Double-A Southern League: Montgomery Biscuits 2, Pensacola Blue Wahoos (CIN) 1

Jake Thompson was due. After a rousing 2013 debut (6 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 7 K), Thompson got destroyed in his subsequent two starts, allowing 7 runs each. He only allowed 2 unearned runs in his fourth start, but got his pitch count up and only lasted 4 innings. After beginning the season with what had appeared to be a breakthrough performance, Thompson needed to find a way to flash that same type of ability again. It wasn’t quite pristine, but Thompson did just that for the Biscuits to lead them to victory over the Blue Wahoos. Thompson went 6 innings allowing no runs on 2 hits, striking out 3 while walking 4 but managing an incredible 11-2 groundout to flyout ratio. Thompson’s command has been a major question for him the past couple of years, but he has begun to make progress in that regard and get back on the path to the major leagues. Hopefully this time Thompson can build on his 6 shutout innings in his coming starts.

Behind Thompson, C.J. Riefenhauser worked 2 shutout innings allowing 2 hits while striking out 1 and getting 3 more outs on the ground. Riefenhauser’s ERA on the season now stands at a minuscule 0.48 in 18.2 IP to go along with a 15-3 strikeout to walk ratio.Riefenhauser seems to have found his niche out of the bullpen and we’ll have to see whether he could become a bullpen option for the Rays over the next couple of years.

In terms of the run support, Mikie Mahtook had an RBI single in the 6th before Shawn O’Malley brought home a second run in the 7th on a groundout to give the Biscuits just enough to win. Robby Price and Mayo Acosta also went 2 for 4 for Montgomery. Thompson and Riefenhauser stole the show for the Biscuits in this one, and while the offense gave them little, their were more than willing to live up to the task.

Low-A Midwest League: Kane County Cougars (CHC) 5, Bowling Green Hot Rods 4

The Hot Rods entered the 9th inning down 4-1. Former Rays draft pick Pierce Johnson had shut them down for 6.2 innings, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits, striking out 4 while walking 1 and managing an 11-2 groundout to flyout ratio, and Bowling Green had been equally feeble against the Kane County bullpen. But in the 9th everything changed. Luke Maile singled to begin the inning off Jeffry Antigua, and two batters later, Patrick Leonard added a single of his own. Marty Gantt‘s infield baseball loaded the bases and put the tying runs on base for the Hot Rods, And Leonardo Reginatto got 1 in on his single to make it 4-2 before Joey Rickard‘s scored two more, and suddenly the game was tied at 4. That was all Bowling Green would get, but Nick Sawyer tossed a hitless 9th and the game went into extra innings. However, the Hot Rods went down in order and then Lake County made quick work of Marcus Jensen, getting a Pin-Chieh Chen double, a sac bunt, and a Dan Vogelbach walk-off single as the Cougars won 5-4. It has been an outstanding comeback in the 9th, but it had been entirely for nought as the Hot Rods lost the following inning.

Blake Snell got the start for Bowling Green in this one and failed to complete 5 innings for the 4th time time in 5 starts. Snell went 3.1 innings allowing 3 unearned runs on 5 hits, striking out 5 while walking 3 and forcing a 4-0 groundout to flyout ratio. Snell’s ERA stands at 2.75, but he has just a 24-16 strikeout to walk ratio in 19.2 innings on the season and has to find a way to limit the walks a lot better than that. Following Snell was Jose Alberto Molina, not to be confused with the Rays catcher, and if Molina keeps pitching the way he did on Wednesday, the confusion will disappear before long. Molina went 3.2 innings allowing just 1 run on 2 hits, striking out 6 while walking none and forcing a 4-1 groundout to flyout ratio. On the season, Molina’s ERA is just 5.06, but his strikeout to walk ratio is 16-3 in 16 innings pitched. Then there was Sawyer, who went 2 no-hit innings striking out 2 while walking 1. Sawyer hasn’t allowed an earned run since his first appearance of the season, a stretch of 7 appearances and 13 IP, but he needs work figuring out where his mid-90′s fastball and sharp slider are going as his strikeout to walk ratio has been just 19-12 over that stretch, just under a walk an inning. Hot Rods fans got to see some electric performances on Wednesday, but what does overpowering batters mean if you can’t throw strikes?

On offense for the Hot Rods, Leonardo Reginatto went 2 for 4 with a stolen base and an RBI, keeping his clutch gene going with his big RBI single in the 9th. Reginatto was huge for Short Season-A Hudson Valley in the playoffs last season and Brazil in the World Baseball Classic, and he’s not much a prospect but tantalizes you by just coming up with hit after hit when it matters most. Marty Gantt also went 2 for 4 with a run scored, Luke Maile went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored, and Rickard went 1 for 5 with a stolen base and his critical 2-run single. Tyler Goeddel also went 1 for 5 to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. There were certainly plenty of positives for Bowling Green in this one, but it had to be frustrating that they came all the way back only to lose an inning later.

Tripe-A International League: Durham Bulls 2, Gwinnett Braves 1

This game was a pitcher’s duel all the way, with the scoreboard still empty through 8 innings before two errors gave the Braves a run in the top of the 9th and another pivotal error gave the Bulls two more in the bottom half of the frame. Before all that, though, there was Jake Odorizzi, who was outstanding. Odorizzi went 6.2 shutout innings for Durham, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8. He still has work to do on his command as his groundout to flyout ratio was just 3-6, but the Braves couldn’t do anything against him on Monday and before long Odorizzi could be right there with Chris Archer waiting for an opening on the Rays’ staff. The better-known player with whom the Rays acquired Odorizzi is, of course, Wil Myers, and he had a decent game, going 1 for 4 with the game-tying run scored in the 9th. Another top performer was Hak-Ju Lee, who went 0 for 1 with 2 walks and a stolen base, although he also made one of the big 9th inning errors. There was little offense to be found here as both teams managed just 4 hits, but the pitching stole the show between Odorizzi and Omar Poveda for Gwinnett (6 innings of 1-hit ball), and the Bulls found a way to win in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 9th.

Double-A Southern League: Montgomery Biscuits 5, Birmingham Barons (CHW) 1

Simply put, games don’t get much better than this one. Jake Thompson was incredible for Montgomery, going 6 innings allowing just an unearned run on 2 hits, striking out 7 while walking none. The three relievers behind him allowing just 1 hit while striking out 4 as Biscuits pitching finished off a 3-hitter with 11 strikeouts. Thompson is coming off a rough 2012 for Montgomery, but he made a key breakthrough getting a feel for his pitches and maybe this is the year it all comes together for him. The 2010 second round pick has been a forgotten man the past couple years, but a few more outing like this and he’ll be back on the big league radar before we know it. On offense, the Biscuits were quite formidable as well, with Todd Glaesmann, Mikie Mahtook, and Robby Price all homering and Robi Estrada going 2 for 3 with a triple and a stolen base. Gotta like your chances to win when your starting pitcher is overpowering and your bats give you three home runs.

Low-A Midwest League: Bowling Green Hot Rods 4, Lansing Lugnuts (TOR) 3

Best of luck to Low-A hitters going up against Taylor Guerrieri. The Rays’ top pitching prospect was untouchable in his season debut for Bowling Green, going 3 innings allowing just 1 hit, striking out 4 while walking none. Guerrieri managed a minuscule 1.04 ERA and a 45-5 strikeout to walk ratio in 52 innings at Short Season-A Hudson Valley last season, and armed with impeccable control of his fastball and a curveball and changeup that both could be plus pitches down the line, it just isn’t fair for his inexperienced opposition. No one will be surprised if Guerrieri is brought up to High-A Charlotte and maybe even gets a taste of Double-A Montgomery before the season ends. Eduar Quinonez allowed 3 runs in 4 innings of relief of Guerrieri, but Ryan Garton struck out the side in the 9th to cap off a 12-strikeout day for Hot Rods pitching without walking a single batter. It would have been terrible if despite all that the 3 runs were enough to give Lansing the game, but luckily it was not. Andrew Toles had quite a game for Bowling Green, going 2 for 4 with 2 triples, an RBI, and a run scored, and Joey Rickard also went 2 for 4 with a stolen base, an RBI, and a run scored to lead the Hot Rods’ offense. Tommy Coyle didn’t have an official plate appearance but he still had a great game as well, going 0 for 0 with 4 walks, 2 stolen bases, and a run scored. He’s hitting just .250 on the young season but with a .478 OBP. Wow. The core of the Hudson Valley team that won the New York-Penn League championship last season is with Bowling Green now, and combining them with players like Toles from Princeton makes them a real candidate to come away with a championship once again.

Jake Thompson

When a pitcher’s ERA nearly doubles from year to the next, that is never a good sign. It’s impossible to spin Jake Thompson‘s ERA going from 2.90 in 114.2 innings in 2011 to 5.56 in 124.2 IP in 2012 in a positive light. But while there’s plenty of reason for continued concern, he also made a good deal of progress and 2012 might even be looked back upon someday as the turning point in his career. Thompson, a 6’3″, 225 right-hander, was selected by the Rays in second round of the 2010 Draft out of Long Beach State (of course, Evan Longoria‘s alma mater) as the “safe pick” to balance out the riskier selections of high school products Josh Sale, Justin O’Conner, and Drew Vettleson in the first and supplemental rounds of that draft. Thompson’s upside wasn’t nearly as high as that trio, but he was expected to become a 4th or 5th starter or a middle reliever in the major leagues and make that happen pretty quickly. Things have not gone as planned. In 2012, Thompson made it to Double-A at just 22 years old, but it did not go well as he went 7-12 with a 5.56 ERA, a 6.5 K/9, a 4.0 BB/9, and a 0.9 HR/9 in 25 starts and 124.2 innings pitched. While those numbers are ugly, though, they hide the progress that Thompson made over the course of the season. That becomes more apparent when comparing them to his 2011 season, when he went 5-7 with a 2.90 ERA, a 4.4 K/9, a 2.9 BB/9, and a 0.3 HR/9 in 22 starts and 114.2 innings pitched at High-A Tampa.

Jake Thompson has always featured a very good repertoire, ranging from 92-94 MPH with his fastball, and also throwing a changeup that has shown flashes and a solid slider. But the issue for him has been controlling and command his pitches, especially his fastball. When Thompson is going strong, his fastball can hit as high as 97 MPH with run away from right-handed hitters. But unable to locate his fastball at that type of velocity consistently, Thompson started throwing his fastball more often in the 90-92 MPH range in 2011, helping him throw it for strikes but preventing him from missing many bats at all. His changeup features great arm action and late downward movement when he’s been able to get on top of it, but as he struggled to command it he began to abandon it and throw his fastball more and more often. And while even his slider has been overbearing in the high-80′s at times, Thompson was content to throw it more softly and use it as more of a groundball pitch because it was just too inconsistent. But while Thompson was able to ride his toned-down arsenal to solid results in 2011, that was never going to work for him against higher-level hitters. In 2012, Thompson suffered through a disastrous year, but at least he did so while working on his pitches instead of continuing to stand on thin ice with his diminished stuff. His fastball missed the zone more often, but also finally was able to force some swing-and-misses. He had some trouble with his changeup when it got too straight and got hit hard, but it also looked like a plus pitch at times, especially against left-handed batters. And even though his slider was enigmatic, he was able to put a lot of work in on it, and he could be on the verge of a breakthrough. Thompson needs continued work locating his pitches, and until that happens, his results could be ugly. But Thompson certainly had his moments, setting his career-high with a 7-strikeout game before breaking it with an 8-strikeout performance a few starts later, and his 4.38 FIP on the season suggests that while Thompson has a long way to go, he is making progress. As Thompson heads back to Double-A in 2013, he finally is starting to get his feeling for his pitches where it needs to be, and all of his frustration will be worthwhile if this can be the season that things finally start to come together for him.

Matt Buschmann

Matt Buschmann is best known for something that has very little to do with his actual ability as a pitcher: he was David Price’s roommate when both were at Vanderbilt. But while the connection to the Rays’ ace certainly could not have hurt Buschmann’s chances of being acquired by the Rays last April for cash considerations and re-signed this offseason, the Rays have to be most excited about what Buschmann can do as a pitcher. Buschmann, a 6’3″, 210 right-hander who turned 29 in February, is coming off a season that saw him go 7-8 with a 3.98 ERA, a 7.1 K/9, a 3.2 BB/9, and a 0.9 HR/9 in 24 starts, 2 relief appearances, and 151.1 innings pitched, with all but 2 starts coming with the Biscuits. His groundball rate was also an impressive 48.7% per Minor League Central. But why does any of this matter? He was a 28 year old playing against younger competition!

The truth is that there’s very little chance that Buschmann could possibly put up a season like that in the major leagues. However, while his stats may be somewhat of a mirage, his stuff is real. Buschmann works primarily with a sinker in the 88-90 MPH range that he did an excellent job commanding down in the zone in 2012, and his money pitch is a sharp low-80′s slider that he used to get most of his strikeouts. Buschmann also threw a decent changeup, although it’s quite a bit behind his other two pitches and it may never develop at this point. Buschmann’s sinker-slider combination was overpowering against right-handed batters as he held them to just a .203/.264/.317 line with 72 strikeouts against just 20 walks, and while his performance versus lefties was a great deal worse (.320/.397/.420 with a 39-28 strikeout to walk ratio), Buschmann clearly has the type of arsenal could be very effective in a middle relief role against right-handed hitters, especially considering his fastball velocity might pick up. Buschmann will head to Triple-A Durham and the Rays will see if they can improve his changeup to the point where he’ll have a chance to start (after all, the changeup is an emphasis of their organization), but more likely Buschmann will be converted to a reliever, a role in which he has the ability to find quite a bit of success. At 29 years old, Matt Buschmann is not really a prospect. But he’s at an age where a productive career as a big league middle reliever could be getting started, and that’s all the Rays are asking Buschmann to do.

Joseph Cruz

Somewhere inside Joseph Cruz, all the ability is still there. Just two years ago, Cruz went 13-6 with a 2.85 ERA and a 131-39 strikeout to walk ratio in 142 IP at High-A Charlotte. And while the last two years have been disastrous, the Rays will keep waiting hoping that Cruz can somehow get back on track. Cruz, 24, is a projectable 6’4″, 190 with a fastball that can be as impressive as any in the system when he’s right. But the last two years almost could not have been worse. Cruz managed just a 6.27 ERA in 74.2 IP in 2011, and 2012 was not much better as he went 6-6 with a 4.60 ERA, a 7.4 K/9, a 6.2 BB/9, and a 0.8 HR/9 in 15 starts, 3 relief appearances, and 78.1 innings pitched. Both seasons were derailed by shoulder injuries, with Cruz missing from June to August of 2011 after surgery on his shoulder and then watching his season end in July of 2012 when he heard two pops in his shoulder and fell to his knees on the mound before departing from the game. But when he has been healthy, Cruz continues to show flashes. In a game on May 23rd, Cruz showed just how good he can be as he went neck-and-neck with Mariners top prospect Danny Hultzen, going 6 innings allowing just 1 hit, striking out 8 while walking 2, in a game the Biscuits won 2-1 in 12 innings. While his 2012 numbers were bad, take out three games where Cruz walked 6 or more batters and he actually managed a much more reasonable if far from acceptable 4.8 BB/9. And after the Biscuits moved Cruz to the bullpen for his final three appearances before his injury, he allowed just 1 hit in 4.1 innings, striking out 6 while walking none.

When healthy, Cruz’s fastball stays in the 92-93 MPH range and touches as high as 96 MPH with some movement away from right-handed hitters. He complements it with a solid curveball in the low-70′s and a halfway-decent changeup. Cruz’s current arsenal and injury issues severely limit his upside. However, his career is far from over and if Cruz can simply stay on the mound, he could have considerable potential out of the bullpen. The Rays continued to be tantalized by Cruz’s ability even as they have watched him fight through seemingly unremitting frustration the last two years, and the Rays hope that 2013 is the season that he stays healthy and finally gets himself back on track.

Alex Colome

If not for injuries, Alex Colome would have finished the 2012 season in the Rays’ bullpen and could have made quite an impact. Although he didn’t make his Triple-A debut until August, Marc Topkin reported that the Rays talked about calling Colome up and pairing him with Chris Archer to give them two dynamic up-and-coming right-handers with the ability to be weapons in short or long relief. Instead, Colome saw his season end from a lat strain in his right throwing shoulder and 2013 will be the season where he looks to crack the Rays’ MLB roster. Signed by the Rays as a 17 year old out of the Dominican Republic back in 2007, Colome had a big season primarily at Double-A Montgomery for the Rays in 2012, going 8-4 with a 3.44 ERA, an 8.8 K/9, a 4.2 BB/9, and a 0.8 HR/9 in 17 starts and 91.2 IP. Everything but his last three starts came with the Biscuits. Colome’s groundball rate was a nice 44.5% and he was especially good against right-handed batters, holding them to .219/.303/.299 line.

Colome, a 24 year old 6’2″, 195 right-hander, has wowed evaluators for years with his electric arsenal. Colome’s fastball consistently hits the mid-90′s, topping out as high as 97 MPH, and when he’s able to get on top of it, it features great sink and late bite. He pairs it with a sharp 11-to-5 curveball that can be overpowering when he can sell it as a strike and he also throws a decent mid-80′s slider. But the most intriguing part of Colome’s repertoire at this point may be his changeup, a pitch that Colome still needs to do a better job working into his arsenal but that also features the same arm slot as his fastball before featuring great late sink when he has it right. The root of Colome’s inconsistency in his career has been a tendency to overthrow his pitches as he focuses too much on strikeouts, keeping his fastball up in the zone too much and making his curveball head into the dirt before the hitter even thinks about swinging. At the same time, though, he has much better baseline control than a pitcher like Alex Torres even if his command comes and goes (his BB/9 has never gotten above 4.2 the last four years) and Colome’s feel for pitching continues to get better and a shift in his mentality on the mound could make all the difference. Colome got hit hard in big league camp for the Rays this year, allowing 8 runs, 5 earned, on 9 hits and 4 walks in 4.2 innings, striking out just 1, and that highlights how getting his control and command better on a consistent basis will be the key to figuring out his future role. However, with a pair of plus pitches in his fastball and curveball, another one coming along smoothly in his changeup, and a decent fourth pitch in his slider, the Rays are excited to see what Colome can do and Colome’s upside ranks up there with any of the Rays’ pitching prospects anywhere the major leagues. Colome has what it takes to be a number two starter at best and a fireballing late-inning reliever at worst, and as he begins his first full season at Triple-A in 2013, he enters a key crossroads that will go a long way at determining whether his future lies in the rotation or the bullpen.

Colome is a pitcher who has ranked among the Rays’ best pitching prospects for years at this point, but he’s far from alone among the Biscuits pitchers with the ability to make an impact in the major leagues for the Rays over the next couple of seasons. Buschmann isn’t really a prospect but still could turn into an excellent low-profile pickup for the Rays as an impact reliever in the major leagues and Thompson and Cruz have both fallen off as prospects but still have electric and salvageable arms. The Rays have become renowned throughout baseball for their ability to develop frontline pitching prospects, but the value of the lesser prospects that can still contribute for the Rays in the near future can’t be understated. With Colome at the forefront and the others trailing not too far behind, the pitchers from the 2012 Montgomery Biscuits could be playing a big role in the Rays’ pitching staff before we know it. We’ll continue next time with more interesting pitchers from the Biscuits’ 2012 roster.

For more of our analysis of the Rays prospects at each level of their system, check out our Minor League Affiliates Analysis page here at RCG.