Greenville Drive update: Jose Vinicio, Francellis Montas, Justin Haley

Jose Vinicio, SS

Vinicio's second go of things at Low-A Greenville is going much worse than his first: after posting a 691 OPS there in 2012 -- a figure that looks better when you remember he was just 18 years old -- he's down to .195/.244/.299 in his first 85 plate appearances of this season. It's a little early to panic, though, given now he's just 19 years old, and his offensive skill-set is going to take quite some time to develop -- they can't all be Xander Bogaerts, you know.

Vinicio, who came in to 2013 with a habit of making unforced errors due to raw talent and inexperience meeting a little too often, made four errors in April. As he made 25 all of last year, he's not too far off his five-month pace. He has already been part of 14 double plays, and while Fielding Percentage is mostly useless, for a guy who makes a lot of errors, it's good to see he's currently posting his highest ever.

*****

Francellis Montas, RHP

Don't look at Montas' current ERA, as he's 20, it's just five starts, and he's in Low-A -- Henry Owens looked pretty terrible in his first month of full-season ball, too. Check out those other figures, like the nearly 12 strikeouts per nine, and 4.5 times more punch outs than free passes. He needs to work on keeping the ball in the park, and likely his command, too, but it's hard to suss out, just from the numbers, whether a high hit rate is his or his defense's doing, especially at Low-A where raw talent abounds.

Montas was filthy in his last start, going five innings without allowing a walk or a run, just one baserunner, all while striking out nine. He has a lot of potential, and just as much left to learn, but this Dominican righty should be worth paying attention to all year long regardless of how much he picks up on at Greenville.

*****

Justin Haley, RHP

Haley is doing a bit better than Montas in the ERA department, and you can see by looking at his other figures that this means very little. He's striking out plenty of batters, but he's walking just about as many, and that's canceling out his low hit rate. Of course, the low hit rate likely has a lot to do with the fact that he has walked or struck out nearly half of all batters he's faced in 2013.

He somehow survived despite 17 walks in his first four starts, limiting opponents to just six runs in those 15-1/3 frames, but things went awry in his latest outing, with Haley giving up two homers, five runs, and seven hits over 3-2/3 innings. He'll need to work on his control and his command before any real development can be had, but remember, he's not gunning for a future as a starter: this is a future reliever working out the kinks in a starting role in order to maximize his developmental workload. He'll have to succeed at least a little before that's a possibility either, of course.

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