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Prospect Roundup: Impact of Dan Winkler's Tommy John surgery

Looking at the time frame of Dan Winkler's injury and how long till he may come back. Also a summary of Rosell Herrera's hot streak since his return.

Dan Winkler
Dan Winkler

It was a difficult week for injury news as the Rockies placed several high-profile players on the disabled list. Arguably the worst news, from a minor league standpoint, was Dan Winkler's. Before the injury, the right-hander was having an incredible season, posting a 1.41 ERA and just 33 hits allowed in 70 innings pitched.

The Illinois native was in the middle of a 4-inning no hitter when he was removed with pain in his elbow. An MRI revealed significant damage to the ulnar collateral ligament this week, which will require Tommy John surgery on the elbow.

While the timing isn't the best, from a roster standpoint it still leaves Winkler with plenty of room to make the big league club. Dan was chosen in the 2011 draft, which keeps him under team control until 2017. The median time of return on Winkler's type of surgery is nearly 15 months, providing him a timetable return of around 2016.

Pitchers can return sooner however, as demonstrated by Dylan Bundy. The Orioles top pitching prospect underwent Tommy John surgery in June last season, and he's already back throwing 94 mph. Bundy is set to return on Sunday, June 15th for his first minor league start of the season.

Rosell Herrera returns to form

After missing nearly the entire month of May, shortstop Rosell Herrera returned with a vengeance to Modesto. The switch hitter struggled to start the season posting a .562 OPS, but has since picked things up with a line of .415/.455/.610 for the month of June.

A lot of people were keeping a wary eye on Herrera to see if his 2013 season was a fluke. The young Dominican struggled in 2012 for his first attempt at Low-A Asheville, only to repeat the following season with a breakout year.

Herrera caught a lot of people's attention as a 20-year-old in Low-A Asheville last year, where he posted a .343 average and 16 home runs. Afterwards Herrera suddenly started catching on with a lot of prospect lists, appearing as the No. 86 prospect for Baseball America and No. 99 for MLB.com. The young infielder is an exciting player because of his 6-foot-3 frame, the ability to switch-hit, as well as being able to play play third or short defensively.

Hottest Prospects of the Week

Team Records

Team

6/06

6/07

6/08

6/09

6/10

6/11

6/12

Total

Colorado Rockies (MLB)

LAD L 7-2

LAD W 5-4

LAD L 6-1

ATL L 3-1

ATL L 13-10

ATL W 8-2

ATL W 10-3

3 - 5

Col. Springs Sky Sox (AAA)

@IOW L 2-1

@IOW W 5-1

@IOW L 3-0

LV W 11-5

LV L 9-3

LV L 14-7

LV L 3-1

3 - 5

Tulsa Drillers (AA)

@NWA L 5-4

@SPR W 11-0

@SPR W 3-1

@SPR L 5-3

@SPR L 2-1

ARK W 2-1

ARK L 12-6

4 - 4

Modesto Nuts (A+)

SJ W 4-3

SJ L 9-3

SJ W 11-5

SJ L 7-3

-

@BAK L 19-6

@BAK L 12-2

2 - 5

Asheville Tourists (A)

KAN W 6-4

KAN W 7-5

KAN W 7-6

@LEX L 12-1

-

@LEX W 7-3

@LEX L 6-3

ROM W 17-6

5 - 3

DSL Rockies (ROK)

@DSL MET W 5-2

@DSL NAT L 6-2

-

DSL NAT L 7-5

DSL CAR W 5-3

@DSL CAR L 10-5

@DSL BAL L 2-1

2 - 5

Top pitchers (filtered by ERA)

Name

Age

Tm

W

L

Sv

BF

IP

G

ERA ▴

H

R

ER

HR

BB

K

Hector Villarroel

18.8

DSL ROCK

1

0

0

38

10.2

2

0.00

3

0

0

0

3

8

Daniel Winkler

24.3

TUL

0

0

0

13

3.2

1

0.00

0

0

0

0

1

3

Jorge Oviedo

17.3

DSL ROCK

0

1

0

23

5

1

1.80

6

4

1

0

2

3

Christian Friedrich

26.9

COL

0

1

0

21

5

1

1.80

4

1

1

0

3

2

Yohan Flande

28.4

COL

1

1

0

51

12

2

2.25

9

3

3

0

10

7

Tyler Anderson

24.5

TUL

0

0

0

16

4

1

2.25

3

1

1

0

2

3

Jon Gray

22.6

TUL

1

0

0

41

10.1

2

2.61

5

3

3

1

6

10

Top hitters (filtered by hits)

Name

Age

Tm

PA

R

H ▾

2B

3B

HR

RBI

BB

K

SB

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

Rosell Herrera

21.7

MOD

32

3

14

2

0

2

6

3

3

0

0.483

0.531

0.759

1.290

Raimel Tapia

20.3

ASH

33

7

14

1

0

2

9

2

4

1

0.467

0.500

0.700

1.200

Taylor Featherston

24.7

TUL

33

7

12

2

0

3

5

1

8

0

0.375

0.394

0.719

1.113

Jordan Patterson

22.3

ASH

34

7

11

4

0

1

6

3

5

1

0.367

0.441

0.600

1.041

Ben Paulsen

26.7

COL

34

6

11

2

1

1

8

5

6

0

0.393

0.471

0.643

1.114

Cristhian Adames

22.9

TUL

32

4

10

1

0

0

3

3

6

0

0.370

0.419

0.407

0.826

Emerson Jimenez

19.5

ASH

26

5

10

2

0

0

8

2

3

5

0.435

0.480

0.522

1.002

Tyler Massey

24.9

TUL

31

3

10

0

1

0

2

1

3

0

0.333

0.355

0.400

0.755

Ryan McMahon

19.5

ASH

30

6

10

0

1

0

1

4

4

0

0.385

0.467

0.462

0.929

Manuel Melendez

17.2

DSL ROCK

34

4

10

2

0

0

2

4

3

1

0.333

0.412

0.400

0.812

Chris O'Dowd

23.7

MOD

22

6

10

2

0

2

5

1

3

4

0.476

0.500

0.857

1.357

Stats by Minorleaguecentral.com

Hottest prospect videos of the Week

Kyle Parker with another opposite field home run.

Taylor Featherston homers twice on Star Wars night in Tulsa.

Tulsa clinches a playoff birth.

The 19-year-old Emerson Jimenez doubles for Low-A Asheville.

Programming note: I will be taking a couple of weeks off, as my day job is transferring me to North Carolina. I'm looking forward to sharing photos and stories about the players in Asheville. In the meantime, TomCat009 will be filling in as a guest writer.