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[Laura]

There are several players who have put up great '06 seasons. I narrowed my choice to Gallagher and Veal, both of whom have been exceptional this year and both of whom are excellent choices. I'm choosing Gallagher based on the following:

--the silly numbers he's posted in Daytona & West Tenn;

--he posts those numbers in advanced leagues in which he's among the youngest players;

--he continues to trounce expectations, which is always amusing;

--a couple of intangible observations, which I promise won't be nearly as dreadful as it sounds.

 

By The Numbers

 

I'll state at the very outset of this that the current concern with Sean is that his BB rate skyrocketed upon his promotion to West Tenn. I'm not going to shy away from that -- I'm posting the WHIP and BB numbers -- but, although it is a concern, it doesn't detract from his other numbers; his ability to mow down RH hitters in particular has compensated for the BB rate so far; and I believe the BB rate is a reflection of his adjusting to the more advanced AA hitters.

 

Otherwise, he's been stellar and would be among the league leaders.

Yr   Team     Level   IPs    ERA   WHIP   K - BB     OpAvg/OpOBP/OpSlg..OpOPS  
'05  Peoria   low-A   146    2.71  1.11   139 - 55   .206 /.297 /.317 ...615
'06  Daytona  hi-A     78.1  2.30  1.23    80 - 21   .259 /.318 /.341 ...659
'06  WestTen    AA     73.2  2.44  1.51    74 - 50   .234 /.356 /.303 ...658   

 

Gallagher won't qualify for the leaderboard in either the Southern League or the Florida State League due to the IP requirements, but the links will bring you to the respective leaderboards and show you how he compares. And he compares very very well. (In the interest of full disclosure, a few other pitchers are in the same boat due to mid-season promotions -- like Homer Bailey and Yovani Gallardo.)

 

He has compensated for the spike in his BB rate at West Tenn by not allowing hitters to hit their way on base. He's allowed 15 extra-base hits -- 13 doubles and 2 HRs, both solo -- in 73.2 innings.

 

Is he adjusting to West Tennessee? He was promoted in mid-June. Here's a breakdown by month (AA-only for June):

 

Month   IPs    hits/9   k/9    bb/9 
June    16.2   9.8      8.1    7.0  
July    35     7.7      8.7    5.9
Aug     22     5.3     10.2    5.7

 

So far in August:

4GS, 22IPs, 0.82 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 25K/14BB, .169 / .297 / .234 ... .530 OPS

 

Finally, I noted that to me, the final decision came down to Gallagher and Veal. Here's a comparison of their Daytona stats. There's a lot to like about each (and of course Gallagher is a RHP, Veal an LHP). Since this the segue to the next section, I'll note that Gallagher is a year younger. Veal stats from Milb.com.

 

Daytona '06 Numbers:

Player      IPs    hits/9   k/9    bb/9 
Gallagher   78.1   8.6      9.2    2.4  
Veal        63.2   5.5      8.7    4.7

 

By Age

I can pretty much just hit the refresh button from last year.

 

Gallagher is 20 years old (12-30-1985). He's the 3rd youngest pitcher in the Southern League, behind Homer Bailey (05-03-1986) and Yovani Gallardo (02-27-1986). That's pretty good company.

 

When Sean was promoted to the Southern League, he was briefly the youngest SL pitcher. He was promoted a week before Bailey & Gallardo, both of whom were also pitching in the FSL.

 

With a handful of games left in the SL, two shortstops have been promoted in August -- Reid Brignac (01-16-1986) (former SWM Devil Ray) and Jodam Rivera (02-04-1986) -- so Gallagher is now the 5th youngest player in the Southern League.

 

He's the youngest Cubs pitcher above Peoria. Fabien Jimenez's (08/27/86) recent promotion to Peoria makes him the youngest pitcher in full-season ball. Gallagher is the second youngest Cubs player above Peoria; Jonathan Mota (06-01-1987) in Daytona is the youngest.

 

To put this in perspective: if, instead of pitching in AA ball, Sean was pitching for the Boise Hawks, he'd be the 3rd youngest pitcher on that staff behind Mark Pawelek (08/18/86) and Jake Renshaw (04/29/86).

 

Expectations

 

Gallagher didn't make BA's Top Ten Cubs Prospect List from last November.

 

He did slip into BA's Top Twenty Midwest League Prospect list last September with a lukewarm review:

 

Gallagher was the hottest MWL pitcher at the start of the season, going 5-1, 0.75 in the first two months. He leveled off and went 6-3, 4.66 in the final two months, and observers weren't quite sure what to make of him. Everyone agreed that he had better command, savvy and mound presence than most pitchers his age, though they differed on the quality of his stuff.

 

Gallagher had the league's best curveball. While some thought it was an above-average pitch, others saw it as loopy and slurvy and thought it stood out only because he could locate it so well. His 88-90 mph fastball and his changeup are fringe-average pitches and may not get much better because he doesn't have a very projectable frame at 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds.

[Laura]

test

[Laura]

[you]

 

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[you]

[Laura]

grammar

[Laura]

 

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