Ray D. Enzé, NLN baseball blogger

April 27, 2021: Aurora, Colorado – Dennis Ready takes the mound for the Longshoremen tonight as a pitcher who continues to frustrate the Canton management. Drafted as the 5th overall pick in the 2016 draft out of Northwestern (in front of Aurora‘s budding star CF Matt Ferrell), Canton had high hopes for a future ace to lead them out of the gallows of the Great Lakes Division.

For Ready, Prime Time is not looking like a realistic shot these days. After a tendon tear in his elbow in 2019 that shelved him for the year and a shoulder injury that left him with all but 9 starts for Canton in 2021, he goes into Tuesday’s start at Northern Lights Park with a 0-1 record and a 12.27 ERA in three starts total of 11 IP.

Fast-Backwards a year. Arturo Jiménez, know as ‘Massacre’ to his teammates at Lakewood High for his propensity to strike out most batters he saw (227 K in 170 IP), was the 11th overall pick in the 2015 draft, carrying to the Hawaiian Islands the same glowing expectations that Ready shouldered for Canton. Where as Ready found himself at Canton in quick fashion by the end of 2017 (in no small part due to his college experience), impressing many with a 3.06 ERA, despite a 1-5 record attributable more to the team he played for than his abilities, ‘Massacre’, fresh out of high school, was allowed to ‘marinate’ in the minors.

Jiménez was able to get high school players to flail at 100 MPH pitches out of the strike zone, so his wild streak was hidden and he walked only 43 batters in those 170 innings. Facing a better crop of hitters in the Surf and Snow, suddenly his strikeout total dipped and his walk totals rose as hitters showed more patience (76 K, 47 BB in 82 IP). Throughout his four full years in the minors following his professional debut in 2016 he has struggled with his control – 236 K/132 BB in 236 IP at SLRC, 145 K/97 BB in 209 IP at Gatineau, and 160 K/94 BB in 145 IP at Thornton in 2019.

The 2019 offseason was a big one for ‘Massacre’. Martín Francisco was injured at the start of the post-season run that culminated in Aurora’s second Rodriguez Cup, but saw them without ‘Sawmill’ for the bulk of the 2020 season. Suddenly, Aurora was short a starting pitcher for the 2020 campaign. Early attempts to fill the void went unfulfilled, and so GM Will Topham chose to send the still young Jiménez to winter ball. Up to this point Arturo was a two-pitch pitcher – an explosive, vicious fastball and a dominant splitter, but his control killed the potential dominance he had. Plus, hitters could sit on the pitches and time them as there was little speed difference between the two. Introduce the change up. A smart guy, Jiménez took to the pitch readily and though it’s not nearly as overpowering as his fastball and splitter may be, it was more than enough to keep hitters from sitting on speed.

‘Massacre’ brought that change to spring training and was immediately dominant – clearly the best pitcher in camp, earning the starting spot in ‘Sawmill’s stead and posting a respectable 4.00 ERA in the very competitive Sovereign League, averaging more than a strikeout per inning (193 in 182 IP). Control, though, continued to haunt him as he walked 124 – tying Tempe‘s George Lee for the most in all of the PEBA.

But something happened during the offseason – he worked on his control, and Aurora Head Scout Joe Horn thinks it made a huge difference. This spring – again the best pitcher in camp, in 16 IP he walked only 5 while still averaging over a strikeout per inning. He struggled in his season’s first start; adrenaline induced control killing him in a 6 BB outing v. Palm Springs – the least patient team in the league. He has yet to pass 5 IP in three starts, but in his second start he seemed to right himself with a 9 K, 1 BB outing v. Duluth and 7 K, 3 BB in a rematch v. Palm Springs.

Aurora Manager Koki Kojima says he’s sticking with Arturo and expects big things. “We came into this organization together (Kojima was hired to manage Thornton after the 2015 season) and I was very much interested in him as we put together the organizational draft board.” And now, both these 2016 ‘rookies’ are leading an Aurora team looking to make it back to the post-season. “I think Jiménez still has some potential growth with his control.” said Horn “Every day he shows bits of progress. I believe he has the potential to be one of the most dominant pitchers in the league if he can just harness his stuff. He won’t be Mike Provost, but he still can be very good.”

With a starting staff that looks to be very stingy with the free pass – Provost, Dave Barker and Francisco all give up very few, adding a ‘Massacre’ to that trio will just improve Aurora’s chances.