The 2023 installment of the All-Star Futures Game is a great opportunity to watch the top prospects in the minor leagues play against one another. The SF Giants were set to send their two best pitching prospects, Kyle Harrison (Wrenzie's #1 prospect) and Carson Whisenhunt (Marc's #5 prospect) to T-Mobile Park in Seattle to face off against some of the best-hitting prospects of the American League. Unfortunately, Harrison missed the opportunity to pitch in his second consecutive Futures Game after sustaining a moderate hamstring strain. It left Whisenhunt as the sole Giants player available to play in the game.
To read Wrenzie and Marc's updated Giants top 42 prospects at the mid-season mark, click here.
Drafted in the second round last year out of East Carolina University, Whisenhunt dominated both A-ball levels in the first two months of the 2023 season with a 2.08 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 39 innings of work. It prompted the Giants to promote him to Double-A where he's faced some adversity so far with a 4.97 ERA and 10 walks in 12.2 innings pitched. Nonetheless, Carson still flashes the tantalizing potential that made him such a dominant pitcher in the lower minors and was a worthy inclusion to the Futures Game roster.
Protecting a two-run lead in the bottom of the third inning, The Big Whiz looked impressive in his only inning of work, requiring only ten pitches to complete his outing. He particularly looked dominant when he faced his first two batters. He peppered the corners of the strike zone against both Mariners' #9 prospect (according to Baseball America) Jonatan Clase and BA's #2 overall prospect Jackson Holliday, striking out both batters using his patented changeup. BA's #73 overall prospect Heston Kjerstad laced a groundball single to right field but was easily erased with #78 overall prospect Edgar Quero grounding into a forceout to end The Whiz's outing.
Since the game was played in an MLB ballpark, we can access Whisenhunt's Hawkeye data via Baseball Savant and break down what makes him a top pitching prospect. Whisenhunt's fastball averaged 95.3 mph, topping out at 96.3 mph, which is great news as he's been topping out at a similar velocity range earlier this year. Its release height (six feet) and movement characteristics (15 inches of drop, 14 inches of run) are not particularly eye-popping, but his ability to pepper the corners of the strike zone at his best is what makes his fastball a respectable pitch.
What makes Whisenhunt stand out, is the plus-plus changeup, and both Clase and Holliday now know what it's like to face such a great pitch. There are three key ways to have a nasty changeup: velocity difference, movement difference, and convincing arm speed. For The Whiz, he has all three. His changeup has a 13 mph difference with his fastball, around 18 inches of difference in drop, and has a consistent tempo on the mound even though he releases his cambio an inch or two lower than his fastball.
Holliday was warned by fellow Orioles top prospect Heston Kjerstad about Whisenhunt's changeup, but the 2022 second-overall pick was still able to handle it.
Whisenhunt also threw one curveball (classified as a slider by Baseball Savant) that actually looked good metrically as having 55 inches of drop at 80 mph results in having a curveball with around 10% more drop than the average.
The way that Carson Whisenhunt finishes out his 2023 season is crucial for a couple of reasons. The first is to know whether his body will hold up as he will most likely surpass the 62 innings that he pitched for East Carolina in 2021. The second is how high up the minor league ladder he can climb. Perhaps he could finish the season donning a River Cats uniform. Nonetheless, the Whiz is living up to expectations and can hopefully finish the season strong as one of the best prospects in the organization.
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