Seattle Mariners

Mariners Luiz Gohara 1st Half Fall League Update

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Mariners pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre is watching the AFL season with the hope that one of the M’s prospects will prove his worthiness of being part of the forty-man roster this upcoming season. Luiz Gohara is one of those men. This is how he’s done through the first half of the AFL season.

Call me sentimental, but it’s a shame that Luiz Gohara is the last 1st half AFL player update we can do, at least for Mariners players. We have covered seven other amazing young prospects, and Gohara is the eighth M’s player in Arizona this fall.

Prior to entering the AFL season, Gohara had a spectacular year in the minor leagues. He started with single-A Everett, but was so good -he boasted a 2-0 record with an ERA of 1.76 in three games- that he was promoted to AA-Clinton. With Clinton, he continued his impeccable numbers. In ten games with his new squad, he went 5-2 with a 1.82 ERA.

Unfortunately for Gohara, his dominance hasn’t been the same in the AFL. Over 10.2 innings in eight games, his ERA is 4.22. But, that’s not even the most concerning number of his 1st half stat-line, although this ERA is more than double what he had in 2016 coming into this short-season.

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When we look closer at his eight games we see that he has rarely been as excellent as he was in single-A or AA. So far this AFL season he has allowed at least one hit in seven of his eight appearances, also allowing multiple hits in four games. And these haven’t been long outings; he pitched less than two innings two-thirds of the time.

Even his runs have been scattered over the eight outings. He has allowed at least one run in half of his games, once giving up two runs -that was his very first appearance.

The bright spot buried underneath all of these upsetting numbers is that his strikeout total is very good. He has K’d eighteen men in 10.2 innings. That’s nearly two strikeouts per frame.

If he can continue to fan batters at that rate or even better, all while reducing his hits allowed in the second half of the AFL season, there is no reason Gohara can’t be the same pitcher he was during his 2016 summer minor league campaign.

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