Cardinals Minors: A look at the top arms down on the farm

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Arturo “Artie” Reyes

Talk about a sleeper.

Reyes was drafted in the 40th round of the 2013 amateur draft and over 279 2/3 career innings, has amassed a 2.99 ERA, 1.287 WHIP and an even seven strikeouts per nine. Reyes started the year in Palm Beach and it only took four starts (in which he only allowed four runs total) for him to be called up to Springfield.

Since his call-up to Double-A Springfield, he has made 17 starts – in which he’s pitched to a 2.64 earned run average, something you may not guess by looking at his 7-7 record.

Reyes shows great control for a pitcher drafted in the later rounds, allowing just 28 walks and just five wild pitches. However, the most eye-opening stats for me are his home runs allowed and the BABIP opposing hitters have posted to-date.

With two-thirds of the year in the bag, he has allowed just a pair of home runs. With this in mind, hitters have a pretty decent average on balls in play at .315 so it shows hitters are actually having better than average success against him when they make contact.

Even with the high BABIP, hitters have a .256 batting average against him, so Reyes’ stats could actually improve down the stretch.

With this success I would not be surprised to see Artie get a call-up to Triple-A soon. Again, this is a very welcome surprise in an organization stacked with top pitching prospects.