Every couple of days I look through the Rays minor league system for guys to keep my eye on, mostly becaue I am a dork- but I like knowing as much as I can about my fav team- 

Tonight I was looking at Montgomery's roster and found...

Chris Nowak- 3b Montgomery   .299/.387/.464/.851 OPS  26 doubles/10 HR/67RBI  with that are 18 errors at 3B...

With that glorious line, I tohught I'd come to my fav website and ask if any of you knew anytihng about this prospectI've really never heard of- and of course to my satisfaction I found this:

Window Sill: Chris Nowak

by R.J. Anderson on Dec 22, 2007 6:01 PM EST

Not much happening today - or few the past few days, but we're only a handful away from the LaMar-itis (the staff and some heavy supporters have their copies all ready, funny story to come on Friday about it, actually) launch, oh and some national holiday. With that in mind how about taking a look at one of the more underappreciated players in the system - one commonly overlooked, hence the "window sill" label, this guy is looked over.

Chris Nowak
First / Third Base
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
DOB: 2/21/1983
Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2007 Team: Montgomery

Nowak's probably the most underrated player on the Biscuits' roster, but he played a nice third wheel behind Reid Brignac and John Jaso this year. A 6'5" monster Nowak has the versatility to play any of the corner positions, and his bat would seemingly allow him to do so as well - since being drafted he's posting OPSs of .730 (Hudson Valley), .841 (Southwest Michigan), .875 (Visalia), and .836 this prior year. Early in his career he appeared to be a poor man's Eric Karros, but suddenly he learned what a strike was and began walking because free bases are very good. He'll start at Durham this year, and frankly I like to think that he could become what the similar Wes Bankston never could - a serviceable bench player in his prime - but for now I'll take a wait and see approach, especially since a man this big should be hitting more than seven homeruns in 104 games, that being said I can see Nowak breaking out in Durham's hitter friendly ballpark and becoming mighty inviting trade bait if he doesn't find himself on the Rays' bench late in the year, but his old man skills really don't indicate he'll translate over for the long run.

Thoughts on Nowak's career path, poll included

So, RJ's prediction of Durham was not quote right, but his analysis was very well done, and Nowak has continued to have a great eye at the plate as he has walked more than K'd... 

Any chance this kid is our 1b of the future???  He is a monster (6'-5" 225) and seems to have some issues at 3rd with all the errors-

What do you guys think now???

I have been driving the bandwagon for these two all season now-  I know at this site, if you are going to get your voice heard, you gotta come correct.  So I am going to try and do that here to the best of my ability... 

Here is what I do know:

The Rays are getting below-average production from the DH position, and we cannot seem to find a full time RFer.  We all agree Hinske and Gross and Gomes have done a fair job, but no one has taken the job outright.  Normally, I have agreed that keeping Ruggs at AAA is only going to make him better in the long run, with that said, The slump the Rays are in doesn't seem to be going away.  I tihnk Ruggs is a solid addition as the FULL TIME RF for the following reasons

his career minor league line goes: .305avg /.392obp/.505slg=.897OPS

This season he is destroying lefties (.983 ops) a weakness on the current constructed roster, he hits righties fairly this season and has better success in career numbers vs. righties than he does this season.  Plays a solid RF with a just above average arm and good wheels. 

His PECOTA has Jason Bay as a "lookalike" (this is before Bay got shabby knees, and Ruggs has a way better arm)  Ruggs does K a lot, but has good plate discipline, and had an epic at-bat to hit his first ML homerun against Houston in June. 

I believe the Rays should bring up Ruggs to replace Gomes or Aybar on current roster. 

Dan Johnson is another player I'd like to see.  He used to be pretty high on all the propect lists when he was a few years younger back in Oakland, Injuries and slumps killed his prospect status, and the A's let him go.  Friedman smartly picked up Johnson, and we were damn lucky to keep him as he slid through waivers when we DFA'd him in April-

Currently Johnson is going at a line of: .301/.424!!!/.551/.924- he has 20 HR which I believe is most on our system at this point, has 58 walks to 55 k's, and can play 1b and the corner OF slots (he has in Durham played the OF) his OPS is over 900 vs lefties and righties this season...in other words he is destroying AAA pitching and at this moment right now is better served to be in the Rays lineup than Pena or Floyd.  We are financially obligated to Pena for a while and will have to deal with his struggles, but Floyd is old, kills us when on base by being slow, has NO positional flexibility at all, and is having a fair to average season for a man his age...

Johnson's career minor league line is:

.299/.391!!!/.522/.913  his major league numbers fail compared to that, but i believe his sample size is too small to say he is a AAAA player just yet

In closing if I were GM for a minute, my lineup tomorrow would go-

1. Iwamura-2b (L)

2. Upton-CF (R)

3. D. Johnson-DH (L)

4. Longoria-3b (R)

5. Pena-1b (L)

6. Ruggiano or Hinske (R) flip a coin

7. Crawford-LF (L)

8. Navarro-C (S)

9. Bartlett-SS (R)

I truly believe they both could make a difference right now, and will continue to update on thier progress on this post every day

Thu 7/25

Both of them went 1 for 3 with a double---DJ struck out once

As we all know Jonny Gomes has struggled with the bat this season, and that the Rays are possibly going to be picking up a full time RF bat he in the next week or so.  With that said, the A's are coming to town and will be starting 3 lefties in a row (yay-not), which means Jonny will start all 3 games...  If his bat fails us again, could this be the last we hear of him in a Rays uniform?  At what point does Andrew pull the plug???  any thoughts?

I was doing my normal weekly routine of checking up on the stats of the Rays minor leaguers-----and have not been shy about my man-love for Justin Ruggiano----  I went to look more depth at his stats and noticed that he hasn't played for Durham since July 5th.  I was wondering if he was on the DL there or something.  

I would prefer he get called up in place of Gomes for the rest of the season, but doubt the Rays will give up on Jonny yet, as he has no options. 

The only scenerio keeping Ruggs out of RF on a semi-full time basis in '09 IMHO would be a free agent signing to play RF next year...  Anyway, just curious to see if any of you had some news on if he is hurt or not...