craig

Daury torrez is on the "inactive" list. Might have been aggressive to skip Mesa and jump to Boise anyway. Even if his injury isn't major or surgery-level or anything, Boise is probably pretty remote now. I'll just hope he's healthy enough to pitch some at Mesa. Too bad. Thanks for link. McNeil hasn't seemed to generate a lot of buzz, at least from Phil or camp. So nice to see him have an effective game. Cubs were in full signability-mode by round 3, so McNeil was about $50K sub-slot, but even at subplot a high 3rd rounder should still have some real talent possibilities. Would be great if he emerges as a real prospect. In a previous report, Conway pitched again and struggled, got lifted mid-second inning because his pitch count was done, at 29 pitches. So if his count is 30-pitches, that's still a surprisingly fast comeback, but that's still a pretty controlled count. Rosario pitched two innings (25 pitces) in the same game as Conway. Torreyes is 0-7 in the two games Phil has reported.

http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxo.aspx?playerid=2391&position=P&pitch=FA Looks mostly good after the first slow game. Nothing great, but nothing wrong.

Wrong thread, but I haven't seen any of Rondon's appearances yet. While he is in the majors, I still view him more as a "prospect", so I feel like this isn't a bad place to ask about him. How has he actually looked so far, for those of you who have seen him? Does he look reasonably promising? I think the board put him at like #26 or 27 on the prospect list, right? I was voting for him ahead of cats like Lake and Marco and Villanueva, so I admit I've been an optimist on him and probably drinking the Koolaid. But since I haven't seen any of his innings yet, real season or exhibition, I'd be curious to see what you guys think at this point?

So who is not making the plays? Raisin has been suggesting that Candelario is looking much better at 3B and is showing some good range. Toonster has been touting Marco as a serious big-league SS defensive talent. Amaya isn't Ryne Sandberg, but I've heard the Cubs like his defense. Are these guys much worse than we've been led to believe? Or are Vogelbach and the outfielders at fault? Or is it just coincidence, good fielders miss plays sometimes, especially when they're 19 or 20? IN any event, good to hear positive feedback on Johnson.

Not from today, but interesting that Mark Reed was still in relief for Daytona. He'd been mentioned as a possible breakout guy, and he's got a good arm, so I'd thought they might want to give him some innings. May not be a good sign for him.

I'm actually more interested with Dae-Eun Rhee (not saying I'd rank him over Loux ... or Lendy, just interest level is higher) than those two, but maybe that's me. They kept Rhee in the rotation, and I'm curious if his stuff is showing closer to what he had in 2011. Heh heh, says something about Loux when a guy like Rhee may be as or more interesting.

Nice pitching from Scott, Peralta, Cabrera, and Rosscup. Heh, and Searle too. This is Searle's 5th season at Daytona. Must be pretty exceptional for a player to repeat at the same A-ball season five straight years. He's still "only" 24, so it's still not impossible that he might pitch a major league inning someday. Seems like forever ago when his assignment to Daytona's rotation at age 19 was a big surprise and gave hope that he was a meaningful prospect.

Peralta showing both the appeal and the questions through 3: four K's and nothing out of the infield, but also two walks and HBP. Would be fun to see him do well.

Beeler picking right up. 6 hits and 3 HR in the first four innings.

Whitenack has apparently been claimed by Cleveland. Wow, big surprise. Funny, they grab our rehab Whitenack, we grabbed their rehab Rondon. Their advantage in that they can send him down, we can't do the same. Our advantage, of course, in that Rondon appears to have an excellent arm now, whereas at least as of this spring Whitenack does not.

Along with Jensen, Loosen, Burke, and Rosario, Whitenack is another guy who was held back. All five of those were guys I kinda had somewhere in my 25-40 area of my top-50. Toonster, I agree that Torreyes is probably slated for Tennessee after some time in Mesa. I'm sure they hope Baez earns a promotion sooner or later. But nothing imminent there. Performance dictates, of course, so decisions aren't made in March without knowing how he'll do. But I'd guess the hope is that Baez does well enough to merit a June or July move, without any anticipation that April or May promotion is likely. So I don't think his possible future but somewhat remote promotion has much/any impact on what's happening at Tenn. If he comes up in July, and Torreyes and Alcantara are already there, things will take care of themselves. One will be hurt; or one will be struggling badly enough that we don't care; or one can play 3B; or one can get bumped down a level, as happened with Marco last year. It won't be a problem. Or, if it is a problem, it will be a great problem because I'd love to have the "problem" of all three of Baez, Alcantara, and Torreyes having great seasons and looking way too good for Daytona!

Hm, hadn't even noticed Loosen missing. That tweet is back on the 28th, I think, maybe something has come up since. Hopefully nothing significant for Jensen or Loosen. The minor league camp isn't that long, so I suppose even a minor setback might put you behind. Plus, if for whatever reason you're at the back of the rotation schedule, Daytona's fifth game isn't until next Tuesday, and Tennessee's till Monday with a day off on Tuesday. Plus, there are a lot of bad-weather cancellations early on, even in the Southern League. So if perhaps Jensen and Loosen aren't scheduled till next week Tuesday and Monday, and with a rain day maybe Loosen would move back to next Wednesday, perhaps it just makes sense to leave those guys in Mesa. I'd think you'd still list them with the roster, though, even if they aren't moving up with the team. But, I suppose there is also no time like week one where you need a full bullpen. If the starters aren't stretched out enough beyond 70 pitches or less, you've got a lot of innings to fill. So maybe sending an extra reliever along for a week, then sending up Jensen and Loosen when they're going to start is both good for them and also good for the bullpens until then? I hope it's as innocent and sensible as all that, and that neither are hurt.

Wow on Conway. I wouldn't have expected him to pitch until rehab in rookie league, and wouldn't have expected any 92-94 this summer at all. Crazy. Also "wow" that Rosario could be looking good and cruising. I'd just expected surgery after the report on his injury last year. Pretty nice that he's throwing pretty easily and enough to go multiple innings. That doesn't seem like the extreme rehab route, so great news. Also hadn't heart about Torreyes late, that was a visa problem? How late was he? 2B is an important position. If he can hit and play decent defense, he's a good prospect. Obviously if he can't play defense anywhere, then he's cooked. I'm very disappointed that Jensen is missing. I'm still hoping that Daytona goofed up and he's going to be there after all. But that sounds like injury to me. Last year early on Jensen, Rosario, Wells, and Burke looked like four very interesting prospects at Peoria. Seems all four have been hurt since. Hopefully some or all bounce back strong. Will be very interesting to see how wells looks this year. He was supposed to be the big, strong, durable guy. Hopefully he will be even after the injury.

Forgot about Beeler. He must also be at Tennessee, unless he got released or injured. He'd obviously be another rotation candidate.

Rohan hurt. Gutierrez had surgery last summer, so presumably is either working in Mesa or else released. Hatley is presumably with tennessee, whose roster hasn't yet been released, I don't think. Tennessee's rotation is a little different than I would have predicted a month ago. I'm assuming it might now be: Cabrera (I assumed he'd be Iowa) Jensen (I assumed he'd be Daytona) Lokisch (I assumed he'd be Iowa) Loosen Hendricks Am I missing anybody obvious? I would have expected Jensen at Daytona and Kirk at Tenn, instead of the apparent reverse. I imagine Jokisch already gave Tenn one lefty, and by keeping Kirk at Daytona that gives them one lefty also? Doesn't seem like having a token lefty should be much of a motivator for minor-league assignments, though. I'm just thinking here, dumb thought. Cabrera would seem to be the one starter at AA whose velocity and "stuff" have seemed to exceed their production. Jensen/Lokisch/Hendricks seem to be guys whose actual performance has perhaps been more impressive than their reputed stuff. Hopefully that they will continue to produce well, vindicate their stuff, and perhaps we'll get some reports on their stuff that are more favorable than we'd expected. Or maybe one or more of them is disabled, who knows.

Barney. Darvill fills in for the guy who fills in for Barney.

http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=4566964 1. As expected, has Baez and Soler. 2. Has Bruno and Saunders, but NOT Torreyes. So Torreyes and Alcantara must be with AA. 3. Will be interesting how Saunders/Bruno share 2B/3B. One plays only 2B, the other only 3B? If so, which plays which? Or will they both split time at both? 4. DeVoss is still listed with the infielders, even though there are only 3 listed outfielders, and Az Phil had mentioned DeVoss playing OF in Mesa. 5. Pierce Johnson is NOT listed. I'd kind of assumed he'd start right out at Daytona. 6. A lot of roster-fill type pitchers. 7. Austin Kirk, who pitched extensively in AA last year to decent success, is back on the Daytona list. 8. Starling Peralta, Ben Wells, and Austin Reed are all listed, and are probably the most high-ceiling starter possibilities (if they start.) I'd wondered if Reed might go back to Kane, but as a starter rather than relieving. I'd also wondered whether given how short his season was due to injury, whether Ben Wells might repeat A-. Perhaps a good sign that he's advanced; or perhaps they just don't want his arm going to Midwest league. 9. Michael Jensen is NOT listed. Of all the guys for Daytona's rotation, he was the one I thought was the most certain to be there, but I was wrong. seems like he had too good a season to repeat at Kane, so that leaves two possibilities. One is that he looked so good that they skipped him right up to AA. The more likely, I assume, is that he's got some injury issue. It doesn't look like the staff is so loaded with serious pitching prospects that they couldn't fit him into Daytona's staff or rotation, and if they wanted him at Daytona they could have also left Kirk at AA. So either he's hurt, or else he looked so polished that they just decided that AA was the best place for him developmentally. I want to hope for the latter, because if true that might reflect favorably on his progress. I suppose a 3rd possibility is that the list is "unofficial", and when the actual official roster comes out he'll be there after all. I just hope he's not hurt, because I like low-walk-low-HR control pitchers. 10. As expected, Rosario is not there.

One assignment that isn't too encouraging is that 2nd-round pick, BA's #31 guy Reggie Golden couldn't make Kane. When the outfielders are Chen, Zapata, and Trey Martin, that isn't an overwhelming cast of guys to compete with for playing time. Doesn't bode well for Golden's future.

DeVoss in CF, that was his spot in college, right? Or did he play corner OF in college? I don't think his offense is enough to be very interesting (no power, too many K's, and low average makes for a kind of bad recipe for success. But, that was one year, fair enough to give him one more to see if he can hit somewhat better. His 82 walks certainly gives him some interest.

I think it's good. Torreyes has a chance to be a very interesting offensive player, and he's very young. I think repeating Daytona makes good sense. If he struggles, that's not good. If he hits .300/.365/.800, then that reaffirms his interest. Great. Agree, for a guy who's young and who I've assumed might be pretty interesting, the negativity on his defense is discouraging. Agree with toonster, I'd like to see guys perform well for a somewhat sustained period at a level before promoting them. Chen wasn't that good at Peoria, let him repeat and see if he can be good at that level at least this year. If he is, then give him a shot at Daytona. Torreyes showed flashes but wasn't that good at Daytona, let him repeat and see if he can be good at that level. AS for the clutter, that leaves Torreyes, Bruno, and Saunders, with 2B and 3B to share. That seems OK to me. With DH, they can get their AB's. Bruno and perhaps Saunders also can play some OF (the Daytona OF looks pretty thin.) They can DH. Not a real problem.

Happy Easter, everybody!

My guess on the Daytona IF would be something like 1st - Geiger 2nd - Saunders/Bruno perhaps SS - Baez 3rd - Bruno/Carhart perhaps Darvill, if he's around, could perhaps fight for time at 2nd. That would leave Tennessee as Torreyes/Alcantara up the middle, with Villanueva at 3rd and who knows what at first (honestly, no clue ... Lopez? ) Those sound like pretty good guesses. I'm really very interested in only two questions here: a. Will Torreyes go to AA (at this point I'm assuming yes, although I'm still hoping no...), or repeat at Daytona? b. Assuming he's not at Daytona, and assuming Bruno and Saunders are both at Daytona, which plays more 2B and which more 3B? It may well be that somebody like Carhart or Darvill, neither of whom were guys who got even a mention for our top-50, will end up playing a lot. Maybe Carhart will hit better than any of the other names, who knows. But I'd think the choice of who gets 2B might reflect management thinking, and might be the one viewed as the best prospect with the best chance to become a regular starting 2B in the majors. Will be interesting to review this in May or mid-June, and see how the reality shakes out as compared to the speculation, both in terms of usage and actual production.

AZ Phil has noted that DeVoss has been with Daytona's OF. So I don't think he's a factor for 2B anymore.

Devoss is in Daytona's outfield.

Geiger is obviously Daytona 1b. Bruno I presume is either 2nd or 3rd, depending on whether Torreyes is at Daytona or Tennessee. Torreyes has been still with the Tennessee group as of latest Phil report, and I can't think of any serious 2B at Tenn. So maybe they're just moving him up, and giving Bruno 2B at Daytona.