Questions about pitchers, Suter, Cravy, Lopez

[danzig6767]

I follow the minors, but not super closely. I see that two guys in particular, Brent Suter and Tyler Cravy are off to great starts in AA. For those of you who follow the minors much more intently, are either of these guys or both legit prospects with the kind of stuff that could potentially project to getting big league hitters out?

[TheCrew07]

Suter throws mid 80s, he's your typical crafty lefty from everything I've read.

 

Cravy used to run his FB up to the mid 90s but apparently doesn't throw a 4 seam anymore, here's his most recent scouting report, I've liked him for a long time but he didn't put it together until last year.

A finesse pitcher, Cravy uses a 90-91 mph sinker to induce groundball outs. He works fast and pounds the zone, staying ahead in the count and pitching to contact. He keeps the ball in the park with his sinker, allowing only one home run during the 2013 season before giving up another in the AFL. Cravy throws a slider at 84-86 mph with good bite, and to keep hitters further off-balance, he mixes in a slower curveball at 77-78 mph with good tilt. He throws his breaking stuff with good deception, notching strikeouts despite just average velocity on all pitches. Cravy has a good feel for setting up hitters and shows confidence and poise on the mound. He could be valuable as a middle reliever also capable of filling in as a spot starter when necessary. A ticket to Double-A Huntsville awaits Cravy in 2014.

[dacbrewers]

The AFL does have players with Major League experience, so it's a good test for pitchers. How have the Brewers top prospect pitchers fared over the last 5 years in the AFL?

[danzig6767]

Thanks Crew07

 

I check the stats of the Brewers minor league system here and there, but of guys picked later in the draft, it's hard for me to know just how excited i should get over any good stats, especially among pitchers.

[Mr Southpaw]

I saw Cravy pitch last weekend and he made the Dodger AA's at Chattanooga look confused. His fastball was as high as 93 and had two breaking balls (slider and curve) with a really nice high overhand delivery. He seems to pitch much more than throw. With no injuries, I see no reason why he cannot be a solid MLB number 3-4.

[hyerbro1]

Can I hijack this thread to compare Suter and Cravy to Jorge Lopez?

 

I posted a top 20 list in the other thread and was surprised that I am much higher than most on Lopez. Lopez is a full 3 years younger and only 1 level behind. I like all 3 of these pitchers but Lopez is missing bats and is on pace to be AA at age 22.

 

Anyone have a scouting report on Lopez? I have read different reports that he throws a plus curve and other places where they mention a good feel for a change up. If both of these are true than he could be the Brewers best pitching prospect not named Nelson.

[TheCrew07]

Anyone have a scouting report on Lopez? I have read different reports that he throws a plus curve and other places where they mention a good feel for a change up. If both of these are true than he could be the Brewers best pitching prospect not named Nelson.

 

I never saw Lopez throw a pitch above 94 in person, which isn't bad, but isn't a great, though his FB had good run on it, he was mostly 91-93 last year. He hadn't filled out his frame much at all, I believe he was topping out at 93 as an amatuer, so there may be some velocity projection left with him. I want to say that Mehring mentioned a 95 on a stadium gun during a radio broadcast right when Jorge was starting to pick it up last year, but I didn't go back through the forum and search for a post from me to verify that..

 

In 2013 when his curve flashed plus he was pretty successful and went it got bland and loopy he got smacked around.

 

His change wasn't special in that it had any wow factor to it when I saw him pitch, but admittedly I might not have watched him on TV or in person when he had a good one. When he threw the change it was more of a, "sweet he mixed in something else", rather than "ooh that was a good pitch".

 

I remember him throwing a nice slider in one of the televised games last year as well.

 

Everything about Jorge was inconsistent last year from his arm slot to the quality of the pitches, which of course led to a very inconsistent year on the mound and ultimately that unsightly 5.23 ERA.

 

It's still pretty early but he's made improvements at least in his control, he's not walking as many batters or allowing as many hits so his WHIP is down nicely as is his BB/9. With the early spike in his K rate his K/BB is the best of his career as well (excluding those 4 games in AZ as an 18 year old). If he can get the K rate up over 9 by the time he's in AAA and perhaps pickup another MPH or 2 (working 93-95 MPH) we could have something worth getting legitimately excited about but right now he's in that 22-23 range for me. He's certainly age appropriate for the league, I would have never guessed he'd be in A+ by age 21 after being demoted to the DSL as 19 year old.

 

Last year when I bumped him up into the low 20s he really tanked for a month and in general I make an effort to not overreact to a small sample. If it's a player who I've been waiting on to breakout I'll move them up the list fast like I did with Coulter but Lopez is going to have to earn it some for me personally. I wouldn't throw even a #3 label on him right now, but with some maturity the raw tools are there and if he could pickup some velocity his ceiling is probably that of a #2 best case, at it stands his ceiling is probably that of a 3. A handful of posters on the draft forum thought that the pitchers taken at the top of the 2011 draft were actually drafted in reverse order of their ultimate ceiling... meaning that Lopez > Bradley > Jungmann, which may yet prove true.

 

Here's BA's report from this off-season, they don't mention the slider so maybe I'm just not remembering correctly:

When the Brewers drafted Lopez as a raw, 18-year-old in the second round of the 2011 draft, they knew his development would feature growing pains. His 2012 season turned out to be more problematic than expected, with back issues and the a demotion from the Rookie-level Arizona League to the Dominican Summer League. But the Brewers assigned Lopez to low Class A Wisconsin in 2013 and left him there to sink or swim. He showed flashes of the talent that initially piqued the club's interest but also plenty of inconsistency. Lopez throws his fastball in the 89-93 mph range with good action. The ball comes out of his hand with ease, and his two-seamer has good sink. His curveball comes and goes, but when Lopez stays on top of the ball it has quality bite. He has good feel for his changeup, though he sometimes overthrows it. Lopez must get more consistent with his delivery and release point, as evidenced by the 13 wild pitches and nine hit batters in 117 innings at Wisconsin. Lopez still is maturing, both physically and mentally, and the Brewers believe he has mid-rotation starter potential. He likely will move up to high Class A Brevard County to begin 2014.