St. Louis Cardinals MiLB Recap (4/5-4/7)

The Minor League Baseball season kicked off Friday for three St. Louis Cardinals affiliates (Palm Bach, Peoria, and Springfield). Several players stood out to me from this opening weekend, including two starters for the Palm Beach Cardinals with intriguing stuff.

RHP Tink Hence (Double-A - Springfield Cardinals)

Tink Hence was outstanding in his season debut for the Springfield Cardinals. Hence pitched five hitless innings, struck out three, and walked one. Despite the low strikeout total, he induced nine swings-and-misses (28.1% whiff rate), most of which came via his fastball. Hence's fastball averaged 95.6 mph over the entire start, but in his final inning it was down to 93.7 mph. He had tremendous control of the pitch, zoning it 65.8% of the time, and also did a great job keeping it out of the heart of the plate.

In my Spring Breakout recap, I mentioned that Hence revamped his slider from an 83 mph sweepy one to a more gyro-heavy pitching sitting 86-87 mph. In his first start of the season, we saw the latter. He controlled the pitch well but hung a couple that were subsequently hit for lineouts. Tink Hence's best secondary offering is his changeup, but he had trouble landing it for a strike last year. On Friday, he zoned the pitch 58% of the time and got a pair of groundball outs on it. Hence also threw five curveballs, but much like last year, it's his clear 4th pitch. It's tough to have a better start to a season than Hence just did, and I'm eager to see if the command and control can stick through the season.