Two Major One Minor 061813

Here is the 12th Two Major One Minor segment of 2013. This is my third year of doing this series where I feature two Major League players and one minor league player each week. This week I am featuring Alex Torres, Trevor Rosenthal and Jack Leathersich. Torres and Rosenthal likely have futures as starters but are serving their time in the bull pen this season.

LHP Torres of the Tampa Bay Rays has done his best to dominate in his short stints out of the bull pen this season. He has a healthy 23/3 strikeout to walk ratio over 16.0 IP. That is a 12.9 K/9 rate. He put up good numbers as he rose through the minors as a starter: 13-6, 2.77 ERA, 156 K in 2009, 11-6, 3.47 ERA, 150 K in 2010 and 9-7, 3.08 ERA, 156 K in 2011. The later earned him his first showing with the Rays over four games. He started this season at Triple A Durham where he was 2-2, 3.52 ERA, 61 K, 1.20 WHIP in 46.0 IP over 9 games as a starter. He originally signed by the Angels as an amateur free agent in 2005 out of Venezuela. Torres will be 26 on December 8th.

RHP Rosenthal of the St Louis Cardinals has also been doing well out of the bull pen after having a successful minor league career as a starter. This season he is 1-0, 1.82 ERA, 49 K, 1.07 WHIP in 34.2 IP over 33 games. He has also had a K/9 rate of 12.7. As a starter in the minors his stops included 7-7, 4.11 ERA, 133 K in 2011 and 8-6, 2.97 ERA, 104 K in 2012. He finished 2012 with the Cardinals going 0-2, 2.78 ERA, 25 K, 0.93 WHIP in 22.2 IP over 19 games. He was originally drafted by the Cardinals in the 23rd round in 2009. Rosenthal turned 23 on May 29.

LHP Leathersich is an actual bull pen pitcher in the New York Mets system. He started 2013 with Double A Binghamton where he was 2-0, 1.53 ERA, 55 K, 1.19 WHIP, 3 SV in 29.1 IP over 24 games. That earned him a promotion to Triple A Las Vegas where he as been 0-0, 9.00 ERA, 8 K, 1.25 WHIP in 4.0 IP over 3 games. That is an impressive K/9 rate of 16.9 at Double A and 18.0 at Triple A. His rate has never been lower than 13.9 at any stop in the minors. He was originally drafted by the Mets in the fifth round in 2011. Leathersich will be 23 on July 14.