Matt Moore is in the midst of an incredible run at Bowling Green. In his last 10 games he's struck out 70 guys over 52 inning. For the season he's striking out a shocking 12.78 per nine. He's still walking too many but he's not letting up many hits. His batting average against is under .190 now.

It's got the attention of Baseball America, which gave him some love on their Prospect Hot Sheet.

Anyone seen him pitch live lately?  

Be very excited. Desmond Jennings is absolutely tearing up AA. It is just a month, but wow...he leads the Southern League in extra base hits has an onbase over .400, is stealing bases, including home, and playing a solid CF.

It was enough to get Baseball America to drool over his potential back on Friday.

Here's some of what Ben Badler wrote:

Jennings has an excellent approach at the plate, which has led to his walks being nearly equal to his strikeouts the last two years. He stays balanced at the plate and keeps his head locked in, then has the hand-eye coordination to regularly put the barrel of the bat to the ball.

“Very good strike zone management,” Montgomery manager Billy Gardner Jr. said. “He doesn’t get fooled very often. He gets on a fastball good, he stays on the ball well and he uses the entire field to hit. He’s got some jump in his bat—the ball comes off his bat really well.”

With all that Jennings has done early in the season, perhaps his most exciting play came at Chattanooga on April 15. With Dodgers lefthander Scott Elbert on the mound, Jennings took off and used his explosive speed to steal home.

“He stole home plate, and I didn’t realize until I read some blogs the next day that it was Jackie Robinson Day,” Gardner said.

 Check out the whole article here: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=3589

In a hip-hop age, hearing Fernando Perez stepping to bat with Papa's Got a Brand New Bag by James Brown tells you all you need to know about this kid. Anyone grooving to the godfather of soul can be on my fantasy team.

As if that isn't enough, he lays out for an incredible catch...then throws a laser that ends up getting the big double play in the 4th.

AND....he belt's his third homer? I know...sample size...sample size...but this 50 AB sample is freaking sweet so far.

More reasons to love Perez from the media guide:

-Highest drafted player in Columbia U. history...

-His favorite reading is Herman Hesse's 1927 novel "Steppenwolf"

I know he's not going to really belt 3 homers every two weeks, but his speed alone has me dreaming up next years outfield. Crawford, Perez and Upton in the outfield in 2009 might mean never again giving up a triple in this league.

For what it is worth, the Baltimore Sun is reporting that all three passed through waivers unclaimed. Surely none are great at this point, but Payton and Millar both his lefties well historically, and are a lot cheaper than Huff. Plus Payton could play left until Crawford is back. I wonder if the Rays will kick the tires on Payton. Given the Bradford deal, it seems the O's are willing to deal with us.

The question is whether Payton offers a big enough upgrade over Ruggs defensively to merit the deal.

Payton seems to be the only useable outfielder to have cleared waivers at this point.

I'm not sure I'd advocate this, but if we wanted to upgrade from Jonny Gomes for cheap, the newly released Richie Sexson may be an option. (?)

Now before everyone flames me for it, look at his numbers versus lefthanded pitching.

Avg. .344/OBP.423/ SLG.623.

Gomes meanwhile:

.194/.289/.432

I'd rather turn to a Xavier Nady or similar more dependable option, but Sexson, for as bad as he's been is better against lefties than Gomes this year.

Wow....David Price is getting no challenge in AA. His third start on Sunday: 7 IP, 4 hits, 1 BB, 6 Ks.

Combined on the two levels, he is 7-0, with a 1.68 ERA and a .210 batting average against. And god bless the lefties who dare step in the box. They are sporting a .136 against him in AA. Ouch.

Could he jump another level this quickly? Or could he be in the Rays' pen by season's end?

Okay, I think the Yanks helped Stu and the boys prioritize their needs heading to the trade deadline.

1. Lefties are killing us. Pettitte showed that deficiency last night. For whatever reason, Pena, Crawford and Aki are well below their numbers against lefties last year. Upton, Longoria and Navarro are the only one's really hitting lefties well. When Gomes can't reach base against lefties we basically have three Cliff Floyds (Gross, Cliff, Jonny). So as much as I'm waiting for Gomes to come around, it may be time to just go get right fielder like Nady to replace him.

2. G-Love. He clearly hasn't been effective this year. Maybe Reyes takes his spot after the break. But regardless we need a more trustworthy extra arm. I'm not sold it has to be Fuentes, but clearly we need another guy to work those game where we are down a run or two. Not sure Hammel or Glover should be on this team.

3. This may not be a weakness, but I don't know what Willie Aybar is about. I think he has value....but probably for a team that has a secondbase and thirdbase issues. Obviously he made a lot more sense before Longoria came up and before Hinske made the club. We now have four guys that can back up third base (Hinkse, Aki, Willie, Zobrist).

Now, all of this may be nit picky given we are in first. But I now believe this team could be world champions. I want a full roster for when we are in extra innings against the Angels or White Sox. We have a very good pen....lets make it great. We have the minor league talent to offer up to get that done.

We all do it. We look at the farm system and see they five tool guys hitting .230 and drool over the "potential." Then, there is the guy that just performs at every level and somehow never makes Baseball America's top list or gets a bobblehead in their first year in the bigs.

Then there are 13th round draft picks from Kent State hailing from the baseball mecca of Barberton, Ohio.

When I watch Andy Sonnanstine, I think of guys like Jamie Moyer and David Eckstein. Players the get over looked because of the "raw talents" of Corey Patterson, Mark Prior or Dewon Brazelton (groan here). Marc Topkin of the St Pete Times nails what Andy is all about today. He just wins. Though his fastball barely gets over 90 mph a couple of times a game, Andy controls what he has and thinks his way through games. Topkins drills this home with this graph:

"He was in the minors, compiling a 40-18 record. And after a couple-of-months adjustment period after his June 2007 promotion from Triple A, he has been in the majors, going 15-5 in 27 starts since Aug. 15."

Yet, he's the first guy we all seemingly look at as being in jeopardy as David Price crawls to the Trop. I know I have. But maybe its time we look up and marvel at the idea that we might have the ultimate bulldog pitcher on the mound every 5 days.

David Price continues to roll. He picked up his second win tonight, first in his new home stadium up there.  The Montgomery newspaper has on their blog that Price let up five hits over six innings, walked two and struck out five.

Not lights out...but still Price continues his march to 2009. What you have to like about this guy is that he just wins at every level. He's like Longoria who just seems to win where ever he went from college up the ladder.

Poor relay throws, lousy baserunning, misjudged fly balls, ugly instincts....

That pretty much described last night's Vero Rays vs. Reds game. It was sad watching most of the action....

Then came Desmond.

There was a shot heading for the gap in right-center field and the moment it left the bat, Jennings was on the move in the right direction (very un BJ like). And honestly, it didn't look like he was running that hard....but all of a sudden he was Andruw Jones, circa 1999, tracking the ball down. It was just beautiful. All of a sudden BJ's refusal to sign long term seems less troubling.

Though he had only one hit, each swing was really solid. Even his outs were hard outs. Anyhow, everything he did justified him being our best outfield prospect in the system.

Now for the ugly (and there was plenty):

-If that is the way Rocco Baldelli now has to run...Yikes. I mean there's a beatable infield hit and he is in a deliberate trot. I believe David Ortiz could have beaten him to the bag. Now, maybe he had just given up on the play as he came out of the box, given it is an A ball game. But boy, if that's how Rocco is going to play for now on, he's of no value. Will he be able to get to second on a shot in the gap?

- Evan Longoria shouldn't be worried at all about Cesar Suarez replacing him at third ever. Ranging two steps right or left is clearly asking too much for Suarez who made this silly dive to his left in which I swear if he just made two steps over he'd have had it. All night it seemed like he was in concrete shoes.

-Neil Walton gets lots of praise as having a great infield arm. And he sure does. He took a relay through from right field and launched a throw to the back stop on a rope. It was 10 feet higher than the catcher. I wondered if his eyes were open when he threw the ball.

-And LF Garrett Groce did his best BJ Upton. At the crack of the bat he started going back on the ball, which then dropped in front of him for a run scoring singled...sheesh. And at bat, he looked back at the ump on several called strikes.

Anyhow with David Price and Jeremy Hellickson gone, it appears Jennings is a man among boys in High-A ball.