photo: Chen-Wei Lin (Abbie Schultz/Palm Beach Cardinals)
In a close competition, Palm Beach right-hander Chen-Wei Lin is The Cardinal Nation’s choice as the top pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals system in August, edging out new Memphis lefty Quinn Mathews. The 22-year-old’s results are compared to seven other finalists with ERAs under 3.00 plus organizational Top 10 pitching prospects.
This article details the selection process for The Cardinal Nation’s Pitcher of the Month for August 2024. Hurlers across all levels of the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system are eligible.
Our challenge this month has nothing to do with reconciling results of rookie pitchers, as their seasons are over.
Instead, for August, the question is whether to choose the pitcher who allowed the fewest runs or the one with better peripherals.
Guidelines
As a reminder, this is NOT the “Pitcher of the Month Among Top Prospects”. Every player in the system has an equal chance, with only their performance during the month against their league peers used to differentiate the best of the best. Age and level, which are key prospect considerations, are not factors here.
To qualify, a pitcher must have thrown at least the minor league minimum of 0.8 innings per team game. For the full season teams, we are using 27 games in August. At the rookie ball end, the Dominican Summer League played 16 contests but the Florida Complex League season concluded in July.
As a result, the qualification bars for pitchers are 21 1/3 innings for the full-season teams and 12 1/3 for those from the DSL.
Across the system, only 17 pitchers made the innings-pitched cut, and to reach the short list of eight finalists, an ERA below 3.00 was required.
The finalists represent all four full-season levels of the organization, but the Dominican Summer League has none. Double-A Springfield leads the way with 2 ½ qualifiers. Triple-A Memphis has 1 ½ with the two Class-A clubs having two each. All eight are starters.
Counting Stats
In the following table, the finalists are listed in ascending ERA order.
| August finalist | Tm | W | L | ERA | G | GS | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO |
| Chen-Wei Lin | PB | 4 | 0 | 0.62 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 29 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 36 |
| Quinn Mathews | Spr/Mem | 2 | 1 | 1.52 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 29.2 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 47 |
| Brandon Komar | Spr | 2 | 1 | 1.73 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 26 | 30 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 28 |
| Leonel Sequera | PB | 1 | 0 | 2.25 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 28 | 22 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 11 | 20 |
| Ixan Henderson | Peo | 2 | 1 | 2.77 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 26 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 9 | 20 |
| Hancel Rincon | Peo | 1 | 2 | 2.79 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 29 | 28 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 26 |
| Michael McGreevy | Mem | 2 | 1 | 2.83 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 28.2 | 33 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 28 |
| Max Rajcic | Spr | 2 | 2 | 2.93 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 27.2 | 30 | 13 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 29 |
Only one of the finalists compiled an exceptional ERA of under 1.50, with two others in the tight range from 1.52 to 1.73. Another is at a respectable 2.25. The final four land between 2.77 and 2.93 but are realistically too far behind the others to win.
Palm Beach right-hander Chen-Wei Lin allowed just two runs all month in 29 innings. His 0.62 ERA stands far above all others.
Next at 1.52 is the fastest rising player in the system this season, Quinn Mathews. The lefty yielded five runs in 29 2/3 frames during August with three of them coming during his four-inning Triple-A debut.
Mathews’ former Springfield teammate Brandon Komar logged a nice 1.73 ERA with 19-year-old Leonel Sequera impressing at 2.25 in his first month with the Low-A Beach Birds.
Rate stats
Here are additional statistics from the finalists in the same ascending ERA sequence.
| August finalist | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | K/BB | BAA | BABIP | WHIP | ERA |
| Chen-Wei Lin | 29 | 11.2 | 2.2 | 5.1 | 0.188 | 0.281 | 0.90 | 0.62 |
| Quinn Mathews | 29.2 | 14.3 | 2.1 | 6.7 | 0.162 | 0.271 | 0.78 | 1.52 |
| Brandon Komar | 26 | 9.7 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 0.288 | 0.395 | 1.50 | 1.73 |
| Leonel Sequera | 28 | 6.4 | 3.5 | 1.8 | 0.220 | 0.272 | 1.18 | 2.25 |
| Ixan Henderson | 26 | 6.9 | 3.1 | 2.2 | 0.281 | 0.333 | 1.38 | 2.77 |
| Hancel Rincon | 29 | 8.1 | 2.2 | 3.7 | 0.262 | 0.317 | 1.21 | 2.79 |
| Michael McGreevy | 28.2 | 8.8 | 1.9 | 4.7 | 0.284 | 0.368 | 1.36 | 2.83 |
| Max Rajcic | 27.2 | 9.4 | 2.3 | 4.1 | 0.268 | 0.338 | 1.34 | 2.93 |
Just as much as Lin dominated in runs allowed and ERA, Mathews dominated in rate stats, with Lin right behind.
The strikeout rates of the two are the only double-digit marks per nine innings, with the MiLB leader in total Ks this season, Mathews, on top at an impressive 14.3 K per nine. Lin’s 11.2 was not too shabby, either.
At the other end of the list, Sequera and Peoria’s Ixan Henderson had strikeout rates of under seven per nine.
Memphis’ Michael McGreevy continued to exhibit his good control, with a finalist-best walk rate of 1.9 per nine. Next was Mathews at 2.1 with Lin and Peoria’s Hancel Rincon at 2.2. No one was higher than Sequera at 3.5.
Not surprisingly, Mathews and Lin led the way in strikeout to walk ratio at 6.7 and 5.1, respectively. Sequera at 1.8 pulled up the rear.
The same two led in lowest batting average against, with Mathews at .162 and Lin at .188. At the high end of the finalists are McGreevy at .284 and Springfield’s Brandon Komar at .288.
In BABIP (batting average on balls in play), no one was exceptionally low, meaning none of the finalists appear to have been the beneficiary of a lot of batted ball luck.
On the unlucky end of the BABIP spectrum were Komar at .395 and McGreevy at .368, with a nod to them for succeeding despite it.
Like a broken record, I will point out that Mathews and Lin were the clear best two in rate of baserunners allowed (using WHIP as a surrogate). Mathews was lowest at 0.78 with Lin at 0.90, with the next closest Sequera at 1.18.
Based on these rate stats alone, I would give the award to Mathews. And he might win the organization’s corresponding honors. But I can’t overlook the fact he allowed five runs to two for Lin in approximately the same number of innings. And in every case other than walk rate (in which he tied for third), Lin was right behind Mathews in all rate stats.
Considering everything, Lin is The Cardinal Nation’s August Pitcher of the Month, with Mathews being the most honorable of runners up.
About the winner
When the St. Louis Cardinals signed Lin just one over year ago, in July 2023, for a reported $500,000, it was a surprise to many. After all, Taiwan is not known as a major source for future major leaguers.
Yet, Cardinals special assistant Matt Slater saw more than just a tall, 6-foot-7, 188-pound youth. Lin possesses an intriguing fastball that touches triple digits in velocity, yet his changeup with good arm-side run may be his best pitch currently.
His first full professional season, spent entirely at Low-A Palm Beach, had been solid for the 22-year-old. Lin has a 10-5 record with a 2.76 ERA/2.95 FIP and he began the month of August with Florida State League Pitcher of the Week honors.
Lin, whose first name is pronounced “Zhen-Way”, is The Cardinal Nation’s 15th-ranked prospect.
Top 10 prospects
Here is how Top 10 organizational pitching prospects per The Cardinal Nation fared in August. One of the four was a finalist for our Pitcher of the Month honors, but two of the other three were injured.
#2 Tink Hence (Springfield) – The right-hander has slowly been building up his workload since returning at the end of July after missing most of the prior two months. Over five August starts, Hence threw 18 innings, allowing just three runs, two earned, for a 1.00 ERA. The 22-year-old struck out 23 and walked seven.
#3 Tekoah Roby (Springfield IL – Palm Beach rehab) – Roby has been on the Double-A injured list since late May. The right-hander recently began a rehab stint with Palm Beach and in his first outing, on August 28, he threw a scoreless inning.
#4 Quinn Mathews (Memphis-Springfield) – See finalists results above.
#5 Cooper Hjerpe (Springfield IL) – Twice the Texas League Pitcher of the Week in June, the lefty threw just two innings in July before going on the injured list and he hasn’t pitched since.
July’s winners in August
The Cardinal Nation’s July (and June) Pitcher of the Month was DSL right-hander Keiverson Ramirez. In August, the 19-year-old made three starts with a 4.50 ERA. At the completion of the season, Ramirez was promoted to the Florida Complex League, setting up his likely 2025 assignment.
Instead, the Cardinals organization selected Palm Beach’s Jose Davila as their July Pitcher of the Month. In August, the right-hander finished one inning short of qualifying here, with his ERA a strong 2.20.
What is next?
Next, The Cardinal Nation will share some observations about August results by other pitchers not mentioned here. The Cardinals organization should name their own selections of Player and Pitcher of the Month in the upcoming days, as well.
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