OKC starts in 4 minutes, and they take on veteran lefty Shawn Estes and the Isotopes. Max Ramirez is back in the lineup as a DH. Go Max! It's also a "rest day" for Borbon, as he's in LF with Golson in CF today.

Mighty Joe Wieland goes for the Crawfish @ 6, they'll face the Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox), a team with no prospects on its active roster. It's a veteran team, so I'll be charting Wieland tonight. Check LSB shortbus Crops on the Farm for all the latest impact analysis and hot sports opinions about the move.

At 9:30, the Blaze continue their home and home against the San Jose giants, as Blake Beavan takes the hill. The Giants still have a great offense.

Shroomer Props!

I am pretty sure Ron Darling is retarded. My god, that was the worst broadcast I have ever heard, not only did the three broadcasters have all the attention span of a gnat, but there were at least two play-by-plays missed each inning because the three stooges decided that the entire world just had to hear their hot sport opinions about controversial and rarely addressed topics such as David Ortiz's slump and how Texas Rangers traded five aces. Honestly, it sounds like they did all of 5 minutes of research for the only fucking game they had all week. That's just a poorly constructed, lazy broadcast crew, and I hope they all get genital herpes. Except for David Wells, that guy needs to get hit by a truck.

Also, what's with that weird "First Batter Faced" statistic display rather than, you know, things that matter like walk rate, strike out rate, IP, ERA, or even holds and saves. It just reeks of trying too hard.

Today in the minors, the Hickory Crawdads have already gotten it going. Carlos Pimentel has been awesome so far, giving up only 2 hits and 1R in 4IP.

The Bakersfield Blaze tries to earn a series split with the San Jose Giants with Michael Main taking the mound for the Blaze. MM has been lit up by the Giants this year, including that disappointing show down against Tim Alderson. It'll be good to see MM do well against this great lineup.

Omar Poveda goes back to Frisco today. He'll face Northwest Arkansas at 6 PM. The NY Arkansas team has a lot of guys way too old for the Texas League, so it'll be good to see another strong performance from Omar.

Finally, the OKC Redhawks sends out Josh Rupe against the Isotopes and hopes he won't suck too much. Don't hold your breath.

Shroomer Props

Discussion: Fastballs, Fastballs, and More Fastballs

I've done a bit of pitch tracking this year, and while the majority of the announcers cannot properly differentiate between a slider and a curve, the ability to differentiate between fastballs and breaking balls is pretty good. So far, it seems like a lot of the Ranger's top prospects are fastball happy. Neftali Feliz's last start had him around 85% FB. Kennil Gomez's had him at 80%. There were some starts where Wilmer Font uses 90%+ FB. In fact, the only prospects who consistently use their breaking stuff are Kasey Kiker and Blake Beavan, and even Beavan is frequently above 70% FB. What do you think is the reason for our over-reliance on fastballs? Do you think it impacts the development of their breaking stuff? Do you think it's a healthy developmental regimen?

It's a night made for the likes of Brett Perryman as some of the best high-upside Latin talents in the organization goes tonight.

Hickory will play the Greensboro Grasshoppers tonight and Wilmer Font is listed as the probable starter for tonight. The Greensboro lineup is not particularly impressive, so it'll be interesting to see how fastball reliant Wilmer becomes against this lineup of weak hitters.

At 7, the Frisco Roughriders take on the Tulsa Drillers behind Michael Kirkman. The Tulsa lineup is especially weak against lefties, so it'll be good to see Kirkman do well here. Of course, he's also facing the Rockie's best prospect Jhouyls Chacin - a GB machine with a good arsenal, so this weak Frisco lineup might not give him much help.

At 7:05, the OKC Redhawks attempt to take the series from the Memphis Redbirds. Four A pitcher Neftali Feliz will go for the Redhawks, so let's hope for a good game.

Finally, at 9, Kennil Gomez will go for the Blaze against the San Jose Giants. I would like to see Gomez do well against this very good Giants lineup.

Shroomer Props

Discussion: Can You Say no to the Kodiak Bear?

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

This comely fellow is Richard Poythress, his nickname is the Kodiak Bear. He's one of the best bats in this college class, but he's falling because he has the defensive flexibility of a crippled Max Ramirez. However, that bat seems real. Let's say it's draft day, and this fellow is available with the 2nd round pick. He's certainly the best prospect available at this point, but given the Rangers' large amount of talent at 1B, would you take him despite other needs? Likewise, if at some point the Rangers unload Hank Blalock on, say, the Chicago White Sox, and JD is offered someone like Jon Link, a relief pitcher, or the positionally challenged Tyler Flowers. Do you go for the better prospect or the greater position of need?

It's a pretty slow night tonight for the Minors Thread, as the most exciting prospects are currently being delayed by rain in Hickory.

Whenever Hickory gets started, the duo of Martin Perez and Jacob Brigham will take on the Greensboro Grasshoppers (Marlins). The Hoppers have their share of young prospects as well, but they're not exactly performing well, especially 2008 top 10 pick Kyle Skipworth. Overall, the team is pretty weak. (Hickory is now Post-poned)

Also, Mike Bianucci and Matt West fancies themselves as pirates. (Thanks to NC's fantastic Crawdad blog)

In Bakersfield, the Blaze takes on a very good offensive San Jose team, despite the fact that San Jose lost Brandon Crawford to promotion and that Angel V. is once again a hot and cold bat. Tim Murphy starts for the Blaze, and it'd be really nice to see him at least make some progress, I might pitch chart the game to see if anything stands out.

Organizational solider Michael Ballard will take on Tulsa at 7 in Frisco. Without Smoak or any pitching prospects, Frisco is a rather boring team right now.

Finally, Luis Mendoza comes back from his strep throat as the Redhawks take on the Memphis Redbirds.

Shroomer Props

Discussion: Nicknames

With more attention being paid to the ML team, the quality of Nicknames for minor league players have surely suffered, as evidenced by my uttely lame attempt to find a fitting nickname for the Martin Perez/Jacob Brigham combo. Take some time to go over the current nicknames used for minor league players. What nicknames do you use for particular players? Explain the reasoning behind it. Who the hell is cankles, dirk-a-tron? Without a top of the line pitching prospect going, this is the perfect time to do some house keeping.

Three pretty good prospects going tonight for the Rangers.

At 7, Kasey Kiker takes on the Tulsa Drillers, who he faced his last time out - when he lasted 3 2/3 due to high pitch counts. He will face a Tulsa lineup that's one of the worst in the Texas league.

At about 10 minutes later, Guillermo Moscoso takes on a veteran Memphis squad who is quite a tough matchup. I look forward to seeing how Julio Borbon perform for this team as well.

At 9:05, LSB mascot Blake Beavan will take on an ice-cold Visalia Raw Hide team.

Discussion: The Nate McLouth trade

Wow. Did anyone see this coming? The Pirates trade Nate McLouth to the Braves for Gorkys Hernandez (one of the best defensive CFs in the minors last year), Jeff Locke (a lefty with good stuff), and extraneous starter Charlie Morton. This opens up a spot in the Pirates OF for Andrew McCutchen, but I can't help but think that the Pirates did not get optimal value for a player coming off of a very good season, and was still cheap. How does this deal compare with some of the other deals made in the last few years? Is there a more boom or bust OF alignment than Jose Tabata, Gorkys Hernandez and Andrew McCutchen?

Will this officially signal an early start to the trading season? Will it drive a team like the Mets to make a move to keep up?

Shroomer props!

OKC is already deep into their game, trailing 7-4. Josh Rupe gave up all 7 earned runs, as well as 9 hits in his continued effort to prove that he's terrible. Point taken, Josh.

Also, Joaquin Arias, Julio Borbon and Greg Golson have all walked for the second straight game. Golson has 4 walks in his last 6 plate appearances.I don't know what's going on either.

Hickory faces off against Delmarva again T 6:05 tonight, with lefty oddity Yoo-Hee Nam going for the Crawdads. Carlos Pimentel has been sent back to extended, so maybe we'll see the debut of Neil Ramirez pretty soon.

Frisco's Kasey Kiker gets it started at 7:05 against former Rangers affiliate Tulsa. He'll face off against fringe prospect Esmil Rogers, a 23 year old with good control. The Tulsa team, save the very good Jhoulys Chacin, is filled with fringe prospects like Darin Holcomb and Chris Nelson, but they all sport good walk rates and comparatively low strikeout rates. It'll be a good test for KK.

Bakersfield gets going at 9:30 against the hated Stockton Ports, who saw the debut of Jemile "Not Justin Smoak" Weeks yesterday. Michael Main will face off against Ben Hornbeck, who's a lefty with good offspeed stuff that sports a huge strikeout rate. Pray for Engel Beltre tonight.

Discussion: Mitch Moreland

So with his promotion to the Texas League, Mitch Moreland finds himself in an age-appropriate league for the first time in his career. Moreland was named Topps Midwest League player of the year last year, but failed to make BA's league top 20 list or the Rangers top 30 prospects list (he was 31).

Moreland's start this year has been exceptional, but through his career, he's been overwhelmingly consistent. His walk rates and strikeout rates are almost the same this year in Bakersfield as they were last year in Clinton. His performance against righthanders (.921 OPS for his career) is actually inferior to his performance against lefties  (.940 OPS). His strikeout rate has never exceeded 15% in full season ball, and his walk rate has never dropped below 10%. In short, this is not the Mitch Moreland who was drafted in the 17th round in 2007. His plate coverage has improved, and his approach is as good as it gets in the system. In fact, for the year, his wOBA is actually the best of any Rangers prospect (including Pina, Smoak and Bianucci).

So what do you make of Mitch Moreland? Is he a burgeoning slugger or just a guy who's found success against inferior competition? Where does he rank relative to the 2nd tier sluggers of this organization (Bianucci, Max Ramirez)? Is he the 2nd coming of Nate Gold? Emerson Frostad? Or is this legit?

Here's a video of Beltre-Lawson-Moreland hitting against Tim Alderson. Moreland is the third batter.

This article briefly describes Moreland's approach to lefties vs. righties.

Against southpaws, Moreland drags down his personal power expectations even further, and it's reflective in his numbers. While the Amory, Miss. native has a better on-base percentage against left-handed pitchers (.400) than right-handed pitchers (.389), three of his 32 extra-base hits have been against lefties. Moreland insists the numbers bear out a product of design.

"A lot of the times I face lefties when runners are in scoring position," he said, "And I really want to try and get the ball in play, make something happen. I kind of look to hit up the middle or the other way against a lefty."

I just sold my Ford and purchased a Toyota just to spite the city of Detroit.

If you're looking to feel better, this is probably the night to do it.

The Oklahoma Redhawks have a late start at 9 vs. the Las Vegas 51s, now affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays. 51 hitters aren't exactly patient, but they have a very veteran (old) lineup including guys like Russ Adams, Jason Lane, and Howie Clark. It's an interesting test for Neftali. He also faces former Rangers great and Buck Showalter nemesis Fabio Castro, who's having a wonderful year so far.

The Roughriders try to win a series against the Midland Rockhounds. The hounds throw out a pretty good lineup, but Chris Carter hasn't hit as well as expected, and the majority of their pop is left handed. It should be a good matchup for Kasey Kiker, if he chooses not to walk/hit the world.

The Blaze send out Richard Bleier, who was rocked his last start, against the Stockton Ports. They'll face Tyson Ross, a second round pick from last year's draft.

Finally, Crawfish Nation sends Carlos Pimentel against Richard Zagones and the Delmarva (delaware, maryland, Virginia) Shorebirds, who might be the least interesting team in the history of existance. Almost all their prospects strikeout a lot and doesn't walk much, we'll have to check if that team is managed by Marlon Byrd.

Discussion:

Look at all the relief arms in the system!

Matt Nevarez is rocking a 38.8 K% and a more-than-acceptable 10.3% BB. (He has struck out 1/2 the batters he faced so far in May, and only walked 5% of them). Setup man Yoon Hee Nam has been good despite his lacking arsenal and Mark Hamburger has an astounding 1.4% BB to go along with a 20% K and a 55% GB.

The entire Bakersfield bullpen save one sports sub-3 ERAs, with the standouts being Zach Phillips (4.4% BB, 28% K, 58% GB) and Evan Reed (13% BB, 23% K, 63% GB). Brennan Garr was also excellent, but he's still walking the world in Frisco.

The OKC bullpen is headlined by old veterans like Brian Gordon and Bryan Corey, but Beau Vaughan (8% BB, 28% K, 39% GB) has been a pleasant surprise.

So to you, who's the best relief prospect in the Rangers system?

Also, leave your worst wishes for the City of Detroit, their professional sports teams, and the curly haired future bust the lions just drafted here.

Shroomer props

Thanks to Shroomer for his site!

Early starts for all of the Rangers minor league affiliates today, and a day off for Frisco after being rained out last night.

For the Crawfish, Cliff Springston still finds himself in the rotation as the Crawdad face Lake County.

Bakersfield sends Michael Main to the mound @ 3 against the league leading Visalia Rawhide. More on Michael Main later.

Finally, OKC starts Tommy Hunter against the Tacoma Rainiers. The Rainiers (Mariners) are almost the complete opposite of their parent team - they have a lot of left handed hitters with a lot of power (Saunders, Clement, Carp, LaHair are all good power hitters), but a generally awful defense highlighted by the fact that Chris Shelton is the current starting 3B for him. This will be a good test for Tommy.

Random discussion:

Is Blake Beavan the best pitching prospect on the Bakersfield Blaze?

Forget the high as pie ERA, currently Blake Beavan is getting more groundballs than he was last year while striking out more hitters (he's up to 17% vs about 15% last year) and still not walking anyone (4.7%). His HR% is the same as it was last year, so it is at least somewhat reasonable that he maintains his current pace. So essentially, Blake has maintained all of his good qualities while improving his weaknesses.

Contrast this with Michael Main. Never mind the struggles he's had this year, MM has never been a great GB pitcher. Even last year his GB% was 31%. This year it's 35%. If anything, it's a wonder that he doesn't have a even worse ERA given that his HR/F is at 4%. At this point, I'm wondering why we accepted Main as a top 5 prospect given his obvious warts. The other peripherals are even uglier, so we'll just brush over it.

As far as the other pitchers go - there's a lot to like and a lot of red flags. Kennil Gomez has an unreal GB% (59%) and a very promising K% (24%), but his BB% is becoming a problem (13%). I still expect his ERA to drop given his uncommonly high HR% for a guy who gets so many ground balls. Michael Kirkman is certainly playing well, but I'm wondering how sustainable his performance is given his low GB% (43%) and his relatively low HR% (2%). He's still a very good pitcher, but just not as good as his surface stats show.

So, what are your thoughts, who is the best pitching prospect for the Blaze right now?

The Twins have 4 picks in the scope of our mock, coming in with

#22

#46

#70

#101

After taking their fair share of HS bats and college arms the last few years, I'm probably going to hope for some more polished bats, but the usual BPA philosophy applies here. I will also account for signability concerns, so it's not very likely you see me draft someone like Jacob Turner when mocking the Twins, despite the fact that he's a very good prospect. I'll come out with some top 10 lists at each draft pick, and we can debate it through then. I'm very open to suggestions as well.

Since the Rangers are in Seattle today, let's celebrate with a minors thread.

After a long rain delay, Elizardo Ramirez takes the mound for the Redhawks looking to bounce back from an absolute schellacing and then an implosion by Pedro Strop in back to back games. Slightly Angry Max is not yet in the lineup tonight.

In Frisco, Kasey Kiker finally gets his shot at the Corpus Christie hooks after being pushed back for uber-prospect Kris Benson.

In Bakersfield, Kennil Gomez is looking to recover his excellent control after having his last outing shorted by a power outage (lol tball joke).

Hickory is off tonight after Martin Perez and Jacob Brigham sent Lakewood home crying.

Discussion:

What is wrong with Julio Borbon? After flying out in his first AB, Julio has been in a death spiral the last few weeks, with his slash numbers being down to .268/.343/.309. That's Drew Meyer awful!

Well, looking at his numbers, his BABIP isn't awfully low (it's at .287), so not all of it is luck. The problem, so far, is his awful GB%. Last year, Julio Borbon's GB% was 59% in Bakersfield and an acceptable 54% during his Frisco breakout. This year, it's up to 64%. Combined with his less-than-optimal 14% LD rate, it's obvious he's not hitting the ball with any sort of authority. Nevertheless, we can expect a slight regression in his BABIP (towards .300 or so), but the utter lack of power after a very encouraging summer is discouraging (his ISOP is 1/3 of what it was at Frisco and 1/2 of what it was at Bakersfield). It's at .043 - he's not hitting for any power in any sort of way.

The good news, though, is that he is working walks (7.4%) and still not striking out (9.3%). So what are your thoughts? Is this an adjustment in his approach or is it just a dude not getting anything to hit or is it just Firebat pulling a clark and small sample size freakin?