LSB Community Prospect Project: Post-Season #19

lowA or High A as he will end up starting off 2011 in AA if his development continues apace – think Moreland and Smitty here who both were kept in LowA for a whole year but only got a cup of coffee in HighA before quickly moving to AA. I think TX thinks levels in 2-yr increments with their hitters at least so some may start out higher or lower than we expect but they weill all end up where they should end up if they develop the way the staff thinks they will. I used to think that someone like Moe and Smitty got held in LowA too long because of this dumb pop-psychological theory that was going around last year (since instructs really) about “building a winner” or some BS. However, now I think that if a player is kept at a level longer than seems appropriate (at least for hitters) where there is space to promote them, then they are being kept there deliberately, to work on aspects of their game that the org feels is best for them to do at that level. There is always a reason based in improving a skill set rather than something else.

That is a really supermega long way of saying, don’t expect talent to be the primary basis for assigning players to the various full-season leagues next year, rather, think: 1. if that player needs to work on critical weaknesses that will be difficult to overcome at a higher level (Velazquez is a good bet to fit this category and start the first couple months in Hickory, while Macumba and Leury will like repeat); 2. likelihood of a quick promotion to free up space throughout the system. For example, I have most of the Hickory rotation from 2009 repeating while some of the older pitchers start off in High A as they will likely be quickly promoted. This in turn will allow for guys like Font, NeRa, Boscon, Pimentel to move into HighA after dealing what one would hope will be some dominant stuff in their brief Hickory repeat.

Just a moosing if you will…

zero sense. If anyone ever bothered to ask JD a chat question about Sardinas, I bet you’d hear the same accolades for the kid who deserves to be ranked the same as JPro if not better. I’ve tried. The rumor is that TX really bid vs themselves for JPro as Balt was the only other team who would contemplate letting him start out at short but TX was the only team that would consider him only at short. So he got paid but got paid too much in my book. So, until he shows he can outplay the pure VZ shortstop in Sardinas – by some accounts the third best shortstop in this year’s J2 class behind Iglesias (whose really in his own class as a 19yo) and Vinicio (to boston for 2 million) I have Sardinas ranked higher than the small island part-time shortstop.