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Rockies Prospects: June Monthly Organizational Report

The month of June was dominated by Rockies catchers as four of them posted an OPS above .800. Rockies pitchers were led by Dan Winkler, but saw other strong performances within the organization.

By Charlie77

The month of June was dominated by catchers in the Rockies organization. The Modesto Nuts organization are hosting two very hot catchers in Ryan Casteel and Will Swanner. While Swanner has been in center stage for the last several years, recently Casteel has stepped out of the shadows to emerge as a legitimate catching prospect in the system.

Swanner started off the season with a disappointing .465 OPS, he has since rebounded with two straight .800+ OPS months and three home runs each month. He has also improved on his plate discipline lowering his strikeouts every month of the season.

Meanwhile Ryan Casteel was only intended to start every three days, but his bat propelled him into the starting lineup. With a .854 OPS in April, Casteel has improved his stats each month and had six home runs in the month of June.

"Every time he played, he did something offensively." Said Lenn Sakata about Ryan Casteel on Modesto's Inside the Shell.

Casteel's six home runs ranked second in the Rockies minor leagues in June. Asheville's Tom Murphy topped that with seven home runs, behind only Carlos Gonzalez's nine HR's in the entire Colorado organization. Murphy's numbers dipped slightly in May where he hit only .256 with a .841 OPS, but he rebounded in June with a .354 average and a 1.172 OPS.

In Short-season Grand Junction, Jose Briceno has returned from last season's injury with a hot start. Briceno's slugging percentage of .763 was second in the entire organization for the month. As documented by our own Drew Creasman, Briceno has struggled handling pitches, but demonstrated a strong throwing arm with a caught stealing rate of 33%. Briceno's home/road splits leave a lot to be desired, but he's hitting very well at home.

June catching stats:

Age

Tm

PA

2B

3B

HR

RBI

K

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS ▾

Tom Murphy

22.17

ASH

85

12

0

7

26

21

0.354

0.4

0.772

1.172

Jose Briceno

20.75

GJ

40

4

0

4

12

7

0.342

0.375

0.763

1.138

Ryan Casteel

22

MOD

120

13

1

6

22

29

0.315

0.375

0.62

0.995

William Swanner

21.75

MOD

92

7

1

3

17

22

0.278

0.348

0.506

0.854

Wilfredo Rodriguez

19.42

TRI

52

1

0

0

3

9

0.195

0.327

0.22

0.547

Pitchers

It's not surprising who the top pitchers were in the month of June. Dan Winkler led all Rockies pitchers with 38 strikeouts and a 1.03 ERA. Winkler's month has been well documented, including the no-hitter he was a part of.

Modesto's Eddie Butler was second in the organization in strikeouts with 36 and maintained a 1.36 for his first full month in the High-A level. Butler's season hasn't gone unnoticed as he was selected No. 48 by Baseball Prospectus in their top 50 poll. Purple Row's users voted Eddie as the No. 3 overall prospect in the Rockies organization and he was invited by Major League Baseball to play in their Futures Game during All-Star weekend.

Dominican pitcher Antonio Senzatela ranked third in strikeouts for the month with 32 and a solid ERA of 1.80. Senzatela was signed by the Rockies in 2011 for $250,000 and led the DSL in ERA last season. This month Antonio has struggled with his command as he leads the organization with six hit batsman.

Name

Age

Tm

W

L

IP

ERA

HBP

HR

BB

K ▾

Daniel Winkler

23.33

MOD

4

0

35

1.03

3

1

6

38

Eddie Butler

22.25

MOD

3

0

33

1.36

1

2

6

36

Antonio Senzatela

18.41

DSL ROCK

4

1

30

1.8

6

1

2

32

Roy Oswalt

35.83

2 Tms

2

3

33.1

3.51

0

4

4

32

Drew Pomeranz

24.58

COL

2

1

28.2

4.71

0

3

14

31

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