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ToyCannon

Mar 30, 2008 Dec 02, 2008 414 954

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Final Prospect Vote

BHSPORTSGUY provided this great link to keep track of what is happening in the winter leagues.

Here was the vote for number one
Here was the vote for 2 - 4.
Here was the vote for number 5
Here was the vote for numbers 7 & 8
Here was thevote for Number 9
Here was the vote for number 10
Here was the vote for number 11
Here was the vote for number 12
Here was the vote for number 13 & 14

 

Baseball- Intellect put out their 6-15 list. 

Top Fourteen
1.James McDonald
2. Ivan DeJesus
3. Andrew Lambo
4. Scott Elbert
5. Ethan Martin
6. Josh Lindblom
7. Austin Gallagher
8. Josh Bell
9.Chris Withrow
10.Xavier Paul
11.Nathan Eovaldi
12. Jamie Pedroza
13. Tony Delmonico
14 Devaris Strange-Gordon

The final vote of the 15th prospect will be a write in. Below are some names you might want to consider. To many names for a poll.

Jesus Castillo (40 Man), Victor Garate (40 Man), Travis Schlichting(40 Man), Josh Wall, James Adkins, Jamie Hoffman (40 Man) , Steve Johnson , Geison Aguasviva , Pedro Baez , Kyle Russel , Chris Jacobs , Cole St. Clair , Jon-Michael Redding (D4P Fav)

16 comments | 0 recs

Happy Thanksgiving

True Blue is going dark until Monday unless something unusual happens and Andrew decides to write something. Enjoy the food, family, and friends.

0 comments | 0 recs

Clumsy PR = Lowered Expectations

Continue voting for the Prospects here

Tripon in the post below linked to this story in the LA Times and I recommend everyone read it.  I don't want to do a FJM piece on these boatload of quotes because that would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Let's take a look at what they had to say and see what is behind them.

"If you bring somebody in to play and pay them, pick a number, $30 million, does that seem a little weird to you?" Jamie McCourt asked in an interview at the Evergreen Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. "That's what we're trying to figure out. We're really trying to see it through the eyes of our fans. We're really trying to understand, would they rather have the 50 fields?"

Obviously most Dodger fans would say they would rather spend the money on the team.  This is step one in lowering expectations that they will be spending big money on free agents. This is a clumsy way of going about it as any fan with a pulse can see right through this. They aren't asking the fans if they would rather have a 30 Million contract or lower ticket prices which is within the McCourts grasp. They are trying to tie it into the community but the Dodger reach is to vast for this to have any meaning to the Dodger fan. What do they care in San Bernandino if the Dodgers put some money into East LA to build some parks when they would rather be playing soccer on those fields.

"I think, oddly enough, maybe if things weren't guaranteed, then we could pay for it," she said. "If people can't play anymore, it's like, 'Oh well, see ya.' Different story. Whatever money they are guaranteed could be money that we could otherwise have given to community."

Now this is pure frustration bubbling over from the fact they watched 33 Million dollars last year do nothing but  enrich the players and agents involved. It was not Jason Schmidt's fault that he was on the DL but it surely was Andruw Jones fault that he did not come ready to play for the most money he had ever been paid in his lucrative career.  If you think we are frustrated with this lack of production from these two, think of the frustration level of the family writing these checks. This is the cost of doing business in baseball as every organization will have plenty of hit and misses but the McCourts are new to the business. Of course this bed is of their own making, Depo didn't have these non - performing contracts other then when Drew broke his wrist which I think is different then signing a pitcher who probably knew his shoulder was shot and had been pitching through pain for several years.

Frank quickly put to rest that there was conflict between the Dodgers operating budget and the Dodger charitable foundation as he tried to repair the comments by Jamie.

Frank McCourt said that while he and his wife contribute money out of their own pockets to the Dodgers' charitable causes, the team and its foundation are separate entities and the funds to pay for the fields won't be taken out of the team's operating budget. But he, too, said the Dodgers had to re-examine their priorities.

He then continued the path of lowered expectations with these final comments.

Frank McCourt said the Dodgers' top priority remained to field a winning team. He said the team's payroll, which was around $120 million this year, hasn't been determined for next season.

So things are in flux in Dodgertown. I would expect most teams know their budget for the coming season. The fact we are in late November and the budget is in questions says that there are variables in play that will determine the amount of the budget. What those are, only the McCourts know.

I've said all along that the McCourts would not be increasing their budget in 2009 and I doubted they would even match the 2008 budget. These comments are reinforcing my opinion that the McCourts are not happy with the contracts they are paying and Ned is only still here because he has a contract. He is a lame duck GM and anything he attempts to do will be scrutinized like never before by the McCourts before any stamp of approval hits the paperwork.

I wonder what Joe Torre thinks of the sentiments expressed by the McCourts today? I expect Josh Rawitch is biting his nails as he figures out how to respond to the LA Times article.

[Update]

6-4-2 has Jamie's spin control

2 comments | 0 recs

Prospect Number Thirteen

Pedroza takes number twelve holding off the new draftees.  Also with the AFL and HWL seasons over,  here are the final results. Russel Mitchell didn't get many at bats as we was on the taxi squad so he was not eligible every game but he did the most with what he got. Looks like Hoffman and Schlichting may have helped make their case for getting added to the 40 man roster. For one of the youngest players in the league, Mr. Lambo did just fine.

BATTERS   CLUB   LEAGUE   AVG   AB   R   H   2B   3B   HR   RBI   SO   BB   IBB   OBP   SLG   OPS ?
Mitchell, Russl SUR AFL 0.364 22 2 8 1 1 1 5 7 4 0 0.444 0.636 1.081
Hoffmann, Jamie SUR AFL 0.314 35 11 11 2 2 0 6 9 8 0 0.432 0.486 0.918
Lambo, Andrew SUR AFL 0.313 67 8 21 3 1 1 10 13 4 0 0.356 0.433 0.789
De Jesus, Ivan SUR AFL 0.254 67 9 17 3 1 0 4 11 8 0 0.333 0.328 0.662
Silverio, Alfro WAI HWB 0.241 112 18 27 8 0 0 9 27 6 0 0.283 0.313 0.596
Giles, Tommy WAI HWB 0.184 76 5 14 5 1 0 3 20 3 0 0.253 0.276 0.529
May, Lucas SUR AFL 0.183 82 8 15 4 0 1 6 16 1 0 0.202 0.268 0.471
Garabedian, Alx WAI HWB 0.154 52 4 8 3 0 0 2 11 2 0 0.185 0.212 0.397
PITCHERS   CLUB   LEAGUE   ERA   G   GS   SV   SVO   IP   H   R   ER   HR   SO   BB   IBB   WHIP   AVG  
Guerra, Javy WAI HWB 4.24 11 1 1 1 23.1 20 11 11 1 28 9 0 1.24 0.233
Orenduff, Justi  SUR AFL 5.79 8 8 0 0 28 30 22 18 10 29 11 0 1.46 0.268
Perez, Eduardo ZUL VWL 2.81 10 0 0 1 16 9 5 5 1 13 8 1 1.06 0.173
Pfeiffer, David WAI HWB 1.59 11 0 3 4 17 7 3 3 0 11 4 0 0.65 0.127
Pratt, Jordan WAI HWB 2.53 10 0 1 2 21.1 16 7 6 0 34 14 0 1.41 0.2
Schlichting, T SUR AFL 1.5 13 0 3 4 12 10 4 2 1 6 5 0 1.25 0.208

BHSPORTSGUY provided this great link to keep track of what is happening in the winter leagues.

Here was the vote for number one
Here was the vote for 2 - 4.
Here was the vote for number 5
Here was the vote for numbers 7 & 8
Here was thevote for Number 9
Here was the vote for number 10
Here was the vote for number 11

Here was the vote for number 12

Baseball- Intellect put out their 6-15 list. Up until number 11 we are almost in total agreement, and then it all goes to hell in a handbasket.  No one had deemed Russel, St Claire, or Adkins worthy yet so I haven't put them out for a vote. I know Russel was drafted higher then Delmonico and Gordon but based on their age and position and how they produced in the same rookie leagues I'm reluctant to put Russel a head of either of them. I'm only going to 15 with the vote so 13 / 14 will be determined by this vote. Number 15 will be a write in vote as there are too many players to put in a poll.

Top Ten
1.James McDonald
2. Ivan DeJesus
3. Andrew Lambo
4. Scott Elbert
5. Ethan Martin
6. Josh Lindblom
7. Austin Gallagher
8. Josh Bell
9.Chris Withrow
10.Xavier Paul
11.Nathan Eovaldi
12. Jamie Pedroza

Tony Delmonico  was our 2008 6th round pick and took his team to the College World Series finals. For us he hit .340 with 20 doubles and 11 home runs in 35 games. Six of those home runs came in the final 10 games of the season. The word is that he is going to transition to catcher as he's a terrible infielder.

Devaris Strange-Gordon just like Delmonico played for Ogden. The 2008 3rd round pick didn't hit like Delmonico but he's a year younger and everyone was raving about his defense at SS. He may now be the fastest player in the organization stealing 18 bases in only 60 games with a 78% success rate.

 

 

Poll
Prospect Number 13

  40 votes | Results

3 comments | 0 recs

Confidence in the face of reality

I'm not sure I've ever been as confident as this man is as he faces a life without legs. It is a stirring picture of a man who has yet to give into reality. A man I would have been proud to pay tribute with the other 100,000 fans.

Many good things happened in 1958 for Dodgers fans but easily the worse thing that happened was his accident in January of 1958 just weeks short of joining the Dodgers for their move to Los Angeles.

0 comments | 0 recs

50 years of Dodger Baseball

The Los Angeles Dodgers and I were born in the same year and close to the same place. I came out crying in Pasadena while the Dodgers birthed several miles to the South.  As my 50th birthday passes into the night, the one constant in my life  has been my Dodger fandom. Much to much of my life has been spent worrying about this team. Is it a pathetic thing to say that not a day has probably passed in 40 years where I didn't think at least once about them?

Best offensive players born in 1958

I have no idea why I became a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, as we moved not long after I was born, and my family began a journey of a new city every year for the next 11 years. I didn't see my first live Dodger game until I was 11. Maybe it was my Grandparents who lived in Glendale and were weaned like many of you on Dodger baseball by Vin Scully.  Maybe it was my brother Chris who liked them and that rubbed off on me. For whatever reason from the time I could determine symbols the Dodgers were my team. I'd go through my brother's baseball cards before I could read and pick out any player with the Dodger symbol on their hat and put it aside. It is one of my earliest memories but as time has moved on I've collected more then my mind can hold.

Best pitchers born in 1958

Listening to armed forces radio as Willie Davis dropped 3 flyballs in the 66 World Series and the unbeatable Sandy Koufax was beaten. At the time I listened to the game with my family but I understood little of what was actually happening other then the fact it was bad, very bad.

Bill Sudakis hitting a solo home run on the game of week when I saw the Dodgers play baseball on TV for the first time ever.

Bill Grabarkewitz hitting a solo home run and Don Sutton pitching a 1 - 0 shutout for my first game at Dodger Stadium

Watching a double header against the Big Red Machine in the bleachers with my Dad turning purple under the sun after six hours of baseball sometime in the early 70's.

Jimmy Wynn, Mike Marshal and the young Dodger infield giving me my first taste of postseason Dodger baseball

World Series despair in 74, 77, and 78 after playoff heroics

Final three games against Houston in the 80 season

Fernando mania and a real world championship for the Dodger infield, complete with a kickass defeat of the Yankee's by winning the final four games.

Pedro Guerrero smash n smile during the mid 80's

Improbable 1988 Championship hoisted on the shoulders of Orel and Gibby

Piazza time

Shawn Green time

Lima time & Beltre Bombs

Dodger thoughts and a newly found Dodger community

Writing for True Blue over the last year and a half has been a godsend for me. While I've been making my living over the last 30 years in the application business software side I yearned to do something related to baseball. When Jon suggested to Andrew that I write here when he needed to concentrate on work I figured he was  trying to get rid of my paragraph size comments at Dodger Thoughts.  Having something to say has always come easy to me, writing it down in a coherent manner with little knowledge of writing skills seemed daunting. I didn't think I could pull it off without embarrassing myself and felt it would be a short gig. One year and a half later you are all still stuck with me. I've muddled through but I'm fully aware of my writing limitations made even more so when I wrote a  few stories for SportsHubLa and discovered what an editor does. 

This little blog only gets about 300 daily visitors but it feels big to me. After 50 years I can say for the first time I'm doing something I really enjoy. Writing about the Dodgers is about as good as it gets in my book, the fact that you actually take the time to read what I write keeps my trying. I know this blog is missing an important component when Andrew takes his fall vacations but in the meantime we will muddle through.  My Andruw Jones endorsement is a red flag about any advice I might give, My Jeff Kent call is the counter to my Andruw Jones endorsement. I'm going to be wrong alot, after 50 years I'm good at being wrong, but hey this is baseball where Jose Lima pitched the greatest game I've ever seen at Dodger Stadium.  What were the odds of that? I know I've made you think about the Dodgers, laugh at Nedshed a tear when I remember my friends, give you updates on the prospects, while all the while wincing at my grammar. I sometimes go where Dodgers baseball cannot follow, but many of you understand when I go there.

Thanks for reading, thanks for taking the time to comment.

 

8 comments | 0 recs | Digg!

Starting to Sweat

In the fall of 2006 I had several worries. I didn't want to sign Soriano, Matthews, or Juan Pierre. On Nov 20th, Soriano signed a crazy 8 year deal with the Cubs. Now only two players were left to worry about.  I tried to think good thoughts about Ned but I knew he would love the way Pierre played the game and would be fooled by the 2005 year of Matthews.  He had signed Rafy Furcal to a contract that I loved and 2nd half Furcal in 2005 made the signing look good. He had made some deals that didn't work out in 2005 but he did bring in Ethier for a player he had to deal. In the fall of 2006 most of my skepticism about Ned was based on expectation not on actions.

Juan Pierre was the name at the top of my list that I didn't want us making a long term commitment with.   Even with the rumor mill saying he was headed for the Giants I couldn't shake this uncomfortable feeling that I'd be seeing Juan Pierre more then I wanted.  Sure enough almost two years ago Juan Pierre signed a horrific deal with the Dodgers on the same day the Angels made an equally misjudgment when they signed Matthews. Our local teams both swallowed the bait and have been paying the price ever since. Still I never imagined that Juan Pierre would get 5 years. 5 years!!!

As we ended the season one of bigger holes on the Dodgers is at SS. Everyone seemed to think we could just resign Furcal to a short term contract so he could rebuild his value after missing most of the year to back surgery and killing us defensively in the championship series.  Instead his value seems to have grown and rumors of him getting 3 and 4 year dealers abound. The Dodgers only got about one year of above average play out of him over his three year deal so we can understand the skepticism of giving him another three year deal. Our internal options are not very strong. Chin-Lung Hu looked like our future SS at this time but his 2008 was as bad as it gets.  His early offensive woes were blamed on vision problems but it never sounded like they really got those resolved. He can surely pick it well enough but you can't carry a Belanger these days, not with this offense. Will Joe Torre give him another chance? Is his vision problems solved? Was that really the problem or is simply not a major league hitter? Further down the chain we have DeJesus who ate up AA and is currently eating up the Puerto Rican League. Between those two stints however he sucked in the AFL and basically was called out for his sloppy play by John Sickels and some scouts.  Is he ready to step up?

On the free agent terrain we have Renteria and Cabrera . Two long time shortstops whose better days are long past, and in Cabera's case they weren't that good to begin with. Renteria on the other hand was at times one of the best shortstops in the NL and is only one year removed from a solid year for the Braves in 2007. Renteria appears to be headed to the Giants.

I'm sorry to say I can't shake the feeling that Cabrera is coming our way. I hope these are unjustified worries but if Cabrera is not coming, what do you do. I can't imagine them going with Hu and DeJesus. Really what do you do? I fully expected Furcal to be a Dodger in 2009 and I'm shocked with the interest he has drawn. Didn't the A's just spend the last 5 years waiting for Crosby to get healthy and now they are going to sign a guy to a deal who hasn't been healthy for 2 out of 3 years and just had back surgery?

It would be so ironic if the A's signed Furcal, and we took a flyer on Crosby, who decided in 2009 to fulfill his promise after the A's give up on him.

5 comments | 0 recs

Beating a dead horse

Continue voting for the Prospects here.

Back on July 26th, the Dodgers acquired Casey Blake and I've been simmering mad ever since. I understood at the time of the trade that we were hurting at 3rd base and I accepted the deal. My pot didn't start boiling until Peter Gammons reported that we included Carlos to offset the two million still owed Blake. Baseball America a more trustworthy site then Peter Gammons reported the same thing when they talked about how the Indians were able to acquire Carlos.

 

The Dodgers wanted Casey Blake to fill a hole at third base, but they also didn't want to pick up any of the roughly $2 million in salary remaining on his contract. In return for paying Blake's remaining salary, the Indians were able to increase their return, getting Santana along with righthander John Meloan

The pot hasn't boiled over yet, but with the news last week that Carlos Santana is now the numero uno prospect for the Cleveland Indians it doesn't appear that my simmering will go away.

If you do a search on Carlos Santana you will find 38 entries for him at True Blue starting in August of 2007. I started writing here in July of 2007 and within a month I wrote  my first post about Carlos Santana when he came to life in the MWL, producing  the best offensive output for a prospect in July, even while playing in the tough MWL.

That however was not the beginning of my appreciation of Carlos. Way back before he was even a catcher Nate Purcell had mentioned we had a prospect named Carlos Santana. I love Carlos Santana, I can listen to his guitar work for hours and in fact am listening to it right now. So I checked his namesake out and was intrigued with his solid OB skills combined with a modicum of power. Over the next few years if any question was asked of BP or BA about Carlos Santana before this year you can bet it was me asking the question. At the time I felt he'd be lucky to have a big league career and I was only intrigued because very few Dominicans display excellent plate discipline at that age. When I found out he was going to be moved to catcher, it gave me hope that he'd hit enough to be able to carve out a real career. As much as I liked him, his July in 2007 kind of came out of nowhere and for the rest of the year he was awful. Still that July kept me intrigued and he made my top 30 Dodger list.

No one, and I mean no one saw 2008 coming. He started hitting from day one and then got better and better. Still no one heard of him, he never made the BA prospect list  that they send out every day to subscribers. He never made the BA Hot List until after he was traded even though he was tearing it up every week. Maybe he was too consistent.  Anyway he was ignored by everyone until we traded him and then all the sudden people took notice of what he'd been doing all year long. Some shrugged it off and said it was the easy California League and an anomaly. That train of thought went into the dumpster when he was assigned to the Cleveland Indiand A+ Carolina League Kingston, Ohio team. In 105 at bats for that team he produced an OPS of 1.042. To show you how impressive that was, the closest person to him in OPS on that team weighed in at .879 and that was Beau Mills the Indians 2007 number one pick. He capped off his wonderful season by being named the MVP of the California League. Even the renowned Keith Law can't get it right. In a recent chat someone asked this question about Carlos.

O (Pittsfield, MA): If Carlos Santana is so great, how did the Indians land him for Blake?

SportsNation Keith Law: The Dodgers have Martin, Colletti doesn't value prospects that highly, and Santana (like a few other prospects dealt midyear, like Tabata) really took off after the deal.

Wrong, the numbers he put up in the Cal League where he won the MVP were all done before the deal.

Now everyone has noticed that the Indians have a switch hitting catcher, with great plate discipline, combined with growing power. BA sure noticed because they made him the Indians number one prospect. That means, he is ranked higher then Matt LaPorta the guy who the Indians got in return for CC Sabbathia.

Think about that. The Indians gave up CC Sabbathia for Matt LaPorta. The Indians gave up Casey Blake for Carlos Santana. Carlos Santana is currently ranked as a better prospect then Matt LaPorta. Granted, Michael Brantly and Jon Meloan were also included in these deals but they cancel themselves out.

Did anyone cry baseball rape?

My anger sprays in all directions.

1. At Andy LaRoche for doing such a poor job of showing the Dodgers he could handle the job in 2008 and beyond. We can all make excuses for his poor showing, but this was his 2nd stint and he is 24 years old. The at bats weren't many before they decided he wasn't the answer but he didn't prove them wrong with such an anemic display with the Pirates.

2. Frank McCourt for requiring that Ned make sure that we didn't take on any salary during these deadline deals. Who are we, the Padres? The Marlins? Were selling prospects? Embarrassing

3. Ned and staff for not finding someone else to sell. If you are going to badmouth your current catcher about his defense and partying you might want to hold onto your best catching prospect and get them to take someone else to offset the salary. Or better yet, realize that Casey Blake is Casey Blake, not someone you trade a top prospect for. Based on the comments by Ned, I don't even think they knew what they had in Santana as he made some silly remarks about him being unable to stay at catcher. That only matters if you are an average hitter, when you start hitting like Carlos who cares where you end up? 3rd base is still a position that the Dodgers seem light on if that is where he ends up.

I wouldn't be irritated at all if Santana had been the guy we traded for Manny instead of LaRoche. Hell, he's the better prospect right now. What gets my goat is that he was the guy we traded for Casey Blake. Reverse the whole thing I wouldn't care. So why do I care since the the net result is the same. Beats me, but I'm sure going to miss writing about Carlos Santana and Dodger fans are going to miss watching him play in Chavez Ravine.

7 comments | 0 recs

Prospect Number Twelve - 40 Man Roster News

Dodgers announce additions to 40 man roster and this time I didn't see any Mario Alvarez strangeness. Gurnick does a decent synopsis of each player so I'd recommend reading his post.

BHSPORTSGUY provided this great link to keep track of what is happening in the winter leagues.

Hard throwing toolsy pitcher Nathan Eovaldi holds off Pedroia light to become prospect number 11.

Here was the vote for number one
Here was the vote for 2 - 4.
Here was the vote for number 5
Here was the vote for numbers 7 & 8
Here was thevote for Number 9
Here was the vote for number 10
Here was the vote for number 11

Top Ten
1.James McDonald
2. Ivan DeJesus
3. Andrew Lambo
4. Scott Elbert
5. Ethan Martin
6. Josh Lindblom
7. Austin Gallagher
8. Josh Bell
9.Chris Withrow
10.Xavier Paul
11.Nathan Eovaldi

I'm going to add Tony Delmonico to the vote. The 6th round pick hit .340 with 20 doubles and 11 home runs in 35 games. Six of those home runs came in the final 10 games of the season. The word is that he is going to transition to catcher as he's a terrible infielder. I don't think he belongs here a head of Pedroza but I'll let you guys make that decison. He was 21 in the rookie league.

Jamie Pedroza tore up the Rookie League at age 20 to the tune of a .982 OPS while playing SS. This year he skipped Low A and went straight to High A and had a .290 average, a .342 on base percentage, 31 doubles, 11 home runs and stole 25 bases to boot. He started out at 2nd base but wasn't hitting in April. They moved him back to SS and his bat responded. BA has said he will not be able to remain at SS so 2nd base still sounds like where he will end up.

Devaris Strange-Gordon just like Delmonico played for Ogden. The 2008 3rd round pick didn't hit like Delmonico but he's a year younger and everyone was raving about his defense at SS. He may now be the fastest player in the organization stealing 18 bases in only 60 games with a 78% success rate.

Steve Johnson the 13th round pick in 2005. He's now 21 coming off a splendid season in the MWL, however he struggled when introduced to the offensive based California High A league. Canuck was talking about scouts and stats and that he went with Eovaldi based on the scouting. Now we have the opposite case. Johnson put up great numbers for 20 year old in the MWL but I've seen several scouting reports that continue to say the bats will catch upto him as he progesses up the level. Canuck had him at 13 on his list and we are currently voting on number 12. Is this a guy on whom the scouts are wrong?

Geison Aguasviva  was signed as a free agent. He's almost the exact same age as Steve Johnson but he's a tall skinny left hander.  He excelled in the rookie league but had his hat handed to him in the MWL, a league in which Johnson excelled. I'll add more on him as I find it but other then the fact he was just about the best pitcher on the Ogden rookie league squad I don't know much about him other then what BA wrote last year. Fastball tops out at 91 but he shows great feel for his breaking ball.

Last year Pedro Baez was number 10 on BA's list. He started out this year in the MWL and struggled. The Dodgers sent him to the Pioneer Rookie league when it started and he got straightened out. His prospect status has slipped because of the rough go in the MWL but lots of players have struggled in that league. He's still only 20 and might the only real 3rd base prospect the Dodgers have.

Chris Jacobs is a huge behemoth of a man. The man child stands 6'5 and unlike the rest of the tight ends they have drafted this one does not  strike out at a Dave Kingman clip. He won't  turn 20 for another week and while his power has yet to develop in the games, the word is that he puts on an impressive  batting practice display.

Feel free to throw out some names you'd rather see at this level.

Javy Guerra, Tim Sexton, James Adkins,Jon Michael Redding, Victor Garate, Kenley Jansen, Kyle Russel, Cole St. Clair, Josh Wall, AJ Ellis, Jesus Castillo, Justin Miller...

Poll
Prospect Number 12

  53 votes | Results

12 comments | 0 recs

Prospect Number 11

BHSPORTSGUY provided this great link to keep track of what is happening in the winter leagues.

Xavier Paul is prospect number 10, holding off Nathan Eovaldi by a 2 -1  margin.

Here was the vote for number one
Here was the vote for 2 - 4.
Here was the vote for number 5
Here was the vote for numbers 7 & 8
Here was thevote for Number 9

Top Ten
1.James McDonald
2. Ivan DeJesus
3. Andrew Lambo
4. Scott Elbert
5. Ethan Martin
6. Josh Lindblom
7. Austin Gallagher
8. Josh Bell
9.Chris Withrow
10.Xavier Paul

Most of you may have thought you were voting for number eleven last time but Canuck noticed I'd skipped number 7 and went right to eight. Many don't consider Mr. Paul to be much of a prospect but here he is in our top 10. Right now he's punishing the Mexican League pitching and sits fourth in OPS. On Sunday he went 4-for-7 with a pair of solo homers and three runs scored. Before we get excited about his winter league performance take a look at the name a head of him. That is right, old friend Carlos Oscar Robles is sporting a .950 OPS so between the pitching and the altitude I'm impressed and unimpressed with his showing.

Nathan Eovaldi - Could we have a sleeper? This 18 year old out of Alvin, Texas was an 11th round pick and has wowed the scouts with his arm. TJ surgery while in High School turned off the scouts this spring and maybe we got lucky. He didn't pitch enough innings to make any determination about his abilities but the scouts seem to love his fastball.

I'm going to add Tony Delmonico to the vote. The 6th round pick hit .340 with 20 doubles and 11 home runs in 35 games. Six of those home runs came in the final 10 games of the season. The word is that he is going to transition to catcher as he's a terrible infielder. I don't think he belongs here a head of Pedroza but I'll let you guys make that decison. He was 21 in the rookie league.

Jamie Pedroza tore up the Rookie League at age 20 to the tune of a .982 OPS while playing SS. This year he skipped Low A and went straight to High A and had a .290 average, a .342 on base percentage, 31 doubles, 11 home runs and stole 25 bases to boot. He started out at 2nd base but wasn't hitting in April. They moved him back to SS and his bat responded. BA has said he will not be able to remain at SS so 2nd base still sounds like where he will end up.

Devaris Strange-Gordon just like Delmonico played for Ogden. The 2008 3rd round pick didn't hit like Delmonico but he's a year younger and everyone was raving about his defense at SS. He may now be the fastest player in the organization stealing 18 bases in only 60 games with a 78% success rate.

Feel free to throw out some names you'd rather see at this level.

Geison Aguasviva, James Adkins,Jon Michael Redding, Victor Garate(my sleeper pick in 2009), Kenley Jansen(2nd sleeper pick in 2009), Kyle Russel, Cole St. Clair, Pedro Baez, Josh Wall, AJ Ellis, Jesus Castillo, Justin Miller...

Poll
Prospect Number Eleven

  90 votes | Results

15 comments | 0 recs

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