Minor League Discussion & Boxes 7-11-12

[StarlinOnYou]

I still have hopes for Dunston, but he HAS been a flop so far. Not unexpected though. Coming out of HS, many thought he would need 4 years at Vandy to develop. He is a raw talent and needs work. I believe it was BA that had him rated rather low due to his rawness.

 

His huge bonus (1.3M? IIRC) makes him a slight disappointment thus far.

 

Maples needs to get healthy as well. That is about $4M worth of money in Mesa right now between Dunston & Maples.

[StarlinOnYou]

Also, just looking at Maples twitter he replied to someone saying he should be throwing in late July. This was on July 2nd.

[XZero771679666304]

I still have hopes for Dunston, but he HAS been a flop so far. Not unexpected though. Coming out of HS, many thought he would need 4 years at Vandy to develop. He is a raw talent and needs work. I believe it was BA that had him rated rather low due to his rawness.

 

His huge bonus (1.3M? IIRC) makes him a slight disappointment thus far.

 

Maples needs to get healthy as well. That is about $4M worth of money in Mesa right now between Dunston & Maples.

 

When a player is as young and raw as Dunston, you can't rightly call him a flop after one year. To say his performance is disappointing is one thing, but to call him a flop has a much more severe connotation, flop is a term usually reserved for players who fail to develop over the course of years, or never do at all.

 

Dunston struggling for a good while should was a distinct possibility (if not probability), and it does not make him a "flop". His development process was always going to be a bit longer, and I don't think using his signing bonus as a basis for how long it takes him to start producing results is a particularly well thought out way of gauging whether his pick was a good one.

[toonsterwu]

Shawon Dunston Jr implying he's been demoted on his Twitter page.

 

Not surprising ... a move was probably going to happen sooner or later with the Almora deal. This is perhaps a bit earlier than expected, but this gets Dunston Jr. regular AB's in Arizona to try and work out whatever issues he was having while having him man CF.

[toonsterwu]

I wonder who Rosscup is replacing in the Tennessee rotation. McNutt seems the logical choice, moving him to the pen. Or maybe Struck is moving up to Iowa?

 

Well, based on cycle, it's actually Jokisch's spot, but with the day off, that's up in the air. Wouldn't be surprised if it was Rhee, but the easiest move is to slide Struck to AAA.

[Guest]

I wonder who Rosscup is replacing in the Tennessee rotation. McNutt seems the logical choice, moving him to the pen. Or maybe Struck is moving up to Iowa?

 

Well, based on cycle, it's actually Jokisch's spot, but with the day off, that's up in the air. Wouldn't be surprised if it was Rhee, but the easiest move is to slide Struck to AAA.

 

Currently, Tennessee has Struck listed for tomorrow and Jokisch for Friday. No one listed yet for the weekend games.

[Guest]

I think the positive thing you can say about Dunston thus far, at least as positive as you can be about a sub .600 OPS in short season ball, is that there's no glaring problems peripherally. He hasn't been an auto-K like whatshisbonus in the DSL, he's taken a moderate number of walks for his limited time, and has hit a decent percentage of XBH. It's too much to just say that it's simply a BABIP thing, but I'm encouraged that there's no glaring reason for his struggles.

[toonsterwu]

I wonder who Rosscup is replacing in the Tennessee rotation. McNutt seems the logical choice, moving him to the pen. Or maybe Struck is moving up to Iowa?

 

Well, based on cycle, it's actually Jokisch's spot, but with the day off, that's up in the air. Wouldn't be surprised if it was Rhee, but the easiest move is to slide Struck to AAA.

 

Currently, Tennessee has Struck listed for tomorrow and Jokisch for Friday. No one listed yet for the weekend games.

 

I really wouldn't be surprised if it's Rhee that's moved, even though I'd like to see Rhee in the rotation. That said, outside of the spurt in velocity late last year, he's largely in the low 90's, and sometimes, high 80's. The zip last year hasn't been there this year, from what I understand, and I think, some guessing here, with only average fastball velo and an average breaking ball, guys are sitting on his change, and thus he's not getting as many whiffs on it, but is getting GB's.

 

Without the zip on the fastball last year, he's more of a Justin Berg than we really hoped for.

[toonsterwu]

Wow, the Boise OFers have had a tough time on offense so far this season. Dunston, Kim, Batista and Martin (SSS) are all hitting near or under .200. Rademacher is the only OF that has been raking since his promotion to Boise.

 

I wonder if the demotion means that Soler is headed to Boise. Also, Almora will have no problem finding playing time with Boise if that is where they send him.

 

I suspect Almora will be in Mesa through the rest of the AZL season, then he can go up to Boise for the final week of their season.

 

With the way Theo's staff in Boston pushed Xander Bogaerts, I wonder, if Almora and Soler perform well, if they wouldn't push them up earlier. It has the added benefit of putting Almora/Soler in line with Candelario and Co (not that that should be all that important) and having a group come up together.

[craig]

...

Without the zip on the fastball last year, he's more of a Justin Berg than we really hoped for.

 

I don't see much in common between Rhee and Berg, other than being pitchers who aren't very good.

 

Berg threw fast and hard and had a hard sinker. Too little command, and no breaking pitch. One really good pitch, but that wasn't quite good enough.

 

Rhee seems almost the anti-Berg profile wise. A multi-pitch 3-pitch finesse guy, trying to mix and spot his two bad pitches (really bad fastball, slow and no movement; and rather bad curve) with his one average pitch (change).

 

Maybe they should send him to Boise and he and Simpson can try to find something down there? Or maybe he's injured.

 

I know when he had his decent stretch last year his 4-seamer was getting up into the 91-93 zone, but you don't go super far with a low-90's 4-seam straightball. The 2-seamer that he tried to use to get outs is naturally slower and decidedly below-average most of the time, average on a good day.

 

Is my info all wrong? I'd like it to be, but I admit it seems much more consistent with the actual ineffectual pitching than this fantasy that he's got a good fastball, good movement, and a signature changeup. If he had those kinds of things, he'd probably get more outs, get an occasional K, and allow not so many HR's.

[Rizzo Smash]

Baez bomb

[mul21]

Baez just hit a towering shot to straight away left. I got it on video on my phone and will try to post later tonight.

[davell]

I think he's doing WTF he wants to again.

[Brian]

albert almora ‏@albertalmora

 

Please follow my new roommate @jorgesoler24 let's get him to 1000 followers!!!! ‪#beast

 

Soler's twitter picture

 

http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/2389045225/image.jpg

 

Oh great another Zambrano, he's going to hurt him self chatting on the internet!!

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I think he's doing WTF he wants to again.

 

Kaplan told me he was struggling.

[mul21]

Devoss with 2 walks in 2 PA. Balaguert looked awful swinging at one up in his eyes and one that bounced a foot in front of the plate for strikes 2 and 3. Baez made a nice play in the first on a high hopper that took a funny bounce. Waited on it and then showed off the arm. Geiger just drilled one into the gap that the RF made a solid play on. Nothing impressive from Easterling yet, well other than the physique of course. ;-)

[Rizzo Smash]

albert almora ‏@albertalmora

 

Please follow my new roommate @jorgesoler24 let's get him to 1000 followers!!!! ‪#beast

 

Soler's twitter picture

 

http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/2389045225/image.jpg

 

Oh great another Zambrano, he's going to hurt him self chatting on the internet!!

Holy crap Jorge Soler actually exists?

[davell]

I think he's doing WTF he wants to again.

 

Kaplan told me he was struggling.

I'm already imagining the field day Kaplan has once he hits the show. Articles everyday about how the production is outweighed by his antics.

[davell]

Damn, they weren't kidding when they said Soler is a really big dude.

[Cubswin11]

That's pretty cool that they have Almora and Soler rooming together. Will they start off at the same levels once they leave AZ? Or will Soler start a league up? It would be kinda cool fluff/side story if they were able to progress through the minors together and move up the same levels at the same time (assuming both turn out to be studs like we hope for).

[mul21]

Ok, I'm in love with Baez. Geiger just got crossed up by a runner going in front of him and booted a ball. Baez backed him up, grabbed it in shallow left and gunned the guy at home very easily. Guy has a cannon. He flied out to right on the first pith of his second AB.

[davell]

The fact Baez has the MLB logo tattooed on the back of his neck is rather awesome.

[toonsterwu]

...

Without the zip on the fastball last year, he's more of a Justin Berg than we really hoped for.

 

I don't see much in common between Rhee and Berg, other than being pitchers who aren't very good.

 

Berg threw fast and hard and had a hard sinker. Too little command, and no breaking pitch. One really good pitch, but that wasn't quite good enough.

 

Rhee seems almost the anti-Berg profile wise. A multi-pitch 3-pitch finesse guy, trying to mix and spot his two bad pitches (really bad fastball, slow and no movement; and rather bad curve) with his one average pitch (change).

 

Maybe they should send him to Boise and he and Simpson can try to find something down there? Or maybe he's injured.

 

I know when he had his decent stretch last year his 4-seamer was getting up into the 91-93 zone, but you don't go super far with a low-90's 4-seam straightball. The 2-seamer that he tried to use to get outs is naturally slower and decidedly below-average most of the time, average on a good day.

 

Is my info all wrong? I'd like it to be, but I admit it seems much more consistent with the actual ineffectual pitching than this fantasy that he's got a good fastball, good movement, and a signature changeup. If he had those kinds of things, he'd probably get more outs, get an occasional K, and allow not so many HR's.

 

Sorry, that wasn't the best comp. In my head, the common strand was that the two guys only have 1 above average to plus pitch, with everything else average or below average.

 

Two side notes - I thought Rhee was a slider? Eh, not a big deal either way. Also, last year, I had heard Rhee was topping out in that 94-96 range (to be clear, topping out). I haven't heard anything above 92/93 this year.

[mul21]

Baez with 2 more nice plays at short. One in the hole on a ball Geiger should have gotten to and didn't and the other on a sharply hit ball back up the middle. Chen with 2 solidly hit balls so far. One right at the 2B and the other for a single between short and third.

[MWV]

Vitters BB.