Ignacio Feliz 2022

[DocJJ]

Anyone know much about what he throws?

22 yo in A ball, may be a bit old for that league, and his 5.48 ERA is not exciting, but he sure can rack up strikeouts...  

He has 44 K's in 24 innings.   That makes me think he has an out pitch of some kind that the hitters can't hit, either blazing fastball, or vicious off speed pitch...

[Tony-OH]

Feliz has pitched his way onto the scene bit with an incredible ability to miss bats (16.1/9 thru 24.2IP). Since getting pounded by the Blue Rocks for 8 ER runs in 1.2 UP on 4/14, he's pitched to a 1.71 ERA and held batters to a measly .123/.256/.206/.461 slash line over 21 IP in 6 appearances. He can throw in the mid-90s and his slider misses bats. At 22 years old in High-A, he's age appropriate for his level.

[Just Regular]

This past weekend Melewski gave a touching 98 report on the pregame show.

I feel with teams calibrating for max efficiency in 50 or 75 pitch chunks that "not being a minor-league starter" isn't the black mark I probably would have said it was even a few years ago.

[sportsfan8703]

Any thoughts about just making him a full time reliever and seeing what he can do. It’s a relievers game more than ever now. 

[Brooks The Great]

5 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Any thoughts about just making him a full time reliever and seeing what he can do. It’s a relievers game more than ever now. 

He can always easily be converted to a reliever at any time, but it's worth giving him more starts to see if there's a possibility he can be a starter, even if it's only in the Tampa Bay mold of 3-5 innings max (which as you alluded to, is more the way the game is trending now).

[seak05]

0 ER 7 K in 5 IP tonight

[Just Regular]

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/minor-league?pos=all&level=0&lg=14&stats=pit&qual=30&type=1&team=48&season=2022&seasonEnd=2022&org=&ind=0&splitTeam=false&players=&sort=11,1

A periodic check in on the Ironbirds bulk pitchers.   All good, but despite the low number of starts for Feliz a 40%K rate to his teammate's 30%'s is a separator for me.  It'll be interesting to see who makes Bowie first.

Maybe Henderson-Westburg style they'll just promote the group.

[wildcard]

The thing about him is that if Elias thinks Feliz is going to be good he has to protect him in the Rule 5 draft.    He was signed at 17 and he is 22 now.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

The thing about him is that if Elias thinks Feliz is going to be good he has to protect him in the Rule 5 draft.    He was signed at 17 and he is 22 now.

Good point, Wildcard.   So, there would be more incentive to promote Feliz to Bowie to get a better idea of what they have than one of the pitchers who don't need to be protected.   Now,  I expect him to be the next (maybe only) starter promoted from Aberdeen to Bowie.

[Just Regular]

8 minutes ago, wildcard said:

The thing about him is that if Elias thinks Feliz is going to be good he has to protect him in the Rule 5 draft.    He was signed at 17 and he is 22 now.

See, last year when Felix Bautista was protected I went like, Who?   And now this year there won't be any surprise factor at all.

Also now instead of wondering if he'll have any of the 2023 Orioles 1450 innings, I can start guessing him for 50-ish just like Vespi.

[DocJJ]

Wow.  He continues to dominate.

Since we'd have to protect him on the 40 man at the end of this year, maybe we should bump him up to Double A and see how he does?   If he does well then we can decide to protect him...

[emmett16]

76 ks in 45 ip holding a 1.05 whip is pretty darn impressive.  I'd say it's time for him to be challenged.  

[Aristotelian]

On 6/9/2022 at 3:51 PM, RZNJ said:

Good point, Wildcard.   So, there would be more incentive to promote Feliz to Bowie to get a better idea of what they have than one of the pitchers who don't need to be protected.   Now,  I expect him to be the next (maybe only) starter promoted from Aberdeen to Bowie.

Armbruester got the call today. Great baseball name, btw. 

I agree, Feliz to Bowie soon makes sense. 

[Just Regular]

Maybe a smidge of an assist from hitters in a hurry on a doubleheader day (Matt Harvey 7-inning complete game also after this week's storms), but Ignacio has joined the 6 Innings completed club tonight.