(This post originally appeared on Bus Leagues Baseball.com)
This year was supposed to be the breakout year for Marlins prospect Chad James. Last year, in his first in professional baseball, the then 19-year old went 5-10 with a 5.12 ERA in the Low-A South Atlantic League. He walked far too many, allowed 33 stolen bases, threw 17 wild pitches, and had a spectacularly unphenomenal 1.62 BB to K ratio.
Following the season, Baseball America ranked him the 2nd highest prospect in the Marlins system. They wrote that he had a plus fastball, a power curveball, and an occasional plus change-up. Baseball America also listed several problems, however, including:
- Inconsistent change-up
- Tendency to nibble and not challenge hitters
- Inconsistent mechanics
- Slow to the plate
Despite his faults, the Marlins promoted James to the Class-A Advanced Jupiter Hammerheads. Although he has had some success this year, James is still a mixed bag of performance and potential.
As of June 5th, Chad James had an 0-9 record, pacing not only the Florida State League in losses, but also more than any current Major Leaguer. But his record is not completely reflective to how James has pitched. He has actually improved significantly over last year.
First and foremost, it seems he is pitching much more to contact this year than before. His BB/9 has dropped from 5.12 in 2010 to 2.20 this year. His strikeouts have dropped from 8.27 per 9 in 2010 to 6.98 this year, which considering his stuff, is probably not good. Hitters are also making better contact, upping their collective batting average from .262 to .301. Despite these conflicting numbers, his ERA is still a better-than-decent 3.10. He has pitched at least 6 innings or better in 5 of his 12 starts, including two recent games where he went 8 innings and allowed 2 runs or less.
I personally saw James pitch in his worst start of the year, a 4.1 inning debacle in Dunedin. He reminded me a lot of a left-handed AJ Burnett in appearance. As for performance, he couldn't locate and the Blue Jays teed off on him, to include back-to-back-to-back home runs in the fourth. Nothing worked and he looked terrible. I hope to see him on a better night.
Overall, it's doubtful Chad James is really a 5-21 level pitcher. Based on his numbers, he should probably be 5-4 or so. But keep in mind, Jupiter is second worst in the league in runs per game, with a miniscule 3.79. They are second worst in batting average, on-base percentage, and worst in slugging - even with slugger Kyle Jensen and his 11 homers and .335 batting average.
As for James, he is barely 20 and seems to be still trying to find himself on the mound. If he can keep reducing his walks and at the same time get hitters to swing and miss more often, he'll continue to climb up the Marlins organizational ladder.
But here in the Bus Leagues, isn't that what every pitcher hopes to do?