He stirkes me, now that Diaz is doing things, as a Jake Rogers type trade piece but a great backup option to have in reserve *or* he's the backup catcher (40% of games?) next season
Salvador Perez is leading the league in hits with 36 and 6 walks. I'm not saying he is Perez, but he is a major upgrade to Maldy.
What age was Bregman promoted to the Stros? We let too many prospects sit in the minors too long like Whitley and many more
Is your contention that Whitley would have been successful in the majors had he been promoted sooner? He’s gotten utterly rocked in the upper levels of the minors, yet somehow he would have gotten big league hitters out? Hm. The only players left in the minors too long were guys they kept down in order to manipulate their service time.
No way. Almost every season they've made a call up that injected life into the dog days of summer and then some. It's a running gag in the threads. Here is to Drew continuing the tradition. All in consecutive seasons: Carlitos, Lance, Alejandro, Teoscar, Musgrove, King Tuck, Some guy named Yordan, Xavi, Meyers(anticipation was there) and Young Brother Brown. I definitely forgot a few that had some hype. Fisher? Kemp.
Stay tuned. Both McCormick and Meyers have struggled at times in the past. McCormick got off to a good start, and Meyers has turned it around - but neither is a natural hitter, so they sometimes struggle.
We need a young upcoming all-star level player... like what we had with Tucker and Alvarez in 2019... and Bregman/Correa in 2016. Gilbert gives us a realistic shot at a player on this level (although slightly lower ceiling than any of those four).
I’m a pretty big prospect hugger, but if we’re relying on Gilbert, Whitley, et al to save the season…that doesn’t seem to bode well for the 2023 campaign
I know they are playing Clifford at 1B a little, but at this point they should just leave him there unless he shows zero aptitude for the position. The outfield has gotten more than a little full in our organization
That’s pretty big imho. If Clifford hits well in Asheville, posting a k rate <25% with a double digit walk rate and hitting for solid power, he will show me that he has an elite ceiling as a hitter and I would value him like one of the 100 prospects in the league. It is pretty rare for 19 year olds to excel in high A (although Kyle Tucker and Carlos Correa both did).
The last rather heralded high school left/left 1B/corner OF in recent times looks like Jake Bauers, who started 2015 in High-A at 19 and did alright (.267/.357/.433 with 6 HR in 59 games), even though the Florida State League skews more towards pitchers. However, if I remember correctly, Bauers was also pretty much viable only at 1B and didn't have a great deal of projection remaining. Clifford accelerating his timeline would be... pretty big for this organization.
Just came to see if there is any good news? Not much of it at the ML level right now. Looking for another diamond in the rough. We got lots of rough, so who knows?
I'm not even sure how to compare to previous years prior to the elimination of short season ball, not to mention the pandemic and changes to the draft since then. With those caveats, this is incredibly aggressive compared to those eventual stars. Correa, who was really young for his class, spent his entire first season at low A. Tucker got a brief taste of high A at the end of his first season. Barring injury or promotion/demotion, Clifford will spend more time at High-A than Low-A this season. One interesting aspect of Clifford's promotion is his new home park. Asheville's 297 ft RF makes it one of the most hitter friendly environments east of the Mississippi. The one thing Clifford hasn't done a ton of is hitting for power, with only two HRs on the year. It's hard to imagine him being better than he already has been, but it might be an ideal environment to get him to tap into his power.
He needs to play RF as much as he can, if he can, when he can. That's a very difficult position to fill with a star-level player. LF/1B is a fallback and he's been playing some there, but there's no reason for him to be getting reps in LF
Indeed. It never makes sense to take a real prospect and play him anywhere other than the toughest position he can play until he conclusively proves he can’t play it, imo.
