advanced rookie ball in his pro debut. In 2019, Bubic opened the year with Low-A Lexington, but he moved to High-A Wilmington after 9 starts and finished the year at that level, posting exceptional numbers and finishing in the top 10 of every statistic mentioned here.
Today’s games
Arizona Fall League
Mesa @ Glendale, 2:30 PM ET
Salt River @ Scottsdale, 8:30 PM ET
Surprise @ Peoria, 8:30 PM ET
Benjamin Chase
After 6 years of writing for FanSided on various sites and offering contributions to various other websites, family changes have encouraged me to start this site. I spend a ton of time watching baseball at all levels, but I love watching minor league baseball on milb.tv as I'm hours away from the closest minor league team. This is an effort of all those games I enjoy on a daily basis!
