2019 Minor Leagues/Prospect Discussion Thread

[Schad]

Hey, i get confused by the formats as well but Fangraphs has a handy chronological age meter, it just doesn't seem to be working properly on Osuna's page.

Fangraphs uses MM/DD/YYYY for their counter, but someone -- I'm going to randomly blame Marc Hulet, given that he is Canadian and that format is more popular here -- inputted his birthday in DD/MM/YYYY. We are all pawns in the date formatting game.

Couldn't agree more. Just go with the common-sense DD//MM/YY (i.e. increasing time-keeping units) and call it a day already.

Damn you, heathen. MM/DD/YYYY 4 Life.

[Graham's Cracker]

Okay, it's really time to get Andy Burns up to AAA.

Another HR tonight and he has his season OPS up to .753. He's steadily gotten better as the year has went on.

[Lateral Quicks]

Pompey's injury left his mojo intact. First game back 2-3 (2B) with a walk and a stolen base. Average almost up to .300 (.297).

[vaff87]

Okay, it's really time to get Andy Burns up to AAA.

Another HR tonight and he has his season OPS up to .753. He's steadily gotten better as the year has went on.

Some other notes:

- looks like Pompey has picked up where he left off before his injury, 2-3 so far with a double and walk.

- Barreto hit his 3rd HR of the year in his first inning at bat.

- Brett Lawrie was 2-3 with a double.

- and Richard Urena is 2-3 with his average up to .327.

[Graham's Cracker]

Okay, it's really time to get Andy Burns up to AAA.

Another HR tonight and he has his season OPS up to .753. He's steadily gotten better as the year has went on.

Some other notes:

- looks like Pompey has picked up where he left off before his injury, 2-3 so far with a double and walk.

- Barreto hit his 3rd HR of the year in his first inning at bat.

- Brett Lawrie is 2-3 with a double.

- and Richard Urena is 2-3 with his average up to .327.

Good to see Pompey back. Taylor Cole had a rough AA debut. Things got so bad in that game that Matt Newman pitched in relief.

Graveman had a good AAA debut though. 6 IP giving up 2 runs.
Santos pitched 1 inning and walked three batters. He threw 23 pitches and 15 of them were for balls. Don't know how he managed to get out of the inning without giving up a run.

[DrHalladay]

Taylor Cole roughed up in his AA debut: 5.1 IP, 8H, 8R, 7 ER -- 4 BB, 4 K, 1 HR
(though it looks like one is a result of an Andy Burns error and another was balked in by the pitcher who relieved him... still not pretty)

Kendall Graveman's AAA debut went pretty well: 6.0 IP, 8 H, 2R, 2 ER -- 4 K

Mitch Nay with two hits including a double today. Had a homer last night. Looks like the power is really coming along lately.

Franklin Barreto hit a lead off home run for Vancouver tonight. Seems like a good candidate for promotion, but is that really a possibility given Lansing's seemingly clogged infield?

Lane Thomas has another good night at GCL: 3/5 with 2 doubles

[vaff87]

Another Barreto homer in the third inning.

[There There]

Another Barreto homer in the third inning.

His third in the past four games. He should be in Lansing but there is really no room unfortunately, unless they just go ahead and move Lugo to Dunedin.

Heidt has four doubles in his first three games. Callis liked that pick quite a bit.

[dagger]

Max Pentacost 2-4 with a double, average to .340

Ryan Borucki with five strong innings: 1R, 0ER, 2H, 1BB and 7K

Dalton Pompey and Andy Burns had two-hit nights at NH. Pompey also had his 7th EL stolen base.

Two hit nights so far for Tellez, Miller and Urena at Bluefield (mind you, the pitching sucked, tied 10-10 as I write this)

Castro scheduled to start tomorrow for Lansing.

[Lateral Quicks]

Can we just fast forward three years so that we can have an all-star team of rookies in the bigs?

Yes, I know it doesn't work like that. But the number of guys putting up phenomenal numbers in the low minors is really encouraging.

[-MetA4-]

Rowdy Tellez:

3 for 4, HR, 2B, BB

On fire the last ~20 or so games. His first 10-15 games were brutal even though he was putting up strong BB and K rates.

[-MetA4-]

Tellez 4 for 5 now.

Urena is 3 for 5 with a 2B and a BB. Average up to .329

[DrHalladay]

Another Barreto homer in the third inning.

His third in the past four games. He should be in Lansing but there is really no room unfortunately, unless they just go ahead and move Lugo to Dunedin.

Is Dickie Joe Thon still considered much of a prospect?

Also, same question re: LB Dantzler. Why isn't he playing in Dunedin right now? Injury or something?

[dagger]

Another Barreto homer in the third inning.

His third in the past four games. He should be in Lansing but there is really no room unfortunately, unless they just go ahead and move Lugo to Dunedin.

Is Dickie Joe Thon still considered much of a prospect?

Also, same question re: LB Dantzler. Why isn't he playing in Dunedin right now? Injury or something?

Danzler is on the IR.

[There There]

Another Barreto homer in the third inning.

His third in the past four games. He should be in Lansing but there is really no room unfortunately, unless they just go ahead and move Lugo to Dunedin.

Is Dickie Joe Thon still considered much of a prospect?

Also, same question re: LB Dantzler. Why isn't he playing in Dunedin right now? Injury or something?

I doubt the organization is going to give up on Thon, but I also don't think they will allow other guys to be blocked because of him.

His first couple of years you could forgive somewhat due to his health issues, and last year was even slightly encouraging, but this year has been pretty disappointing; his BB and K rates are very poor and he still isn't showing much pop.

[Schad]

The Northwest League is competitive enough that I don't mind Barreto finishing out the year there; he could handle the jump to Lansing, but it won't ruin his development to spend an extra month crushing the ball in short-season.

The real questions next year are whether Lugo could do with starting the season in Lansing, and whether Barreto will continue at shortstop. They clearly want to give him all the time in the world at SS, but beyond the potential pileup at short, his bat may necessitate advancing him at a pace that forces our hand a little earlier than we had been planning.

[dagger]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status/496004880784318464[/tweet]

[There There]

I'm not sure they have a choice with Lugo.

Not only will Barreto start in Lansing, but Urena likely should be there as well. He's shown enough that I would be disappointed if they started him back in extended.

I think the bigger question is what do you do with Davis? If I'm moving Barreto off short, I want to move him to CF, but can you really start Davis in Dunedin?

[vaff87]

Looks like a great start for Norris: 6.2 innings 5 hits 1 run 0 walks 8 strike outs 6:3 GB:FB.

[Schad]

I'm not sure they have a choice with Lugo.

Not only will Barreto start in Lansing, but Urena likely should be there as well. He's shown enough that I would be disappointed if they started him back in extended.

I think the bigger question is what do you do with Davis? If I'm moving Barreto off short, I want to move him to CF, but can you really start Davis in Dunedin?

I also think that CF is his eventual landing spot, but I wouldn't be surprised if he moved to 2B first. They'll give him the chance to stick in the infield, as the transition to the outfield is usually pretty painless.

And Norris' strikeout rate is pretty damned sexy...sitting at 12.4 K/9 in AA. Walk rate is down to a still-high 4.3 BB/9.