56 JULY 2019 • BASEBALLAMERICA.COM
Organization Reports
IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and he has
impressed the organization with his mature
and professional approach to the game after
being drafted in the eighth round last year.
“He came in and has the right mental-
ity about him,” pitching coordinator Dan
Carlson said. “He carries himself different.
He’s very prepared, very confident, but he’s
not conceited.”
Kelly has been working with a fastball
that can touch the mid-90s along with a slid-
er that Carlson said already is a plus pitch.
Kelly also has a splitter and a curveball,
pitches he said still lag behind.
“It’s about getting my third and fourth
pitches to be as good as my second pitch,”
he said.
—NICK PIECORO
ATLANTA
BRAVES
The Braves have seen plenty of breakout
prospects over the past couple of years, and
while the team was ushering in arm after
arm during its 2018 postseason run, one of
its once-coveted pieces remained sidelined.
Righthander Patrick Weigel dominated
in Double-A, earning a promotion to Triple-A
in May 2017 that put him within grasp of
Atlanta. Then, an MRI revealed two tears in
his ulnar collateral ligament, including one
which stemmed from years before, that
necessitated shutting him down.
Once poised for his major league debut,
he had Tommy John surgery in June 2017
and spent the next 13 months recovering.
The Braves played it conservatively with
Weigel early in 2019, and the returns were
encouraging.
Now 24, Weigel earned a 1.72 ERA with
16 strikeouts against nine walks over seven
games with Double-A Mississippi. Promoted
to Triple-A in May, he again reached the
footsteps of the majors.
His starts have hovered around three
innings, or the 50-pitch mark, as the organi-
zation lets him slowly reintegrate.
“I hadn’t seen him,” Braves manager
Brian Snitker said before the season, “but
what we’d heard about him is that he’s fully
healthy. But again, he’d missed a significant
amount of time, so we’re going to be careful
... We’ll take it easy with him as we get him
going, amped up.”
Weigel’s velocity is back in the mid-to-up-
per 90s. He needs to improve his control, but
there’s been plenty reason to be optimistic
during his brief outings.
If he continues this trajectory, the Braves
could certainly plug the 6-foot-6, 240-pound
Weigel—who’s already on the 40-man ros-
ter—into their bullpen later this summer.
The 2015 seventh-rounder from Houston
appeared in just two spring training games,
but Snitker brought Weigel up unprompted
several times, mentioning how the physi-
cally imposing righty could factor into their
plans down the line.
That would be quite a comeback after the
California native saw his dream ripped away,
triggering a year of rigorous rehab while his
peers made their own debuts. But as the
promise that made him the organization’s
minor league pitcher of the year in 2016
grows closer to returning, so does the reality
of him contributing at the highest level.
—GABE BURNSCHICAGO
CUBS
The Cubs understand the attrition rates
with pitchers and the probabilities of taking
one from the draft and getting him all the
way to Wrigley Field.
That’s why Theo Epstein’s baseball
operations department has taken a volume
approach in the draft over the years. By also
investing in cutting-edge technology and
ramping up staffing, the organization hopes
to finally develop that homegrown starter.
Righthander Tyson Miller may be the
one emerging out of that cluster of pitching
prospects in the upper levels of the system.
The 23-year-old recorded a 1.17 ERA through
eight starts at Double-A Tennessee.
“He’s really pounding lefties in with ahard cutter and slider,” Epstein said. “He’s
really able to get off the barrel consistently.
Everything kind of comes out of the same
slot. His fastball, his cutter and his breaking
ball all look pretty similar coming out.
“He’s sort of forcing hitters’ hands by
pounding the strike zone with that good
mix with movement. He’s getting a lot of
soft contact.”
The Cubs noticed how Miller sustained
his velocity and finished strong last year at
high Class A Myrtle Beach, where he went
9-9, 3.54 in 23 starts. Pitching off his fastball,
Miller notched 126 strikeouts against 35
walks in 127 innings.
In his first exposure to Double-A, Miller
had walked just eight in 46 innings while
recording a 0.76 WHIP.
Miller, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound righthander,
played Division II ball at California Baptist
and showed enough potential to get drafted
in the fourth round in 2016. He might be on
the verge of a major breakthrough.
“He’s a bigger kid kind of growing into
his body,” Epstein said. “He kind of goes
overlooked, but he’s always thrown a ton of
innings. Knock on wood—never been hurt.
He always takes the ball.
“He’s really coming on and starting to
figure it out. He’s done a nice job. You can’t
pitch much better than he has. He goes
deep in games. He’s efficient. He does a real
nice job of limiting hard contact.”
—PATRICK MOONEYCINCINNATI
REDS
Josh VanMeter earned the nickname
“Homer” from his high school buddies
in Indiana—but not for the prowess he
showed on the field at Norwell High.
Instead, VanMeter’s nickname was
inspired by a relative, Homer Van Meter,
who was a member of John Dillinger’s
bank-robbing gang in the 1930s. Homer Van
Meter, the gangster, was killed by police in
St. Paul, Minn., in 1934. He was portrayed by
actor Stephen Dorf in the 2009 film “Public
Enemies,” which only cemented Josh’s nick-
name.
Blood used to be the biggest reason to
call VanMeter “Homer,” but that was before
his power surge at Triple-A Louisville this
season. He hit 13 home runs in 30 games to
earn a May 5 callup to Cincinnati. He plays
every infield position but shortstop.
“I wasn’t on the (40-man) roster. I wasn’t
invited to big league camp. Yeah, it’s very
much been like a tornado,” VanMeter said.
“I felt like I really came out of camp with
something to prove, because the way I
ended the season last year... I was like, ‘You
know what? I’m a big leaguer.’ “
Drafted by the Padres in the fifth round
in 2013, VanMeter started adjusting his
swing, looking to hit fly balls, in his last
season in the Padres organization in 2016.
That’s the year he began working with
hitting coach Johnny Washington, who is
now San Diego’s big league hitting coach.
“I’m trying to figure out the best position
to put my body in order to get my best
swing off at all times,” VanMeter said.
The Reds brought in assistant hitting
coach Donnie Ecker this offseason as well
as Cody Atkinson, the organization’s hitting
assessment and run-production coach.
Once spring started, VanMeter joked that
he followed them around like a puppy. He
spent extra time in the cage and in the
video room.
Ecker liked what he saw in the lefthand-
ed-hitting VanMeter, too.
“There’s an efficiency to his move (from
load to launch),” Ecker said. “The move is
already efficient and now it’s about organiz-
ing it in a way where he can land on pitches,
learning how to move on a fastball, move
on a breaking ball.”
—C. TRENT ROSECRANSCOLORADO
ROCKIES
Lefthander Ryan Rolison has been a
quick study for the Rockies ever since they
took him 22nd overall in the 2018 draft out
of Mississippi.
Because Rolison was a first-round pick
and a college pitcher, the Rockies were hop-
ing he would perform well from the start.CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55
Rockies lefthander Ryan Rolison favors development over results—which is impressive given how well he had pitched.TONY FARLOW/FS; MIKE JANES/FS