Much like our AAA squad, the AA squad at Monterey has struggled a bit this season, and they presently find themselves sitting in last place in their division, 13 games back. The biggest issue at AA has been the pitching, with the team ranking 10th in the league in runs allowed. A lot of that can be attributed to having many pitchers at the level who are clearly not ready.
On the offensive side of things, the Sea Lions, like their brethren at Joplin, are first in the league in stolen bags. The power story is a little better here, with the Sea Lions ranking 5th in home runs, but a ranking of 11th in obp has been a drain on offensive production overall.
On the pitching side things, we do have a few bright spots in the rotation. Albert Bush, a 20 year old native of San Antonio, has taken a big step forward after two lackluster seasons in the low minors. He is 4-4 3.08 after 12 starts, with 70 k's in 61.1 innings. His game log shows the inconsistency of his youth, he has three games where he did not get out of the 4th innings, but allowed zero runs in any of those, having to leave early twice at the beginning of the season because the team wanted to protect his arm and keep his pitch counts down until he built up arm strength, and leaving the third game with a sore elbow that caused him to miss a start. He also has three games that were complete clunkers. Then he has six other starts, allowing 2 runs once, 1 run in each of the other 5, going at least 6 innings in all of them. Bush can touch 90, and pitches smartly. He's a bit weak on endurance. We're not real likely to rush him along, at his young age we believe he will need at least another year at AA before moving along to AAA.
Some early season success by Floyd Davis at A Drumright, 5-2 1.84 in his first ten starts, earned him a recent promotion to AA when injuries creating a need. Davis is 23, but was drafted just last season in the 6th round. He tops out at 89 on the gun, but has a 5 pitch arsenal and pitches smartly. We'll attempt to baby Davis at the AA level this year and have him repeat the level next year.
23 year old Edgar Fernández is not highly thought of by the scouting community, but we continue to like what we see from him. He's probably being rushed a bit to be at AA after just 18 starts and 102 innings at the A level last year, but at 3-6 3.74 we like what we are seeing so far. After some early season inconsistency, he seems to have turned the corner of late, allowing just 1 er in each of his last 3 starts covering 22 innings. He has a ways to go with his control, but we think he's on the right path. Ideally he will repeat the level next season and we can get a better idea of what we might have with this former 10th round draft choice.
Ki-hyuk O is another young pitcher, 21 years old, who continues to make strides. Drafted out of HS in the 6th round in 2007 despite being injured and scheduled to miss the remainder of the season. A hard thrower with a 92 mph fastball, good control, and a sinker that gets him 69% ground balls, O possesses a 7 pitch repertoire, good intelligence, and a strong work ethic. He is 4-4 3.20 through his first 12 starts this season. His last three starts have been particularly promising, as he has walked just 2 while striking out 21 in 23.1 innings. He has great endurance and consistently works deep into games.
19 year old southpaw Rosa rounds out the rotation at Monterey right now. He has been a bit a dissappointment since we acquired him in trade last season, but he is just 19 and has been rushed to the AA level out of neccessity. Due to his age, we plan to reserve judgement on Rosa until he gets a second go round at the level next season.
Various injuries, at both Monterey and the other levels, have created a mess in the Sea Lions bullpen. Losing Tanner Lawrence for the season and Eric Newman to a career ending injury were particularly tough blows. At the moment the Sea Lions bullpen consists of an array of very young pitchers who are in way over their heads at the AA level. We'll take a good look at most of them and see who survives the ordeal. Ideally, most of them will get a second look at AA next season. 26 pitchers have toiled in Monterey so far this season. Of note is that we demoted the young Angel Sanchez back to single A because he was clearly not ready and he was a pitcher we were determined to protect.
On the offensive side of things, we have several recent callups to take note of. With the advancement of Cedeno to AAA, we took the opportunity to call up the hot hitting Ben McGinnity to AA. McGinnity, a 10th round draft pick out of Rice, tore up short season ball last year, and was torching single A pitchers this season. Prior to his callup McGinnity was batting .344 with a .403 obp and 26 doubles, 5 triples, and 22 stolen bags. With the callup of McGinnity, we are getting our first look at what could be the Calzones very speedy double play combination of the future, McGinnity and Romero. The young McGinnity may sit against some lefties in favor of utility infielder Heath Palmer.
Also called up was 1b Javier Ibarra, to replace Asai who moved on to AAA. Ibarra was batting .313 with 5 hr and 19 rbi in 42 games at the time of his callup. He's being a bit rushed, so we'll likely reserve judgement on the youngster until he gets a second crack at the level next year. Ibarra will share DH/1b duties with Pablo Salmarán, who has held his own at the AA level despite just 43 previous at bats at the A ball level. With Pablo set to turn 24 next month, we would really like to see him turn it up a notch in the second half of the season.
Adrián Romero has continued to progress well and we consider him the other half of the future double play combination along with McGinnity. Romero has batted .292 with a .371 obp and he has swiped 38 bags. We love his defense and his speed and we drool at the thought of having him and McGinnity setting the table and wreaking havoc at the top of the Calzones order someday.
Our top prospect, Josh Shaffer, has struggled mightily this year at AA and at just 20 years old was clearly not ready for the level. He has a miserable .231 OBP and is clearly overmatched. We remain hopeful that he will turn it around in the second half of the season, he had a tremendous second half last season at the A ball level and we know he has the talent to get it going. At any rate, his performance to this point and his youth has convinced us that he will definately repeat the level next season.
Production from the catcher position has been pitiful, and a number of players have been shuffled through the position at Monterey, most notably the 5 week demotion of top prospect Keller to the level in an attempt to get him untracked. The catchers presently at the position at Monterey, Matt McCormick and Rodrigo Aguirre, are merely minor league soldiers until the prove otherwise.
Carlos Reyes has been the highlight of the outfielders at Monterey. A third round pick in 2009, Reyes was rushed to A ball just weeks after the draft out of neccessity, and then rushed to AA this season after just 157 at bats in the low minors. Despite the rush job, Reyes has responded by blasting 10 hr's and batting .263. But his obp is just .288 and he really needs a lot of work on his eye. He's a switch hitter with great power potential, he has a touch of speed, and he plays slightly above average defense. We are hoping a second year at the AA level next season will improve his plate discipline.
The other two starting outfielders, Alexandre LaRouche and Héctor Álvarez, have both been a bit disappointing to this point, but both are young and we want to reserve judgement until they also get another crack at the level. Ramón Gallegos has struggled in a reserve role, and he looks like a career minor league soldier to us at this point. Kian-zhi Thien, signed as a free agent in the offseason, made an almost immediate jump to AA despite no previous professional experience and has made the most of limited at bats, hitting 3 hr's and batting .298 in just 47 official at bats. He's making a hard push to take over a starting job from one of the struggling outfielders.
We'll be back shortly with a look at our A Drumright affiliate.
Saturday
AAA Joplin Update, 6-20-2010
It has been a bit of a rough season at Joplin to this point, with the Red Racers crawling along in last place 12 games back. But things have been looking up a little of late, as a present 5 game winning streak has the Red Racers holding onto a winning record in the month of June at 8-7.
A severe lack of power at the AAA level has been a major problem for the Red Racers, as the team is 3rd in the league in hits but just 9th in runs scored. This is a team with a lot of speed but nearly nothing in power. The Red Racers are first in the league in stolen bags. The issue with power does not project to get any better in the near future, as Martin Higgins, the teams leading power hitter with 18 doubles and 7 hr, has been called up to Laredo. The call up of Silas Boone could be an additional drain on the offense.
Bob Keller has struggled all season is clearly not ready for the AAA level. We did demote him for about 5 weeks to AA, but he posted disastrous results there as well. We're hoping the force feeding at the AAA level pays off in the future. His backup Francisco Rivera is not really ready for the level either, but with the logjam presently at the position in the lower levels of the minors we are left with little choice.
Ricardo Lopez has struggled to find a consistent stroke in his first season at AAA, batting just .236, but he does have 19 doubles through 250 at bats and we expect that the power will develop in time. Jiro Asai has been called up to replace Higgins on the Joplin roster and share DH/1b duties with Lopez. Asai was batting .321 with a .393 obp at AA, hitting 15 doubles, 3 hr, and driving in 30 in 196 at bats prior to his promotion. Just 22, Asai has spent 3.5 seasons in the minor leagues and appears to be on the verge of blossoming. He has great size, is intelligent, and a hard worker. The Calzones would love to see him take advantage of that size and begin to hit for more power. Asai won the AA player of the week award for June 7 while with Monterey.
Juan Jose Cedeño had been stagnating at A Drumright before early season injuries managed to get Cedeno a callup to AA Monterey, where he caught fire and won a AA player of the week award for May 24th and was selected to the AA all-star game. The recent promotion of Boone to Laredo has been a blessing to Cedeno, who has earned the quick callup to AAA. Cedeno will likely serve as the third basemen for the Red Racers for the foreseeable future, but Cedeno is better suited to the middle infield and will probably earn his living as a utility infielder if he ever makes it to the PEBA level. He's likely to split time with Juan Ortega at various positions around the infield as the season progresses.
Gus Wilson's struggles with plate discipline continue to baffle the Calzones braintrust. Scouts think he will eventually be a difficult batter to strike out, but has posted a paltry .295 obp this season. His struggles against southpaws are particularly perplexing, as he has posted a mere .226 obp against the lefties.
Miguel Dueñas has been an offensive highlight reel this season, winning two AAA player of the week awards and a selection to the AAA all-star game. Duenas has batted .315 this season with a .399 obp, 23 doubles, 4 triples, 3 hr, 27 rbi, and 14 stolen bags. While scouts project him as a fourth outfielder at best, we continue to let the young Duenas play and have some hope that he might turn into something more. Duenas has great speed and great defensive ability, and possibly one of the strongest arms in the game. Still just 22 years old, we think the youngster might still have a lot of upside and we are watching him closely.
23 year old António Chávez is having a decent season, but we're still hoping to see a bit more from him. Chavez could make it to Laredo in a year or two as a 4th outfielder or platoon player. Like Duenas, he has great speed and plays excellent defense.
David Hernandez, Mark James, and Mike Bingham are rounding at the outfield at Joplin right now. None project as anything more than career minor leaguers at this point.
The pitching has been a bit of an adventure at Joplin so far this season. On the downside, we had some starters we expected more of going into the season who have been painfully disappointing, or worse, painfully injured. In the case of Armando Perez and Patrick Hunter, both.
After a rough 2-7 3.78 start to the season which saw Armando Pérez struggle with his control, a torn bicep on June 5th ended his season. Patrick Hunter had his own struggles early in the season, though he was pitching slightly better of late. His walks are down, but he's gotten hit hard at times as a result of finding a little too much of the plate at times. He recently came up with a sore elbow and is expected to be out until mid July. There is some thought being given to calling him up to Laredo when he comes back and letting him finish the season in the bullpen in the hope that he can be ready to join the Calzones rotation next spring.
Sixto Núñez, a 19 year old control specialist who we had high hopes for, tore his labrum in his first start of the season and will miss the entire season.
On the plus side of things in the rotation...
23 year old Victor Hall has really opened our eyes this season. After toiling at AA for most of the last 3 seasons, Hall earned the callup to Joplin this season and has posted a very good 5-7 3.63 mark in his first try at the level. A soft tosser who relies on a good sinker to get ground ball outs, Hall has great endurance and scouts think he will make an excellent back of the rotation eatings eater someday.
22 year old Eric Hill is another youngster who toiled for 3 seasons in our low minors before getting the callup to Joplin early this season. Hill has been outstanding in his 9 starts for Joplin, posting a 4-2 2.97 mark. Hill throws in the low 90's and has a 6 pitch repetoire, and the improvement in his changeup and cut fastball this season seems to really have caught hitters off guard. Like Hall, Hill has great endurance and works deep into games. He has worked into the seventh inning or later in each of last 8 starts, and 7 of his last 8 starts have been quality. We think Hill has the potential to someday be a middle of the rotation type and we have high hopes for him.
A third bright spot in the Joplin rotation has been recently acquired southpaw Ray Stokes, acquired from Tempe. Since coming over from Tempe, Stokes has pitched like his hair is on fire, posting a 3-1 1.47 mark in 8 games, 4 of those starts, striking out 45 in 36.2 innings pitched. Stokes can bring it at 94 mph on occassion, and has an eight pitch repetoire. Tempe had grown weary of his inability to make the jump to AAA, but we were desperate enough for pitching to take the chance on him. The early returns have been good, but we really need to see him continue to demonstrate the control over the long haul.
Filling out the Joplin rotation at the moment are minor league fodder Doug Stanley and career journeyman southpaw Steve Wallace. Stanley is 24 years old and has some PEBA experience, but we see him as nothing more than a career minor leaguer who has been a good soldier for us, eating innings where needed. Wallace is a 29 year old southpaw, who seems destined for a career as a four A type soldier. Wallace was gracious enough to accept a demotion to AAA when things did not work out at the PEBA level, and he has some value as left hander who can start or relieve. He's presently in the rotation at Joplin due to injuries.
The bullpen at Joplin has been a mess most of the season, and some non prospects have been replaced by four A types like Pancho Lopez. Marcos Torres has presently been given a repreive due to injuries, but it's unlikely he'll last very much longer in our system.
On the plus side in the bullpen, offseason acquisition Leith Geldart has held his own despite the fact that at age 21 he is a bit young for the level. Ron Coture got off to a rough start this season, but has been much better of late, lowering his era to 3.63 by posting an 0.87 era so far in June after a horrendous month of May that saw him take 4 losses.
Future closer in the making Ben Thomas has been a major headache ever since we acquired him from Crystal Lake at the Winter Meetings, pouting about the trade and not happy no matter what level we put him at. He struggled early on with his control, walking 8 in his first 6.1 innings in our system. Since then, he has walked just 1 while striking out 19. He still has a ways to go, but we're hoping to move him into the closer role at Joplin next season, and then onto Laredo in 2012.
We'll be back with an update on our AA Montery Sea Lions in just a bit.
A severe lack of power at the AAA level has been a major problem for the Red Racers, as the team is 3rd in the league in hits but just 9th in runs scored. This is a team with a lot of speed but nearly nothing in power. The Red Racers are first in the league in stolen bags. The issue with power does not project to get any better in the near future, as Martin Higgins, the teams leading power hitter with 18 doubles and 7 hr, has been called up to Laredo. The call up of Silas Boone could be an additional drain on the offense.
Bob Keller has struggled all season is clearly not ready for the AAA level. We did demote him for about 5 weeks to AA, but he posted disastrous results there as well. We're hoping the force feeding at the AAA level pays off in the future. His backup Francisco Rivera is not really ready for the level either, but with the logjam presently at the position in the lower levels of the minors we are left with little choice.
Ricardo Lopez has struggled to find a consistent stroke in his first season at AAA, batting just .236, but he does have 19 doubles through 250 at bats and we expect that the power will develop in time. Jiro Asai has been called up to replace Higgins on the Joplin roster and share DH/1b duties with Lopez. Asai was batting .321 with a .393 obp at AA, hitting 15 doubles, 3 hr, and driving in 30 in 196 at bats prior to his promotion. Just 22, Asai has spent 3.5 seasons in the minor leagues and appears to be on the verge of blossoming. He has great size, is intelligent, and a hard worker. The Calzones would love to see him take advantage of that size and begin to hit for more power. Asai won the AA player of the week award for June 7 while with Monterey.
Juan Jose Cedeño had been stagnating at A Drumright before early season injuries managed to get Cedeno a callup to AA Monterey, where he caught fire and won a AA player of the week award for May 24th and was selected to the AA all-star game. The recent promotion of Boone to Laredo has been a blessing to Cedeno, who has earned the quick callup to AAA. Cedeno will likely serve as the third basemen for the Red Racers for the foreseeable future, but Cedeno is better suited to the middle infield and will probably earn his living as a utility infielder if he ever makes it to the PEBA level. He's likely to split time with Juan Ortega at various positions around the infield as the season progresses.
Gus Wilson's struggles with plate discipline continue to baffle the Calzones braintrust. Scouts think he will eventually be a difficult batter to strike out, but has posted a paltry .295 obp this season. His struggles against southpaws are particularly perplexing, as he has posted a mere .226 obp against the lefties.
Miguel Dueñas has been an offensive highlight reel this season, winning two AAA player of the week awards and a selection to the AAA all-star game. Duenas has batted .315 this season with a .399 obp, 23 doubles, 4 triples, 3 hr, 27 rbi, and 14 stolen bags. While scouts project him as a fourth outfielder at best, we continue to let the young Duenas play and have some hope that he might turn into something more. Duenas has great speed and great defensive ability, and possibly one of the strongest arms in the game. Still just 22 years old, we think the youngster might still have a lot of upside and we are watching him closely.
23 year old António Chávez is having a decent season, but we're still hoping to see a bit more from him. Chavez could make it to Laredo in a year or two as a 4th outfielder or platoon player. Like Duenas, he has great speed and plays excellent defense.
David Hernandez, Mark James, and Mike Bingham are rounding at the outfield at Joplin right now. None project as anything more than career minor leaguers at this point.
The pitching has been a bit of an adventure at Joplin so far this season. On the downside, we had some starters we expected more of going into the season who have been painfully disappointing, or worse, painfully injured. In the case of Armando Perez and Patrick Hunter, both.
After a rough 2-7 3.78 start to the season which saw Armando Pérez struggle with his control, a torn bicep on June 5th ended his season. Patrick Hunter had his own struggles early in the season, though he was pitching slightly better of late. His walks are down, but he's gotten hit hard at times as a result of finding a little too much of the plate at times. He recently came up with a sore elbow and is expected to be out until mid July. There is some thought being given to calling him up to Laredo when he comes back and letting him finish the season in the bullpen in the hope that he can be ready to join the Calzones rotation next spring.
Sixto Núñez, a 19 year old control specialist who we had high hopes for, tore his labrum in his first start of the season and will miss the entire season.
On the plus side of things in the rotation...
23 year old Victor Hall has really opened our eyes this season. After toiling at AA for most of the last 3 seasons, Hall earned the callup to Joplin this season and has posted a very good 5-7 3.63 mark in his first try at the level. A soft tosser who relies on a good sinker to get ground ball outs, Hall has great endurance and scouts think he will make an excellent back of the rotation eatings eater someday.
22 year old Eric Hill is another youngster who toiled for 3 seasons in our low minors before getting the callup to Joplin early this season. Hill has been outstanding in his 9 starts for Joplin, posting a 4-2 2.97 mark. Hill throws in the low 90's and has a 6 pitch repetoire, and the improvement in his changeup and cut fastball this season seems to really have caught hitters off guard. Like Hall, Hill has great endurance and works deep into games. He has worked into the seventh inning or later in each of last 8 starts, and 7 of his last 8 starts have been quality. We think Hill has the potential to someday be a middle of the rotation type and we have high hopes for him.
A third bright spot in the Joplin rotation has been recently acquired southpaw Ray Stokes, acquired from Tempe. Since coming over from Tempe, Stokes has pitched like his hair is on fire, posting a 3-1 1.47 mark in 8 games, 4 of those starts, striking out 45 in 36.2 innings pitched. Stokes can bring it at 94 mph on occassion, and has an eight pitch repetoire. Tempe had grown weary of his inability to make the jump to AAA, but we were desperate enough for pitching to take the chance on him. The early returns have been good, but we really need to see him continue to demonstrate the control over the long haul.
Filling out the Joplin rotation at the moment are minor league fodder Doug Stanley and career journeyman southpaw Steve Wallace. Stanley is 24 years old and has some PEBA experience, but we see him as nothing more than a career minor leaguer who has been a good soldier for us, eating innings where needed. Wallace is a 29 year old southpaw, who seems destined for a career as a four A type soldier. Wallace was gracious enough to accept a demotion to AAA when things did not work out at the PEBA level, and he has some value as left hander who can start or relieve. He's presently in the rotation at Joplin due to injuries.
The bullpen at Joplin has been a mess most of the season, and some non prospects have been replaced by four A types like Pancho Lopez. Marcos Torres has presently been given a repreive due to injuries, but it's unlikely he'll last very much longer in our system.
On the plus side in the bullpen, offseason acquisition Leith Geldart has held his own despite the fact that at age 21 he is a bit young for the level. Ron Coture got off to a rough start this season, but has been much better of late, lowering his era to 3.63 by posting an 0.87 era so far in June after a horrendous month of May that saw him take 4 losses.
Future closer in the making Ben Thomas has been a major headache ever since we acquired him from Crystal Lake at the Winter Meetings, pouting about the trade and not happy no matter what level we put him at. He struggled early on with his control, walking 8 in his first 6.1 innings in our system. Since then, he has walked just 1 while striking out 19. He still has a ways to go, but we're hoping to move him into the closer role at Joplin next season, and then onto Laredo in 2012.
We'll be back with an update on our AA Montery Sea Lions in just a bit.
Calzones Updates 6-20-2010
We are incredibly surprised to be just 2 games under .500 at this point in the season. While we knew we had upgraded the offense in the offseason, we had major concerns about the pitching coming into the season. But we have had a few starters surprise us and give us a lot more than we expected.
Let's start with César Rodríguez, a 32 year rule V acquisition. We brought in Rodriguez as a rule V pick in the hopes of just having a decent arm that could throw some innings in the middle of the rotation. But Rodriguez has far exceeded expectations. He has won each of his last 6 starts, and is now 8-1 on the season, 3.32. He is SECOND in the IL in wins. Rodriguez has pitched at least 7 innings in 9 of his 14 starts, has allowed more than 3 earned runs just twice in 14 starts this season, and has two complete games. We expect he'll level off at some point, but we're enjoying the ride Rodriguez is giving us.
Another rule V selection, 24 year old southpaw Arthur Graham, is on the disabled list with a little elbow tenderness but should be back in about a week. Graham has posted a fine 6-2 4.22 mark in his 11 starts, and combined with Rodriguez we couldn't be happier with how these two rule V acquisitions have panned out.
On the other end of the spectrum, Augusto Torres, claimed off waivers from London in the spring, has fallen on hard times. After getting off to a 6-2 start, he has lost 6 straight decisions over 7 starts and is now 6-8. We expect Torres to get it turned around, and we still think he can be a back end of the rotation starter for us for years to come.
We reacquired southpaw Tetsu Takuda from Tempe in a minor deal two weeks ago, and Takuda has given us quality starts in each of his first two starts. His last start with Tempe was very good as well, so we think he is starting to turn his season around.
Rookie Cris Reyes has really struggled with his control the last two starts and we need to see a little better out of him in the near future. With Graham due back next week and the recent acquisition of Takuda, Reyes could be slated for a return to AAA in the very near future.
We continue to scrape together a bullpen on whatever we can find on the scrap heap. Recent waiver wire acquisition Kent Murphy has pitched well since his arrival, and we recently claimed Laredo Ranchettes native Tom Cunningham off waivers from Reno. Veterans Steve Wallace and Pancho Lopez have been banished to Joplin for now, while Yasunobu Hara has been placed on waivers and will be sent to AAA if he manages to clear.
Injuries have depleted the middle infield, Jack Cobb has been lost for at least 5 weeks and utility infielder Jiro Heida has been lost for the season. First basemen Martin Higgins has been called up, and he'll play 1st base against right handers with Tom Kirkland moving over to second base. We're hoping the move back to second base will energize Kirkland's stagnant bat. Laredo native Ángel Ramírez will DH against lefthanders with Pexego being asked to wear a glove *cringe* on those days. Silas Boone has been called up to work as the utility infielder, but with any type of decent showing he could take over at shortstop eventually for the struggling José Morán.
The recent move dropping Barry Murdock from leadoff to cleanup has worked wonderfully so far. Murdock is batting .302 with a .375 obp in June. Putting Murdock in between Miyata and Pexego seems to be getting Murdock better pitches to hit, and we still think there are big things in store for this kid down the line. The move has also worked well for Octávio Pexego; he has been on absolute fire the last week or so.
Brock Brett had his first rbi in two weeks when he hit a solo home run on June 15th against Florida. Brett has struggled at the plate, but he's still young and we expect big things from this young man in the future. For now we're cutting back on his playing time and letting Alfredo Gutiérrez get a few more starts.
We'll be back shortly with some minor league updates.
Let's start with César Rodríguez, a 32 year rule V acquisition. We brought in Rodriguez as a rule V pick in the hopes of just having a decent arm that could throw some innings in the middle of the rotation. But Rodriguez has far exceeded expectations. He has won each of his last 6 starts, and is now 8-1 on the season, 3.32. He is SECOND in the IL in wins. Rodriguez has pitched at least 7 innings in 9 of his 14 starts, has allowed more than 3 earned runs just twice in 14 starts this season, and has two complete games. We expect he'll level off at some point, but we're enjoying the ride Rodriguez is giving us.
Another rule V selection, 24 year old southpaw Arthur Graham, is on the disabled list with a little elbow tenderness but should be back in about a week. Graham has posted a fine 6-2 4.22 mark in his 11 starts, and combined with Rodriguez we couldn't be happier with how these two rule V acquisitions have panned out.
On the other end of the spectrum, Augusto Torres, claimed off waivers from London in the spring, has fallen on hard times. After getting off to a 6-2 start, he has lost 6 straight decisions over 7 starts and is now 6-8. We expect Torres to get it turned around, and we still think he can be a back end of the rotation starter for us for years to come.
We reacquired southpaw Tetsu Takuda from Tempe in a minor deal two weeks ago, and Takuda has given us quality starts in each of his first two starts. His last start with Tempe was very good as well, so we think he is starting to turn his season around.
Rookie Cris Reyes has really struggled with his control the last two starts and we need to see a little better out of him in the near future. With Graham due back next week and the recent acquisition of Takuda, Reyes could be slated for a return to AAA in the very near future.
We continue to scrape together a bullpen on whatever we can find on the scrap heap. Recent waiver wire acquisition Kent Murphy has pitched well since his arrival, and we recently claimed Laredo Ranchettes native Tom Cunningham off waivers from Reno. Veterans Steve Wallace and Pancho Lopez have been banished to Joplin for now, while Yasunobu Hara has been placed on waivers and will be sent to AAA if he manages to clear.
Injuries have depleted the middle infield, Jack Cobb has been lost for at least 5 weeks and utility infielder Jiro Heida has been lost for the season. First basemen Martin Higgins has been called up, and he'll play 1st base against right handers with Tom Kirkland moving over to second base. We're hoping the move back to second base will energize Kirkland's stagnant bat. Laredo native Ángel Ramírez will DH against lefthanders with Pexego being asked to wear a glove *cringe* on those days. Silas Boone has been called up to work as the utility infielder, but with any type of decent showing he could take over at shortstop eventually for the struggling José Morán.
The recent move dropping Barry Murdock from leadoff to cleanup has worked wonderfully so far. Murdock is batting .302 with a .375 obp in June. Putting Murdock in between Miyata and Pexego seems to be getting Murdock better pitches to hit, and we still think there are big things in store for this kid down the line. The move has also worked well for Octávio Pexego; he has been on absolute fire the last week or so.
Brock Brett had his first rbi in two weeks when he hit a solo home run on June 15th against Florida. Brett has struggled at the plate, but he's still young and we expect big things from this young man in the future. For now we're cutting back on his playing time and letting Alfredo Gutiérrez get a few more starts.
We'll be back shortly with some minor league updates.
Draft Re-Cap
A lot of activity around here lately, especially centered around the draft as well as some minor trade activity. So the blog has been neglected.
We'll try to get Calzones fans up to date on all the happenings in the Calzones universe, but let's start by recapping the draft.
We didn't have a first round pick, having traded those away in a flurry of offseason activity. So our first selection came at pick 3 in round 2, and we selected 18 year old SP Xavier Gómes. Gomes helped lead Lakewood HS to the 2010 HS Championship by posting a 7-1 2.85 mark in 12 starts, walking just 9 while striking out 94 in 75.2 ip. Gomes has gotten off to a great start at Taku, allowing just 2 runs in 8 innings in his first start, and following that with a complete game shutout in his second start.
5 picks later, we selected Kenny Bender with pick 8 in the second round. Bender is 21 year old out of East Carolina who can bring it in the mid 90's. He has also gotten off to a great start at Taku, besting more highly touted Tempe prospect Darryl Lewis in his first start, allowing just 1 earned run in 7.1 innings while punching out 10 and not walking a batter. Much like Gomes, Bender followed his good first outing with a complete game shutout of Barrow, allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6.
In round 3 we had three selections, and we started by adding closer Willie Owens. Owens had a career era of 1.37 in 4 seasons at the college level, striking out 110 while walking 11 in 91.2 innings while notching 52 saves.
At pick 13 in round 3 we selected another college reliever, this time Artie Gillespie. Gillespie's stock really rose with us after a fine senior season at the college level, and we can see him someday maybe working in the setup role at the PEBA level.
At pick 18 in round 3, we selected high school pitcher Mike Peterson. Sadly, Peterson blew out his elbow in his second start and has been lost for the season. For the second year in a row we've lost a third round pitcher to a season ending injury.
With the 3rd pick in round 4, we grabbed a third high school starter, this time Anastasio Hernández. We think Hernandez might have been a bit overlooked because of some less than spectacular numbers at the high school level, but he suffered from poor defense and we think he's a lot better than those numbers would indicate. He has the stuff to dominate hitters if he ever harnesses the control. He has gotten off to a fine start at Taku, allowing just 3 er in 15 innings over his first two starts.
We didn't have a pick in round 5, traded to Connecticut in the Kirkland deal, so after grabbing 6 pitchers with our first 6 picks, we drafted CF Charles Green from Bishop Moore HS. Green has awesome speed, and we think he will eventually hit for more power. We have some concerns about his weak arm, but that is something we have time to work on.
In round 7 we had two selections, one near the front of the round at pick 3, and one near the back of the round at pick 22. We were hoping to get two players in this round, and were torn as to which one we should take first. Our ears in the draft room picked up that Palm Springs was looking hard at Bobby Wilder, so we were concerned that he wouldn't make it to us at the back of the round. So we took Wilder with the selection at #3 in the 7th round. Wilder is an 18 year old who puts the bat on the ball, striking out just 22 times in 703 at bats at the high school level while posting a .388 obp for his career.
With the selection at #22 in the 7th round we grabbed HS C José Gonzáles. Gonzales is another player who does very well at putting the bat on the ball, striking out just 30 times in 432 at bats at the HS level. Gonzales also has great tools behind the plate. He likely won't see a lot of playing time at Taku this season with Oliva and Luna in front of him, but he should be the starter at Taku next season.
We didn't have another selection until round 12, where we took MR Pat Hayes. Hayes is hard throwing 21 year old who has a meager two pitch repertoire and serious control issues. He's a longshot to ever make it very in the organization unless he can begin to harness the control.
With pick 3 in round 13, we selected 18 yr old 3b Roland Brown. Brown has some versatility and may eventually make a decent utility infielder, but he will really have to do a lot of hard work on cutting down on the strikeouts if he is to last very long in professional baseball.
With pick 3 in round 14 we grabbed 21 year old SP Harlan Mack. Mack throws in the low 90's, but his straight fastball too often becomes a souvenier. He'll really need to turn that around in a hurry, and at age 21 the prospects of that happening aren't all that great. He'll probably serve as minor league filler for a couple of seasons before venturing off into a more suitable career.
At pick 3 in round 15 we chose 21 year LF Ben Sharp. Scouts aren't terribly high on Sharp, he's a bit of an unknown quantity after receiving just 1 at bat his entire college career. He has some moderate speed and a cannon for an arm, so we'll give him a cursory look and see if he might surprise us.
Round 16 saw us draft 21 yr old MR Dean Hairston. Scouts are a bit mixed on the hard throwing Hairston. Some say he's very bad. Others say he's downright awful.
Round 17 saw us draft 21 year old SP Kane Wiley. More minor league filler.
In round 18 we drafted Austin native Jason Wheeler, more as a favor to a local sponsor than anything else. Wheeler is a good kid with no talent and has since been released.
Round 19 saw us draft Doug Cameron. Due to the rash of injuries to our minor league pitchers, Cameron has gotten a reprieve and is still on the roster at Taku. He'll need to impress quickly if he is ever to advance in pro ball, and he did pick up a 4 inning save in his first professional appearance. We may get him a spot start or two to see if he'll show us anything.
We'll be back with some more organizational updates shortly.
We'll try to get Calzones fans up to date on all the happenings in the Calzones universe, but let's start by recapping the draft.
We didn't have a first round pick, having traded those away in a flurry of offseason activity. So our first selection came at pick 3 in round 2, and we selected 18 year old SP Xavier Gómes. Gomes helped lead Lakewood HS to the 2010 HS Championship by posting a 7-1 2.85 mark in 12 starts, walking just 9 while striking out 94 in 75.2 ip. Gomes has gotten off to a great start at Taku, allowing just 2 runs in 8 innings in his first start, and following that with a complete game shutout in his second start.
5 picks later, we selected Kenny Bender with pick 8 in the second round. Bender is 21 year old out of East Carolina who can bring it in the mid 90's. He has also gotten off to a great start at Taku, besting more highly touted Tempe prospect Darryl Lewis in his first start, allowing just 1 earned run in 7.1 innings while punching out 10 and not walking a batter. Much like Gomes, Bender followed his good first outing with a complete game shutout of Barrow, allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6.
In round 3 we had three selections, and we started by adding closer Willie Owens. Owens had a career era of 1.37 in 4 seasons at the college level, striking out 110 while walking 11 in 91.2 innings while notching 52 saves.
At pick 13 in round 3 we selected another college reliever, this time Artie Gillespie. Gillespie's stock really rose with us after a fine senior season at the college level, and we can see him someday maybe working in the setup role at the PEBA level.
At pick 18 in round 3, we selected high school pitcher Mike Peterson. Sadly, Peterson blew out his elbow in his second start and has been lost for the season. For the second year in a row we've lost a third round pitcher to a season ending injury.
With the 3rd pick in round 4, we grabbed a third high school starter, this time Anastasio Hernández. We think Hernandez might have been a bit overlooked because of some less than spectacular numbers at the high school level, but he suffered from poor defense and we think he's a lot better than those numbers would indicate. He has the stuff to dominate hitters if he ever harnesses the control. He has gotten off to a fine start at Taku, allowing just 3 er in 15 innings over his first two starts.
We didn't have a pick in round 5, traded to Connecticut in the Kirkland deal, so after grabbing 6 pitchers with our first 6 picks, we drafted CF Charles Green from Bishop Moore HS. Green has awesome speed, and we think he will eventually hit for more power. We have some concerns about his weak arm, but that is something we have time to work on.
In round 7 we had two selections, one near the front of the round at pick 3, and one near the back of the round at pick 22. We were hoping to get two players in this round, and were torn as to which one we should take first. Our ears in the draft room picked up that Palm Springs was looking hard at Bobby Wilder, so we were concerned that he wouldn't make it to us at the back of the round. So we took Wilder with the selection at #3 in the 7th round. Wilder is an 18 year old who puts the bat on the ball, striking out just 22 times in 703 at bats at the high school level while posting a .388 obp for his career.
With the selection at #22 in the 7th round we grabbed HS C José Gonzáles. Gonzales is another player who does very well at putting the bat on the ball, striking out just 30 times in 432 at bats at the HS level. Gonzales also has great tools behind the plate. He likely won't see a lot of playing time at Taku this season with Oliva and Luna in front of him, but he should be the starter at Taku next season.
We didn't have another selection until round 12, where we took MR Pat Hayes. Hayes is hard throwing 21 year old who has a meager two pitch repertoire and serious control issues. He's a longshot to ever make it very in the organization unless he can begin to harness the control.
With pick 3 in round 13, we selected 18 yr old 3b Roland Brown. Brown has some versatility and may eventually make a decent utility infielder, but he will really have to do a lot of hard work on cutting down on the strikeouts if he is to last very long in professional baseball.
With pick 3 in round 14 we grabbed 21 year old SP Harlan Mack. Mack throws in the low 90's, but his straight fastball too often becomes a souvenier. He'll really need to turn that around in a hurry, and at age 21 the prospects of that happening aren't all that great. He'll probably serve as minor league filler for a couple of seasons before venturing off into a more suitable career.
At pick 3 in round 15 we chose 21 year LF Ben Sharp. Scouts aren't terribly high on Sharp, he's a bit of an unknown quantity after receiving just 1 at bat his entire college career. He has some moderate speed and a cannon for an arm, so we'll give him a cursory look and see if he might surprise us.
Round 16 saw us draft 21 yr old MR Dean Hairston. Scouts are a bit mixed on the hard throwing Hairston. Some say he's very bad. Others say he's downright awful.
Round 17 saw us draft 21 year old SP Kane Wiley. More minor league filler.
In round 18 we drafted Austin native Jason Wheeler, more as a favor to a local sponsor than anything else. Wheeler is a good kid with no talent and has since been released.
Round 19 saw us draft Doug Cameron. Due to the rash of injuries to our minor league pitchers, Cameron has gotten a reprieve and is still on the roster at Taku. He'll need to impress quickly if he is ever to advance in pro ball, and he did pick up a 4 inning save in his first professional appearance. We may get him a spot start or two to see if he'll show us anything.
We'll be back with some more organizational updates shortly.
Monday
Reyes Called Up
The Calzones have called up starting pitcher Cris Reyes. He will make his debut on Saturday, May 29th, at New Orleans. Reyes will replace Diego Martinez in the rotation. Martinez has been placed on waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release.
Reyes was a fairly polished pitcher when we signed him. We let him start the year in the minors to get his feet wet, but we think he's ready to pitch at the PEBA level. We'll go easy with him this season. We look at this season as a learning year for Reyes. We'll get him an extra day of rest here and there, and we've worked him into a spot in the rotation where he should get the majority of his starts at home, which we think will benifit the youngster. After the road start for his debut, we anticipate his next two starts to be at home, on June 3rd and June 8th. We'll bump him back a day in the rotation after that so that he'll miss facing Charleston on the road, instead he will have two more home starts on the 15th and 20th of June. We anticipate skipping him in the rotation in late June and limit him to just one road start on the long road trip that ends June. We'll then get him home starts on July 2nd and July 7th. With off days and the all-star break, Reyes won't start again until July 20th at home, and then he will pitch at home again on July 25th and at home again on July 30th. He will then have home starts on August 4th, August 10th, August 15th, August 25th, and August 30th. With an off day in early September, we'll probably skip him once in the rotation, get him one road start around Sept 8th, then 2 more home starts Septh 14th and 19th. He'll probably finish up with one final road start the final weekend of the season. All in all, we look to get him about 20 starts, 16 at home, just 4 on the road.
Reyes was a fairly polished pitcher when we signed him. We let him start the year in the minors to get his feet wet, but we think he's ready to pitch at the PEBA level. We'll go easy with him this season. We look at this season as a learning year for Reyes. We'll get him an extra day of rest here and there, and we've worked him into a spot in the rotation where he should get the majority of his starts at home, which we think will benifit the youngster. After the road start for his debut, we anticipate his next two starts to be at home, on June 3rd and June 8th. We'll bump him back a day in the rotation after that so that he'll miss facing Charleston on the road, instead he will have two more home starts on the 15th and 20th of June. We anticipate skipping him in the rotation in late June and limit him to just one road start on the long road trip that ends June. We'll then get him home starts on July 2nd and July 7th. With off days and the all-star break, Reyes won't start again until July 20th at home, and then he will pitch at home again on July 25th and at home again on July 30th. He will then have home starts on August 4th, August 10th, August 15th, August 25th, and August 30th. With an off day in early September, we'll probably skip him once in the rotation, get him one road start around Sept 8th, then 2 more home starts Septh 14th and 19th. He'll probably finish up with one final road start the final weekend of the season. All in all, we look to get him about 20 starts, 16 at home, just 4 on the road.
Tuesday
Organizational Updates. 5-16-2010
I'll start this update with just a few notes on our recent trade activity.
As you know by now, we dealt Scott Moss to the Manchester Maulers for minor league reliever Bob Page and a 3rd round draft pick. We think this deal will really work out well for us down the line, and we also think it was the right thing for Scott. Our outfielders in Laredo are playing tremendous ball, and there just wasn't going to be any playing time for Moss in the near future. Instead of having him stagnate in our system, we were able to acquire a promising young reliever and position ourselves with another high round draft pick in the upcoming draft.
As for Page, he's a promising young right handed reliever who can touch 94 on the gun. He's just 20, and just two seasons removed from high school ball. He has spent the last two seasons at short season ball. We'll start him at A ball this season where he will be the closer, and it's likely he'll repeat the level next year. Our realistic view is that we'll see him in Laredo in about 4 seasons.
As for the draft pick, it's near the bottom of the third round, but it gives us 3 selections in the third round. We also have two selections in the second round, and one near the top of the 4th round. This gives us 6 selections over the course of what will amount to about a span of 2 rounds. With 3 other picks on the first day of the draft, for a total of 9 in the first 7 rounds, we feel we are in good position to improve the depth in our organization.
Just this morning we completed yet another deal, moving 6 minor league pitchers to West Virginia in exchange for a seventh round selection in the upcoming draft. The six pitchers we moved are all young, and all have at least some promise, but most if not all would have been headed to the waiver wire shortly as we prepare our organization for the draft. As it was, we did place 9 pitchers on waivers for the purpose of giving them their release. We these six marginal prospects we were at least able to garner a draft pick in trade. The nine pitchers who were waived were:
Sadakuno Hashimoto, a 24 year old soft tosser who was 1-4 7.45 at Monterey this season.
Dave Knight, a 22 year soft tossing left hander with control issues.
Chet Miller, a 24 year old soft tosser.
Sergio Sousa, a 22 year soft tossing lefty with a limited 3 pitch repertoire.
Timothy Wright, a 19 year old righthander.
Kevin Christian, a 23 year old lefthander with a limited 2 pitch repertoire and ugly whip numbers.
Juan Flores, a 23 year old soft tossing sinkerball pitcher.
Oscar Kennedy, a 24 year old soft tossing right hander who had some decent success in the low minors but had reached his ceiling. A 4.38 whip so far this season hastened his departure.
Hidetada Watanabe, a 22 year soft tossing lefty. He has a decent 5 pitch repertoire and keeps the ball down, but I needed dramamine every time I pronounced his name.
The pitchers dealt to West Virginia included:
Jerry Collette, a 20 year old right handed starter. Collette had worked some decent innings for us the last two seasons at Taku, but he is never going to be a big strikeout pitcher. He does keep the ball down and has good endurance, so there is an outside chance he could develop into a back of the rotation type somewhere down the road.
Jorge Rosario, a 19 year old soft tosser who has been in the organization for 4 seasons. We actually hated to give Rosario up, he has been a good pitcher for us at the low levels of the minors. But despite his decent numbers, he just didn't fit our profile. We think there is the outside possibility he could someday be a useful back of the rotation type, or maybe a swingman.
Stanley Hughes, a 20 year old southpaw reliever. Hughes has put up decent numbers in the low minors, and he has a 5 pitch repertoire. We were having a hard time projecting him as much more than a mop up type lefthander, but if he keeps putting up the numbers he might surprise people.
Luis Sanchez, a 20 year old lefthander who has spent 4 seasons in our low minors. He has posted some decent numbers, but we couldn't get past the fact that he's only 5'7" tall, which led us to believe he would have difficulty making it at the PEBA level.
Juan Salazar, a 19 year lefthander. Like Hughes, Salazar is a left handed reliever with 5 pitches. He's an intriguing prospect.
Jeremy Hann, a 21 year old soft tossing righthander, Hann was once a fairly promising prospect but a torn labrum that has kept him out almost a full year has cast a shadow on his career. He's eligible to come off the DL next week and should be ready to pitch, but we just won't have a spot for him. Hopefully he can resurrect his career in West Virginia.
Team Updates. Let's start with San Antonio. So far through a month and a half of the season, things have gone about as well as could be expected for our rebuilding club. The revamped offense has been fairly good, we rank third in the league in runs scored. But it could be better.
To this point, our middle infield is producing almost nothing, much like last year. Jack Cobb is hitting .159. Jose Moran .234. Utility infielder Heida is batting .173. Obviously, this is an area we need to improve over the next year or two. We thought the players we brought in here would be an improvement over last season, but so far it has not worked out that way.
Murdock has been alright over at third base. He leads the team in HR and SB, and is second in RBI. But his .247 avg and .310 obp are a bit dissappointing. But we have to remember he is still just 23, and has loads of talent. We don't see him reaching his peak production for another 3 or 4 seasons.
Catcher Brock Brett is another youngster who we don't expect to reach his peak for another 3 or 4 seasons. He is scuffling a bit right now, but we understand the learning curve and expect him to be a competent starter behind the plate for years to come.
Tom Kirkland has been a bit dissappointing over at first base to this point, but we are confident he will turn it around. After a rough April in which he hit .200, he has responded by batting .289 in May.
The outfield and DH spots have been tremendous. We knew exactly what we were getting when we brought in Pexego and Miyata to be the cornerstones of our offense, and they have exceeded expectations. Carlos Madrigal has been a pleasant surprise, he has posted a .398 obp to this point and appears to be headed towards his best season yet. Martin Griffin continues play flawless defense and is batting .320 to this point in the season.
We can't emphasize enough how much defense means to our team. We are tied for the secnd fewest errors in all of PEBA with just 15 on the season, and four of those can be directly attributed to experimenting with Murdock at SS and Moran at third in the first two weeks of the season. 4 of the errors were with those guys playing out of position. Cobb has also made a few errors adjusting to his new position at second base, but we expect him to just keep getting better over there as the season moves along.
Not many bright spots on the pitching side of things, but there are a few. How about Augusto Torres? He's tied for the IL lead in wins with 6, and he has been our pitching savior to this point in the season. Claimed off waivers from London in spring training, he continues to impress us. While we don't see him being a long term ace, we do see Torres as possibly being a solid back of the rotation innings eater going forward.
Despite his 3-6 record, Keith Bandelow has actually pitched much better than expected and our scouts are liking what they see enough to consider him another contender for a long term role at the back of our rotation. Bandelow suffers from being cast at the front of the rotation, and catching matchups against other teams aces, resulting in a severe lack of run support. (3 runs total his last 4 starts)
The days are numbered for our other three starters. We have no intention of keeping Graham, Martinez, or Rodriguez past this season, and some or all of them may be gone sooner than that. We are closely eyeing our financial projections, and giving serious consideration to upgrading our pitching staff as the trade deadline approaches. We think we may find a little help in our own minor league system, but if we stay within spitting distance of the wild card race we could break out the checkbook for a couple of starters in the middle of the summer.
The bullpen has ranged from mediocre to awful, with a strong lean towards mostly awful. About the only bright spot has been Yamasaki, who is posting a 2.86 era. It's hard to see most of these guys being back next season, and much like the starting staff, if finances allow some may be gone much sooner than that.
AAA Joplin Update.
It's been a rough start at Joplin, with multiple issues giving us cause for concern. Primarily, the pitching. The bullpen at Joplin has been awful. Several of the starters have been dreadful. And the team has a serious lack of power. Beyond that, things are just peachy.
Our two best starting prospects at Joplin, Perez and Hunter, have been dreadful. Cris Reyes got off to a bit of a slow start, had a short demotion to AA, and has pitched better in his last 3 starts. In fact, our scouts suggest he is close to ready for the PEBA level, and a few more starts like his recent ones and he could receive an early June call to the big club. Reyes was an offseason minor league free agent signing from Nicarauga. He throws in the low 90's with good control and decent endurance, and we could see him eventually being a fairly decent #4 starter at the PEBA level.
Two other somewhat bright spots in the Joplin rotation have been Eric Hill and Victor Hall. Hall is a 24 year old righthander who has logged nearly 340 innings at AA the last 3 seasons before finally earning a promotion to AAA this season. He is just 2-5, but sports a 3.42 era and he sports decent control. Despite the fact that he gets a lot of groundballs, he still has a tendency to give up too many longballs and that's somethiing he will need to correct if he ever wants to move up to the next level. Hill is a 22 year old right hander who toiled most of his first three seasons at A Drumright before a midseason callup to AA last year. He progressed enough in limited time there to earn a quick promotion to AAA, but we don't expect his next promotion to come quite as fast. He throws in the low 90's, mixes up 6 pitches, but needs to do some work on the control yet.
About the only bright spot in the Joplin bullpen has been closer Leith Geldart. We signed Geldart to a major league contract in the offseason to get him into our system, and so far it seems to be a move that is paying off. He started at AA, but showed quickly that he was ready for AAA. Combined at the two levels he has allowed 1 run in 14.2 ip, allowing 7 hits, 3 walks, and striking out 14. Geldart has a simple two pitch repertoire, but can pump it in at 96 and has a nasty splitter. We feel he could be in our big league bullpen by midseason in 2011.
The offense at Joplin has only a few bright spots as well. Silas Boone is batting .336 with a .408 obp and is making quite a case to get the call to Laredo to bolster the offense in the middle infield. We're going to resist that urge for now, but a callup later this season is not out of the question.
Miguel Duenas continues to impress us as well, his .376 obp and 17 doubles, as well as 8 stolen bases, make him a player on our radar. At this point we see him as a possible future 4th outfielder, or even a platoon outfielder. He has great speed, and well above average defensive skills.
We'll be back later with updates for the rest of the minor league system.
As you know by now, we dealt Scott Moss to the Manchester Maulers for minor league reliever Bob Page and a 3rd round draft pick. We think this deal will really work out well for us down the line, and we also think it was the right thing for Scott. Our outfielders in Laredo are playing tremendous ball, and there just wasn't going to be any playing time for Moss in the near future. Instead of having him stagnate in our system, we were able to acquire a promising young reliever and position ourselves with another high round draft pick in the upcoming draft.
As for Page, he's a promising young right handed reliever who can touch 94 on the gun. He's just 20, and just two seasons removed from high school ball. He has spent the last two seasons at short season ball. We'll start him at A ball this season where he will be the closer, and it's likely he'll repeat the level next year. Our realistic view is that we'll see him in Laredo in about 4 seasons.
As for the draft pick, it's near the bottom of the third round, but it gives us 3 selections in the third round. We also have two selections in the second round, and one near the top of the 4th round. This gives us 6 selections over the course of what will amount to about a span of 2 rounds. With 3 other picks on the first day of the draft, for a total of 9 in the first 7 rounds, we feel we are in good position to improve the depth in our organization.
Just this morning we completed yet another deal, moving 6 minor league pitchers to West Virginia in exchange for a seventh round selection in the upcoming draft. The six pitchers we moved are all young, and all have at least some promise, but most if not all would have been headed to the waiver wire shortly as we prepare our organization for the draft. As it was, we did place 9 pitchers on waivers for the purpose of giving them their release. We these six marginal prospects we were at least able to garner a draft pick in trade. The nine pitchers who were waived were:
Sadakuno Hashimoto, a 24 year old soft tosser who was 1-4 7.45 at Monterey this season.
Dave Knight, a 22 year soft tossing left hander with control issues.
Chet Miller, a 24 year old soft tosser.
Sergio Sousa, a 22 year soft tossing lefty with a limited 3 pitch repertoire.
Timothy Wright, a 19 year old righthander.
Kevin Christian, a 23 year old lefthander with a limited 2 pitch repertoire and ugly whip numbers.
Juan Flores, a 23 year old soft tossing sinkerball pitcher.
Oscar Kennedy, a 24 year old soft tossing right hander who had some decent success in the low minors but had reached his ceiling. A 4.38 whip so far this season hastened his departure.
Hidetada Watanabe, a 22 year soft tossing lefty. He has a decent 5 pitch repertoire and keeps the ball down, but I needed dramamine every time I pronounced his name.
The pitchers dealt to West Virginia included:
Jerry Collette, a 20 year old right handed starter. Collette had worked some decent innings for us the last two seasons at Taku, but he is never going to be a big strikeout pitcher. He does keep the ball down and has good endurance, so there is an outside chance he could develop into a back of the rotation type somewhere down the road.
Jorge Rosario, a 19 year old soft tosser who has been in the organization for 4 seasons. We actually hated to give Rosario up, he has been a good pitcher for us at the low levels of the minors. But despite his decent numbers, he just didn't fit our profile. We think there is the outside possibility he could someday be a useful back of the rotation type, or maybe a swingman.
Stanley Hughes, a 20 year old southpaw reliever. Hughes has put up decent numbers in the low minors, and he has a 5 pitch repertoire. We were having a hard time projecting him as much more than a mop up type lefthander, but if he keeps putting up the numbers he might surprise people.
Luis Sanchez, a 20 year old lefthander who has spent 4 seasons in our low minors. He has posted some decent numbers, but we couldn't get past the fact that he's only 5'7" tall, which led us to believe he would have difficulty making it at the PEBA level.
Juan Salazar, a 19 year lefthander. Like Hughes, Salazar is a left handed reliever with 5 pitches. He's an intriguing prospect.
Jeremy Hann, a 21 year old soft tossing righthander, Hann was once a fairly promising prospect but a torn labrum that has kept him out almost a full year has cast a shadow on his career. He's eligible to come off the DL next week and should be ready to pitch, but we just won't have a spot for him. Hopefully he can resurrect his career in West Virginia.
Team Updates. Let's start with San Antonio. So far through a month and a half of the season, things have gone about as well as could be expected for our rebuilding club. The revamped offense has been fairly good, we rank third in the league in runs scored. But it could be better.
To this point, our middle infield is producing almost nothing, much like last year. Jack Cobb is hitting .159. Jose Moran .234. Utility infielder Heida is batting .173. Obviously, this is an area we need to improve over the next year or two. We thought the players we brought in here would be an improvement over last season, but so far it has not worked out that way.
Murdock has been alright over at third base. He leads the team in HR and SB, and is second in RBI. But his .247 avg and .310 obp are a bit dissappointing. But we have to remember he is still just 23, and has loads of talent. We don't see him reaching his peak production for another 3 or 4 seasons.
Catcher Brock Brett is another youngster who we don't expect to reach his peak for another 3 or 4 seasons. He is scuffling a bit right now, but we understand the learning curve and expect him to be a competent starter behind the plate for years to come.
Tom Kirkland has been a bit dissappointing over at first base to this point, but we are confident he will turn it around. After a rough April in which he hit .200, he has responded by batting .289 in May.
The outfield and DH spots have been tremendous. We knew exactly what we were getting when we brought in Pexego and Miyata to be the cornerstones of our offense, and they have exceeded expectations. Carlos Madrigal has been a pleasant surprise, he has posted a .398 obp to this point and appears to be headed towards his best season yet. Martin Griffin continues play flawless defense and is batting .320 to this point in the season.
We can't emphasize enough how much defense means to our team. We are tied for the secnd fewest errors in all of PEBA with just 15 on the season, and four of those can be directly attributed to experimenting with Murdock at SS and Moran at third in the first two weeks of the season. 4 of the errors were with those guys playing out of position. Cobb has also made a few errors adjusting to his new position at second base, but we expect him to just keep getting better over there as the season moves along.
Not many bright spots on the pitching side of things, but there are a few. How about Augusto Torres? He's tied for the IL lead in wins with 6, and he has been our pitching savior to this point in the season. Claimed off waivers from London in spring training, he continues to impress us. While we don't see him being a long term ace, we do see Torres as possibly being a solid back of the rotation innings eater going forward.
Despite his 3-6 record, Keith Bandelow has actually pitched much better than expected and our scouts are liking what they see enough to consider him another contender for a long term role at the back of our rotation. Bandelow suffers from being cast at the front of the rotation, and catching matchups against other teams aces, resulting in a severe lack of run support. (3 runs total his last 4 starts)
The days are numbered for our other three starters. We have no intention of keeping Graham, Martinez, or Rodriguez past this season, and some or all of them may be gone sooner than that. We are closely eyeing our financial projections, and giving serious consideration to upgrading our pitching staff as the trade deadline approaches. We think we may find a little help in our own minor league system, but if we stay within spitting distance of the wild card race we could break out the checkbook for a couple of starters in the middle of the summer.
The bullpen has ranged from mediocre to awful, with a strong lean towards mostly awful. About the only bright spot has been Yamasaki, who is posting a 2.86 era. It's hard to see most of these guys being back next season, and much like the starting staff, if finances allow some may be gone much sooner than that.
AAA Joplin Update.
It's been a rough start at Joplin, with multiple issues giving us cause for concern. Primarily, the pitching. The bullpen at Joplin has been awful. Several of the starters have been dreadful. And the team has a serious lack of power. Beyond that, things are just peachy.
Our two best starting prospects at Joplin, Perez and Hunter, have been dreadful. Cris Reyes got off to a bit of a slow start, had a short demotion to AA, and has pitched better in his last 3 starts. In fact, our scouts suggest he is close to ready for the PEBA level, and a few more starts like his recent ones and he could receive an early June call to the big club. Reyes was an offseason minor league free agent signing from Nicarauga. He throws in the low 90's with good control and decent endurance, and we could see him eventually being a fairly decent #4 starter at the PEBA level.
Two other somewhat bright spots in the Joplin rotation have been Eric Hill and Victor Hall. Hall is a 24 year old righthander who has logged nearly 340 innings at AA the last 3 seasons before finally earning a promotion to AAA this season. He is just 2-5, but sports a 3.42 era and he sports decent control. Despite the fact that he gets a lot of groundballs, he still has a tendency to give up too many longballs and that's somethiing he will need to correct if he ever wants to move up to the next level. Hill is a 22 year old right hander who toiled most of his first three seasons at A Drumright before a midseason callup to AA last year. He progressed enough in limited time there to earn a quick promotion to AAA, but we don't expect his next promotion to come quite as fast. He throws in the low 90's, mixes up 6 pitches, but needs to do some work on the control yet.
About the only bright spot in the Joplin bullpen has been closer Leith Geldart. We signed Geldart to a major league contract in the offseason to get him into our system, and so far it seems to be a move that is paying off. He started at AA, but showed quickly that he was ready for AAA. Combined at the two levels he has allowed 1 run in 14.2 ip, allowing 7 hits, 3 walks, and striking out 14. Geldart has a simple two pitch repertoire, but can pump it in at 96 and has a nasty splitter. We feel he could be in our big league bullpen by midseason in 2011.
The offense at Joplin has only a few bright spots as well. Silas Boone is batting .336 with a .408 obp and is making quite a case to get the call to Laredo to bolster the offense in the middle infield. We're going to resist that urge for now, but a callup later this season is not out of the question.
Miguel Duenas continues to impress us as well, his .376 obp and 17 doubles, as well as 8 stolen bases, make him a player on our radar. At this point we see him as a possible future 4th outfielder, or even a platoon outfielder. He has great speed, and well above average defensive skills.
We'll be back later with updates for the rest of the minor league system.
Wednesday
Scott Moss Update (5-1-2010)
As has been speculated in the press, the Calzones have received a very good trade offer from the Manchester Maulers for Scott Moss. We are seriously considering the offer, and have scheduled a meeting with the scouting staff for Saturday morning in order to go over the details.
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