Just a quick basic look at the numbers of some of the more interesting A's prospects so far this season.  JFTR, when i started the post, I was rounding all percentages up or down, but once I got to AA, I left a few in tact (middlers).  K% from PAs, not ABs.  Wrote this post over two days, so below AA is one game behind.

Mostly worked from here:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/2011-organization-batting.shtml

Burlington-

Yordy Cabrera: .255/.326/.392 10%bb 27%k .137 ISO 108ops+ (fudge, hope that's legilble)

Cabrera is holding his own in his first real stint in professional ball. Important to remember that the environment is quite difficult to hit in.  A bit more strikeouts than you'd like, but the walk rate and power are very decent (again, for the environment).  15 errors in 42 games at SS.  A-ball players make a lot of errors.  Doesn't necessarily mean anything. 

 

Tony Thompson: .285/.363/.403 9%bb 12%k .118 ISO 122ops+

Former Big 10 triple crown winner as a sophomore putting up a line that's a bit unsexy, but actually quite nice, and well above average for the league.  Unusual for an A's prospect in that he doesn't strike out much, while maintaining a decent walk rate and decent power (though "decent" is as far as the praise can go).  High contact rate should allow him to hit for a good batting average going forward (as it has this year).  Probably the best candidate on the team for an early promotion (assuming the fielding isn't awful; 11 errors in 51g between 1B/3B), as there's some pedigree behind the performance.

Josh Whitaker: .324/.395/.541 9%bb 26%k .217 ISO 170ops+

Only writing him up because he's vastly outhitting the rest of the team (and the league). He's hit 18 doubles and 4 home runs. I don't know anything about him, other than he was a 25th round pick, out of Kennesaw St., where he hit pretty decently.  Turned 22 in Feb, so he's older, but not ancient.  He's splitting time between 1B and DH.  I assume he has no defensive value.  Anybody got anything on him?

Everybody else- The rest of the team is just there, at best.  AJKJ has been hurt and hasn't made hard contact when healthy.  Nino Leyja is walking but hitting for no power.  Consigli blah.  Ryan Pineda, who led the Big West in home runs in 2010, has lived up to his late round draft billing with an awful season (.571 ops).

Stockton-

Michael Choice: .242/.342/.470 12%bb 28%k .228 ISO 107ops+

Borderline disastrous season.  The only positive is his power, and it's really not great for a college guy at A+ who was described as having near 70 power (just read that in an old Goldstein chat; hey BP archives one year or older are free now).  Contact rate has been abysmal.  Had a five strikeout game on June 3.  It's hard to tell by 7 seven games of data, but the A's may have staged an intervention at that point, as he's only struck out 3 times in his last 32 PAs since the five strikeout game.  Choice needs serious reworking if he's going to be anything.  He can't maintain a batting average or OBP with a 28%k rate.  His overall line isn't an unlucky babip creation.  His babip is low for the Cal League (.308), but it's hardly awful.

Dusty Coleman: .215/.298/.378 10%bb 34%k .163 ISO 73ops+

Only mention him because of his former status before injury caused him to miss last season.  Same problems as Choice, but he strikes out even more and has less power.  He's missed some games in June, so maybe he's banged up again.  The performance has obviously been awful.  13 errors in 58 games at SS also.  After having missed last year, he's not young anymore, turned 24 in April.  Not much to say on him right now, other than sigh.

Rashun Dixon: .242/.330/.398 11%bb 23%k .156 ISO 87ops+

Y'know, Dixon had an underrated season last year.  Looked utterly middling on paper, but he actually had a 111ops+ as a 19 year old in A ball.  Not great, but not worthy of being written off.  Ok, the season was in large part high babip driven, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The flat production hasn't carried over so far to A+, but he's having a very similar season, aside from babip.  Idk.  He's still very young.  The bb% is good.  The k% is high, but an improvement over the 26% of last year.  Power isn't there, but he's a big athletic kid and the power isn't non-existent.  He's not two XBH a season guy like Tyreace House.  The season is uninspiring at best so far, and he's probably headed to a repeat, but it's not a disaster, imo.

My cursor has disappeared somewhere. This is very annoying.

Everybody else- Not much to mention on the rest of the team.  Crumbliss takes an obscene amount of walks, Blankenshipesque, but he can't do anything else.  Ryan Ortiz is playing well and taking loads of walks as well, but he was hurt and only has 69 PAs so far.  Max Stassi hasn't played in weeks, and wasn't hitting before that, although the K% was way down through 31 games.  Myrio Richard is sorta holding his own.  Toolshed, never shown anything in the minors so far.

Midland-

Grant Green: .283/.332/.385 6.5%bb 19%k .102 ISO 89ops+

Very disappointing.  His strikeout and walk percentages are flat from Stockton, but he's hitting for far less power.  He's only hit two home runs, one triple, and fifteen doubles so far on the season.  Last year he hit 20 home runs and 39 doubles (six triples).  Green doesn't walk and his defense is shaky.  If he doesn't hit for power either, that leaves nothing but a punchless batting average.  The power *and* the defense need to come around for him to be a quality starter in the big leagues, so the regression is particularly troublesome.  Moving in the wrong direction. 14 errors in 54 games at SS.

Stephen Parker: .255/.333/.396 11%bb 21%k .141 ISO 92ops+

Parker received several nice scouting notices for his hitting after last season, so there was some hope he wasn't a Cal League creation.  Well, hasn't turned out so far.  Could stand to put more balls in play, a bit unlucky with babip probably (.306), and he's not hitting for power.  14 errors also (53 g 3B, 6 1B).  Eh.  Not much to see here.  BB% is pretty nice.

Michael Spina: .262/.375/.466 13.5%bb 22%k .204 ISO 121ops+

Fast start in April (when he hit six home runs and only struck out 15%), but cooled dramatically since.  No defensive value.  Not much hope here.

Jermaine Mitchell:  .372/.479/.661 17%bb 17.5%k .289 ISO 199ops+

Wtf?  Mitchell is having a great start, and there is no sign he's slowing down (8 hits in his last 15 abs).  He's walking more and striking out less than he ever has before.  bb% has always been high, but it's straight elite so far this year.  He's hit an amazing 13 triples, to go along with 14 doubles, and 10 home runs.  Dunno what exactly this is any more than anybody else, but it sure is interesting.  Sadly, he's well blocked at Sacto, where Matt Carson is the weakest outfielder, and he's pretty damn good (relatively speaking).  Would like to see Carson pushed aside for Mitchell, but could see why the A's wouldn't want to do that.  Maybe Taylor to the bigs and Mitchell to his spot.  The list of players who've broken out at 26 in their sixth minor league season is I assume very very short, so probably not worth getting very excited over Mitchell, but damn is he destroying the league right now.

everybody else- Sulentic still no power.  Ladendorf still hasn't turned those JUCO pinball numbers into anything in professional ball.  Petey Paramore still a horrible horrible pick in the third round a few years back.  Jeremy Barfield just a guy.

Sacramento-

Michael Taylor: .296/.355/.490 7.5%bb 23%k .194 ISO 109ops+

What a difference a day makes.  Taylor hit two home runs yesterday, and he's still has few enough at bats that they made a dramatic difference in his overall stats.  Only 107 PAs so far, so would be foolish to look too hard into any of the numbers.  The best thing about his season so far is that he's already hit five home runs, which is one less than he hit last year in 523 PAs.  That overall line is the kind of line that he looked likely to hit in Oakland before last season's struggles.  Hopefully he's rediscovering his swing.  We shouldn't forget that this guy was damn near the most complete hitter in the minors going into last season (ZIPS had him projected to OPS over .800 in the bigs going into 2010).  There is very significant talent here.  It's just a matter of unleashing it.

Adrian Cardenas: .329/.401/.438 10%bb 8%k (holy shit!) .109 ISO 110ops+

Cardenas is doing what he does.  He puts a shit load of balls in play and hits lots of singles.  He's back at 2B now that Weeks has been promoted, and that's great for him, because he has no chance of cracking an MLB lineup at any other position.  I asked Goldstein on Twitter last month why he wasn't playing 3B,.."because he's a BAD infielder".  You'll note that the overall production is nothing special despite the high average.  Cardenas looks like a slower Luis Castillo with less defense to me.  He can hit enough to play 2B for someone in the majors, if given the opportunity, but he's clearly less than either Weeks or Sizemore, so he's not a good option for the A's.  Would be nice if they'd deal him so he could get a shot with someone, imo.

Jai Miller: .312/.425/.688 14%bb 34%k .376 ISO .172ops+

What do you even do with this season?  This is a Jack Cust in the minors season from a CF.  Unfortunately for Miller, although he's been a very very high babip player over his career, and clearly hits the ball extremely hard, he still ain't no Jack Cust (i don't think).  It's easy with simple math to show why Miller has no hope of becoming a decent MLB player.  Using 100 at bats, because it's easy, if we give Miller credit for being a 5/100 HR hitter, which is generous, we're left with 95 at bats (and a 5/5 hit base).  Miller is striking out in 34% of his plate appearances, but he's striking out in 41% of his ABs.  So, let's subtract 41 from 95, and we're left with 55 balls in play.  If Miller has a .333 babip (and he is a high babip guy), that crunches out to 18 hits.  Add back the five home runs, and we're left with a .230 hitter.  His contact rate is so abysmal, that even with a .333 babip, he'd still only be a .230 hitter.  If his babip is league average (.288), he's a .210 hitter.  He has very significant secondary skills, but he really would have to be Custian in walks and power to be a good hitter with his contact rate.  He's playing so well, you can't really move him aside for Mitchell (he's also slightly younger), but he's not a legitimate option either.

If I'm making some sort of error in babip calculation, one of you assholes correct me (gently). :p

Shane Peterson: .305/.390/.500 12.4%bb 18.6%k .195 ISO 120ops+

So, this is out of nowhere.  Peterson was part of the Holliday trade.  Was considered a decent prospect at the time.  I believe Sickels gave him a B- after that season.  He's done pretty much jack shit since the A's got him, 8 home runs in over 700 PAs, and other than a good walk rate, nothing else either.  He's still young (23 in Feb), and when Carter went down, he got the 1B assignment at Sacto.  He's hitting for pretty good power, almost matching his home run total from the previous two full years, and he's kicked up the walk rate from good to strong.  Iirc, his defense is considered strong as well. He's been a bit lucky.  He's hit three triples and his babip is high, but he's got a nice base of a season to build on.  Interested to see what he can do the rest of the way. 

Anthony Recker: .325/.408/.579 12%bb 19%k .254 ISO 143ops+

Hitting so well I have to write him up.  What's gotten into Anthony Recker?  He's hitting like he did in A+ years ago when a bunch of us were pretty damn excited about him.  He's killing the ball.  It's almost a shame that Suzuki is so good, because it'd be pretty cool for Recker to get some sort of shot.  Recker's age 27 season.  Another guy you'd like to see go elsewhere where he'd have a better shot at sticking as at least a backup.  Then again, Powell is arby eligible after this season, and between Recker and Donaldson, one of the two is more than capable of being a cheaper backup.  We'll see.

Everybody else:  Carter doesn't have enough PAs to write up.  Sogard is having a Sogard season.  He's so far down the depth chart though and he's taking a valuable 40 man spot.  Would not be surprised if he's traded or DFA over the course of the season.  Josh Donaldson had a horrible start.  It seems like a lot of guys stall a bit after hitting AAA and then not making the big club the next season.  He's rebounded well in the last month.  Josh Horton is just about done.  Promoting him didn't kickstart the bat.  Matt Carson is Matt Carson.  Fine guy to stash in AAA for emergencies. 

Herschel Walker has heard Jose Canseco's challenge to fight, and he is not amused. The 47-year-old is still doing media rounds following his weekend win over Greg Nagy in his professional MMA debut for Strikeforce. Speaking to the Dallas-based Bob and Dan Radio show, Walker cautioned Canseco for calling him out and said he didn't think Canseco realized how serious he is about MMA and his training. ..."Jose wants to do this for money," Walker said. "My thing is, if he wants to fight me and he thinks it's going to be a circus, I will hurt him. This is not a joke, I will hurt him, because I don't do things as a joke. I don't do this as entertainment. If we go out and play a flag football game, that's entertainment. We're having fun. But this MMA fighting, is real. You can get hurt, and he doesn't understand it. I do this as an MMA fighter, not as a joke."

Read the full story here.

Lmao. Would love to see this fight. Herschel's fight on Saturday for Strikeforce was really fun, and watching Jose barely escape with his life while fighting 7'2 Korean giant Hong-man Choi was fun too.

"I have no idea what’s going on. You tell me." I couldn’t. Because anyone who’s followed the team knows only this about the strange situation: The A’s, who buried Buck like an old bone shortly after he asked to rest a tweaked oblique in Texas last May, have continued to pile dirt on him all winter. He is the invisible outfielder. He’s less than an afterthought to the A’s, who have sent message after unflattering message to Buck over the past eight months. The messages, delivered via demotions, challenges to his work ethic and manhood, silent treatments and, most recently, the signings of Coco Crisp and Gabe Gross and the rumors linking the A’s to Johnny Damon, have Buck’s head spinning -- if not on the verge of exploding.

Lots of quotes from Buck in the article, positive and negative about the A's, including the fact that he plans to come to ST with a fire under his ass to "force their hand", which Urban interprets as force the A's to trade him.

Read the full story here.

Bonds Blockbuster: The Clear was legal

Taking the Clear – the star drug of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative – was not a crime, according to expert testimony included in grand jury documents.

Not only was the performance-enhancing drug tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) not specifically banned when athletes squirted “The Clear” under their tongues to gain an edge, the testimony also indicates that the drug wasn’t categorized by the Justice Department as a steroid until January 2005, long after the drug laboratory had been shuttered.

THG was classified as an illegal steroid on Jan. 20, 2005, the date that the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 took effect. The Act eliminated the previous requirement to prove muscle growth and listed 59 specific substances instead of the previous 23 as anabolic steroids. The new law closed the designer drug window exploited by Conte. But it was not retroactive.

So much more at the link, including speculation by lawyers who think the government will have difficulty proving perjury since the questions Bonds answered were "impossibly vague" and Bonds is technically correct that he didn't take steroids.  All sorts of other insights into BALCO, the Cream and the Clear: what they do and whether or not they are steroids or can be proved to be steroids, and the government's bungling of the BALCO investigation and prosecutions as well.  Fun stuff.

http://tinyurl.com/68s89k

Astros had to get payroll down $20 million so they decided they couldn't afford Wiggington.  Wiggington really hit last year, .285/.350/.526, ops+ 128, eqa .290, and he's consistently been an above average hitter his entire career..  He's not a good defensive player, but he's not terrible.  He's basically Casey Blake with more pop. He could be signed to play 1B until the time when Chavez (inevitably) breaks down.  He's enough of an upgrade on Barton that strictly playing at 1B he'd probably be a good pickup.