Winston-Salem Dash @WSDashBaseball

Congrats to Matt Cooper, who earned the Carolina League's Pitcher of the Week award for his great work last week!

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...80&sid=t580 …

 

Prospect of any significant value?

 

Can he be a 4 or 5 starter?

 

 

Prospect of any significant value?

 

Can he be a 4 or 5 starter?

I hope to see him pitch later this month, if the timing works. I saw him last May, and I was one of the people who helped him just make the FS T30 in January. That said, even I didn't see anything like this coming.

 

Here's our profile on him, if that helps. Includes links to video, etc.

 

On the old side for his current level, though this is the first year the Sox are starting him, as he was out of the pen in '14 and '15. Lately he has been on a very filthy run. Last 3 starts 22 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 31 K. For those keeping track that's a 0.5 WHIP, 1.23 ERA, 15.5 K/BB, 12.7 K/9 over that small stretch. He's been economical too this year, 4.7 pitches/out. For context, Kershaw is working at a 4.5 clip this year, Arrieta 5.1, Sale 5.0, Quintana 5.3 & Latos 5.5. What's crazy is that is a sizeable increase from his rate for his career prior to this year of 2.9 while maintaining a 12.8 K/9 rate over that time. Insane.

 

It's probably time to see what he can do in AA.

On the old side for his current level, though this is the first year the Sox are starting him, as he was out of the pen in '14 and '15. Lately he has been on a very filthy run. Last 3 starts 22 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 31 K. For those keeping track that's a 0.5 WHIP, 1.23 ERA, 15.5 K/BB, 12.7 K/9 over that small stretch. He's been economical too this year, 4.7 pitches/out. For context, Kershaw is working at a 4.5 clip this year, Arrieta 5.1, Sale 5.0, Quintana 5.3 & Latos 5.5. What's crazy is that is a sizeable increase from his rate for his career prior to this year of 2.9 while maintaining a 12.8 K/9 rate over that time. Insane.

 

It's probably time to see what he can do in AA.

 

Another note, that stretch of games was against the Braves, Red Sox, & Nationals affiliates, with the former 2 being considered to be in the top 5 or 10 systems in baseball, and the Nationals right in the middle.