Front Page: Can Lewis Thorpe Translate Whiffs into Results?

[jorgenswest]

Thorpe seems to me sort of similar to Gonsalves, he had a lot of minor league K's but didn't seem to be able to actually blow people away. Gonsalves was also highly rated in the system, but didn't seem to get much of a shot before being left off of the 40 man. Hopefully Thorpe does well.

They do look similar by the numbers but Gonsalves is 89-90 with the fastball and didn’t generate swings and misses in his short stay. I don’t know the AAA numbers but it is hard to imagine they were anywhere near Thorpe’s swing and miss rate,

 

I think Gonsalves would have been the first one up last year had he remained healthy and lost his best shot at an opportunity.

[Twodogs]

They do look similar by the numbers but Gonsalves is 89-90 with the fastball and didn’t generate swings and misses in his short stay. I don’t know the AAA numbers but it is hard to imagine they were anywhere near Thorpe’s swing and miss rate,

 

I think Gonsalves would have been the first one up last year had he remained healthy and lost his best shot at an opportunity.

Yeah im hoping that Thorpe does well. But my point was that Gonsalves also was a top ranked pitcher at one point in time, and had amassed a lot of K's in the minors. However, I do not know what his swing and miss rate was? But a lot of K's he had and he also seemed to walk quite a few guys too. So that was my Thorpe comparison, because Thorpe also doesn't throw extremely hard either. I hope Thorpe does well, it just seemed weird to dump Gonsalves so quickly? But it is what it is at this point. I also suppose if you have too many of Gonsalves/Thorpe types of pitchers you probably run into some redundancy also.

[jorgenswest]

Gonsalves was a 50 prospect after 2017 and entered his first full AAA season in 2018. He walked 55 in 100 innings that year. Like many prospects he rating dropped as he hit the upper levels He was injured all of 2019. This 2017 AA numbers are pretty far back in the rear view mirror in order to commit a 40 man spot.

 

 

Thorpe, on the other hand, was a 40 prospect the three years before that improved to 45 with his first full season in AAA. That trend is encouraging.

[jkcarew]

I don't think Thorpe has a particular problem with his pitches not playing against righties (vs lefties). At least in 2019, both righties and lefties crushed him in the majors...and neither righties or lefties crushed him at Rochester.

 

To me, he simply lacks major-league command. Young guys without command typically fall into two categories...those afraid to throw the ball over the plate; and those that get crushed when they throw the ball over the plate. Thorpe had periods of both, but mainly fell into the latter category. Give Thorpe Smeltzer's command, and we'll have something. And BABiP regression should help a bit.