TWitM: The pitchers shine, Omaha’s offense stays hot

This Week in the Minors: Noah Cameron and Hunter Patteson looked fantastic and the Omaha offense was red-hot.

‘This Week in the Minors’ is our weekly look at notable performances from all over the system, from big-name prospects and less-heralded guys alike. The mission is to answer this simple question: “Who had a good week?”

This “week” in the Minors: Friday, March 29 to Sunday, April 14

With the first installation of “This Week in the Minors” for 2024, I’ll include the entire minor league season thus far.

AAA Omaha Storm Chasers (10-5, 1st Place International League West)

If you thought the Royals were on a hot streak, the Storm Chasers are right on their heels. Omaha is 8-2 over their last ten games after starting the season 2-3.

Jonathan Bowlan has been the team’s best starter so far this season. Over three starts he owns a 2.25 ERA alongside 16 strikeouts and just three walks. His best start of the season thus far came on April 9. Bowlan pitched six full innings allowing two earned runs to pass. He struck out ten and didn’t walk a batter.

Other arms in the Omaha rotation have struggled at times. Daniel Lynch IV (5.79 ERA), Andrew Hoffmann (5.54 ERA), William Fleming (5.00 ERA), and Anthony Veneziano (3.27 ERA) have all had varying levels of success thus far. The real standout for Omaha so far in 2024 has been the bullpen.

• Walter Pennington: 10.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 17 SO — 2.53 ERA
• Sam Long: 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO — 0.00 ERA
• Tyler Duffey: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 SO — 1.50 ERA
• Will Klein: 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 SO — 0.00 ERA

The Storm Chasers offense has been led by Logan Porter. Porter has been one of the best hitters in the entire minor leagues this season. He has a 246 wRC+ over 40 PA this season. Rehabbing second baseman Michael Massey slashed .409/.458/.636 for Omaha and should be back in Kansas City soon. CJ Alexander is tied with Logan Porter for the team lead with four home runs. Alexander has a 157 wRC+ on the season thus far.

AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (3-6, 4th place in the Texas League North)

Although the Naturals are already six games back from first place, their slow start to the season hasn’t been due to a lack of pitching. Sixteen different pitchers have made at least one appearance for the Naturals this season. Only five of them have a FIP over 4.00.

LHP Noah Cameron was fantastic in his start on Thursday. The St. Joseph native pitched six scoreless innings, allowing four hits and no walks while striking out six.

Over two starts of his own so far this season, 2023 Paul Splittorff Award Winner, Mason Barnett, has a 2.61 ERA. He’s struck out 11 hitters in 10.1 innings of work and limited opponents to a .162 batting average. In the bullpen, relievers Beck Way and Cruz Noriega have shined. Way pitched three perfect innings in relief this week and still has a perfect 0.00 ERA on the season. Much of that is thanks to a 7.00 K/BB ratio. Noriega touches triple digits with his fastball and has a team-leading 1.76 FIP on the season.

The 26-year-old backstop, Rodolfo Durán, stood out last week for the Naturals. He currently leads the team with two home runs and a .368 batting average. Strikeouts have been the achilles heel for the Naturals so far this season. Among 13 hitters with a plate appearance this season, just Javier Vaz and Durán have a strikeout rate under 25%. Vaz has been somewhat slow to start the year, slashing a still-respectable .267/.371/.367 on the year.

A+ Quad Cities River Bandits (6-3, 1st place in the Midwest League West)

The River Bandits are currently on a four-game win streak of their own and pace the standings in the Midwest League West division. As has been the case throughout the system thus far, pitching leads the way. The River Bandits have allowed just 23 runs to score this season. That’s good for third among all High-A affiliates, trailing only Rome (ATL) and Hudson Valley (NYY).

The River Bandits’ staff is brimming with starting pitcher talent. So much so that they’ve resorted to “split starts” of sorts. It’s been common this season to see one starter start the game, and another starter follow them with four or five innings of their own. This was the case on Sunday when LHP Frank Mozzicato made his season debut. Mozzicato pitched four scoreless innings, allowing three walks while striking out six. Shane Panzini pitched four innings of his own in relief, allowing two runs on five hits.

Ryan Ramsey and Oscar Rayo have stood out this season as well. Ramsey currently owns a 0.54 FIP and Rayo is right behind him at 1.04. 2023 draftee, Hunter Owen, made the first start of his professional career last week. He pitched six full innings on April 10, allowing just one earned run while striking out six. He didn’t walk a batter.

The offense has been slower to start but has been led early by catcher Carter Jensen. Jensen is slashing .306/.405/.500 this season with a .194 ISO.

Outfielder Spencer Nivens exited Sunday’s game with an apparent hamstring injury after running down a fly ball in center field.

A Columbia Fireflies (6-3, 1st place in the Carolina League South)

The Fireflies have been an offensive force this season. Their 70 runs scored in 2024 rank second among all Low-A affiliates. A large part of that offensive barrage has been led by a quartet of international prospects. Shortstop Daniel Vazquez struggled in 2023 with the Fireflies but has been impressive early on this season. He’s currently slashing .333/.488/.394 this season with a 23.3% walk rate.

Outfielder Erick Torres has been impressive in his Low-A debut. He spent last season in the Arizona Complex League and has slashed .400/.525/.400 over his first 41 plate appearances with Columbia. Jhonny Perdomo (158 wRC+) and Derlin Figueroa (143 wRC+) round out the quartet.

Top prospect Blake Mitchell started to settle in this week. He hit his first professional home run on Saturday and now has a 134 wRC+ on the season. He’s starting to strike out less and has made some loud contact at the plate.

On the mound, starter Hunter Patteson has been lights out in his return from injury. He missed the second half of 2023 due to injury but is yet to allow a run this season over 9.0 IP. He’s barely allowed a base runner. Patteson has allowed just one hit and hasn’t walked a batter this season.

RHP Blake Wolters made his professional debut last week and went 3.1 innings. The Illinois native touched 98 mph in his first inning of work but struggled with command at times. By the fourth inning, he had lost command but that’s to be expected from a high-school prospect making their first career start.