What's happening with Paul Goldschmidt? To me, this looks like a definite breakout. 347/490/773 in 22 games with 9 HR. In truth, I'd think hitters like Goldschmidt are prone to be streaky, a few games with homers followed by stretches of strikeouts when he can't buy a hit.

What's most surprising about this potential breakout are his walks. Last year, Goldschmidt walks and K's. Last year, Goldschmidt walked 9.5% of the time (599 PA's) and this year, he's walked a ridiculous 22.6% of the time, albeit in 93 PA's. Last year, his K's were 30%, leaving a lot of questions about his ability to make contact at higher levels. This year, again with about one month under his belt, his K's are down significantly to 18.3%.For this year, he's at a 1.62 BB/K, after being at about .4 each of the last two.

I was also surprised to see his babip, each of the last two years it was around .390. This year, he's at .320 according to fangraphs.

Number crunching aside, what's happening here? Is he a man among boys in AA? Has he simply had an out of his mind month and will regress to his previous performance? Has his walk rate increased because he is being pitched around?

What do you think?

Does anyone have a good website for old minor league box scores? I'm looking for specific eastern league games from 2003, but can not find any. Retrosheet doesnt seem to have much (anything at all?) on the minors. Any help would be much appreciated!

As a filler note, man, that New Haven Ravens team was damn good. Shame the team moved. Most of those prospects didn't turn out great either. oh well. shame.

I'm planning on starting a league with some friends with an odd concept. Im curious if anyone has done something similar or done this specific idea...

The idea is to have an 8 team league and draft letters of the alphabet. Each team will thus have three letters. Say H, P and F. Then there would be an entirely separate player draft The players on your team have to have one of your letters start their first or last name. Here's what this random team could look like (i tried to make it look semi realistic):

C - Jorge Posada

1B - Ryan Howard

2B - Mike Fontenot

3B - Chone Figgins

SS - Rafael Furcal

OF - Hideki Matsui, Josh Hamilton, Matt Holliday

SP - Felix Hernandez, Jake Peavy, Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, Hiroki Kuroda,

CL - Frankie Rodriguez, Frank Francisco

You run into some interesting questions like which letter would be the most valueable? J seems like it might be good. Ditto for H

Trades would obviously be difficult, but still possible. Lot of waiver wire action. Might be a better scoresheet type of league with minor leaguers etc.

What do you think?

If Aaron Crow were eligible, where would you rank him in the community prospect list?

Also, as a pitcher who was drafted in the top ten last year, most people think we will go in the top ten this year. It'd be a shock if he didn't sign in my opinion. Which team could you see taking him and how will he fit into that teams system?

I'll post my opinion later on.

He pretty quickly turned himself into one of my least favorite managers in baseball this year. It's not how he puts a lineup together or even his bullpen usage patterns (not that he has many good relievers to use). Did everyone see his rant about the CC Sabathia no hitter fiasco? I thought he came off pretty lame.

These kind of shakeups do work sometimes and have recently (Mets with Jerry Manuel?). Dale Sveum has zero managerial experience that I know of, so it will be interesting to see how he does and what he changes.

Sidenote: I'm certainly too young to remember Dale Sveum's age 23 season, but it's certainly an interesting one. I wonder if he was good defensively. I wonder What people thought of his offensive potential. HE did not hit for average, but could draw a walk and slugged a bit....

Scott Elbert has been pretty dominant this year with 46 K's in 41 IP while allowing only 22 hits. His control hasn't been too great with 20 walks in those 41 IP. All of this adds up to a 2.40 ERA and a 1.02 Whip. Generally speaking, these are great numbers.

One obvious problem. In 25 games, he's made one start. Obviously the Dodgers are being careful as Elbert can be a key part of their future and he is coming off of a major surgery.

He's still just 23 years old and his numbers indicate he can still pitch. Only question is: Will he be a reliever long term? Or, will he start?

Anyone hear anything or remember any similar cases? Anyone see his outings thus far?

According to espn:

The Arizona Diamondbacks added a big bat Monday in their attempt to hold off the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West race.

Arizona acquired Cincinnati Reds outfielder Adam Dunn, who is tied for the major league lead with 32 home runs, for three prospects.

The trade was first reported by KTAR Radio in Phoenix.

Will be interesting to see who the prospects are. Perhaps Gerardo Parra? Could be a nice CF in time for the Reds...

Once a year or so I have the pleasure of catching a Myrtle Beach Pelicans game while visiting my folks who have a place in the area. Here is a bit of a recap of last night's action. It was a bit choppy is one game was continued from a rain delay the night before.

Lynchburg Hillcats:

Daniel Moskos: It was my understanding that he would start the second game fresh. He did not and came in as a reliever. To put it simply, he looked bad. He looked to be throwing three pitches a Fastball 86-89, a Slider 81-83 and a change (could have been something else) in the 78 range. When pitching out of the stretch, he seemed to lose a bit of this velocity. He gave up a long home run and was generally putting men on base. He also displayed what seemed to be an incredibly deliberate pickoff move. I was not impressed by it at all. That said, he did catch someone stealing.

Alex Presley: I didn't know much about Alex Presley prior to showing up at the ballpark. He definitely impressed me. To fill you in, he was an 8th round pick for the Pirates in 05 out of the University of Miss. He is pretty small in stature somewhere between 5'9" and 5'11" (ive seen him listed at both). He played pretty well in CF and showed a good amount of pop in his bat pulling a HR to right field and also a triple. I read a write up on him comparing him to pre 2008 Nate McLouth. Could be accurate. Nonetheless, I liked him.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans:

Gorkys Hernandez: He definitely stuck out the most to me. I saw him hit the ball pretty hard four times including an absolute bomb off of Moskos over the left centerfield bleachers. He didn't have a lot of action in CF but looked very smooth when he did. He seemed fast, but didnt exactly blow me away with that part of his game. He did steal a base at a critical point in the eighth inning and wound up scoring the winning run. All in all, I was impressed.

Eric Campbell: I was very high on him coming into 2007 and most of us saw the disaster that was 2007 for him (221/312/406). He has rebounded a bit this year (261/364/494). He hit a HR to left center at the beginning of the second game which turned out to be the game winner. He will be 23 this week and perhaps deserves a shot at AA to see if he can make it.

Tyler Flowers: I was hoping to get a better read on him in the few AB's I saw. He looked good at the plate and not surprisingly worked some deep counts. He had a very wide stance at the plate. Not surprisinigly, he was pretty slow. His arm looked strong and he caught 3 runners trying to steal while two others were successful.

Travis Jones: Ok. I'll come out and say it. I have an unhealthy interest in Travis Jones. He didn't look to be at his best last night getting fooled a bit by off speed stuff. He also seemes to be working on hitting the ball the other way. I haven't seen him play except for one SC game on TV, so perhaps that is a natural stroke for him. He is pretty damn small (think Eric Young/Ray Durham). His line to this point this year is 266/370/476 with 23 doubles and 16 homers.

According to Boston.com:

Injection for Francona

Francona revealed that upon his return to Boston, he will go to Massachusetts General Hospital for an injection in his neck today. Francona said he has had little feeling in his left arm for the last couple of months, and that last week he dropped his pen because he was unable to grip it properly. The condition, Francona said, is a consequence of an old disk problem that required surgery . . . The Sox promoted hot pitching prospect Michael Bowden to Triple A Pawtucket . . . There was speculation that with Julio Lugo out (torn quadriceps), the Sox would have interest in Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel, but a Sox official shot that down, saying the team is content with a combination of rookie Jed Lowrie and veteran Alex Cora . . . The Sox will hold a workout tomorrow night in Anaheim for players who did not participate in the All-Star Game, though Francona said he expected many of the Stars would show up.

I'm sitting at home and watching the Mets/Rockies game and getting the Colorado feed of the game. I believe it's actually their main radio guy doing the play by play today with Jeff Huson doing the color. Huson keeps talking about John Maine's sinker (which I don't really think he has one, does he?). On a whim, I checked out his G/F ratio which is about .9 for his career pretty steadily. I always had an idea that John Maine is more of a Fly Ball pitcher anyway. Where do they get this stuff??

Now, with that said there has been a lot of talk lately about the absolutely idiotic things that some of the announcers say. Joe Morgan gets a lot of this heat. Did anyone hear his comment on the Mets/Yankees game about the top half of his body leaving the bag early while tagging up. It was pretty funny. I get the general feeling that most avid baseball fans dislike the majority of broadcast teams. Then again, I don't think that these people are here to tell us what is happening. It's for the more casual fan.

I'm sure most fans would be thrilled to see the Buck/McCarver team removed from the World Series and certainly Joe Morgan from ESPN. There are plenty of others who can do a fine job. Agree? Disagree?

Not everyone is going to be Vin Scully or Ernie Harwell - but most teams should be able to do better.

That said, I've decided that I love The Hawk and John Sterling (radio), because its just plain funny.

Who do you think has the best and worst baseball broadcasts?

Hey there.

There are three remaining spots in an expert NL only league that will be run through Scoresheet. This will be the leagues first year, but the setup is mostly taken from pre-existing, successful leagues. No scoresheet experience is necessary, though definitely a plus.

A bit about the league:

if interested, please email me at ben@planetarygroup.com

Thanks!
Ben

I was going through last year's draft a bit and came to Brett Cecil, who i only knew as Maryland's closer and that he was the Blue Jays Sup pick.

Everything I've read raves about his slider and notes his fastball. I also see quite a bit about his lack of a change up and thus fears about his ability to get righties out.

Then I looked at his stats from this past year:
1.27 ERA, 49.2 IP, 36H, 10ER,  7R, 1HR, 11BB, 56K 1.99BB/9,  10.15K/9,  .197BAA,  0.95WHIP.

Pretty dominant numbers in any league. He was pitching in the NY Penn league so I'd expect to see some dominance.

The real question here is that he made 13 starts. Are the Blue Jays considering making him a starter? are they just trying to get him innings? Has he developed something pitchwise that's enabling him to try this?

Also, turning college closers into starters seems to be a trend of late, do you feel it's been successful?

So,in case you missed it, Cody Ross put up a lofty 1.064 OPS last year in 173 AB's (173 OPS+!, coincidence?). Babip was pretty high, but it's also hard to think that 12 homers (29 XBH) in those 173 ab's is just an accident (653 slg). Walk rate also was significantly up and his K rate was down a little bit.

Sure 173 AB's is a small sample, but is he even a legit 850-900 threat if he had 400 AB's?

If you take a look at his overall minor league numbers, his career minor league OPS is 822, with every stop after AA being a very steady 845-860.

Finally, if you look at his splits, it's pretty clear that he absolutely mashes left handed pitching. he handled righties well last year, but career (as small as it is), not so much.

So, what do you make of him?

This morning when i turned on sportscenter, there was a bit of talk about Alex Rodriguez being on the brink of hitting his 5ooth HR. In thinking about that it made me wonder where he stands among the greatest Right Handed hitters of all time. Is he the best?I figure he can play 8 more years and that will lead to some pretty impressive totals. Is it too soon to consider Pujols? So much could go wrong...

Anyway, I'll set up a poll and use the bill james abstract as a source for pulling right handed hitters.

What do you think?

I'm also focused more on post dead ball era (so no Honus Wagner etc. also, no switch hitters)

Thought I'd start this off.

Anyone following Travis Jones? 7th Rd out of SC, picked by the braves. He put up some pretty good numbers in college and his first 80 AB's are off to a good start:

Between Rookie Ball and Low A:
300/443/450 (893)
18BB/13K

I know it's small and he's just starting out, but the guy did hit for power at SC (18 or so homers this year). 2B is a position of scarcity in some ways and i feel that he's worth tracking. Maybe a C+, B- type of prospect if he finishes the year strong?

Anyone know more?

Last night I checked out the Winston Salem Warthogs Vs. The Myrtle Beach Pelicans, so here's somewhat of a report on what I saw.

The story of the night was definitely Clayton Richard (8th rd. 05) who was working quickly and inducing a ton of ground balls. His fastball was 88-92 with a curve in the 70-72 range. he throws from the first base side of the rubber and throws a bit below 3/4. He also has a particularly high leg kick and uses a slide step a bit when runners are on because of it. He now has a 3.81 era on the year with mediocre peripherals, though he seems a bit more of the pitch to contact type as is.

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans sent Dustin Evans (2nd rd 06) out on a 50 pitch pitch count, so he only lasted 4 innings. This was his second start since coming off the DL. He was throwing 80-90% fastballs, working at 91-93 and throwing pretty much over the top. He registered a few of his strikeouts with his slider which was 83-85. None of the Warthog hitters got around on his pitches at all and the Pelican defense was not too kind to Evans. I was a bit more impressed with Richard than Evans.

Isaiah Kaaihue played first and came out after the 7th inning where he reached on an error. He is unbelievably slow. Slow to the point where it is definitely somewhat of an issue.

Micah Schnurstein went 1-4 with a line drive HR about 350-360 feet into the left field stands. He's listed at 6-1 207, but looks a bit stockier than that.

neither Elvis Andrus or Eric Campbell looked that great at the plate last night which was a bit disappointing, though both made a few nice playes in the field.

Frank Thomas hit his 500th home run today. While i think it's pretty damn cool, it brings up the question how important is the #500 as a bench mark.

I think most people still view 300 wins as pretty impressive, but 500 seems watered down.

Is 550 the new 500? What about 600?

That said, I think it's easy to forget how good some  of these hitters were in the prime of their career (Frank Thomas being a prime example of that).

Thoughts?

Pitchers
Pedro Beato
Carlos Carrasco
Fautino de los Santos
Emiliano Fruto
Deolis Guerra   
Serguey Linares   
Franklin Morales
Henry Sosa   
Rich Thompson   
Rick Vanden Hurk

Catchers:
Robinzon Diaz   
Max Ramirez

IF:
Elvis Andrus   
German Duran   
Alcides Escobar   
Chin-Lung Hu   
Freddy Sandoval   
Geovany Soto
Craig Stansberry
Joey Votto

OF:
Wladimir Balentien
Carlos Gonzalez   
Gorkys Hernandez
Fernando Martinez
Michael Saunders

Well first there is the obvious though that this is a great name for a pitcher. That aside, I'm starting to like this guy quite a bit as a prospect.

Here is where he is at right now:
2.70 ERA, 71/38 K/BB, 69 H, 73.1 IP, 5 HR

He is a ground ball pitcher with approx a 2:1 GB To FB ratio and his seems to handle righties well.

Perhaps comparisons could be drawn to Gio Gonzalez? Lefties who have a good fastball and plus breaking pitch with control issues that will make or break them?

Thoughts?

My friends and I all have different opinions on Joba The Hutt. I personally feel that there is a lot to like. He has good control and a great fastball. While his weight seems to concern some, there are also good reports about his work ethic. He also has somewhat of an injury history. Another concern is his current lack of a second plus pitch despite throwing a slider, curve and a change. Another point in his favor is his performance in Hawaii this past winter.

I like him quite a bit. What do y'all think?

and secondly.

If you had to place Joba among baseball's prospects, where would you rank him approximately?

Does anyone know what happened with Jeff Manship in yesterday's game? I saw he only pitched 2.2 innings and read that there was likely some sort of injury. I think he's one of the better pitchers to come out of last year's draft, but given his arm trouble history, this would seem to be a red flag.

Any news?