Wednesday, August 24, 2005 |
Minor League Scorebook
- Yesterday's Scorebook didn't have the Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet results in it. Brandon Wood checks in at number one, with Kevin Goldstein noting that Wood went 10-30 over the week prior to press time, and not one of those hits was a single. Cal League or no, that's impressive. But before getting too excited, please recall the following:
Courtesy of Jeff Chernow at STATS, Inc., we can report that since 1990, only three other minor leaguers have put up 90 or more extra-base hits in the minor leagues. Florida's Joe Dillon (our special mention this week) had 92 in 2004 (46 2B, 7 3B, 39 HR), Oakland's Adam Piatt had 91 in 1999 (49-3-39) and Angels third baseman Dallas McPherson had 90, also in 2004 (36-14-40).
Looking at those guys, Dillon isn't in the majors yet, McPherson's been injured or ineffective (the latter likely caused to some extent by the former), but Piatt never had much of a major league career. Piatt had a monster season at AA Midland with 39 home runs, the first man in 72 years to win the Texas League triple crown, but never hit more than eight home runs in a single season at any higher level, and is now out of baseball. He serves as a cautionary tale.Update: Rich writes:
Piatt was 23 rather than 20. He was an OF and not a SS. He was drafted in the 10th round out of HS and the 8th round out of college, rather than the first round. Other than the 90 XBH, I don't see any comparison between Piatt and Wood.
Good points. I frequently forget about age when making comparisons like this.Piatt is probably a better comparison for McPherson, but I wouldn't even make that one.
Back to the list: Howie Kendrick shows up third, noting a just-ended 16-game hitting streak. "In The Team Picture" are Kendry Morales for the Angels, and Chad Billingsley and Chin-Lung Hu for the Dodgers.
- Bryan Smith is at it again with more discussion of the above:
Can Baseball America just give out their Player of the Year award already? I mean, really, at this point no other player in the minors is going to kick Brandon Wood off the top spot. As Kevin Goldstein notes in the newest Prospect Hot Sheet, Wood now leads the minors in RBI, "to go along his No. 1 ranking in doubles (48), homers (39), extra-base hits (91) and total bases (329)." While the California League is surely somewhat to blame for this kind of offensive onslaught, surely Wood has proven his ceiling is greater than that of any shortstop prospect in the minors, from Joel to Hanley to Drew.
While many organizations have been rather aggressive with promotions this year, the Angels seem to have held strong to their decision to keep Wood in high-A for a whole season. It's hard to criticize a conservative move like that, but there is now little question that Wood has mastered everything the Cal League has to offer. He's the league's most feared slugger at the age of 21, playing the game's most difficult position. The Angels haven't exactly been quick to find spots for their minor leaguers recently, but if nothing else, they must find room for Wood...as early as 2007.
...
By the way, is anyone else noticing a resurgence of a couple NL West right side prospects? Both Josh Barfield and James Loney saw their stocks take considerable hits in 2004, but are quietly putting together very nice 2005 seasons. ... Loney isn't quite back to where he once was, but he's again on the map. After a fantastic Spring Training in 2004, Loney was abysmal last season due to a few injuries (and again, the Southern League). But his second run in AA is proving to be more successful, with pretty good numbers across the board. Still his ISO is just in the .130 range, hardly an acceptable number for a first baseman. If he can finally begin to turn those doubles into homers, as was promised out of high school, James will begin earning my respect again. I will say this, however, that there is less of a difference between Casey Kotchman (one of my top 50 prospects) and Loney than you would think [emphasis mine].
- MILB.com also has an article about Wood-mania following his besting of Andruw Jones on the home run mark in pro ball; nothing you didn't know or suspect, but barring injury or a collapse, this kid's gonna be a monster. Hint to Tony Reagins: it's called centerfield.
- The Times reported earlier in the day that today was the deadline for signing Luke Hochevar, the Dodgers' number one draft pick. If the two sides couldn't come to an agreement (Boras-represented Hochevar was looking for a $4M package, where the Dodgers wanted $2.5M), he would return to classes at Tennessee. Hopefully by the time this gets out the door, this will have been resolved.
Callaspo, A: 1-4, 1 RBI
Paul: 2-5, 1 RBI
Gorneault: 0-1, 4 BB
Mathis, J: 1-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Budde: 2-5
Bootcheck: (L, 6-4), 3.1 IP, 11 ER, 12 H, 6 K, 4 BB, 2 HR, 5.21 ERA
Bergman, D: 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 3.09 ERA
Suprisingly, Bootcheck only allowed two home runs against, and neither of them were grand slams. Not that it mattered; this is what happens up in the thin air. Most of the damage came in a six-run third and a four-run fourth; the Sky Sox batted around in both innings. How do people play baseball up there?
Willits, R: 3-6, 2 RBI
Kendrick, H: 2-5, 2 RBI
Napoli, M: 2-4
Murphy: 2-5
Morales, K: 5-5, 1 HR, 6 RBI
Eylward: 3-4, 1 RBI
Weaver: (W, 3-1), 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 6 K, 1 BB, 3.98 ERA
Ah, that's more like it. Now can I say Weaver's had a good outing? I hope so; he's managed to strike out a batter per inning, only issue one walk, and get his ERA below 4.00, all in the same game. But as Rich noted in an e-mail today, Weaver had 11 flyball outs for only one groundball out. He won't be able to get away with that in the Show, that's for sure.
By the way: over the past week, Kendry Morales is hitting .560/.593/1.120; nearly half (6) of his 14 hits are extra base hits. 5-5! Wow, what a game! And no less should we shine a spotlight on Erick "5-6" Aybar (who came within a home run of the cycle) and Reggie "3-6" Willits. Good shows, everyone.
More on this from MILB.com.
Wood, B: 2-4
Remole: 2-5, 1 RBI
Wilson: 2-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Brown: 2-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Pali: 2-5, 1 RBI
Johnson: 2-5, 1 RBI
Posey: (L, 0-2), 0.1 IP, 6 ER, 4 H, 0 K, 4 BB, 12.00 ERA
Dowdy: 3.1 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 5 K, 0 BB, 4.98 ERA
MacKenzie: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 K, 1 BB, 5.63 ERA
No home runs, Brandon? Ah, but we're back at the relatively pitcher-friendly confines at Rancho. Well, pitcher-friendly to some, but surely not Micah Posey, who seems to have imploded by giving up six earned runs while only managing one out.
Arredondo: (L, 2-5) (in relief), 2.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 2 K, 3 BB, 5.50 ERA
West: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 3 K, 0 BB, 3.18 ERA
Trumbo: 0-3, 1 RBI
Reilly: 2-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Arredondo: 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 4.82 ERA
Wilson: (BS, 2)(L, 1-5) (in relief), 0.2 IP, 3 ER, 1 H, 1 K, 3 BB, 7.71 ERA
Young, D: 2-5, 1 HR, 1 RBI
Aybar: 1-5
Grabowski: 3-5, 1 RBI
Myrow: 1-4, 1 HR, 4 RBI
Ross: 3-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Rose: 2-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Erickson: (W, 1-3), 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 7 K, 4 BB, 1 HR, 6.99 ERA
Payback's a bitch, I guess. Erickson somehow finally managed a quality start, and good hitting by the 51's got them the win.
Weber, J: 2-5, 4 RBI
LaRoche, A: 1-3
Guzman, J: 1-4
Loney: 1-3, 1 RBI
Martin, R: 0-3
Hull: (L, 7-6), 5.0 IP, 3 ER, 8 H, 4 K, 2 BB, 3.41 ERA
Alvarez, C: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 K, 0 BB, 4.64 ERA
Hu: 3-6, 1 RBI
Dunlap: 1-4, 2 BB, 1 RBI
Kemp: 2-5, 1 RBI
Raglani: 2-6, 1 RBI
Rohan: 1-6, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Ellis: 1-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI
Denker, T: 2-5
Alexander: (W, 5-3) (in relief), 1.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 2.93 ERA
Ayres: 2-3, 1 RBI
Gearhart: 2.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 K, 1 BB, 3.09 ERA
Dasni: (W, 1-5) (in relief), 5.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 K, 1 BB, 7.35 ERA
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