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craig

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Everything posted by craig

  1. craig
    Thanks for the updates. REally fun to see the rosters settling in. My understanding is that Carhart is now a catcher. I'm kind of surprised he's jumping straight to Kane, usually the converts spend a year in XST. Maybe that means he's a back-of-bench utility guy.
  2. craig
    Man, that is some effortless velocity. Simple delivery, looks like it would be easy to repeat and throw strikes. And lots of movement on those fastballs. Man, the head says "avoid HS pitcher", but you see that kind of talent and it's easy to like it.
  3. craig
    I assume Ben Wells and probably Matt Loosen.
  4. craig
    Wells and skulina not on that tentative roster. Skulina down to Kane not that surprising, although it further clutters their rotation. I'd had it in my head that Wells would repeat Daytona. If he's actually at Tennessee, that's interesting, hopefully it means he's had a sharp camp? Vizcaino no surprise, weather is best at Daytona for a rehab guy.
  5. craig
    Yeah, I thought that too. Very encouraging, in a sense, since I figured it might be all summer before he'd actually be able to make baseball throws. They carry so many pitchers in the minors that it's hard to carry a DH-only, so I assume he's good to go at 2B. But hitting-wise, basically he's got only a month of A-ball hitting between Boise and AA. If he can hit and get on base in AA, that will be pretty interesting.
  6. craig
    Hey, I think I'd like to vote for Brian Schlitter! :)
  7. craig
    Agree, I'll be surprised if they don't have some piggybacking there. Phil is just guessing, and I'm not sure his guesses are all that great or all that much better informed than ours. I still totally don't believe Tseng is breaking with a full-season club
  8. craig
    AZ Phil has a somewhat different guess for Kane rotation: Tseng Paniagua Torres Arias Masek. He says Underwood seems to be throwing fine, but he expects him to go back to XST. (I agree). Not sure if he just forgot about Blackburn, if Blackburn has had some setback, or if Blackburn just hasn't looked very good this camp. I've just totally assumed Tseng would go XST. I'll still be super surprised if he makes Kane, but every year there are things that surprise me, so who knows.
  9. craig
    Rusin, Hendricks, Jokisch, Beeler, Pimentel, and Ramirez make 6. *Ramirez to relief, I suppose, although I'd just as soon let him keep starting and see how it goes. *Shot Pimentel or Beeler slide down to Tennessee. Tenn: Black, Edwards, and Pineyro obvious. Loosen 4th. Who's #5? *Johnson DL for a while. *Slide down Pimentel for a while? *Zach Cates? *Roster-fill with somebody from the Kirk/Searle/Francisco/Rhee pool? Daytona: Zastryzny, Skulina, Jensen, Wells. Who's #5? *Taylor Scott, Felix Pena, Yao-Lin Wang, Michael Heesch, Starlin Peralta? Kane: Paul Blackburn, pretty much the only lock *Pick enough from: Jose Arias, Duane Underwood, Daury Torrez, Erick Leal, Juan Carlos Paniagua, *Gerardo Concepcion, Trey Masek, James Pugliese *Lots of possibilities, but many of those could be kept at XST or used in relief. And there are probably some other possibilities too.
  10. craig
    Curious why you say that? Because one person on MLB or whatever put him in their top 15? Who put Frazier in their top 20? Was it Law? And what was said scouting-wise about him? Same thing, that he's a big guy with a chance to become a big-leaguer reliever if his control improves a lot?
  11. craig
    Why didn't anybody draft him in rounds 2,3,4, or 5? He signed for slot, so it wasn't signability or anything. Hopefully the Cubs just got a great buy-low steal. But fair chance that the problems that caused scouts to drop him that far will be hard to solve.
  12. craig
    Jokisch, Paulino, Geiger. Jokisch is 24, not old, and is coming off 3.4, 3.1, and 3.1 ERA seasons, with 1.2, 1.3, 1.2 WHIPS. Nothing sticks out as exceptional (no amazing high-K or anti-HR or anti-walk). But nothing stands out as problematic, either. Similar with his stuff; no reports of any "wow" velocity or killer breaking ball. But it's also not clear that his velocity or stuff is prohibitively lacking or anything. Prohibitive for being an ace, of course. But I wonder if he might not just end up being a decent/solid pitcher? even in the majors? He's got a chance. Does any of his stuff profile well for relief? Or too bland for that?
  13. craig
    Paulina, the 18-year-old DSL star? Who knows how good he might become? However, the fact that he's been 2 years DSL and he's not working in Mesa right now makes me wonder if they don't see his arm as that special. Geiger: It's not likely that his A-ball hitting will translate all the way up, but he's got a shot to be a big-time power guy. Big enough chance to be worth a spot in the 30's. Wells: It's not likely, but he doesn't need huge changes to become good. A little faster; a little more fastball control; a little more sharpness and consistency on his support pitches.
  14. craig
    Man, it's non-ideal when 3 of the top 4 are HS pitchers. What a bad break.
  15. craig
    If Soler can't hit, I doubt it will be because he had a break in his career. And if he really had the God-given talent to hit before the interruption, I doubt the interruption will make that ability ineffectual. Hitting is hard. We'll see how it plays out this year.
  16. craig
    Nice catch on Mejia. Bruno not listed as non-participating. Don't seem like any of the interesting arms that are listing as unexpectedly hurt. Rotation wildcard may be what they do with Vizcaino, Rivero, and Rondon. Might one or more be taking rotation starts at AA or Daytona? Otherwise, doesn't really look like Iowa has guys who will bump down and take AA rotation spots. Nice point on Arias/Paniagua at Kane, while Zastryzny/Skulina are with Daytona for now, and Wells. Yeah, assuming Z and Skulina go down, that really will be log-jam to the max at Kane. Jose Paulino not included with the Kane group. Was he in the car accident?
  17. craig
    What do we have on Torres, scouting-wise?
  18. craig
    Jose Paulino, Ben Wells, Arias in that order. Sorry Geiger, you've got a chance to hit a ton of HR's and have a mashing season, but I'm going with the pitchers. Paulino got a really favorable review by BA. Athletic 18-year-old lefty who's already 89-92 and projects more? Control pitcher? Anti-HR guy? 71K/12BB/1HR/58IP? I'm going to beat the rush and get on the bandwagon early. Wells has the gift of a much-movement fastball. Imagine if he's a little faster, a little stronger, and a little more consistent with his off speed stuff? This could be a breakout season for him. Last year was largely a "don't get hurt, show you're healthy enough" year. But this year is more ambitious. If he's not faster and his control doesn't improve, write him off. But despite his injury issues, Wells will still be only 21 and pitching in AA. If he's effective, you've got some value. Arias is big and strong, can throw mid-upper 90's, and could have a good slider. Another breakout candidate.
  19. craig
    He had an arm injury, and seems to be kind of in Bruno-land. Uncertain whether he'll play any games defensively this summer. The details have never come out, to my knowledge, whether he had TJ surgery or rotator-cuff surgery or never actually even had any surgery or what.
  20. craig
    wekim, your guy Cabrera is having a good camp thus far. I haven't been voting for him because I've thought he's struggled to actually pitch very effectively very consistently. So I thought there was a good chance he'd be waived. But he's had a clean camp thus far, and with all the struggles that Grimm and parker and rosscup have had, if things don't change a lot it will probably be easy to justify carrying Cabrera and sending options men down. Different question whether he can stay up. 4 solid outings in early March doesn't mean he'll stay good. But, looks like he'll get a chance.
  21. craig
    HR's. If he jumps his HR's a bunch, and scouts project that he'll hit a lot future with power combined with pure hitting skill, they'll rank him well. Really good hitters with game-realistic HR potential and excellent CF defense appeal to scouts. But without persuading them on his HR future, his offense won't seem strong enough for top-5 status. Kiley has him high because he anticipates power. If his season reduces Kiley's belief in that, he'll back off too, I'd guess.
  22. craig
    I'd put Jose Paulina in the next vote. Lefty from DSL, BA ranked him top-20 in that league, (which has every big league team represented). Writeup seemed very nice to me.
  23. craig
    Jose Paulino was ace of the DSL championship team. BA includes him in DSL top-20. I don't think they rank them 1-20, so no idea if he just slipped in or might have been near the top. The writeup reads VERY favorably to my eyes. A 6'2 athletic lefty with some projection who's already 89-92 with sink, control, feel, and some nice-looking off speed stuff? Sign me up.
  24. craig
    Nice. didn't Parks or somebody report that Black was spotting 94's nicely just a few days ago, as well? Hadn't gotten the favorable bit about Jiminez's recognition and discipline.
  25. craig
    I like the Zastryzny report.
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