NL East Prospect Update

by Rich Douglas 

We continue our prospect update with the NL East, headlined by several top of the order pitching prospects.

Jose Fernandez - Miami Marlins - SP
Fernandez made a large jump this year, after spending all his previous seasons in the various A levele leagues, he started the seaosn with the Major League club.  The move has paid of, as Fernandez has started 16 games and lasted just under 6 innings per start.  His ERA is just 2.72, with just a 3.02 FIP.  He;s done it by throwing strikes consistently, with a 63% first pitch strike rate, and overall 65% of his pitches have been strikes.  He's induced an 8.8% swinging strike rate, leading to a 25.7% strike out rate.  The only concern going forward is his BABIP is just .247, so he's defintely getting a little lucky on the balls that batters are able to get in touch with.

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Jesse Biddle - Philadelphia Phillies - SP
Biddle has started 17 games for AA Reading, pitching 93.2 innings of baseball with a 3.02 ERA.  His FIP sits at a slightly higher 3.36.  Biddle has been good at confusing hitters, by striking out 26.6% of opposing batters.  But he has struggled with his command at times, with a 12% walk rate to accompany it.  Despite that, he's kept his home run numbers down, allowing just 6 all season, and he's held batters to a .200 average.  The place where he's struggled the most is when batters have been able to get into scoring position,  when that average jumps to .263, and his K/BB rate falls to under 2.


Zack Wheeler - New York Mets - SP
While we actually consider the former Jays top catching prospect Travis D'Arnaud, but he broke a bone in his foot and has played only 12 games.  So we're going to profile the team's top pitching prospect, Zack Wheeler.  Zack started 13 games in Las Vegas, posting a 3.93 ERA, 4.02 FIP and a .236 average allowed through 68.2 innings of work.  He posted an impressive 9.57 K/9 inning mark, while walking just 3.5 batters per the same period.  Since moving to the Mets, Wheeler has started 4 games and lasted just over 5 innings per start.  His ERA stands at a respectable 4.29, but his FIP is over 6.  Wheeler has struggled with control since moving up, seeing is strikeout rate fall to 16.7%, and his walk rate jump to 5.57 per 9 innings.  He's also struggled to induce groundballs (37.9%), coupled with a 14.8% HR/FB.

Anthony Rendon - Washington Nationals - 3B
Rendon has seen time this year at the minor league level, starting at AA INSERT TEAM NAME, with a brief three game stint at AAA Syracuse before making his jump to join the Nats.  Rendon showed he was ready for big league work by OPSing 1.064 at the AA level, in large part by showing his ability to get on base with a .461 OBP.  His big league numbers are just as impressive, with a .354 OBP, .429 SLG and a wOBA of .343.  His strikeout rate is a solid 17.2%, but he could do with a few more walks (posting just a 7.6% walk rate).  Defensively, Rendon has been a bit more troublesome.  He has 5 errors i n his 27 games at 2B, and 3 in his 10 playing at 3B.  Those will need to come down for him to continue getting playing time.

Julio Teheran - Atlanta Braves - SP
Teheran has spent all year up with the big league club, pitching in 16 games as a starter this year.  He's averaged 6 and a third innings per start, and has posted a respectable 3.23 ERA with a slightly higher 3.68 FIP.  His BABIP sits at .309, so he's actually getting a little unlucky with some bounces against him.  He's been better at inducing groundballs this year, posting a 41.7% mark, his best mark since he started spending time with the Braves.  He's also stranding nearly 83% of runners that get on, which has helped keep his ERA low despite a troubling 11% of flyballs leaving the park.  This increased groundball rate can in par tbe attributed to his working a slider in, that sits at nearly 90 mph.