BA Top 20 Prospects Arizona League

[tspain]

Named Mark Pawelek the #1 Prospect and Sammy Baez the #17 Prospect. Allan Simpson is having a chat on the Arizona and Gulf Coast Leagues Top 20 at 2ET today.

 

Pastor Tom

[T2E]

Quotes from the chat:

 

Q: Jon from Peoria asks:

How did Billy Paganetti look in his brief stint in the AZL? Is he finally fully healthy?

 

A: Allan Simpson: Paganetti is a fascinating name from the past. After being a big-name prospect for the draft out of a Nevada high school, he barely played in college (Stanford, Nevada) because of an assortment of injuries. But he was signed by the Cubs (Paganetti's dad and Cubs exec Gary Hughes were former college roommates) as a free agent this summer and re-surfaced in the Arizona League, though he worked in only five games. Our reports had him up to 95. It's hard to say where he goes from here, but he's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

 

Q: Petey Pablo from Carrboro NC asks:

Did Kenley Jansen (C-LAD) or D.J. Lewis (OF-SFG) garner any support for the top 20? Thanks!

 

A: Allan Simpson: I'm curious as to the link between Jansen, who is from Curacao, and Lewis, who is from California. Jansen got more support in the GCL than Lewis did in the AZL. Jansen is 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds, and may be too big to catch though he moves pretty well behind the plate for his size. He should hit for both average and power, but may end up at first base. Lewis can swing the bat, but none of his other tools stand out.

 

I was disappointed to see Lewis not make the list. He led the Mesa Cubs with a .322 average.

[Outshined_One]

I was disappointed to see Lewis not make the list. He led the Mesa Cubs with a .322 average.

 

Although it's nice to see the Cubs have a good and relatively young defensive shortstop who could fill out in Baez. Kinda stunk that the chat was short and only one Mesa Cub was discuessed.

 

I'm still curious about various other prospects down at Mesa and how they looked, as opposed to their stats.

 

Was Dylan Johnston smooth in the field? Were his errors on routine plays or trying to make something out of nothing?

 

Is Yusuf Carter going to stay at catcher, or will a position move be in order?

 

How about Mario Mercedes behind the dish? Did he call a good game and have a good repoire with his pitchers?

 

And what about Russ Canzler? He was repeating Mesa, but was still young, and showed really nice power for his level. Is it him feeding off of inferior pitching or legit? Also, what position is he going to end up at?

 

What other pitchers looked good? Scott Taylor? Jose Pina? Brett Jackson?

 

Too many questions...I'm sure I'll have plenty more when they have the Northwest League Top 20 on the 23rd.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The scouting report read on Pawelek was disappointing. He was 92-94 mph with the FB, topping out at 95 but didn't always have command of it (not shocking, given the BBs and WPs in the Mesa box scores). Apparently the Cubs limited Mark to his FB, curve and ("spotty") change and didn't allow him to throw his splitter or slider. His mechanics are still a work in progress.

 

Baez sounds intriguing.