I’m really looking forward to seeing how Bailey and Rodgers perform. Both could be pleasant surprises.
That control was something that would make Charlie sheen blush. Actually it looked like he had the yips. My oldest went through that. Weird though - it didn’t impact his pitching. Just soft throws.
Looking at a snippet from Fangraphs has Bailey as having a 92-94 mph "flat-planed" fastball. I take "flat-planed" to mean that his fastball has a normal arc instead of an actually flatter high-spin fastball.
Spoiler 1. Forrest Whitley 2. Kyle Tucker 3. Josh James 4. Yordan Alvarez 5. J.B. Bukauskas 6. Corbin Martin 7. Freudis Nova 8. Seth Beer 9. Cionel Perez 10. Framber Valdez Next 5 11. Rogelio Armenteros 12. Luis Santana 13. Ross Adolph 14. Jonathan Arauz 15. Abraham Toro Others of Note Alex McKenna Jairo Solís (out for season - Tommy John)
Bielak getting some shine via BA. He's going to blow up on prospect lists this season if his ascent continues. https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/brandon-bielak-continues-to-impress/
The Express and Hooks will play a two games series Saturday March 30 in Corpus and Sunday March 31 in Round Rock. Wish they would do three games Fri, Sat, and Sun. With the third in Houston. Looks like I might be taking a road trip.
Fangraphs Top 100 is out: 4. Whitley 10. Tucker 50. Martin 88. Bukauskas 98. James 100. C. Perez 125. Alvarez https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2019-top-100-prospects/
Seems like James should be higher than 98. Hard to complain when you’ve got 7 of the top 125, though, and 2 top 10. What’s Martins MLB comp? Ceiling and floor?
Alvarez is the weird one on this list. How is he not top 100? The dude is 21, very athletic (by all reports), coming off a season in which he hit right around .290 with 20 HR and 70+ RBI in less than 90 games between AA and AAA? By all definitions that is a top 100 prospect. Extrapolate those numbers over the course of a full minor league season (138 games) and you have 31 HR and 116 RBI. I know that his numbers dipped a bit in AAA upon his promotion, but rebounded with a really solid August (.290 avg and an .829 OPS). His numbers against LH Pitchers are also very encouraging. While he only hit .266 vs. RH pitching, he hit .349 vs. LH pitching (albeit in just over 110 PA's). His OPS and power were both better against RH pitching, but he proved that he's more than capable against LHP. Anyways, those are all the reasons why I don't understand him being ranked outside the top 100. I do love the fact that we have 7 guys in the top 125 though.
I would have guessed James would be near the top of the FV55 Tier (19-45). The average FV50 pitcher rakes up 2.3 WAR over club control years and the median pitcher rakes up 0.4 WAR over club control years. There is a decent chance James rakes up 2.3 WAR this season and he was able to do 0.4 WAR last season. The median to average pitcher from the FV50 tier ends up as something like Michael Feliz (one good/decent year, but never truly breaking through). Unless 2018 was a complete fluke, James is likely better than Feliz. Been hearing good things about Martin. Floor/ceiling probably isn't helpful as he is likely somewhere between completely sucking to maybe snagging some Cy Young votes. He's in same Tier as James. Ranking basically says he might be good, but road to majors for pitchers is very tough except for the truly elite pitcher prospects.
Looks like they are penalizing him heavily for defensive limitations. I think Alvarez is probably in the 50-75 range. His bat will have to carry him but he could be David Ortiz.
