Atlanta Braves Minor League Spotlight: Philip Pfeifer is finding his groove

Philip Pfeifer pushed all the right buttons this past Thursday night, racking up strikeouts in bunches in his start for Florida.

The Atlanta Braves may have something cooking down in Florida, as reliever-turned-starter Philip Pfeifer carved through the opposing lineup with 17 strikeouts a few days ago, the most by a single pitcher in a 9-inning game, in Florida Fire Frogs history.

Entering his dominant state on Thursday night, the Knoxville, Tenn. native had only taken the mound as a starter 14 times in his roughly three seasons worth of games as a member of the Atlanta Braves organization. And 11 of those 14 starts have come just this season.

Facing the Palm Beach Cardinals, Pfeifer needed just 94 pitches to get through 27 Cardinals’ batters, landing 73 strikes in his 8-inning outing. His final line was unreal:

8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 17 K

Pfeifer didn’t allow a hit until the 4th inning, a measly base-hit, though that single only came after the Florida lefty had already punched out seven helpless Palm Beach batters, including three in-a-row in the 3rd inning.

The Cardinals’ hitters managed to put the ball in play nine times Thursday night — of course three of those batted-balls were base-hits, followed by 5 groundouts and one flyout.

The remarkable outing by Pfeifer gives him a 3.58 ERA for the season. His last four starts, overall, have been very productive, as Pfeifer hasn’t allowed more than two runs nor has he walked more than one batter in each of his starts in that span.

Pfeifer’s Last Four Starts

• (6/30) 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, BB, 11 K
• (7/5)   3.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, BB, 4 K
• (7/13) 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, BB, 7 K
• (7/18) 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 17 K

That’s an absolutely ridiculous stretch of pitching, computing to a 0.71 ERA, 1.07 BB/9, and 13.92 K/9 in that span.

Pfeifer is pitching better than he ever has and he’s doing it as a starter, not out of the bullpen.

A little background

A third round pick way back in 2015 by the LA Dodgers (he was originally drafted by the Rangers out of high school, in the 44th round). Pfeifer persevered through a challenging collegiate career at Vanderbilt, dealing with an unfortunate problem that so many across this nation have dealt with, substance abuse.

At Vandy, Pfeifer finished with a career 3.60 ERA and 9.3 K/9 in 160 innings-pitched (21 starts, 21 appearances).

After two seasons with the Commodores, the 22-year-old was a sought after major league prospect, and the Dodgers liked his low-to-mid 90s fastball coupled with two above-average secondaries.

Pfeifer started just one game and appeared in 17 as a reliever in the Dodgers organization before being traded to the Atlanta Braves in June of 2016, along with pitcher Caleb Dirks, for right-handed pitcher Bud Norris.

Pfeifer actually started in Gwinnett for the Atlanta Braves, but after performing admirably in that initial partial season, Pfeifer has steadily trended downward, dropping two classes down to Florida after finishing with a 5.73 ERA and walking 6.54 batters per nine, in 39 total games with both Gwinnett and Mississippi.

However, 2019 looks to be a year of redemption for Pfeifer:

78 IP, 3.58 ERA, 10.84 K/9, 2.42 BB/9

At 27-years-old, Pfeifer is no kid playing in the FSL, (average age is roughly 23-years-old in 2019). The time is now if the journeyman wants to make a realistic push towards ever reaching the Show.

I’m not ready to say he’s capable, yet. His dominant pitching has came and left quite a few times this season: Pfeifer allowed two runs or less in each of his first 10 starts to begin the 2019 season, followed by six of seven starts where he allowed at least four runs in each outing.

Pitching is hard and an aging minor leaguer (I know, he’s only 27!) isn’t usually the candidate to breakout and potentially make the big leagues.

But we’ve seen crazier things happen, so why don’t we just enjoy what the guy’s doing and root for Pfeifer in the meantime.