Keith at the Royal Tower wrote a nice piece about the Wilmington rotation last month and while the Rocks will have the premiere level talent in the organization the Bees should have some intriguing names as well.
Their rotation should be fronted by three pitchers that have similar stories all are young and have recovered from HS injuries.
John Lamb is the so called Ace of the staff and has been heralded for his pitchability. That ability should serve him very well in the pitching environment of the midwest league. Hopefully he continues to develop his curve and changeup which could be above average pitches and will have to be for him to continue his success. BA ranks him as having the best control in the system which could equal some crazy k/bb ratio if past success is an indication (Duffy '08,Cegarra'08).
Keeton Hayenga according to alot of people Hayenga was hitting 92-94 mph during the '08 instructional season but he was mostly around 89-91 during the '09 season. Hayenga has been spotted by BA and Royalsprospects.com as the prospect to fly up the most charts next season. This could be very likely with his curveball and fastball both looking like possible plus pitches once he can find more consistency with them.
Tyler Sample the big righty from the rockies could be in for a big big bounce forward this season as he really started to come on towards the end of '09. Sample allowed 1 run over his final three starts (19 Ip) also only giving up 8 hits over that same span. At 6'7 and 245 lbs Sample looks like a workhorse but is going to need a bring along his change up to last as a starter. Look for Sample to build on his strong finish.
Matt Mitchell Mitchell burst onto the seen in '07 as the ERA champ of the Arizona League (1.80) and was looking for a strong follow up in '08 in Burlington. Unfortunately he couldn't match fellow teammate Danny Duffy's success at both levels. Mitchell has the makes of above average change up which shows with his better splits versus lefties than righties. He had Tommy John surgery which is the reason he will probably be repeating Burlington. UR
Kelvin Herrera My favorite young Royal prospect Herrera has had little trouble at any level even pitching very well during the Burlington '08 playoff run. Herrera is the least projectable physically of the group only checking in at 5'10 160 lbs but none of the four can really match his combination of stuff and pitchability. He throws in the low 90s and has an advanced feel for pitching. Herrera is my pick for the biggest mover this season if his arm proves healthy from the injury that sidelined him in '09. My #14 ranked prospect
What's the capper to these five well the fact that they will be having the most talked about positional prospect in the system catching them. The combination of talented arms to go with Myers at catcher should be good reason for us prospect hounds to be tracking them on a daily basis.
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