FSL Recap: Taylor Cole Missing Bats, Justin O’Connor going yard

Mar 26, 2014; Dunedin, FL, USA; Baseballs lay on the grass prior to the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees at Florida Auto Exchange Park. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Dunedin Blue Jays’ Taylor Cole had never looked as sharp. Pitching against Bradenton last monday, the 24 year old right-hander scattered 2 hits across 6 2/3 shutout frames, fanning a career-high 12 batters and not issuing a walk until he faced his final batter with two outs in the top seventh. He followed that up with another high-octane performance, taking home a loss despite striking out nine and giving up just a pair of earned runs over 5 1/3 against Charlotte on Saturday.

It’s been a breakout season for Cole, who is suddenly missing bats after never posting a SO/9 above 7.7 in any of his three other minor league seasons. After Saturday’s bad-luck loss to Charlotte, he stands at 7-6 with a 2.92 and a minor-league leading 143 strikeouts in just 114.0 innings (11.3 SO/9). His FIP of 2.19 is tops in the Florida State League.

Cole, a 29th round draft pick in 2011, attributes his sudden propensity to miss bats to a recent increase in velocity; he told <a title="MILB.com's Guy Curtright” href=”http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140611&content_id=79084182&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb”>MILB.com’s Guy Curtright that though he threw in the mid-90’s during his collegiate days at BYU, his velocity dropped after he was drafted and is now back up to the 90-93 MPH range.

Certainly that is a factor, and a strong one, but a less generous observer would not that Cole’s dominance is at least in part due to him being the biggest kid in the school yard. The right-hander will turn 25 next month, and is a year older than the FSL average, a couple years older than most of the top prospects in the league. He has faced only 40 batters (including overlaps) older than him this season, compared to 423 younger hitters.

>Mark Leiter may not be missing quite as many at bats as Taylor Cole, but he’s been just as dominant over his last couple starts. The Clearwater right-hander threw his first career shutout last Sunday in a 5-0 victory over Charlotte, striking out eight and walking none. He followed that up on Saturday with a seven inning, two run performance, though Clearwater fell 3-2 on a walk off hit by Jupiter’s center-fielder Ryan Goetz.

A New Jersey native, Leiter, 23, was drafted by the Phillies out of NJIT in the 22nd round of last year’s draft. He was promoted to Advanced-A after posting a 4.38 ERA across 84 1/3 Sally League innings. In five FSL starts, he is 2-1 with a 3.27 ERA, a 1.4 BB/9 and a 6.5 SO/9.

>Another recent call up from the Sally League, the Tampa Yankees’ Caleb Smith has also adjusted quickly to the stiffer competition. Smith, a 14th round pick last season, struck out six and scattered just four hits (3 singles) across six frames as he blanked Palm Beach in his debut last Saturday. He took home a second victory in his next start, going six innings again and allowing just two hits and one earned run as Tampa downed Fort Myers 6-1.

Smith had a 3.10 ERA in 18 starts before the call up and is now 7-7 with a 2.79 ERA and a 9.6 SO/9 in 20 starts and 90.1 innings pitched on the season.

>Offense, particularly home runs, can often be hard to come by in the Florida State League, but that has not deterred Charlotte’s Justin O’Connor, who has gone yard four times in the past week. The Catcher/DH went two for four with a home run and a pair of RBI’s in Saturday’s 6-1 victory over Dunedin, and he provided all the offensive in Friday’s 2-1 loss,  going a  perfect four for four with a double and a long ball. Even after an 0-5 performance last night, O’Connor is hitting .410/.435/.795 with four home runs and 11 RBIs in his last ten games.

O’Connor was drafted by the Rays at the end of the first round of the 2010 draft and owns a .276/.313/.487 slash line for the season, showing true power for the first time in his professional career.

>After a rather uninspiring first half, Bradenton’s Jose Osuna has found his stroke over the past week. The 21 year old first baseman had a career game as he went 4 for 4 with three doubles, an RBI and a run scored in the Marauder’s loss. Four days earlier, he had his first two homer game of his career, leading Bradenton to a 4-0 victory over Dunedin.

The brief hot streak has helped raised Osuna’s season line to .267/.314/.412.