Minor League Discussion & Boxes 6-6-12

[Hairyducked Idiot]

According to twitter he made another good play at SS as well... still holding an ounce of hope he sticks.

 

Went into the hole and made a long, hard throw to save Concepcion's scoreless line. He definitely seems to have the athleticism to stick.

[El Duderino]

It's weird, because I've heard some say he's not a great athlete at all. KG thinks he won't be able to even play 2nd.

[davell]

Part of me is already wondering if his lack of range is turning regular plays into special ones. I'm not holding out much hope for him at SS, but his bat can be elite anywhere, from the early returns.

[Little Slide Rooter]

When I look at John Andreoli's stat line, I think Tony Campana or Sam Fuld. However, the guy's 6'1 215lbs, pretty damn big for a kid with no power.

[Guest]

Part of me is already wondering if his lack of range is turning regular plays into special ones. I'm not holding out much hope for him at SS, but his bat can be elite anywhere, from the early returns.

 

When I saw him, that wasn't the case. He wasn't covering foul line to foul line, and at the MLB level he might be average at best, but from what I've seen and heard I'm not relegating him to 3B for certain.

[Guest]

When I look at John Andreoli's stat line, I think Tony Campana or Sam Fuld. However, the guy's 6'1 215lbs, pretty damn big for a kid with no power.

Tony Campana hasn't walked that much in his entire career.

[Guest]

Baez added a triple to right center.

[Named After Maddux]

Part of me is already wondering if his lack of range is turning regular plays into special ones. I'm not holding out much hope for him at SS, but his bat can be elite anywhere, from the early returns.

 

When I saw him, that wasn't the case. He wasn't covering foul line to foul line, and at the MLB level he might be average at best, but from what I've seen and heard I'm not relegating him to 3B for certain.

 

I agree. When I saw him (same day as TT) he showed good range. His plays seemed to be a product of his aggressiveness and good first step. I'm not saying he will stick at SS or that he won't. It all depends on how his body matures and whether he retains the lateral quickness he showed in the game.

[davell]

Thanks guys. Good to know.

[HossmanGT]

McNutt's line is currently 4IP, 3H, 0BB, 2K. Interestingly, he's thrown 58 pitches and only gotten one swing and miss.

[davell]

I'd love to hear what kind of velo he's got this year? His stuff is better than this.

[RammyFanny]

Baez OPSing over a thousand now.

[iowahawkeyes89]

One negative about Baez right now is that he has a lot of Josh Vitters in him as far as his approach to hitting.

 

According to gameday, in three of his AB's he only saw one pitch.

 

Obviously not a problem if he's getting hits, but at the higher levels that might become a bad habit to develop.

[iowahawkeyes89]

Heres video of Baez night. Physically he still looks like he could add 10-15 pounds, which is a good thing considering he's already 205. All three hits were hit well too.

 

http://www.cinewsnow.com/sports/Peoria-Chiefs-win-4-0-Baez-goes-3-4-157664565.html

[davell]

While true, Baez appears to have much more pop than Vitters did at the same stage.

[mul21]

McNutt's line is currently 4IP, 3H, 0BB, 2K. Interestingly, he's thrown 58 pitches and only gotten one swing and miss.

 

I'd love to hear what kind of velo he's got this year? His stuff is better than this.

 

Perhaps working on something in particular like we heard about Concepcion earlier?

[davell]

Yeah, they could have McNutt working on something specific. Looks like he threw 94 pitches tonight. Not good because he only got through 5.2, but vrry good considering that's the most he's thrown this year, to my knowledge anyway.

[davell]

Oh, and needless to say, but it's great to see Acosta and Malave showing some pop.

[Guest]

Oh, and needless to say, but it's great to see Acosta and Malave showing some pop.

 

Acosta's K-rate in the DSL is troubling, though. SSS, of course.

[Named After Maddux]

Speaking of Baez. Here's some great footage of his 3/4 day and play in the field.

 

http://www.cinewsnow.com/sports/Peoria-Chiefs-win-4-0-Baez-goes-3-4-157664565.html

 

Edit: Hawkeye already posted! Oops!

[Guest]

Baez's numbers will look really nice tomorrow

[Guest]

Baez's numbers will look really nice tomorrow

 

.343/.410/.600/1.010

[Guest]

Is there any chance he'd move up a level late this year or will they just let him finish out the year at Peoria no matter how much he crushes it (if he does)?

 

I'm in favor of them being patient with prospects and letting them work through the levels at a conservative pace. Just curious as to what the timetable might look like.

[TruffleShuffle]

Is there any chance he'd move up a level late this year or will they just let him finish out the year at Peoria no matter how much he crushes it (if he does)?

 

I'm in favor of them being patient with prospects and letting them work through the levels at a conservative pace. Just curious as to what the timetable might look like.

 

if he's completely obliterating the mwl, to the point where he's not getting anything out of playing there, then i'd imagine (or hope) that they'd move him up. but he'd have to be pretty great for that to happen. the other scenario is if daytona makes the playoffs and peoria doesn't (neither will win their league's first half); maybe he gets bumped up for that if there's a need.

[craig]

There was widespread concern about Baez's promotion resulting in Marco Hernandez getting sent down.

1. In retrospect, Baez appears to be better prepared for Peoria than Hernandez, and doesn't seem to have needed the extra weeks at Mesa and then weeks or the summer at Boise. so the move seems to be well justified. I think it's evident that however much we may like Marco as a prospect, Baez is kind of on a different planet.

 

2. We'll see if he sticks. And maybe Marco was making great plays every day and nobody tweeted about it because why bother with a .450-OPS guy. But early returns suggest that Baez compares very favorably defensively.

 

3. Marco has not been bored or unchallenged and wasting his time and overqualified as a hitter for Mesa. By Az Phil's reports, he's gotten rather few hits and as usual with negligible power and few walks. He'd had a good streak at Peoria, but that does not appear to have carried over after dropping down.

 

4. Marco has had big splits vs RHP versus LHP. Two years ago he tried to switch-hit to give himself a chance versus lefties, and of course was much weaker that way. Last year and this spring he just went straight lefty, even versus LHP. I think he OPS'd up around .450-.550 last year that way (his split was over .400 points.) This year was worse, and he was OPS'ing below .200 versus LHP. So at some point during his slump, he switched back to switch hitting. According to Phil, he is continuing to bat RH versus LHP in Mesa. I think the return to XST/short-season is probably a good opportunity for him to get in lots and lots of BP swinging RH. But it's probably going to be worthwhile through his career to often be checking his splits, because he may end up being a pretty strong platoon guy who might be much better versus RHP than lefties.