Quakers

Yep, saw him with Boise last year. He could make a decent arm out of the pen.

I think it is just a normal mid-offseason update of the program. Everything should come back. BTW - Pujols, Holliday, Lee are all on the Quakers, ....right ;)

That is not sawdust, those are crumbs from Crispy Creme doughnuts.

Wow! :good:

For the most part I would agree with BA. But after seeing them I would have rated DeVoss higher and Golden lower. But what do I know. True, when Golden connects...it is a wonder, but he didn't often enough, at least in the series that I saw. He was decent enough in right. I like DeVoss's ability to get on base. I think he is better suited for second. He will have some pwer, but I can't see him hitting more than 10 homeruns in a season. I saw Chen at the end of the season. He looked good in center. I agree with his power issue, but he was hitting the ball well. IMO if he makes it to the moajors it will be at second or center because of his lack of power. But he is a good prospect. The comment about Hoilman and breaking balls was true enough. But his power is real. I wonder what BA thought about Ryan Cuneo and Rafeal Lopez? I think it will be interesting to see what they do next year.

Cool :good:

My understanding is that if you are not in the playoffs, then your roster is frozen until the end of the season. After the season is over you can only drop players to make your 2000 pt limit and/or make trades. Those involved in the play-offs will add/drop players until they have the exact roster they had at the start of the play-offs and then they are subject to the same rules as the rest of us fantasy baseball league mortals.

I haven't seen this posted anywhere else Brian LaHair made BA's minor league and triple A all-star team. Pin Chieh Chen and Jose Rosario made their short season all-star team. Congrats.

Thanks. So he went through Colorado too and they let him go.

I remember seeing the stats of Al playing for the Cubs in the low level minor leagues. Does anyone know how he ended up with the Tigers? He seems to be having a pretty good season out of their pen. Thanks in advance.

According to what was said on WGN during the rain delay a couple of days ago, they do not want to start the clock on Jackson.

I agree. I like reading first hand reports on how our prospects are faring. =D>

yeah 4th in 6 games. nice to see him starting to show the power in game situations... he hasn't been great, but for a raw talent out of an alabama high school, i'm reasonably happy with what he's shown with boise. jensen struggled - allowed a hit, 2 walks and 3 wild pitches in 0.2 ip. i don't know much about sandoval, but he's 23, so it's hard to get excited about him. I liked what I saw of Sandoval. A very nice fastball. Good control. But he needs to work on his secondary stuff. Otherwise he is destined for the pen. Does anyone know if he is a converted position player? Could account for his age at this level. Edit: Just checked his stats. According to MILB, he has pitched for two years. 2010 in the DSL (only 8 games) and this year in Arizona and Boise where he put up decent stats. Maybe he was converted. Golden looked really bad at the plate the first three games that I saw him, but when he hit his homerun...wow. That was the start of this latest homerun binge. I hope he has figured out how to counter how they were pitching him.

:good:

Never heard of this guy until this post, but apparently he's been around since '05. Looks like he's bounced from Boise to Daytona to Tennessee to Iowa this year. Looks like they were functional promotions rather than performance based. Like I said, I doubt anyone would notice. I saw him back in 06. He had a decent year for Boise that year, but really didn't do much at the upper levels after that.

Probably nobody else but me would notice, or care, but Mario Mercedes had a nice promotion from Boise to Iowa. He went 2 for 4. From what I saw I think he has a shot as a reserve cathcher on a ML team. Does anyone know what sort of reputation he has as regards to handing pitchers?

True, he looked good at the plate during the Salem series. But on the field...that's another story.

Thanks! Great reports all series. Any radar readings on Wells or Burke? Sorry nope. I would say that Rosario and Sandoval throw harder, but I cannot back that up.

Well, I have better news to report today. As has been posted. Boise won 9 - 2. So I have some apologies to post. 1) I reported that Golden couldn't get a hit if his life depended upon it. Not true, when he does hit, it can go a country mile. I do not think I have ever seen a ball leave the park as fast as the one he hit last night. 2) I reported that Hoilman had problems hitting breaking pitches over the outside part of the plate. Yesterday he finally connected with one and came within inches of an opposite field homerun. He settled for a double. Later in the game the pitches were inside again and he pulled it for a monster two run homerun. 3) I reported that DeVoss was fast, but not superfast. Well he pinch hit for Chen late in the game and hit it deep into the left center gap for a double. (He has not shown power yet, but I think he will develop some as he matures). So with runners at 2nd and 3rd, Zapenas hit a deep fly ball to center. Devoss tagged up from second and scored easily on the sac fly. True - the center fielder caught the ball running in the deepest part of center running away from the field of play. True - Salem appealed the play and Devoss was called out for leaving too early. But still... he was safe by a long shot. IMHO he did not leave early. Pitching; Wells looked good. Not overpowering, but he easily kept a potent line-up at bay. My only disappointment was that he was taken out after just 5 2/3 innings. Burke look effective in relief, but he did struggle a bit to get the last out. Hitting; Chen looked good. He showed decent speed with a stolen base and a triple down the right field line. Mighty mite Zapata surprised me with a long homerun to right center. Darvill has looked good at the plate this series. Defense; Chen looked good in center. IMO he is more than capable of playiing there. Darvill continues to have issues at short. Very inconsistent play. Contreras has issues at third as well. Zapenas committed an error at second, but on the whole I thought his defense was good. Cuneo is good at first. It was fun to be able to see Boise again. I hope that a few readers have found my notes to be interesting.

That's my recollection too. that's not my recollection at all. i mean, i think it's kind of a dick move to pick up FA that are actually playing right now if you're out of it, but i don't see why it shouldn't be allowed. and if someone drops someone you'd want to keep, i don't know why you shouldn't be able to. I know we had the discussion last year, I just have no idea what the ruling on it was. I think we had said there was to be no picking up players if you were out of it but I could easily be wrong. Yeah, Tim is right. I got burned with this rule. My understanding was that you could not pick up major league FAs, but I did look and find players to complete my minor league roster(I picked up Kipnis). Apparently that was a no-no. I disagreed, but it was the ruling and it is one that I can live with.

A better game than last night, but.. Pitching; Sandoval looked good. His fasball had some snap to it. He struck out 6. But that was all he threw. So he had to go deep into every count. It would have been nice if he had a pitch that could induce an easy groundout. He left after three innings, so I assume they had him on a pitch count. If he develops his secondary stuff he could be good. Hitting; DeVoss had his issues at the plate. The first night I saw him he looked great. He could hit anything thrown at him. Last night he looked like he was guessing incorrectly and not seeing the ball well. Cuneo did not get a hit, but he hit the ball well. He has that sweet left handed swing. Harrington had a good night at the plate and Zapanes and Caberas chipped in with a few singles, but other than that Boise's bats were anemic. Golden continues to show that he has a tough time catching up to a decent fastball. Hoilman has a real tough time with pitches that break away from him. Both, if they do not strike out, end up hitting a pitcher's pitch for a weak ground out or pop-up. Defense: I think DeVoss is better at second. He is not bad in center, but his range seemed limited. Hard to say with the sample size that I am dealing with. Galindo was Salem's center fielder. By now it is clear that he is going to get to anything hit near to him. I would compare him with Chris Walker, who was a Cub's prospect a few years ago. I do not have that feeling with DeVoss. He is not bad, but not spectacular. Cuneo was in left. He has the arm and a good glove, but his range is limited. He seems to be a very good firstbaseman. Harrington had issues at third last night. An error on a grounder and difficulties with a couple of pop-ups. Caberas showed a poor arm for a catcher.

Boise had a terrible game last night. Offensively; DeVoss had a double, but struck out twice and hit into a double play (though the call was questionable even by Salem fans). Cuneo was 1-4 and he too hit into a double play. The only real bright spot was Mario Mercedes who seems to have an uncanny abilty to square up on a pitch. I couldn't help but think of Castro. Defensively; Both DeVoss and Cuneo had an error, although I think both look good defensively. Mercedes has a very strong and accurate arm. Pitching; ugh, walks, wild pitches, and bad defense led to a long night. In short, I hope to see a better game tonight. Blast from the past; I believe this is the same Mario Mercedes that was on the Hawks years ago. A the time he was a skinny little kid who I worried would get himself seriously hurt in a collision at the plate. His framed has filled out and he has lost a step (although still fairly fleet of foot for a catcher), but he has one of the better arms I have seen at this level. He is also a very good contact hitter. I still think he has a decent shot a being a good back-up catcher at the ML level. But at my age I tend to have sympathy for the veterans. Also does anyone remember Henry Cotto? Apparently he is a roving instructor for the Giants these days. Someone asked me about DeVoss's speed the other day. I would say fast rather that blazing fast. The Salem fans claim that their young center fielder, Galindo, was the fastest man in the league. Judging by how much ground he could cover in center, they could be right. Someone mentioned that I should keep an eye on Chen. While he did not have a hit, he looked good at the plate. My first impression though is of someone who is rather small. It is hard to imagine him generating much power. He was playing in left. I did not get the impression that he had the speed to patrol center. A corner outfielder without much power? We will see. Golden looked bad at the plate. He was having a tough time laying off of, and catching up to, high heat. Edit: I checked and Chen is listed at 6'1" and 170. Not too short.

Cuneo was drafted in 2010. He supposedly was on a rehab assignment in Boise (he should be at Peoria) but it seems like the Cubs have just left him in Boise for the rest of the season. Thanks for the report! I liked what I saw, but that may account for his stats. He is hitting .366 with 6 hrs is a limited number of ABs at Boise. But if he should be at Peoria...

Thanks. Good stuff. Did you get to see any good grounders or anything that showed DeVoss' speed on the basepaths? I've been wondering if he's just a typical speedy guy or if he's extremely fast. DeVoss is fast, I didn't have a stop watch, but he was able to easily beat out a slow roller hit directly to the short stop. Edit: I am contradicting myself. One of his singles was not a line drive.

I was at the Boise game last night. Here are a few quick notes. 1) It looks like we got a genuine prospect in DeVoss. He is a switch hitter who appears comfortable from both sides of the plate. His singles were solid line drives. He is confident in a good way. I got the impression of an intelligent, well coached player. I was surprised to see him in center (I thought he just played 2B). While he was not challenged, he showed good instincts and has more than enough speed to cover the ground. Obviously Devoss is hot right now and one game is not much of a sample size. Also, just as obviously, he needs to demonstrate his talent at higher levels. But I think he will be wearing a Cubs uniform one of these days in the not too distant future. Unlike Colvin, who also was a good looking prospect for Boise, I did not see any problems with pitch recognition at all. My only concern, is that he is a 3rd round draft pick and may be playing a level below his ability. 2) I haven't heard much about Cuneo. Did we draft him this year? He looked real good at the plate. I think he is definitely someone to keep an eye on. 3) Darvill had a good night at the plate, but he appeared to be defensively challenged at short. 4) Zapanes showed decent range at 2B. 5) Contreras showed off a good arm in left. 6) Rosario had a bad 2nd inning, but looked good otherwise. In the third, he decided to just rear back and throw his fastball. Once he established his fastball, then he could work off of it and he looked pretty good. In the second, when he was in trouble, he seemed to be working on some secondary pitches. 7) Zeller looked good at first but then looked like he might have hurt himself. The trainer came out, but left him in the game. Afterwards Zeller seemed to have command issues, but he managed to finish out his inning of work. Last night was different from past Boise games. It used to be that the only decent prospects were on the mound.