By Luke Christon

Joel Carreno was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as an undrafted free agent and debuted for The DSL Blue Jays in 2006. His first year was quite impressive as the right-handed pitcher went 8-3 with a 1.53 ERA, striking out 86 batters in 82.1 innings pitched. He then spent 2007 in GCL and 2008 in Auburn with the Doubledays.  Although Carreno performed well on both of these occasions, it was in 2009 spring training where he caught the eye of Blue Jays’ nation and was projected into prospect status.

2009 – Carreno earned a promotion from A- (Auburn) to A ball (Lansing) following his first two starts with Auburn in 2009. He posted a 1-0 record with 0.82ERA in those two said starts. Unfortunately, however, the remainder of the year was not as hoped for the Jays prospect. A slow start really hindered Carreno’s stats, as it took some time for him to adjust to A ball. Eventually, though, it all came together, and in August even took a no-hitter into the eighth inning for the Lugnuts. Overall, Carreno pitched a total of 14 starts for Lansing with a final line of 2-4, recording only 62 strikeouts in 79.2 Innings.

2010 – 2010 proved to be the breakout season for Carreno as he moved on to High A in Dunedin and scorched the opposition with 173 strikeouts in 137.2 Innings pitched. He only allowed 30 walks over the entire campaign, demonstrating great control.  Carreno’s dominance enabled hitters in the FSL to check the lineup card in hopes his name was not there. An impressive 2010 campaign was good enough for Carreno to become the new current record holder in Dunedin for most strikeouts in a season.

 

Joel Carreno has posted a 7-9 record with a 3.41 ERA in AA New Hampshire

2011 – Do not let his year-to-date stats this year with New Hampshire reflect this prospect’s development. While he started off slow, as the 0-3 6.56 month of April will indicate. Carreno bounced back pitching a red hot May, going 4-0 with a 1.14 ERA, striking out 41 over 31.2 innings work. Hitters were only able to manage a .082 average against him over this span. This dominance earned Carreno the title of EL pitcher of the week for the week of May 23rd.  While his numbers have been less impressive over the second half of the year, it should be recognized that some of that has to be attributed to his development. Pete Walker is a very hands-on coach and Carreno has made quite a few tweaks to his delivery over the season.  Such tweaks can downgrade current statistics, but yield future more beneficial statistics. Carreno has also been developing a slider that has the potential to be of ace caliber.

Carreno’s Mechanics:

There are the three tell-tale indicators that I have noticed through this season for Carreno’s mechanics 

1 -The higher he brings his leg to his chest the better he follows through and the higher the velocity.  Some of the homeruns allowed by Carreno have come late in the count. A longer at-bat seems to frustrate Carreno into a quicker delivery. This abbreviated delivery makes him much more vulnerable to the long fly balls that have nagged him this season.

2-His delivery would indicate the slider and off-speed pitches. The young pitcher has a tendency to shift his leg horizontally upon landing right before the follow begins when he delivers. It has been much less noticeable as the season has progressed, but it is still something to pick up on.

3-The release point. This seems to be Carreno’s Achilles of 2011. This has haunted him on and off this season in all the pitches in his stable. This twenty-four-year-old will tell you how he thinks he is doing by his body language.

It should be kept in mind that what you are seeing now is not the finished product. There is no doubt that Carreno is a highly-skilled pitcher, but his mechanics need to be more consistent, and his muscle memory needs repetitions to build fluency. Although he made noticeable strides and has shown flashes of greatness what you see now will be even better next year. A year in Vegas with Tom Signore to build on where Pete Walker left off should graduate Carreno with a PhD in pitching from Blue Jays U.

Luke is a Royal Rooter of the New Hampshire Fisher Cat’s and can be followed on Twitter : FISHER_CATS, as well as Facebook. Feel free to post comments below or email any questions to lchristian34@aol.com.