Dominant RHP Brad Peacock Promoted to Triple-A

The Nationals have promoted one of their top prospects, right-hander Brad Peacock, to Triple-A Syracuse.

The righty was ranked tenth on the Nationals’ prospect list by Baseball America prior to the 2011 season, and a stellar performance in Double-A this year has undoubtedly pushed him up that list. He’ll join ace Tom Milone in the Syracuse rotation.

Peacock, 23, was originally a 41st-round draft pick in 2006 as one of the last draft-and-follow players. He didn’t really appear on the prospect radar until last season, when he had a breakout year in High-A, with a 148/47 K/BB in 142 innings. There were worries about his high ERA (4.44 in High-A) and struggles after a promotion to Double-A (30/22 K/BB, 4.66 ERA in seven starts), but he was established as a player to watch due to his organization-best strikeout total.

Peacock is fairly slight of build, but his fastball sits in the low 90’s and he complements it with a big curveball and decent changeup. One of the biggest scouting knocks on him in the past is his tendency to leave his straight fastball up in the zone, but he’s avoided damage this season, with just four home runs allowed. At the same time, he’s kept up the strikeout-to-walk excellence, with a whopping 129/23 K/BB in 96 2/3 innings.

In fact, Peacock’s strikeout rate has risen nearly every season he’s been in professional ball, which is highly unusual–after all, he’s facing better hitters as he moves up. Certainly, that speaks well of his ability to adapt to higher levels of competition and bodes well for him climbing the last rung of the minor league ladder to get to Washington.

With Peacock and Milone being so dominant in the upper minors, Jordan Zimmermann having a breakout year for the big-league Nationals, and Stephen Strasburg‘s comeback nearing, the Nationals could wind up with a devastating young front four in their 2012 rotation. They haven’t done it with the sort of prospect hoopla (Strasburg aside) that, say, the Braves have with Julio Teheran, Randall Delgado, and Mike Minor, but you don’t necessarily need hype to assemble a good pitching staff.

Since Peacock was so dominant in Double-A, and the jump from that level to Triple-A is usually thought to be less jarring than going from High-A to Double-A, he appears to be set up well to carry his success over to the International League. If he does, he could be looking at a September callup, or at least a shot at a big league job next spring. He’s been one of the ten most dominant pitchers in minor league baseball this season, and is definitely a player to watch.