Mustangs in the Pros: Four Join New MLB Teams
8/3/2023 5:30:00 PM | Baseball
MUSTANGS IN THE PROS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Since the calendar flipped over to 2023, four former Cal Poly baseball players have exchanged jerseys for another Major League team.
In January, Erich Uelmen traded his Cubs jersey for a Phillies uniform. He pitched in one game, ironically against his former Chicago teammates, in May before he was optioned to Lehigh Valley.
Another pitcher, Justin Bruihl, was called up by the Los Angeles Dodgers four times before he was sent back to Oklahoma City on July 25. On August 1, the day the trading deadline expired, the Colorado Rockies
obtained Bruihl for cash considerations.
Utility player Mark Mathias has been for four Major League organizations this year. On March 8, during Spring Training, he was traded by the Texas Rangers to Pittsburgh and played 15 games with the Pirates.
On June 25, Mathias was designated for assignment and was claimed off waivers by the Seattle Mariners on July 2. After hitting .345 in 16 games for Triple-A Tacoma, Mathias was traded to the San Francisco
Giants on Monday for a player to be named later.
On Tuesday, pitcher Spencer Howard became a Yankee. The Templeton High School right-hander was traded by the Texas Rangers for cash considerations.
Six former Mustangs have played in the Major Leagues this season, a record for the Cal Poly baseball program. In addition to the four players mentioned above, outfielder Mitch Haniger is on the 60-day Injured
List (fractured forearm) with San Francisco while pitcher Bryan Woo has made 10 starts for the Seattle Mariners after his call-up from the Double-A Arkansas Travelers.
Uelmen, who allowed four runs (one earned) and two hits with two walks and one strikeout in one inning May 19 against the Cubs, was sent back to Lehigh Valley on May 20 and was placed on the seven-day
Injured List June 5 with an undisclosed injury. He pitched in 25 games, all in relief, for the Cubs in 2022 with a 2-1 record and 4.67 ERA.
Bruihl has appeared in 65 Major League games, all with the Dodgers, over three seasons, posting a 2-2 record and 3.65 ERA with 43 strikeouts over 66 2/3 innings. He was sent to Oklahoma City for the fifth time
this season last week, the maximum allowed by the collective bargaining agreement. Bruihl will report to Triple-A Albuquerque this week.
Mathias, optioned to the Sacramento RiverCats, joins Haniger as former Bay Area high school standouts now on San Francisco's 40-man roster. Haniger is an Archbishop Mitty High School graduate while Mathias
played at Irvington High School in Fremont.
Mathias has played 68 Major League games -- 22 with the Milwaukee Brewers (.231) in 2020 and 2022 (he missed the 2021 season with a shoulder injury that required surgery), 24 with Texas (.277) in 2022 and
22 with Pittsburgh (.231) in 2023.
Howard was acquired by the Rangers from the Philadelphia Phillies, along with Josh Gessner and Kyle Dowdy, at the 2021 deadline in exchange for Kyle Gibson, Ian Kennedy and Hans Crouse. He pitched in 17
games for the Phillies (1-4, 5.81 ERA) in 2020 and 2021 and 21 contests for Texas (2-7, 8.37 ERA) in 2021, 2022 and this year.
Howard started the 2023 season on the 60-day injured list and, in his 2023 debut, gave up four runs while securing just one out at Tampa Bay on June 9. In his last two relief appearances, however, he tossed
three scoreless frames -- one versus Houston on July 25 and two more at San Diego on July 28.
Howard has been assigned by New York to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and joins Drew Thorpe and Bryce Warrecker as Yankees. Warrecker, drafted in the 20th round last month, has signed for $150,000 plus
academic fees and will report to the Yankees' rookie league team in the Florida Complex League.
Derek True, another pitcher who also was drafted in July (18th round by Houston), has signed his contract as well and also will play in the Florida Complex League for the Astros' rookie league team.
Meanwhile, Thorpe earned his South Atlantic League-leading 10th win July 22, but the gaudy numbers he has produced this summer came back to earth last week against Hickory.
His win over Brooklyn featured a professional personal-best 13 strikeouts, a Hudson Valley club record, as he tossed eight shutout innings, allowing one walk and two hits, in the 3-0 triumph en route to Minor
League Pitcher of the Week honors for the second time this season.
Versus Hickory, however, Thorpe surrendered eight runs, all earned, and nine hits over four innings in a rain-shortened five-inning 8-6 loss July 29. For the season, Thorpe is 10-2 with a 2.70 ERA and leads the
Sally League in wins, ERA and innings pitched (103 1/3) and is second in strikeouts (128) and opponents' batting average (.212).
He previously earned SAL Pitcher of the Week honors for the week of May 29 to June 4 and was also named the SAL Pitcher of the Month for June.
"I think it's just going into every game with a plan and just executing that," Thorpe told MLB Network's Harold Reynolds, "just knowing my strengths and going to hitters with my strengths and I think I've continued
to do that throughout the year, so its been good."
Thorpe was one of the best pitchers in the Minor Leagues over his eight starts from June 4 through July 22. The 6-foot-4, 190-pounder was 7-0 with one no-decision and a 0.65 ERA -- having yielded four earned
runs over 55 2/3 frames -- while allowing 27 hits, 13 walks and notching 72 whiffs. He leads Minors pitchers in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts and qualified ERA over that span.
"It's been great," Thorpe told Reynolds of his season. "Just grinding and trying to get better each day, and just continuing to develop."
In 17 total starts, Thorpe has posted seven scoreless outings -- all of at least five innings. The 2022 second-round Draft selection (No. 61 overall) is also one of two hurlers in the Minors this season to have
multiple starts (two) of eight or more scoreless frames -- Austin Peterson of Single-A Lynchburg is the other.
Other notes for former Mustangs in the professional ranks …
• Brooks Lee filled the stat sheet, going 4-for-6 with a homer, three runs scored and two RBIs in a 19-10 slugfest loss to Frisco on July 26. The 5-foot-11, 205-pound switch-hitter saved the best for last, launching a
two-run moonshot to right-center field while hitting from the left side in the ninth inning.
Lee's 11th long ball of the year flew off the bat at a reported 106 mph and traveled an estimated 432 feet. Out of the leadoff spot, the top Twins prospect also pulled singles to left in the first and sixth and to right
while batting from the right in the eighth.
Lee was 16-for-33 (.485) during an eight-game hitting streak for the Double-A Wichita Wind Surge from July 7-20 with nine runs scored, five doubles, four home runs and 12 RBIs, hiking his average 23 points to
.287. The shortstop also has hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games, going 29-for-68 (.426) at the plate with six doubles, five home runs and 14 RBIs.
Lee is first in the Texas League with 31 doubles, seventh with 60 RBIs, fifth with 101 hits and 27th in home runs with 11.
• Bradlee Beesley, hit in the face with a pitch May 25, returned to the field July 6 for the first of three rehab games in the Arizona Complex League. He was back with Tennessee on July 14 and is hitting .255 with
eight doubles, seven home runs and 17 RBIs in 32 games with the Double-A Smokies.
• Bryan Woo is 0-2 with one no-decision and an 8.16 ERA in his last three starts for Seattle. During a streak of six starts from June 10 through July 8, the right-hander posted a 1-0 mark with five no-decisions and
a 2.20 ERA, striking out 39 batters over 32 2/3 innings.
• Andrew Alvarez has earned wins in two of his last three starts, improving to 6-3 with a 2.82 ERA at Wilmington. Alvarez tossed six scoreless innings July 20 against Greensboro, scattering three hits with one walk
and six strikeouts in the 3-1 triumph, and struck out five over five innings, allowing a run and five hits, in an 8-4 victory over Hudson Valley on August 1. In between was a loss to Brooklyn on July 26 in which he
gave up three runs and six hits in five innings with five strikeouts.
• Nick Torres sports a .337 average for the Laguna Vaqueros and is in the top 30 in the Mexican League in several categories, including No. 8 in doubles (22), No. 19 in hits (99), No. 19 in average, No. 15 in RBIs
(58) and No. 30 in home runs (10).
Follow the progress of all former Mustangs in professional baseball by clicking the link at the top of the page.
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