I only have one grand kid and she seems like the closest she will come to having an interest in baseball is a possible feigned interest for the purpose of dating a player.
In his first two drafts there are several players on both sides of the ball that are injured or still too young to show up yet. My hope is that this is a strategy to get the most out of picking late over the long term. I hope to see more of the same in this years draft and as these players are added to the full season teams they will prove to have been good investments in the teams future..
I thought his stuff looked night and day different than what we saw from Bloss in his first start. I came away from Bloss's start wondering if he had an out pitch. I think AJ showed he could get people out. I don't think I saw Arrighetti's first game and I can't remember Brown's (I think his was actually in relief) so I can't compare to them. I have no reason to be overly disappointed with AJ's outing yesterday.
Walker Janek will reach 150 plate appearances with Asheville today (they're playing a doubleheader) and all he's shown offensively is a rather empty batting average. That to me is pretty concerning because anyone on that team should be hitting for at least illusory power. It seems like he's a good athlete who has the chops for catcher. The bat can play, but that kind of doesn't matter if he can't hit balls with authority, and that just makes him another Garrett Stubbs at this point. Given his draft position, that outcome (becoming another Garrett Stubbs) would be profoundly disappointing.
That and $1.00 will get you a can of coke - maybe. They did say he was the best defensive catcher in the draft - but it really doesn't mean much if you are terrible with the bat. I am even fine with having a mediocre hitting catcher that can defend and handle pitchers, but I am not drafting them in the first few rounds.... too much changes once they work themselves up the minors and sometimes the best gloves cannot handle or prepare with a staff. This selection reminded me of some of the bad middle infielders that Luhnow would take in rounds 2-3 of the draft - one year we drafted a SS that barely hit 300 in college in round 2 and then seemed surprised that he did not hit in the high minors.
Nolan Fontana may be the first baseball player who didn't understand that he was supposed to swing the bat. If I remember correctly he couldn't slug .400 in Lancaster, which should have been the sign that he wasn't a real prospect.
For everybody writing off Blubaugh after he gave up 7 runs in his big league debut: Stat line from major league debut: Blubaugh: 4ip, 2er, 5h, 1bb, 6k Arrighetti: 3ip, 7er, 7h, 3bb, 3k Brown: 6ip, 0er, 3h, 1bb, 5k McCullers: 4.2ip, 1er, 3h, 3bb, 5k
Calling blubaugh start some kind of disaster is so bizarre to me. He had swing and miss stuff to him. He attacked the strike zone, he gave up 2 ER’s is all, and of the 7 runs not only were 5 unearned but 4 of them came on a 2 out 2 strike pop up to the Crawford boxes that had a 9% hit probability. good grief fans can be absurd at times. maybe he ends up sucking but that start should be regarded as promising not some harbinger of disaster.
I wasn’t blown away by Blubaugh - but I didn’t expect to be. He looked to me like he can get big league hitters out and if he keeps his command - he should be at least a #4 starter with the upside of #3. Honestly his overall pitch ability reminded me of Musgrove. He seems to be able to put guys away better but doesn’t quite have the same deception.
Miguel Ullola vs. Round Rock: 5 IP, H, 2 BB, 5 K Sugar Land won 3-0; Collin Price drove in all three runs with a single and a two-run double.
Manuel Urias @ San Antonio: 5 IP, 3 H, ER, 4 K The one run came on a solo homer. Michael Knorr and Tyler Guilfoil finished off a 3-1 Corpus win by throwing two scoreless innings apiece.
Powell finished 4-5 with 3 RBI; the third RBI came on an infield single. Max Holy went 3-3 with a double and three stolen bases, and Carlos Cauro also went deep (3) in Fayetteville's 6-2 win over Delmarva. Ramsey David allowed a run on three hits (solo homer), walked three, and struck out four in four innings. Luis Rodriguez pitched the last five innings and he allowed a run on six hits (solo homer), walked two, and struck out six.
Asheville split a doubleheader in Greenville, losing game 1 5-3 and winning game 2 4-3. Joseph Sullivan homered in the first game, his 5th of the year. Cristian Gonzalez drove in two with a sac fly and an RBI single. Chase Jaworsky played both games and he had two hits in each game. Garrett Guillemette hit his 4th home run in game 2. Juan Bello started game 1 and got the loss. He allowed 4 runs on 6 hits (2 solo homers), walked 1, and struck out 2. Anderson Brito got the start in game 2 and he allowed a run on three hits, walked two, and struck out two in four innings.
The Florida Complex League starts its season on Saturday and the transactions page has a few FCL-related roster moves: Promoted from DSL SS Hector Salas OF Juan Sierra 3B Wilton Lara C Yosweld Vasquez 2B Sandro Pereira OF Roiner Quintana RHP Javier Perez RHP Luis Aguilar RHP Jose Serrano RHP Jank Pichardo RHP Jhoster Baez RHP Norbis Diaz 2024 Draft Picks/UDFAs RHP Dylan Howard (8th round) RHP Jagger Beck (UDFA) RHP Parker Smith (4th round) OF Ethan Wagner (17th round)
Holy has 21 stolen bases in his first 30 pro games. Very likely the ceiling of a bench player but worth watching how he does the rest of this season. Middle infield defense, big walk rate, and high baserunning value can be a recipe for a 10 year career as a 13th guy.
Note to all posters, you are never, ever allowed to be critical of anything you observe of a prospect. If you do, then that means you have written them off as a disater who will never amount to anything.
Hahah. It seems like you’re getting ganged up on in this thread, but I think the backlash is more carryover from the game thread where it seemed like there were more people writing off Blubaugh.
