Outshined_One

Shaver I was back and forth on. Most of what I've heard about him suggests that he'll apparently end up as a back of the rotation starter. His numbers are really weird. Having a .258/.326/.363/.689 AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS, a 1.36 WHIP, and a Line Drive % of <17.5% typically brings about bad results...yet here we are. He keeps the ball out of the park and has a decent K rate, to his advantage, but there is not much about him really gets me excited. I might include him in my Top 25 if he can sustain this level of success, but I'm skeptical. Every pitcher on this list has a much better ceiling than him, imo. I'm unfamiliar with Robinson and posted this list not too long after the trade, so I omitted him. Once I become more familiar with him, I'll probably include him on this list.

Good call. I was focusing more on the BB/9 and HR/9 aspect than on the groundballs. Hm...dunno what a good comp would be for him.

Thank you Ron. :D

Strange, didn't he break his left wrist? I enjoy that running joke. :D

Pros -Terrific mentality. Tenacious, intimidating, and fearless on the mound. Approach to pitching kind of reminds me of Gallagher in that respect. He's also a robust 6'3, 240 pounds...almost like a linebacker. -Workhorse. Despite being a year out of HS and 19 years old all season, he's pitched 131.2 IP. He's actually improved his numbers in recent starts, oddly enough. -He's economical. He's averaging a little over a walk and a half for every nine innings pitched. -Keeps the ball in the park. While his GO/FO is roughly 1:1, he's only allowed 8 HRs on the year. -Young for his level. A 19 year old at Low A is ahead of the curve and should help him along as he advances. Cons -I wonder about his stuff. I believe the three best ways to judge a pitcher are by his Ks, BBs, and HRs (be it by IP or PA). Taylor keeps his BBs and HRs down...but his lack of Ks are worrisome. Perhaps it's because the Cubs have ordered him scrap a certain strikeout pitch for the season, I don't know. But if something like that isn't the case, then he will have to continue keeping those two things down. I like his chances, but he will have a much harder time moving up the ladder than other pitchers who can strike out tons of guys every game. -Much like Gallagher, his stuff hinders his projected ceiling. Whether or not he meets or even exceeds that ceiling is left to fate for now, but with the way guys develop, mature, and so on, he has a tough road ahead if he is to become a #1 or a #2. Unlike, say, Pawelek, Huseby, Samardzija, or Ceda, Taylor doesn't project to have ace-quality stuff. Taylor has an arsenal of pitches that could see him developing into a good #3 pitcher. That's perfectly acceptable, but it hurts his prospect ranking. -His BAA is a rather surprising .266, despite his BABIP being right in line with the expected norms (.292). I don't know if this is a trend that will continue or what, but it's noteworthy enough for some concern. -He's already fully developed, as far as I can tell. 6'3 240 sounds pretty physically mature, no? But, it'll hurt in adding velocity to his fastball. -This is a minor sticking point for me, but it still was something I had to factor in. The Midwest League has been a very strong pitchers' league this season. I'd have to wonder what his numbers would look like against overall better hitters for that level. If you cornered me right now for a possible comparison, I'd say Chien-Ming Wang would be a pretty good one. Still, he's a ways away and plenty could change over the next few years.

High 90s fastball, good secondary stuff, and a nice ceiling. If he were committed to baseball full time, he would likely have been a first rounder.

I'm bored and have nothing better to do. I figure this would be a good way to generate discussion about prospects and get a feel on where the guys stand in relation to one another considering a heck of a lot of guys from last season have been traded, injured, and/or promoted. So, here are the rules. I'm going to post a list of my top 25 prospects. If you feel a guy is missing or the ranking is off, you may post one move. You could either swap a player (say you want to swap Donald Veal and Felix Pie) or you could drop a player & add a player (let's say you prefer Nate Spears to Josh Lansford). For the purposes of this list, I'm only allowing guys who have no major league experience. Thus, guys like Juan Mateo, Sean Marshall, and Ryan Theriot are ineligible. Sound good? Here's the initial list: 1) Felix Pie 2) Donald Veal 3) Sean Gallagher 4) Eric Patterson 5) Mark Pawelek 6) Mitch Atkins 7) Tyler Colvin 8) Scott Moore 9) Jake Fox 10) Ryan Harvey 11) Mark Reed 12) Jeff Samardzija 13) Brian Dopirak 14) Billy Petrick 15) Jose Ceda 16) Chris Huseby 17) Scott Taylor 18) Geovany Soto 19) Dylan Johnston 20) Jake Renshaw 21) Sam Fuld 22) Miguel Negron 23) Rafael Dolis 24) Drew Rundle 25) Josh Lansford

Hey Nate, what's up with the Chiefs being off until the 24th after today's game? It seems kind of odd to have two days off in a row.

Box Scores Iowa won 7-3 Box Score CF F. Pie 0/5, K RF B. Coats 1/4, R, 2 K LF M. Restovich 1/2, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI, HR (22), K C G. Soto 2/3, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR (6) 3B C. McGehee 1/4, R, RBI, 2B (27), 2 K 2B E. Patterson 2/3, RBI, 2B (1) SP J. Williams 6.1 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 1/0 K/BB, 10-8 GO-FO West Tenn won 4-2 Box Score CF C. Walker 1/4, 2B (20), K LF/2B R. Lewis 2/4, R, K, CS (4) 3B S. Moore 1/3, BB, R, RBI RF J. Fox 1/4, R, 2 RBI, 2B (13), K 1B B. Sing 0/3, 2 K SP C. Shaver 6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4/3 K/BB, HR, 5-9 GO-FO RP A. Mendez 1 hitless/scoreless, 1/0 K/BB, HBP, 1-1 GO-FO Daytona won 7-2 Box Score 2B N. Spears 1/5, K C C. Robinson 3/5, 3 RBI, 2B (23), 2 K 1B M. Craig 1/4, BB, RBI, K RF R. Harvey 1/5, R, 2 K, SB (6) SS J. Mota 1/2, BB, R, RBI, HR (1) SP D. Veal 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 5/3 K/BB, 2 WP, 4-7 GO-FO Peoria won 6-0 Box Score DH F. Tirado 1/3, 2 BB, R, K RF/LF J. Valdez 2/4, 2 R, 2B (25), K, HBP 1B R. Norwood 2/4, BB, R, 2B (25), 2 K 3B R. Malone 1/5, R, 2 RBI, 2B (16), K, E (11, throw) 2B R. Chirinos 1/4, E (15, throw), HBP SS K. Reynolds 1/4, R, 2 RBI, HR (8), 2 K LF A. Garcia 0/1, K CF/RF Y. Carter 0/3, BB, K SP J. Santo 6.2 scoreless, 5 H, 3/3 K/BB, 7-9 GO-FO RP J. Rayborn 2.1 scoreless, 2 H, 3/1 K/BB, 3-1 GO-FO Boise won 6-5 Box Score CF M. Camp 2/3, 2 BB, RBI, SB (16), CS (10) SS M. Matulia 2/5, R, 2B (2), BB, 3 RBI LF T. Colvin 2/4, R, BB, CS (3) 1B R. Canzler 0/4, RBI 2B S. Clevenger 2/3, 2 R, 2 BB RF A. Jospeh 2/4, R, 2B (13), BB, CS (3) SP M. Billek 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0/1 K/BB, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 5-10 GO-FO RP M. Cooper 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1/0 K/BB, 1 HR, 2-0 GO-FO (allowed 2 inherited runners to score) Mesa PPD: Rain

I like calling him Pizza Boy.

Marco Carrillo has really impressed me so far with his K/BB numbers (currently at 30/7 over 34.2 IP). He'll turn 20 in February, meaning he's on track in terms of his age. Does anyone know much about him stuff-wise?

The Cardinals' Annoyingly Lovable Midget tried to plow him over on a play at the plate.

I honestly don't get why people rag so much on OBP. It's such a fundamentally simple concept that does not go against anything traditional in baseball: How good is a hitter at not getting out? Don't you want hitters who make outs less often than everyone else? Isn't that what a hitter is supposed to do? It's not without its flaws, but it's a much better evaluation tool than pretty much any other metric. I don't get the sheer amount of spite and hatred such a simple thing induces in certain people.

...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? I believe Bill James (or maybe McCracken, can't remember which) said that Neifi Perez was one of the ten worst offensive players in baseball history.

They can take care of that themselves. :P

Eh, in all fairness, Neifi's numbers were considerably skewed by his time in Colorado and Izturis was hurt playing in Dodger Stadium. Neifi's career OPS+ is 65, Izturis' is 69. Neither is something to be especially proud of, but hey.

Does Dusty just hate Will Ohman? Seriously, he should never ever face a right handed hitter.

I'm really hesitant with that. Yes, Pie could use some more time in AAA and it'd look bad for Hendry to trade away three good prospects for a one year rental that added up to nothing. When he's locked in, he's a good player to have on the team. At the same time, there are a bunch of CFs who will be FAs and would likely be upgrades over Pierre. Also, since Pierre's so reliant on his batting average to get on base and lacks power, his slumps look really, really ugly. His low BB rates really hurt him during those times. I'm curious to see how he finishes the season and what kind of interest he gets from other teams. If he can be re-signed for a reasonable price, I'd be fine with it.

It would be hilarious if Detroit did put a claim in for Neifi.

My word, you're right! :shock:

Cedeno apparently is letting Neifi's trade get to him. :(

Nah, he'll trade Donald Veal to the Cardinals for So Taguchi, then sign Taguch to a 2/$12m extension.

He complained constantly about his lack of playing time in Texas and SD, from all accounts.

Let's go two more rounds, imo.

Guy from Japan?? Daisuke Matsuzaka.