Josh Thomas 05/26/2022 Prospect Notes Leave A Comment

Forgive me if Gavin Stone has been featured in this space a bit often, but the best kept secret in baseball keeps delivering:

Gavin Stone's 2nd outing for Tulsa was nearly as good as his 1st, and he hasn't allowed a run at AA. FB was up to 96 several times, and he continued to use his secondaries to great effect, doubling up on both the changeup and slider. The line: 5.0 IP 4 hits 0 runs 2 BBs 7 Ks⬇️ pic.twitter.com/dGux6i1C8R

Stone hitting 96 mph several times is no surprise to anyone who saw him pitch last season, especially as the season wore on, as he was up to 98 by August, and leaving the cold Midwest League tends to limber guys up a bit.

This outing saw his ERA drop to 1.03 for the season, which is the 4th-best mark among the 265 qualified starting pitchers throughout minor league baseball. He also tossed a season high 78 pitches, just eclipsing his tally of 77 from his first outing for the Drillers.

The pitch count comes up because it should be noted that Stone’s FB velo in his last inning dipped to 92-93. He stayed in his delivery, still delivering strikes, and this is what it often looks like when guys are getting stretched out, so there’s nothing to be concerned about here. Look for him to stay at this pitch count level until his velo from earlier innings is present when he’s at 60-70+ pitches.

Kyle Hurt, the second-best kept secret in baseball, is making this #notascout feel like a blind squirrel:

Kyle Hurt had another fantastic outing for Great Lakes, and he's on one heck of a run – in his last six appearances, he has tossed 19.0 innings, with 29 Ks/4 BBs, and an ERA of 0.95🔥🔥🔥 Today's line: 5.0 IP 2 hits 0 runs 0 BBs 7 Ks⬇️ pic.twitter.com/K5zDOufGxM

The stuff was known to be electric, but with command questions being bandied about for several years, things coalescing this quickly is downright silly.

Hurt is also a hoss, listed at 6’3, 240 lbs, so there’s prototypical size. The 61 pitches he tossed were a career high, so next on the docket is seeing when he advances to the next pitch count tier, and how the delivery and velo hold up as he progresses even farther into an outing.

Jacob Amaya was involved in a couple of double plays for Tulsa, and while the bat’s tremendous, this is also plenty exciting; we’ve seen it, and we know the kinds of plays legit big league shortstops make. These are them:

Jacob Amaya has an incredible internal clock, this is a heck of a double play pic.twitter.com/BexiR19TuV

Here's another fantastic double play, this time Jacob Amaya is deep in the hole, he fields and fires very quickly. Devin Mann has to hold firm on the bag before getting rid of it quickly, slinging it low with the runner bearing down. Really, this is tremendous baseball. pic.twitter.com/AjewFjm41n

Simply put, Amaya is the best defensive shortstop in the organization right now, and he’s running a wRC+ of 164 while being 1.3 years younger than average for the Texas League. Get hyped.

Additionally, Amaya is now in an inclusive group that’s difficult to reach these days – the top 10 Dodgers prospects. Baseball America updated their Top 30 prospects for the Dodgers, and he’s ranked ninth.

Lastly, a pair of Dodgers minor leaguers showed up in the transaction log.

Andrew Shaps, whom the Dodgers drafted in the 31st round back in 2018, was traded to the Detroit Tigers. Though he was mostly a position player while in the organization, he only pitched in 2022. At 26, he’s a bit on the older side for a prospect, so it’ll be interesting to see what the Tigers have planned for him.

Jean Herrera, an IFA signee out of Colombia back in 2019, was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not much is known about Herrera; he was signed as an 18 year old during his respective IFA period, when most are closer to 16-17 upon signing, so he was a relative unknown at the time. Now 21, he has only pitched in the DSL, so there aren’t any significant state-side looks to lean on. From the Youtube vids that purport to be him, his listed 6′-0″, 178 lbs might be a tad optimistic, but there’s a quick arm with a lower release point, and his lower half reflects a bit of intent.

No return was announced for either transaction, so the all-too-ambiguous “cash considerations” may pop back up in some belated announcement.