If you’ve been following us for a while, you are familiar with the names Matt Seelinger, Dan Jagiello and Shea Spitzbarth. All three have local ties and they all wrapped up their minor league seasons with a championship.
We’ll go through each individually.
Dan Jagiello (LIU Post 2017) is a member of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and they captured the California League Championship. Jagiello was drafted in the 34th round of the 2017 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers following the Pioneers ECC Championship in which he was on the mound to record the final out. He entered the season as a high draft follow as a starting pitcher but settled into a role as the closer. He compiled an ERA of 1.93 with 12 saves and 38 strikeouts over 23.1 IP. This year he compiled an ERA of 3.14 with 4 saves over 66.0 IP, allowing only 39 hits with 82 strikeouts. With a 6’3″ 200 lb frame, he is the ideal size for a power pitcher. Additionally, he is known as a “high spin rate” guy, according to his former Head Coach Mike Gaffney which elevates his stock in the eyes of the organization. Next season will be crucial for him as he enters his age-24 season. He will need to lower his walk rate (5.45/9 IP) in order to move up the organizational ranks.
Shea Spitzbarth (Molloy 2015) is truly a story that provides hope for Division-II pitchers. Undrafted out of a small northeast school is typically not a route to the big leagues, but the hard-throwing Staten Island native will not take no for an answer. He has already reached Triple-A, albeit as a replacement for an injury. He settled into the bullpen at Double-A and has performed well enough. He compiled a 4.10 ERA but most impressively notched 84 strikeouts over 63.2 IP with a WHIP of 1.16. He led his Tulsa Drillers to a championship in the Texas League championship.
Matt Seelinger (Farmingdale State 2017) is a name we have mentioned several times on here. He will be the guest on our podcast this week. He is a friend of Axcess Baseball, having been the first guest on our YouTube series way back in April 2016. Seelinger is a phenomenal story, he had peaks and valleys at a Division-III northeast school, but trended up his final two seasons culminating in an absolutely dominant 2017. He was the winning pitcher in the Skyline Conference championship as a freshman, but then struggled with his command and was relegated to bullpen duties as a sophomore. Having watched him, it was clear he simply needed to regain his confidence because his high-octane fastball and 80 MPH 12-6 curveball was destined to be the great equalizer for Division-III bats. Sure enough, he figured it out and proved to be overwhelming to the league. The moment I knew he was for real was April 16, 2016 when he shut out a powerful Old Westbury lineup at Farmingdale for a seven inning shutout. It was clear he has turned a corner. He became the first player since 1978 to get drafted out of Farmingdale State, although there was a couple kids that I thought had a legit chance earlier in the decade namely Chris Phelan and Alex Weingarten. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
After getting traded for Adeiny Hechavarria (no small feat for a minor leaguer to be traded straight up for a big leaguer) to the Tampa Bay Rays he compiled a 2.19 ERA with 10 saves for the Bowling Green Hot Roads leading them to a championship in the Midwest League. Seelinger has a low-to-mid 90s fastball, peaking at 95 with a very sharp curveball that is a big league caliber. Being that he is 23, he still has a chance to reach the big leagues but will have a big test when he reaches Double-A next year.
Marcelo Luc
Gongrats to all three of them, and good luck in the coming year.