SF Giants pitching prospects rundown (4/30 - 5/6)

SF Giants pitching prospects rundown (4/30 - 5/6)

Flying Squirrels Pitching Prospects

Kai-Wei Teng: 1 G (1 GS), 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 HBP, 1 BB, 9 K, 3.00 ERA
Solomon Bates: 2 G, 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 0.00 ERA
Blake Rivera: 2 G, 4.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 7 K, 3.86 ERA

Leading off the Flying Squirrels rundown is Kai-Wei Teng with probably his best outing of the season where he went a season-high in both innings (six) and strikeouts (nine). Teng has been a very weird prospect because he finally has a pitch that should make him a big leaguer in his slider but his control regressed to a point where he is going to be a reliever in the long term. His fastball control has been on and off and he definitely needs to tweak his mechanics, particularly his lower half, to hopefully regain that lost fastball control.

The pitcher that has impressed me the most because of his development this season is Solomon Bates. The 25-year-old has been impressive with a 1.15 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 15.2 innings pitched this season. I have been impressed with the shape that he's in physically and the way he worked on his stuff, particularly his breaking ball that has looked solid-average at times. His fastball has reached up to 95 MPH at times with some rising action and has flashed command with it though his control recently regressed a bit.

The final pitcher that we are going to take a look at is Blake Rivera. Rivera has not looked untouchable on the mound so far this season but he's flashed some stinginess against righties with a .179 batting average against them. Rivera still has the stuff to make it to the big leagues with his fastball that can run to the mid-90s pairing up his hammer curveball but with the vast number of relief prospects in the organization and only a certain number of relievers that could be carried in the big league roster, the road is going to be tough for Rivera.