Minor League Wrap (6/6-12/11)
I’m not going to let a little thing like a raging draft hangover keep me from my weekly duties. Keep in mind that Everett opens up their season next Friday, with the first homestand starting the next Wednesday, and Pulaski will gear up the Tuesday the 21st, with the AZL starting up the day before. I’ll have previews as rosters become available to me, but right now I haven’t even heard of any signings. We’re getting to the crazy part of the season here.
To the jump!
The Draft, in Brief:
I was thinking of doing a more comprehensive review of the picks, but then I realized partway through that it seemed strange to be handing out grades, right now, based on a limited amount of information that I have available about scouting reports, team budgets, signability, etc etc, so instead I’m going point out a few things of interest to me.
* According to the press release, twenty-two right-handed pitchers were selected, six left-handers, seven catchers, three first basemen, two second basemen, a third baseman, three shortstops, and seven outfielders. These numbers differ from what was announced and what seems to be printed in the draft section, but let’s go with it for now.
* In case you were wondering, last year they took four catchers, in 2009 it was five, then four in 2008, and only one in 2007 and two in 2006. For a long time, we’ve been getting by with minor league free agents and organization guys who didn’t seem to want to leave.
* The first high school pitcher selected by the M’s this year was left-hander Nick Valenza in the eighteenth round, a 5’9 kid with a live arm. Six high school pitchers were selected in all. By contrast, when the eighteenth round came last year, the Mariners had already selected seven high school pitchers. We may think we know something of McNamara’s draft style, but we probably don’t know as much as we believe.
* Part two on that note… six of the batters we drafted were left-handed and one switch hits. Last year it was five left-handers and two switch hitters, but in 2009, it was fifteen left-handers and three switch hitters. We thought that left-handers would get an overwhelming preference, but we were probably wrong.
* Part three on that note… this past year, we stuck around Virginia and the Carolinas for five of the picks in the first ten rounds. Similarly, in 2009, when we had twelve picks in the first ten rounds, four of them were from North Carolina and one from Virginia snuck in during the twelfth round. However, in 2010, we selected only one player from those three states in the entire draft and it was rather late. Again, we probably don’t know as much about McNamara’s draft philosophy as we think we do. There probably isn’t an easily identifiable pattern that emerges from them.
I’m considering throwing up a post later about the BA rank versus the slot and what’s happened for us since McNamara took over, but the playing time samples are so small that I feel uncomfortable trying to make certain evaluations. Suffice to say for the time, Nick Franklin and Taijuan Walker were both considered overdrafts at the time, but have worked out well for us. Kyle Seager was also a bit of an overdraft and has been more than successful. Steve Baron? Marcus Littlewood? Not so much as of yet.
Tacoma Rainiers (4-2 this week, 29-35 overall)
The Week in Review:
Monday, June 6th 2011
Tacoma 24, Tucson 3 (SD – 8 )
W: Beavan (3-2, 4.76) L: Buschmann (2-3, 8.31)
Tuesday, June 7th 2011
Tacoma 1, Tucson 9 (SD – 7)
W: LeBlanc (5-1, 5.24) L: Robertson (0-2, 7.36)
Wednesday, June 8th 2011
Off day
Thursday, June 9th 2011
Tacoma 8, Sacramento 4 (OAK + 17)
W: Seddon (3-3, 5.56) L: DiNardo (0-3, 18.24)
Friday, June 10th 2011
Tacoma 5, Sacramento 2 (OAK + 16)
W: French (3-5, 6.16) L: Banwart (2-4, 4.72) S: Lueke (6)
Saturday, June 11th 2011
Tacoma 4, Sacramento 11 (OAK + 17)
W: Marti (4-1, 4.92) L: Haeger (1-1, 9.00)
Sunday, June 12th 2011
Tacoma 4, Sacramento 0 (OAK + 16)
W: Beavan (4-2, 4.26) L: Griffin (0-1, 3.00)
Hitter of the Week:
3B/SS Alex Liddi, R/R, 8/14/1988
6 G, 27 AB, 5 R, 8 H, 3 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 7/3 K/BB, .296/.367/.630
Over the last forty games, Liddi has been slugging .575. He’s also had a batting average over .300 and a OBP around .375. We can take all of that with the grain of salt that is the way Cheney has been playing this season and the overall increase in PCL offense, but Liddi is still hitting well, and he wasn’t beating up on position players either. Of course, flaws remain in his game. While his walk rate is improving in June, he’s still on pace to strike out about the same as he did in May, which was thirty-seven times in 120 at-bats. Less than awesome. He also has some pretty interesting ahead and behind splits, a .700 OPS difference there, and has been a better hitter with the bases empty than with runners on. In fact, seven of his twelve home runs have been solo shots. I like Liddi plenty more than most people you’ll hear from, but even I’ll admit there are some rough edges in his game that make me think he won’t get anything more than a September call-up in the short-term.
SINGLES! Mention:
CF Michael Saunders, L/R, 11/19/1986
6 G, 25 AB, 7 R, 11 H, 2B, 3 RBI, SB, CS, 7/3 K/BB, .440/.500/.480
Peripherals! Mention:
1B Matt Tuiasosopo, R/R, 5/10/1986
5 G, 17 AB, 6 R, 4 H, HR, 4 RBI, 7/5 K/BB, .235/.391/.412
Pitcher of the Week:
RHP Blake Beavan, 1/17/1989
2-0, 2 GS, 1.80 ERA in 15.0 IP, 15 H, 3 R, 10/4 K/BB, 11/15 G/F, HB
Beavan had one good start and one bad start this week, but the bad one was still a “quality start” as he went seven innings and allowed three runs, he just happened to allow eleven hits too. Sunday’s win was a little better, with six Ks in 8.0 innings and only four hits, but he also walked three which brings up a point. Beavan has walked seventeen so far, putting him at a rate of 2.01 per nine innings. It’s something that most minor leaguers even in our system would be envious of, but last season, it was about half that, and he’s never been above 1.6 for a full season in his career. I feel like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here, but since his stuff has never actually come back in the expected way, minute differences in his walk rate could end up meaning something. I don’t know. I’m probably grasping at straws here.
Good Start, Bad Command #1 Mention:
LHP Chris Seddon, 10/13/1983
1-0, GS, 2.57 ERA in 7.0 IP, 3 H, (HR), 3 R (2 ER), 6/5 K/BB, 6/6 G/F
Good Start, Bad Command #2 Mention:
LHP Luke French, 9/13/1985
1-0, GS, 3.00 ERA in 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1/2 K/BB, 4/6 G/F
From The Training Room:
LF Mike Carp and LF Mike Wilson did the switcheroo because there can only be so many Mikes on the team at one time. I’m waiting on being asked why Mike Wilson hasn’t been called up again yet, but it just hasn’t happened… LHP Chris Seddon was pulled off the inactive list to make his start, at which point RHP Denny Bautista went on it.
Strange Happenings:
Mike Wilson is .313/.421/.688 in June now with two home runs, and had two outfield assists [and an error] on Saturday, so just call him up already and save us both the trouble… Ackley was .250/.423/.400 this week and sat for two different games because he was reportedly looking tired. I will take tired Ackley over most of this lineup… If you want a very thorough examination of the Rainiers’ 24-3 win, including bunches of fun facts, check out Mike Curto’s blog post on the subject.
Jackson Generals (3-4 this week, 37-27 overall)
The Week in Review:
Monday, June 6th 2011
Jackson 4, Tennessee 2 (CHC + 14)
W: Carraway (4-0, 2.44) L: Rusin (2-2, 4.12) S: Delabar (4)
Tuesday, June 7th 2011
Jackson 0, Tennessee 6 (CHC + 15)
W: Beeler (1-0, 0.00) L: Wilhelmsen (1-1, 7.07)
Wednesday, June 8th 2011
Jackson 1, Tennessee 0 (CHC + 14)
W: Vasquez (4-4, 3.86) L: Coello (0-2, 3.27) S: Delabar (5)
Thursday, June 9th 2011
Jackson 2, Huntsville 6 (MIL 0)
W: Peralta (4-6, 4.81) L: Ramirez (6-3, 4.42) S: Meadows (1)
Friday, June 10th 2011
Jackson 3, Huntsville 4 (MIL + 1) (eleven innings)
W: Henderson (1-0, 1.42) L: Delabar (1-1, 2.08)
Saturday, June 11th 2011
Jackson 7, Huntsville 9 (MIL + 2)
W: Wooten (1-0, 3.86) L: Moran (2-2, 8.59)
Sunday, June 12th 2011
Jackson 3, Huntsville 1 (MIL + 1)
W: Wilhelmsen (2-1, 5.68) L: Bowman (2-4, 4.43) S: Stanton (2)
Hitter of the Week:
SS Carlos Triunfel, R/R, 2/27/1990
5 G, 15 AB, 7 H, 2B, RBI, 4/3 K/BB, .467/.556/.533
How bad was most of the Generals offense this week? Triunfel reached base more than half the time and didn’t score a single run, and only drove in the one. He seems to be the only one left hitting since the calendar turned over. Good news for him, as it helps him to build on what has already been a strong start to the season. He’s already walked more times in fifty-seven games than he did in one hundred twenty-nine last season, and is two doubles and three dingers away from tying a career highs set back in his High Desert days. He’s also helped turn forty-nine double plays at short this year compared to fifty-three last year, but that’s likely a function of the pitching staff, groundballs and the like.
Best of the Available Options Mention:
OF/DH Joe Dunigan, L/L, 3/29/1986
7 G, 25 AB, 2 R, 6 H, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 SB, CS, 9/2 K/BB, .240/.296/.400
Pitcher of the Week:
RHP Jarrett Grube, 11/5/1981
0-0, GS, 1.29 ERA in 7.0 IP, 5 H, R, 7/1 K/BB, 6/3 G/F, WP, 2 PO
Grube gets a nod here over Vasquez because, what can I say, I kind of like strikeouts and pick offs. Those are things that Grube has only had off and on. In April, he only had sixteen in 23.1 innings, but last month it was a more respectable thirty-four in 38.2 innings. It’s odd because the outing before this one was acutally one of his weaker ones, with just two punchouts in six frames of work, but he was in a rought stretch there of about three starts where he was having a bunch of runs score against him. The disappointing side to all this is that those starts he was going up against a string of good, or above average offenses, and Huntsville is not one of those. Oh well, he’ll be the starter for the All-Star game anyway a little over a week from now.
Seven+ Innings, Three Runs or Fewer in Each of Last Three Starts Mention:
LHP Anthony Vasquez, 9/19/1986
1-0, GS, 0.00 ERA in 7.1 IP, 8 H, 3/0 K/BB, 11/5 G/F
Sub 1.00 ERA in Double-A Mention:
RHP Taylor Stanton, 1/15/1988
0-0, SV, 2 G, 0.00 ERA in 5.1 IP, 2 H, 3/0 K/BB, 7/4 G/F
From the Training Room:
OF Kuo-hui Lo was back off the DL on Wednesday, and just before that, OF James McOwen was placed on the seven-day retroactive to the 4th… Just before Sunday evening’s game, IF Scott Savastano hit the DL with an ankle contusion and UT Michael Acevedo was called up to take his spot. Acevedo split last year between the VSL and the AZL, and can hit a bit, even if his position is not so certain.
Strange Happenings:
The Southern League isn’t especially big and the All-Star Game is lined up with one division playing the other. Since the Generals have a pretty good team this year, they ended up with seven players named to the North Squad, RHPs Andrew Carraway, Jarrett Grube, Kenn Kasparek, and Erasmo Ramirez, LHP Bobby LaFromboise, OF Jake Shaffer, and 2B Kyle Seager. The coaching staff is also all Jackson, and will go against a South Division Team that’s all Jacksonville, though with the scattered roster composition, no decision would seem to be a decisive blow in deciding which of the two teams is more Jackson than the other. Fun note: Jacksonville’s manager is former San Antonio Mission and Tacoma Rainier Andy Barkett… Carraway was the latest pitcher to get bit by having one good start and one bad one. On Monday, he went seven+ frames and allowed just one run on three hits, a walk, and six Ks, and that run scored inherited. The next outing had him get the hook after five with three runs allowed, two home runs contributing to that… Shaffer is .167/.216/.250 for June, so I think he’s come back to earth… As bad as Shaffer’s been, Johermyn Chavez is so much worse. He went hitless for the WEEK and is batting .100/.152/.200 in June… All the games at Huntsville are being played with a 6:43 pm local start time, which has to mean something although it’s less obvious than the old 7:11 pm start times the Sixers used to run… Saturday June 18th will be Star Wars Night at Pringles Park. I got nothing.
High Desert Mavericks (2-4 this week, 30-33 overall)
The Week in Review:
Monday, June 6th 2011
Inland Empire 12 (ANA – 6), High Desert 9
W: Hurst (5-1, 3.21) L: Gillheeney (3-3, 5.58) S: Carpenter (8)
Tuesday, June 7th 2011
Inland Empire 10 (ANA – 5), High Desert 3
W: Williams (2-2, 5.22) L: Sorce (5-3, 4.30)
Wednesday, June 8th 2011
Off day
Thursday, June 9th 2011
Lake Elsinore 12 (SD – 6), High Desert 9
W: Herr (2-2, 2.78) L: Kesler (1-2, 5.40) S: Mikolas (8)
Friday, June 10th 2011
Lake Elsinore 7 (SD – 7), High Desert 10
W: Hudson (2-3, 5.50) L: Lara (0-1, 16.20) S: Pryor (1)
Saturday, June 11th 2011
Lake Elsinore 18 (SD – 6), High Desert 11
W: Hernandez (4-0, 3.02) L: Medina (1-6, 7.01)
Sunday, June 12th 2011
Lake Elsinore 7 (SD – 7), High Desert 13
W: Gillheeney (4-3, 5.51) L: Watt (2-7, 6.75)
Hitter of the Week:
1B/DH Dennis Raben, L/L, 7/31/1987
6 G, 27 AB, 10 R, 14 H, 2 2B, 5 HR, 17 RBI, 6/1 K/BB, HBP, .519/.551/1.148
In the past three games, Dennis Raben has homered. He did it three times on Sunday, giving him seventeen on the season. But ah, what’s that? Was it a homestand? Indeed it was. It’s not so bad, because up until this current home stint, Raben had more dingers on the road than he did in Adelanto. His slash lines aren’t too far apart either, .364/.410/.685 at home, .289/.354/.535 on the road, so rather than harp on that, I’d prefer to suggest that he walk more, which he only seems to have done in bursts thus far. He’s in his second season in the Cal League after getting half a year (more like a third with injuries, but whatever) last season, and his walk numbers haven’t improved any. Remember back in 2008 when he walked nineteen times for Everett in 112 plate appearances? That was fantastic! Yet, we have not seen anywhere near that discipline out of him since. At least he’s striking out a bit less this year.
It was a Homestand #1 Mention:
3B/1B/LF Vinnie Catricala, R/R, 10/31/1988
5 G, 22 AB, 8 R, 10 H, 3 2B, HR, 7 RBI, SB, CS, 4/2 K/BB, .454/.500/.727
It was a Homestand #2 Mention:
SS Nick Franklin, S/R, 3/2/1991
6 G, 29 AB, 7 R, 8 H, 2B, 3B, HR, 3 RBI, 7/2 K/BB, .276/.323/.483
It was a Homestand #3 Mention:
CF Daniel Carroll, R/R, 1/6/1989
5 G, 24 AB, 7 R, 8 H, 3 2B, RBI, 3 SB, 10/1 K/BB, HBP, .333/.385/.458
Pitcher of the Week:
RHP Austin Hudson, 1/6/1988
1-0, 2 G, 1.69 ERA in 5.1 IP, 4 H, R, 5/1 K/BB, 7/4 G/F, HB
I’ve gone with Hudson two weeks now, which seems unusual, except that most of the starters were quite awful (Sorce, Fernandez, Medina, Gillheeney the first time around) and Hudson managed to eliminate the only remaining competition in Maurer by scoring two inherited runs against him. Otherwise, Hudson is very quietly having his best season. Last year, he had 5.3 Ks per nine and 3.6 walks for Clinton, and now he’s cut the walks by a third while adding a K and a half, and managing to keep the ball in the park just as well as ever. You just don’t see 0.3 HR/9s from High Desert pitchers, and despite fewer appearances, he’s actually thrown more innings at home and has yet to give up a home run there. He’s one of the few interesting pitchers on staff for me at the moment.
Take Two Inherited Runs Out and It Looks Fine Mention:
RHP Brandon Maurer, 7/3/1990
0-0, GS, 7.20 ERA in 5.0 IP, 6 H, 6 R (4 ER), 7/2 K/BB, 4/4 G/F
From the Training Room:
RHP Stephen Kahn was assigned to the team and made a debut that had him pitch 2.1 innings, which is still more than twice as many innings as he pitched from 2007 to 2010. As he was called off the DL, LHP Nick Czyz was released. You may remember that last week I pointed out how weird, and largely awful his season had been… Since Czyz was released, the Mavs needed a spot in the rotation filled, and activated RHP Yoervis Medina. Of course, there wasn’t a spot available, so RHP Chris Kirkland was released. May they find better parks to pitch in, somewhere out there.
Strange Happenings:
Nick Franklin’s road slash line is .191/.277/.303. It makes me want to cry… Gabriel Noriega has seven-game hitting streak. He has one hit in each of those games. He is batting .250, and only had one walk and one double. This streak is a representative sample of a season that has him hitting .250/.292/.294… The usually sure-handed Mario Martinez made three errors in a game on Thursday. In the same game, there were pickoffs from both sides of the rubber by Kahn and Jason Markovitz
Clinton Lumberkings (2-4 this week, 21-43 overall)
The Week in Review:
Monday, June 6th 2011
Off day
Tuesday, June 7th 2011
Dayton 0 (CIN – 2), Clinton 1
W: Sena (3-2, 3.54) L: Renken (2-6, 3.31) S: Nava (2)
Wednesday, June 8th 2011
Dayton 5 (CIN – 3), Clinton 0
W: Smith (6-3, 1.73) L: Mieses (1-7, 6.18)
Thursday, June 9th 2011
Dayton 4 (CIN – 4), Clinton 7
W: Arias (2-2, 4.15) L: Wolford (2-1, 2.61)
Friday, June 10th 2011
Bowling Green 6 (TB + 6), Clinton 4
W: Jensen (5-2, 5.04) L: Paxton (2-3, 2.89) S: Hubbard (3)
Saturday, June 11th 2011
Bowling Green 4 (TB + 7), Clinton 2
W: Riefenhauser (4-5, 2.47) L: Sena (3-3, 4.26) S: Rearick (8)
Sunday, June 12th 2011
Bowling Green 4 (TB + 8), Clinton 2 (ten innings)
W: Hubbard (4-0, 2.43) L: Burgoon (2-3, 2.49) S: Rearick (9)
Hitter of the Week:
1B Tim Morris, L/L, 12/11/1987
6 G, 23 AB, 2 R, 9 H, 2B, 3B, 4 RBI, 2 SB, 4/1 K/BB, 2 HBP, .391/.462/.522
I’m not talking about Kalian Sams this week, so that’s a start. Morris has been off and on this season, by which I mean he was .329/.410/.425 in April and is .333/.400/.422 in June so far, but was dragged down by a .188/.254/.344 May where he was injured part of the time. The only weird thing is that he hasn’t been hitting for power yet this month. This kind of lines up with the old scouting report on him from back in the day, that he wasn’t really that much of a power hitter, but as a guy who has been strictly first base and DH as a pro, it’s a bit worrisome. He’s on pace to do better than he did last season as far as power numbers go, but not much better. At least he tries to make it up where he can in speed: he’s stolen eleven bases without getting caught.
Heating Up with the Weather Mention:
1B/LF Mickey Wiswall, L/R, 11/25/1988
6 G, 24 AB, 3 R, 8 H, HR, RBI, 4/2 K/BB, .333/.385/.458
Pitcher of the Week:
RHP Taijuan Walker, 8/13/1992
0-0, 2 GS, 1.13 ERA in 8.0 IP, 8 H, R, 9/3 K/BB, 10/0 G/F, BK
Walker had a funny week. On Tuesday, he exited after just two innings with three hits and a walk allowed against three Ks. People started to worry a little, but then a message came up on his twitter account saying it was just a sore back from sleeping wrong. The next outing pitted him against the league’s second-best offense in Bowling Green, and as you can tell, while he didn’t get the win, he handled them pretty easily. What I think is most interesting about Walker is that MiLB.com now has him at a ground out/air out of 2.50, which is something that flashed at times in Peoria last year, but certainly not to this extreme. And keep in mind, that number includes pop ups and the like. If Walker is able to improve his command, he’ll become a very interesting pitcher.
One ER in the Last 16.2 IP Mention:
RHP Jonathan Arias, 2/8/1988
1-0, 2 G, 1.93 ERA in 4.2 IP, 2 H, R, 9/3 K/BB, 2/2 G/F, WP
From the Training Room:
A few scares, but nothing serious.
Strange Happenings:
Forrest Snow also had an abbreviated outing this last time, but neither his twitter account nor the Lumberkings website say anything about it… He did, however, point out that on Friday, when RHP Keli’I Zablan was throwing to C Carlton Tanabe, they had the all-Hawaiian battery.
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37 Responses to “Minor League Wrap (6/6-12/11)”
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love the write-ups – much appreciated!
still wondering about Mauricio Robles – was supposed to be back late April. He was one of our top pitching prospects but no mention of him for some time – looking like a lost season for him.
From what I’ve heard Mauricio Robles has gone the way of Shawn Kelley where we don’t hear about him til after his surgery…
Jay, without including 2011 draft picks, where does Taijuan Walker rank in the M’s system? Is he now #2 behind Ackley? He’s hit 100 MPH a handful of times this year and hes still only 18. I’d have to imagine by midseason hes a top 100 prospect in baseball.
I was at Paxton’s last start and while his overall numbers this year look okay and he made the All-Star team to be played next week (I’ll be there!!!), he was hit HARD. He had some strike outs, but he was getting behind in the counts and when they squared up, they squared up hard…
Any reason for concern that he isn’t dominating the lower level in Clinton?
Pretty sure 60ks in 43 IP is dominating. 1.65 G/FO rate too.
Boyd-
Yet he got knocked around and out of the game…that is not dominating…when he wasn’t striking guys out he was getting behind in the counts and they were hitting line-drives hard.
Maybe my expectations are too high. I figured he’d only be in Clinton for a couple months.
I heard someone mention that Blake Beavan had gained a few mph on his fastball back in spring training. Has he sustained that? Is he sacrificing command for a few mph?
Jake Shaffer has not had much of a run in June. Hopefully it’s just a temporary slump. His season numbers are still impressive. Seagar is interesting, I wonder if someday he’s going to be our 2B and Ackley moves, possibly to LF.
Probably, but it was supposed to be just a matter of cleaning up the elbow a little. I expected to hear something about him a couple of weeks ago.
With Nick Franklin slumping in High Desert, I’d entertain that idea.
You saw his worst start. His command isn’t there, but if, for example, all you saw of Felix was that last outing where he gave up nine hits and walked five, you might not think that was so special as to deserve a Cy Young Award last year.
Still needs to improve his command though. And since we don’t have a viable advanced-A affiliate, it make it more difficult to promote pitchers from the Midwest League after a couple of months.
I think that rumor goes around every year.
Jay, one name I haven’t heard lately is “Rich Poythress.” Did he suffer an injury that I missed, or is he merely not performing well at Double-A?
And what’s your overall take on Poythress? Old for his levels, yes, but seems like a pretty solid take-and-rake guy. Yes? No?
Thanks for the write-up, it still amazes me how many runs are scored in the high dessert every time I see scores from there. I just can’t wrap my head around it.
Doesn’t fit with this thread so my bad, but I found this interesting over the last 23 games the M’s are 0-8 when failing to reach three runs and 15-0 when scoring three or more.
Does Triunfel get promoted at any point?
I keep refreshing the post hoping for an update that Ackley has been called up but it hasn’t worked yet.
You need to click refresh faster. Then the rest of us have to clap our hands and really, really believe it to make this happen.
According to Larry Stone via Twitter, Robles was just activated and optioned to Class A High Desert.
Thanks for all the hard work, Jay. You remain my favorite with these minor league reports!
One question, regarding Vinnie Catricala in High Desert.
I know it’s High Desert, I almost discount ANY huge numbers I see from a player in that place automatically….but the guy is just slaying the ball at the plate. He’s among the org leaders in every conceivable category.
Even with all that, I know he’s no blue-chip ‘spect..but where is he maybe putting himself as far as “Future Forty” picture goes- and is there legit reason to think there’s a decent major-league ceiling on the guy?
Just an FYI. Based on quick google searches the Ms have already inked four players: 11th Rounder Cameron Hobson (to Everett); 28th Rounder Brett Shankin (to Pulaski); 44th Rounder Josh Corrales (to Peoria); and 45th Rounder Charles Jimenez (to Peoria). I’m sure there are more, but these four can be confirmed.
Iowa, I live in the Quad Cities…where you at? You ever get to Clinton?
Poythress’ second go around at double-A (remember, he got it worked into his contract that he could wrap up 2009 there) is proving little better than his first. He was all right in April, as far as peripherals went, hitting .254/.413/.479, but then in May the walks came down and his line was .200/.257/.371, and in June, his power has gone south and he hasn’t walked yet. I don’t know what his deal is, I thought he’d manage with the double-A transition, but apparently not.
I’d like him to, but they’ve emphasized a few times that there’s no real rush with him, so they could just leave him there for a while. It’s not like being twenty-one and in double-A ball is bad or anything.
I like Cat. I don’t know what his position is because they keep moving him all around the corners, but he can hit, and is one of the few Mavericks this season who has a negligible home/road split. I’d consider him for a promotion to double-A right now, but I don’t know what the organization is thinking.
Good to know. Hobson is supposed to be a really good pitchability guy. Shankin’s your basic throw-everything-but-none-of-it-is-great pitcher. Corrales was the staff ace for Cal State Dominguez Hills after leaving the Long Beach State program. Pretty good numbers, though the program itself I don’t know that much about. He really wants to be baseball player, it seems. Jimenez is another guy that I’m not too familiar with. There wasn’t too much data on him for scouting even though he was on a few local all-star teams. His numbers weren’t amazing or anything.
So when do the M’s promote Ackley?
Also, what are your thoughts on Seager? I am getting a little excited about him… should I not be?
Nobody seems to know when Ackley is coming. The best guesses I’ve seen are for the start of the Phillies series, or right after that against the Nats. No worries about the Phillies as we miss Lee AND Halladay, some luck there, and the Nats are the Nats. It won’t be the Angels this time around as Ackley is in the lineup in Fresno.
When does Liddi become a viable prospect? What does he need to work on to enter into the 3b discussion? Seems like he is putting up some solid numbers, and Figgins certainly isn’t performing in such a way to keep him down. I’m not thrilled with a slew of rookies in the lineup (Peguero, Carp, Ackley, Liddi, etc…) but shouldn’t he be in the discussion? What am I missing?
Paolini signs
Cutting down his strikeouts, mostly, and improving his D won’t hurt. He is hitting, but a K rate of 30%+ doesn’t help. He may well get a cup of coffee late in the year though.
I don’t think the organization has given up on him yet seeing as only one 3B was taken in the entire draft. Would I take him and his strikeouts over the suck that is Figgins? Yes.
Jay, doesn’t the concept of overslot have less meaning in baseball than in other sports, where you can trade draft picks and in particular trade down? If you think a player won’t be on the board the next time you draft and have a higher opinion of him than anyone else, you pretty much have to speak now or forever hold your peace. Zduriencik and McNamara have the courage of their convictions and it hasn’t exactly given us the second coming of Matt Clement yet.
jeff, it was jeff clement. Ah but I do miss having a catcher prospect I thought could be above average.
Yeah, Jeff. My mind doesn’t accept the real name because of what a waste that pick was. Or something like that.
It would not surprise me if Seager gets a chance to make it as a 3B before Liddi does at the ML level.
Or does his arm not play there?
I think we’re talking about different things here. Basically, what I’m trying to get at is that scouting information that’s available to the public only comes from so many sources, and those sources have to be willing to talk in the first place. There are some that tend to guard their secrets, so to speak. So when the draft comes along, we’re left with a list as a reference point of which players some group of people believe to be in the top 200 or so prospects, and some people flip out when one of those is taken higher or lower than is consensus.
Or, to put it into a sentence or two, Dave mention after we picked Hultzen that this was the same GM who as a scouting director picked Prince Fielder seventh overall when most had him in the twenties. This is me trying to stretch a whole post out of that concept.
I’ve been over this before, but Seager is going to be providing an offense similar to the good Chone Figgins with less speed and more power. The reason Figgins was at the time a tolerable third baseman was because he was such a slick defender, but Seager doesn’t have the range or the arm to play third, and only a fraction of his games as a pro have been played there. He’s spent nearly as much time at short as he has at third, and no one will talk him up as the shortstop of the future, and rightly so.
Jay, I think we’re talking about the same thing, just in a different way. In football or basketball, if you think someone is the second best player in the draft but the consensus of everyone else is he’s the seventh best player, you can trade down to the seventh slot (or fifth or whatever) and get a useful player or draft pick in exchange. The classic NBA example of this is when Red Auerbach traded down from the number one slot (Joe Barry Carroll) to the third to pick Kevin McHale and got Golden State to trade him Robert Parrish for the privilege of trading down. That was a heist that would impress Al Capone.
In baseball, if you think the consensus seventh pick is the second best player and you have the second pick, you draft him.
It’s not a profound point, but it’s worth mentioning.
It’s interesting though that baseball doesn’t do that. Why not?
Jay,
what are your thoughts regarding the upcoming July 2nd IFA period? There’s some noise that the Mariners will definitely be players, some have them on a kid named Ilian/Elian …eh..last name escapes me.
Nobody really knows what budget they’ve got, but it is a separate deal from the Rule 4 draft. Are you hearing buzz about us being on any one player?
Side question: Marcus Littlewood. Anything good that he’s doing?
Last year, when we drafted him and Paxton I remember running around, high fiving the open air and generally acting like a kid who got an XBox (WITH Kinect!) for Christmas…my thoughts were like “Best. Draft. Ever. We’re going to get benefits out of this class for years…”.
Still have a ton of hope for Littlewood…but are there red flags at this point on him and his future outlook?
“Cutting down his strikeouts, mostly, and improving his D won’t hurt….”
Obviously Liddi’s K% is still a BIG issue but his defense seems really improved both as by pure numbers (6E in 60 games at third so far is not bad, especially if compared to Chisenhall’s 7, Moustakas’ 10, Lawrie’s 12 and Triunfel’s 20 just to name some well known prospects) and by people who watched him live several times recently reporting that his defense is now mlb adequate.
I think it ends up a little different in baseball because of development time, but who knows. This is the only sport I really pat that close attention to, draft or otherwise.
Hernandez, I think. That’s what Churchill said. Badler says we’re connected to a big power hitter named Helsin Martinez. I have nothing on my own.
I do that every three years with the draft, which means I’m due next year if all goes well. I wasn’t so hot on the Littlewood pick myself, didn’t like the floor, which was a little over ten home runs at third base. But he’s on the Everett roster that popped up in my inbox today, so that’s the start of something. So is Tony Butler!
Right. Maintaining the defense is the biggest part, but otherwise it seems like he’s posting his best defensive season.
Someone’s going to ask so I’ll just post it. This is preliminary, it could easily get changed a few times before the team starts play on Friday, but the immediate reaction is that what would possibly be the rotation there is amazing.
No idea where Ramon Morla is.
“Right. Maintaining the defense is the biggest part, but otherwise it seems like he’s posting his best defensive season.”
Those traits (improvement season after season, adjustement to a new level of pro ball) are what made me always believe this kid has a real chance to become someday the FIRST ITALIAN BORN PLAYER EVER to reach the majors. Notwithstanding a general skepticism in the last three seasons he did his own at A+, then at AA and now at AAA. I do not expect him to be defensively the new Brooks Robinson or offensively another Mike Schmidt but I’m quite sure he has desire, focus and talent enough to play his own cards till the end.
And, Jay, thanks for your always fair and wise reports.
paracorto / Marco
… and his age too. He is only 22 years old and is already playing at the AAA level. Essentially, he just completed his final season of College baseball – age wise. He is only going to get better and even if it still takes him another year or two to make it – he will still be a young player if/when he arrivess.
I would be happy to take him over the “stank” that Figgins has become, but it would be rushing the kid ,and he could certainly benefit by having more time in the minors. “Time” is a luxury that Liddi has. He is a good 3-4 years away from entering his prime and he is well ahead of many players his age.