Jackie Bradley Jr.
Sucks.
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TVSTRANGERTHINGS
One Nice Bug Per Day

if i look back, i am lost
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her

祝日 / Permanent Vacation

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Product Placement
ojovivo
trying on a metaphor
dirt enthusiast
noise dept.
YOU ARE THE REASON

Andulka

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PR's Tumblrdome
AnasAbdin

oozey mess
almost home

★
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@yourprospectsucks
Jackie Bradley Jr.
Sucks.
Future GammonsDaily Headlines
plops
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Xander Bogaertssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
@pgammo
12:30
BIg papi the agelss won der
Is Starling Marte for Real?
No
Addendum to last post
There is a player in the upcoming draft named Sicnarf Loopstok. SICNARF LOOPSTOK
Analyzing the Names of the 2013 Draft
Baseball America their first big board for the 2013 Draft. Let's take an early look at the top names of the draft. On the whole, it doesn't look as good as last year's draft (which, to be fair, was generational, giving us names like Zebulon Sneed, Styrker Trahan, Torsten Boss, and, of course, Brett Mooneyham). There are still some names that are at least a 60 on the name tool 20-80 scale.
The Future: To the Devil Rays, one of the most endearing aspects of [Josh] Hamilton’s game is his single-minded focus on playing baseball. He has a family-oriented, blue-collar personality that should help him through the highs and lows of minor league baseball.
Just to say [Bud] Smith is poised doesn’t do him justice. He’s unflappable on the mound and always thinks a step ahead of batters. He’s like Rick Ankiel with his advanced approach, good curveball and excellent changeup, though his fastball is a few ticks slower. But he might have a better feel for pitching, which earns the inevitable comparison to Tom Glavine
Baseball America released a bunch of their old prospect ranking archives today and it's pretty much the best. Here's why:
Kansas City hasn’t had a lefthander win more than 10 games in a season since 1988. That drought should end soon, with [Chris] George and youngsters Jimmy Gobble and Mike Stodolka on the way.
This week in Jose Canseco....
Jose later skipped out on the Special Olympics with an "injury" so he could travel to California.
Jose shouted this from the driver's side window of his SUV as he rammed it into another ex-girlfriend's vehicle.
Jose was later informed that people who fly strapped to the wings normally do not receive television privileges.
Monday was another big day for Jose as he got to present the first published work in his return to the literary world.
It was a dark and stormy night, the needles fell in droves -- except for occasional intervals, when they were interrupted by bouts of violent sobbing.
"I am rubber, you are glue" - Jose Canseco, Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
Jose would like you to picture him sitting behind a magnificent oaken desk in front of a shelf lined with fancy books as you read this tweet. A phone number appears beneath him. Call now!
The entire city of Worcester, Massachusetts slowly raises their hands and then quickly puts them down.
Jose quietly mumbles something about a waitress and then erases half of a tweet. Somewhere, a dog howls.
Jose fails to elaborate but rumors persist that he is in negotiations to be the person who wears a Pepsi can costume and dances outside Taco Bell.
And there you have it. As of six PM eastern, Jose is currently headed to Texas in order to work out deals and play some baseball his way. Anybody need a DH? Tune in next week to find out!
Love Eternal
Little Dayton had a shortstop that they wouldn't let him keep, so he put him up for sale at a price he thought was cheap.
Dayton took him to a neighbor to ask him for advice, he said "leave the Yuni here and I’ll give him his last rites."
But the Yuni came back, he wouldn't stay away. He was sitting on the bench the very next day.
The Yuni came back, he didn't want to roam. The very next day it was Kansas City, sweet home.
Not that the Red Sox farm is bad or anything but....
Red Sox "prospect" (and I use the same quotation-mark joke that the entire Internet is using) Shaq Green-Thompson struck out five more times yesterday. This gives him 36 strikeouts in 37 at bats for the Gulf Coast League Red Sox. Somebody paid this guy to play baseball.
But hey! He has a stolen base and a run scored! And a higher IsoD than Mike Aviles! Maybe there's hope for this kid after all.
Daniel Bard is dead. Long live Daniel Bard.
Daniel Bard just walked off the field in Rochester after being brought in with two runners on in the fifth. Here's his results from tonight:
Four batters faced, 0IP, 2H, 2 HBP, 2 WP
Before tonight's contest his stats with Pawtucket were a 6.75 ERA in 13.1 IP with 14 SO and 10 BB, along with 4 wild pitches and 4 hit batters.
We'll always remember the good times buddy. Like, the time before they tried to convert you to a starter.
Happy birthday Jose Canseco!
It's your birthday today! You are currently hitting 194/310/250 for the Independent League Worcester Tornadoes. Mysteriously, you have not played in a game for the last two weeks or so, although reports claim it's just a matter of healing from injuries.
Anyway, it's been more than ten years since you last played in the majors, and since it's your birthday we just wanted to wish you the best of luck with that! Have fun traveling to California while you "heal" or whatever.
Is Trevor Plouffe For Real?
...
...
...
no
Not the first time a goon has had his face covered in whipped cream, I'd bet, but possibly the first time it was on TV.
The Basics of Minor League Baseball
Since the same questions come up over and over about minor league baseball and prospecting I figured putting together a post that covers all the basics would be handy and/or useful. It's formatted like an FAQ from ye olde usenet days for easy searching. 1. Classes and Leagues There are several levels in MiLB, starting with the rookie leagues and topping out in AAA. Here's a full listing with some basic notes: Rookie League - Gulf Coast, Arizona, Frontier and Appalachian Leagues These leagues are where young international signings, normal high school players and project prospects generally start out. The GCL and AZL are located on team complexes meaning that they get extra care from the powers that be. They play about 70 games Short Season A - New York-Penn and Northwest Leagues For most teams A- is where you dump all your college players after they're drafted and signed. Young players who are not ready for full season may also make an appearance here. They play about 70 games. Full Season A - South Atlantic and Midwest Leagues The first full season league. Full of prospects and dreams. Advanced (also known as "polished") pitchers will destroy the young hitters here and often do not spend a full season at this level. A+ - Florida State, Carolina and California Leagues This is the first level where good prospects who have been performing well start to struggle. Hitters are now facing pitchers with legit breaking stuff and pitchers are facing more batters who can hit good fastballs. AA - Eastern, Southern and Texas Leagues This is where your favorite prospect will bust. Teams are full of decent hitters and pitchers with decent raw stuff. Players who sleepwalk through A+ arrive in AA and find more plus breaking balls and hitters who won't swing at their below average changeup in the dirt. Even good prospects repeat AA pretty often. AAA - International and Pacific Coast Leagues Remember that guy who played for that team 5 years ago? This is where he is now. There are some prospects in AAA but the rosters are full of fringy guys who just didn’t quite make the cut to stick around in MLB and lots of guys who used to play in MLB but are not good enough anymore. And Josh Towers. 2. Specific League Quirks Some of the minor leagues have special quirks due to locations (lots of arid climates, for example) and parks. It’s important to know this stuff when looking at stat lines. EXTREME HITTER’S LEAGUES California Texas Pacific Coast EXTREME PITCHER’S LEAGUES Eastern Florida State This is a general thing, there are some parks within these leagues that are pretty normal but overall the entire league numbers are skewed and need to be accounted for. So if you’re looking at a guy playing in High Desert in the CAL and see that he’s hit ninety-million homeruns you should dig a bit deeper before you get all happy in the pants. There are of course parks that skew one direction or the other in every league but don’t disrupt the overall run environment the same way. 3. Age and the Minor Leagues Age is a very important thing to look at in MiLB when you’re getting all happy for a guy. That 26 year old in A who is striking out 15 per 9 isn’t someone to get excited about. Here’s some numbers on median age pulled from Baseball America about the 2012 season:
Full Season A League Median DOB Median Age Midwest 11/28/89 22 South Atlantic 01/06/90 22 A+ League Median DOB Median Age Carolina 11/01/88 23 California 10/03/88 23 Florida State 12/20/88 23 Double-A League Median DOB Median Age Eastern 12/20/86 24 Texas 10/20/87 24 Southern 11/03/87 24 Triple-A League Median DOB Median Age International 01/04/85 26 Pacific Coast 07/03/85 26
Guys who are younger than the median age and doing very well (or even just holding their own depending on how young they are) are worth keeping an eye on. Guys who are the median age or a tick above shouldn’t be written off. Guys who are way old should be considered with extreme caution. 4. Tools and Stuff Tools are the fundamental basic baseball skills that scouts grade for position players. They are:
Batting-- Hitting for average, making good contact, etc. Sometimes simply called “Contact” or “Hit tool”.
Power-- How far does this guy hit baseballs?
Speed-- Catcher speed or Brett Gardner?
Defense-- Fielding (in)ability
Arm -- How well a player throws. Affects where he can play on defense.
The elusive Five Tool Player has average or better ratings in all these tools. Some 5 tool guys of the recent past include Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds in Pittsburgh, and Ken Griffey, Jr. A toolsy prospect is a player who projects to have a bunch of above average tools but will never put it together and will make you cry if you love him. Pitchers don’t have tools the same way but their deliveries, command and control are often evaluated in a similar way.
Control-- Can this guy throw strikes?
Command-- Can this guy hit the catcher's mitt?
Delivery -- Is it smooth or extreme effort? Any weird hitches?
Stuff! Pitchers throw it. Some of it is good and some of it sucks. Mike Mussina knew what to do with it and Daniel Cabrera never figured that out. Stuff refers to the quality of the pitches a pitcher has in a vacuum. 98MPH fastball and a slider that resembles a boomerang? That is excellent raw stuff! Does it mean the pitcher is the next superstar of the baseball world? Not necessarily. You have to be able to get it over the plate and occasionally put the pitch where the catcher wants it to go. A project pitcher is one with excellent raw stuff who hasn’t put it all together yet. He will walk every other batter he faces and be kept around for a long time and never fill that hole in your heart. 5. The 20-80 Scale and You The 20-80 scale is used to evaluate the quality of a player’s tools. Here’s the scale: 20 Very Poor (“Catcher Speed”) 30 Well-Below Average 40 Below Average 45 Fringe-Average 50 Average (Kyle Lohse’s fastball) 55 Solid-Average 60 Plus 70 Plus-Plus 80 Top-Tier (Barry Bonds’ power) Scouting reports generally grade on future projection rather than current tools, but you’ll often see grading on both current and future tools. This gives an idea of where a guy is in his development. 6. Pitching Prospects A few rules about pitching prospects:
Your team’s #1 pitching prospect does not project to be a #1 starter
Pitching prospects exist to die horribly of various arm injuries
That guy who walks too many people will never stop walking too many people
Most good pitching prospects do not project to be #1s. A #1 starter the way you see it thrown around in scout terms means a pitcher with 3 plus offerings, a plus-plus pitch, durability, and superior command/control. Just because a pitcher is a rotation anchor does not mean they’re a #1 in this sense (and that’s fine). Current MLB pitchers you could identify as a “True #1” are:
Roy Halladay
Cole Hamels
CC Sabathia
Justin Verlander
Cliff Lee
Tim Lincecum before he tripped and fell over a cliff
Stephen Strasburg
Clayton Kershaw
Felix Hernandez
So as you can see they are rare creatures. Don’t be upset if that guy you really love is projected to be a #3, that’s still a really good pitcher (think Andy Pettitte). 7. Minor League Statistics Looking at stat lines in MiLB is fun but be careful about things like age vs level, league and park run environments, raw stuff, and low minors vs high minors. Young pitchers and hitters projected to go far in this world do not necessarily post mind-boggling numbers in the low minors (often because they are very young for their leagues), though by the time they hit AA you want results. Anytime you see a guy putting up interesting numbers try and find a scouting report. It’ll give you a better idea of their raw ability and red flags. A Division I pitcher should be tearing up the SAL, for example but maybe he doesn’t have that third pitch to help him stick as a starter as he goes up the ranks. Repeating levels isn’t necessarily a ding and happens fairly often to shelter pitchers from Hell Parks and to give guys who are young for the league more time, but if a guy is in his third season in A+ and finally getting good results you should be skeptical.
Here's a cool thing.
Dustin Pedroia is hurt. He may have been hurt for weeks now. He may miss significant time due to this injury. This amounts to the team ignoring a potentially serious injury and making it worse.
But Marco Scutaro may be available! That's a cool thing.