Stats — Minor League Splits — WTM
McCutchen is one of those guys that makes this list hard to rank; he’s a solid prospect in that it’s clear he’s good enough to be of some use to the Major League team, but his upside isn’t really very high. Therefore, he’s strictly speaking more of a sure bet than Zach von Rosenberg or Billy Cain or Trent Stevenson, but he’s also much, much less interesting.
Less interesting isn’t bad, though. Between his two and four-seam fastballs, breaking pitch, and a changeup that he’s using more often, he’s got a nice repertoire for a starter. He’s pitched very well over parts of two seasons in Triple-A, showing great control and decent strikeout rates, and probably does have enough talent to be slotted into a rotation as a back-end starter. In fact, my one big worry from Neal Huntington’s “Reliever Binge ’09/’10” is that it’s going to cost McCutchen a spot on the team. It seems unlikely that the loser of the fifth starter competition between McCutchen and Hart will go to the bullpen, where they’d likely be the last guy out. There’s little left for him to prove in the minors, and so here’s hoping he gets his shot with the big club in 2010.
