{ring ringgggg}

Billy Beane: Hello.

JD: Hey Billy, it’s me, JD.

BB: S’up kid. Do you want to hear a couple more stories about how smart I am? Or would ya like to hear a few yarns about how badass I am? I got loads.

JD: Well, seeing as how you chiseled us out of Inoa, what would it take to pry him away from you?

BB: I aint gonna lie. It’ll cost ya. Do you know how much geniusness it takes to manage a low payroll team like the A’s? Hold on, I need to go get my notebook of anecdotes about my geniusnessness.

JD: How about we just stick to trade talk? Any interest in Tommy Hunter?

BB: Did I mention I have a big penis?

JD: Yes, you have apprised me of that fact many times. I repeat, any interest in Hunter?

BB: Hell yeah. He’s nearly to the show!! Done! Now, about those anecdotes…

By wayback wasdin

I’d like to see Hunter come up this year and pitch out of the bullpen to start with.

Borbon is in that conversation too..

watching him a little on tv last night..

looks like a stud.

Really?

I’m not sure how far this prospect rankings will go (30?), but the disparity between the players’ potential is starting to get harder to discern. Tim Smith, who’s 22 and hitting .304/.364/.432 for Clinton, is also starting to look like he might be worth tracking.

for the obvious. I’d take a look at him in the pen in a year or two though, if he is passed up by Feliz, Hurley, McCarthy, a free agent acquisition and another rando out of the group of Hunter, Harrison, trade acquisitions, etc.

Gotcha.

His stick’s been looking pretty good lately.

I agree with you and dirkatron…great performance so far, obviously flashes the glove, wait and see on the bat.

He’s in AAA next year as of now; if he hits, he might see some Arlington.

this is the last time we’ll argue on them, after this, let’s agree to disagree.

That said, here goes:

I don’t think you can so easily discount approach like that. Last year, playing in the midwest league (where no one is going to worry about giving up a 310 ft HR) Lemon had the same BB% (within 1%) that he had this year. The difference between last year and this is that Lemon dropped his K rate this year. That might be a product of luck or it might be he’s making progress, I don’t know. BUt I do know that he’s shown tangible improvement in a lot of his peripheral stats while keeping that BB% at a high level.

Like dirk, I don’t get to see these guys play, so these stats are all we really have to judge them from. And looking at these stats, Lemon seemed like a superior hitter to Vallejo in almost every category this year. He walked more, struck out less, hit less balls on the ground, hit more of them for line drives, he slgs a higher % despite trailing in HRs and of course, the giant OBP and P/PA advantages. This is all occurring despite the fact that Lemon is nearly 2 years younger than Vallejo.

More importantly, his Bakersfield numbers seem to me, at least, more likely to translate because his power seem less depndent on those 310 ft HRs.

As I said, for all I know, Vallejo might be Ozzie Smith, but there’s no sure way to look at their defensive metrics, and I think if you judge them both to be future utility guys (which I think you do), there’s obviously a lot of reasons to like Vallejo. He’s a guy that can be that utility IF that plays all 3 IF and maybe the corner OF well and he can be a pinch runner for you. I, however, think in the way of “which would be a more likely ML regular?” and to me, that’s Lemon because his bat, even right now, is better and his approach is more conducive to future success.