AAA Sleeper: Steve Geltz

As the summer begins to pick-up, I am hoping my coverage will pick-up as well. In today's first post I'll be covering AAA Sleeper, Steve Geltz.

As you may have gotten from previous posts, or just knowing my style in general, I am not the kind of person interested in covering the players that all the major publications cover. Quite frankly it doesn't interest me as much as talking about the sleepers! So with that let's talk about Steve Geltz.

Steve Geltz is the absolute definition of sleeper. In 2008, he went undrafted out of the University of Buffalo (not exactly a baseball hotbed) but was signed by the LA Angels. Now Geltz has some definitive "issues" he is right-handed, and small (listed at 5'10 170). He also was suspended for a month last season for an unspecified disciplinary issue (H/T MonkeyWithAHalo, Angels Blog). But the fact of the matter is, Geltz produces.

I'm a big fan of underdogs, and I'm an even bigger fan of pitchers who can strike-out a ton of guys. That fits Geltz to a T.

In his first four seasons pro he has struck out 315 batters in only 226 innings. In other words a 12.56 K/9. He has also only issued 91 walks over that span, 3.63 BB/9. Meaning he is striking out 3.46 batters per walk. Those splits are incredibly favorable for any pitcher, of any size. And did I mention he has only allowed 164 hits during those 226 innings. Meaning his WHIP (for his CAREER) is 1.13. Impressive.

This season though, has been even more impressive. 26 outings, 31.1 IP, 14 HITS, 1 ER, 44 K's/8 BB's. In AA and AAA.

He'll be 24 for the entire season and Rule V eligible if not added to the 40-man this off-season for the second consecutive season, but this time I expect he might get some looks.

So what about his "stuff".

I watched his game on 6/14/12 and he hit 96 MPH out of the bullpen, but for the most part sat 91-93. I wasn't behind home for this game so I couldn't actually tell you what he was throwing breaking wise, but it came in at around the low 80's and was effective at keeping the Fresno hitters off balance. Hopefully later this month i'll catch him again from behind home and be able to update this.

Thus far this season he has faced 117 hitters, 44 have struck out. That's a 37.6% K Rate.

With the Angels bullpen needing reinforcement I could see Geltz making his way into the bullpen this season. Yes he is undersized, yes he had disciplinary issues (reportedly), and yes...he has dominated.