He cost the Angels Howie Kendrick, but as one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in all of baseball, Andrew Heaney should be worth the price. He’s the top prospect in the Halos farm system and potentially a big part of the 2015 rotation.
Andrew Heaney
10 words or less: One of the best pitching prospects is ready for MLB.
Position: SP Born: 6/5/1991
Bats: L Throws: L
Height: 6’2″ Weight: 185
2014 Rank: unranked (in Marlins organization)
2014 Season Stats
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PITCHING
Fastball – A-. Average velocity for a LHP in the major leagues is 89-91. Andrew Heaney throws and effortless 93-95. There isn’t a ton of movement on the pitch, but it also isn’t coming in straight as an arrow. He does a very good job at hiding the ball behind his body, so there’s a degree of deception.
Off-speed Pitches – A. Heaney’s best pitch is probably his slider. Most lefties opt for a softer curve similar to Tyler Skaggs, but Heaney’s is a harder offering in the low 80’s that darts straight into the dirt at the last second. As for his change up, the most important thing is that he comes from the same arm angle as his fastball and that it can move down or in on a lefty. Heaney’s does all of these things and can generate lots of ground balls.
Control – A. Heaney’s BB/9 for his minor league career is 2.4. Generally, 3.0-3.5 is considered good. 3.5-4.0 is slightly below average. Anything about 4.0 is a problem. If we follow this scale, he’s clearly VERY good at throwing strikes. Plus, if you ever get to watch him pitch, it’s clear his plan is to attack hitters early in counts and put them away with either weak contact or just simply blow it by them. This is the sort of advanced approach that you expect to see from elite collegiate pitchers.
Command – A+. Part of what makes Heaney so dangerous on the mound is that he can throw any pitch at any time for a strike and he can find the highest, widest and lowest corners of the strike zone with consistency and movement. When a pitcher has this ability it really becomes a guessing game for the hitter. You can’t jus tgo up and react, you have to guess whether a low to mid-90’s fastball is coming and where as well as which offpseed pitch he might attack you with and when and where. Not an easy thing to do.
Mechanics – A. I love Heaney’s mechanics. He’s very smooth and poised out there on the mound. He has long limbs and while his arms do seem to go a few different places during the delivery, he never loses balance. When he lands and delivers, it looks almost nonchalant, like he’s throwing BP except it’s hard to hit. There’s almost no stress on his shoulder or elbow as he uses his legs and trunk to propel himself toward home.
OVERALL
Performance – B+. The PCL can be a very tough place to pitch for any pitcher, especially one that’s only 23. But after completely dominating Advanced A Ball and AA, it’s clear Heaney was up for the challenge. A 3.87 ERA in that league is nothing to sneeze at, as the average ERA in the PCL usually fluctuates between 4.50 and 5.00. His peripheral stats indicate he may have been even better than what the surface numbers say. His strikeout percentage was 8% higher than average, his FIP (typically used as expected ERA) was 3.46, he found himself ahead of the count more frequently than most pitchers, had a very low percentage of his fly balls pulled, and had lower than average line drive and fly ball percentages. All this adds up to say, he was quite good in his first go-around in AAA. By the time Heaney had made it up to the majors however, it was late in the season, he was dealing with fatigue and a level of play he simply wasn’t accustomed to. Of course I don’t think anyone is going to hold a 24 inning stint in September against him.
Projection – A. Heaney’s an exciting prospect, not just because his projection is so high, but because he’s so close to meeting that projection. Usually when we talk about this department, it’s a far off dream if everything goes right. But, Heaney’s knocking on the door right now and looks like he could do some great things. At the very least he’s a #3-4 starter in my book. His combination of velocity, off-speed pitches, polish, youth and left handedness make him lethal. I could very easily see him making the jump into the #2/ace territory soon.
Estimated Time of Arrival – 2015. There is absolutely nothing left to learn in the minors for Andrew Heaney. This kid needs to be unleashed against major league hitters immediately. He could certainly help the Angels in their quest for the playoffs this year. Despite Santiago’s second half success and C.J. Wilson’s previous success, it’s hard to envision either out performing Heaney this next year.
Grade as a Prospect – A. Not the best in baseball, but among the elite. Quite frankly, I’m still shocked the Angels were able to get Andrew Heaney in return for the last year of Howie Kendrick’s contract. I mean how does that happen? Wasn’t it just a year ago fans were wondering if they could get a decent AA prospect or young backend starter for Howie? Does anyone remember remember when Howie was almost traded to the Dodgers for Zach Lee? Lee’s a pretty solid prospect, but nowhere near Heaney’s level. It is expected that Heaney will win out the #5 spot in the rotation, but that’s just a number really. On a staff that has Garrett Richards, Jered Weaver, Matt Shoemaker and Andrew Heaney, the order in which they pitch matters little. They all seem like middle of the rotation starters or better.
2014 in Review*
Andrew Heaney entered the 2014 season as a consensus top 30 pitcher. By the end, there wasn’t quite the same consensus.
Heaney started off in Double-A and pretty much carved up the competition, as expected. So net even halfway through the season he got the promotion to Triple-A where his ERA got a little bit inflated, but his peripherals were otherwise still strong. The only real knock on him was that for the first time in his career, he started having a little trouble with the longball. It was a small sample though, so not what one would consider cause for alarm.
Where the problem began was that a few starts into his Triple-A career, Heaney got the call up to the majors. That’s when he started to see some of the shine come off.
Heaney saw his whiff rate cut in half and just couldn’t keep the ball in the ballpark. He was just still too raw of a pitcher. He also didn’t seem to have the same kind of velocity that he showed in the minors. The big problem though was that he got savaged by right-handed batters, giving up all six homers to righties and all off of his fastball. His platoon splits in the minors are not wildly far apart, so this could just be a short-term issue of Heaney just having to learn how to attack right-handed hitters differently in the big leagues.
Those struggles damaged his prospect stock and probably go a long way towards explaining why the Marlins were so willing to trade Andrew Heaney for Dee Gordon and then for the Dodgers to flip Heaney to the Halos for Kendrick.
Looking Ahead*
The Angels look to be developing a habit of acquiring top pitching prospects whose team has soured on them a bit after poor major league debuts. They salvaged Tyler Skaggs after Arizona tried to ruin him, so they’ll try to do the same now with Andrew Heaney.
The Halos are quite excited about Heaney and he looks as if he will get every opportunity to win a rotation spot out of spring training. With Nick Tropeano and Hector Santiago also in the mix, the Angels don’t necessarily need Heaney to break camp with the team. If they decide that he still needs to work on some things, they have the luxury of giving him that time. He’s still just 23, so it isn’t as if he’s hit the end of his developmental curve. Whether he joins the rotation in April or later on, Heaney is a major part of the Angels’ future.
*As we do every year, the scouting reports and grades are provided by Scotty Allen while Garrett Wilson provides the 2014 in Review and Looking Ahead sections.
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