6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: <i>Baseball America</i> Ranks Top 20 Pacific Coast League Prospects

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Thursday, October 06, 2005

Baseball America Ranks Top 20 Pacific Coast League Prospects

And there's three Angels on the list (remember, the Dodgers' talent is all in Jacksonville or at levels below that).

6. Casey Kotchman: Ranking first on this list the previous year and hitting .358 in spring training would have earned most players a starting job in the big leagues. Blocked by Darin Erstad with the Angels, Kotchman instead returned to the PCL intent on addressing concerns about his power. Trying to hit homers only messed up his swing, as he went hitless in his first 19 at-bats and batted .138 with no extra-base hits in the first three weeks.
Once he shortened his stroke and stopped trying to pull and lift everything, he became the same high-average hitter with gap power he always had been. He may peak at 20-25 homers in the majors, but as a potential .320 hitter and Gold Glover, that still would make him a star at first base.
10. Jeff Mathis: Though Mathis remains one of the top catching prospects in the game, scouts have downgraded their expectations for him. The consensus is that he'll be a solid regular rather than a possible star, and his best attribute is his makeup. That's more of a tribute to his leadership and work ethic, however, than any indictment of his offensive and defensive skills.
Mathis is much more athletic than most catchers. He's more of a grinder at the plate than a sweet swinger, and he figures to be a .270 hitter with 15 homers per year. He needs to do a better job of covering the outer half and laying off breaking balls out of the zone.
He threw out 33 percent of basestealers in the PCL, but observers thought his arm strength was down to merely average this year. Mathis also tied for the league lead among catchers with nine errors. He moves well behind the plate and excels at handling pitchers.
17. Joe Saunders: The Angels decided to take a lefthander with the 12th overall pick in the 2002 draft, and they opted to save a little money by taking Saunders over Scott Kazmir. When Saunders went down almost immediately with tears in his rotator cuff and labrum, it looked like an unfortunate choice. But he avoided surgery and has regained his stuff after missing the entire 2003 season.
Saunders works aggressively with his 91-93 mph fastball and his changeup. He's still refining his curveball, though it only needs to be his third pitch because he'll use his changeup more often against righthanders. He needs to get better at locating his pitches within the strike zone, but he has good control and generally keeps the ball down.