Best Marlins prospect performances through 5 weeks of 2022 MiLB season

Fish Stripes will be starting off every new week of the Minor League Baseball season by posting updated leaderboards for Marlins MiLB players. I have selected a handful of key categories for hitting and pitching prospects.

The threshold to qualify for the leaderboards is determined by the number of weeks we are into the regular season multiplied by 10 plate appearances/batters faced.

Hitting Leaders (min. 50 PA)

• Weighted Runs Created Plus—Kyler Castillo (223 wRC+), Charles Leblanc (183), Willians Astudillo (161), Lorenzo Quintana (158), Erik González (155)
• Home Runs—Quintana (7 HR), JJ Bleday (6), Jerar Encarnación (6), Leblanc (6)
• Batting Average on Balls in Play—González (.481 BABIP), Castillo (.458), Leblanc (.456), Griffin Conine (.415), Encarnación (.409)
• Stolen Bases—Nasim Nuñez (13 SB), JD Orr (10), Ray Patrick-Didder (8), Víctor Víctor Mesa (7), José Salas (7)
• Strikeout Rate—Astudillo (3.5%), Castillo (9.7%), Bradshaw (10.8 K%), Quintana (12.1%), Cobie Fletcher-Vance (14.9%)

Who’s Hot?

JJ Bleday (Jacksonville) is on pace for his best regular season as a pro after hitting home runs in three consecutive games. The gap between his strikeouts and walks is smaller than ever, he’s putting only 29% of batted balls on the ground and he’s played error-free outfield defense. That ground ball rate is the lowest among my 44 Marlins minor league qualified batters. Bleday was selected to MLB.com’s Prospect Team of the Week.

Who’s Not?

Javier Sanoja (Jupiter) racked up seven hits in his first five games of the season. He has only six since then despite starting most Hammerheads games (alternating between second base and third base). Perhaps the Marlins were too aggressive in deciding to challenge the 19-year-old Venezuelan at full-season ball.

Speaking of struggling 19-year-olds, Kahlil Watson has an uncharacteristic .175/.214/.275 slash line over his last 10 games. Watson’s overall stats are still solid, but as detailed recently, I’m discouraged by his swing-and-miss tendencies.

Pitching Leaders (min. 50 BF)

• Earned Run Average—Sandro Bargallo (0.42 ERA), Edward Cabrera (1.38), Bryan Hoeing (1.38), Andrew Nardi (1.62), Max Meyer (1.72)
• Innings Pitched—Bryan Hoeing (32.2 IP), Meyer (31.1), Chris Mokma (27.2), Matthew Kent (26.2), Zach King (26.0)
• Batting Average on Balls in Play—Eli Villalobos (.042 BABIP), Cabrera (.207), Mokma (.209), Garcia (.216), Jake Fishman (.231)
• Strikeout Rate—Nardi (40.0%), Tyler Mitzel (37.7%), Eury Pérez (37.1%), Grant Dayton (36.0%), King (35.8%)
• Walk Rate—Luis Palacios (1.1%), Mitzel (1.6%), M.D. Johnson (2.4%), Kent (4.4%), Jeff Brigham (4.9%)

Who’s Hot?

M.D. Johnson (Beloit) seized Midwest League Player of the Week honors on the strength of seven near-perfect innings. Really, with the exception of his season-opening start, he is dominating in 2022 (20.0 IP, 0.90 ERA, 2 BB, 18 K, 0 HR since then). He should be moving on up to Pensacola by July at the latest.

Pitching out of the Jupiter bullpen, Chandler Jozwiak has retired 25 of his last 27 batters faced. The 2021 draftee uses a sinker/four-seamer/changeup/breaking ball mix.

Who’s Not?

Left-hander Justin Fall (Jupiter) has yielded a .400 batting average against over his last two starts. At least he’s been suppressing homers all season.