I just love this kid.

I know he gotten some good attention, but I think he has a shot to be a good no.2 starter.

Something I look for in pitching prospects other than above avg stuff is their k/bb ratio.

For the year Hutchinson has pitched 149.1ip, and has racked up 171k and 35bb. for a ratio of 4.89 k/bb (extremley good) over three levels. what is interesting is that as he got promoted he for the most part improved his k/bb ratio while still maintaining an elite k/9ip ratio.

here's Hutchinson's k/9ip / bb/9ip / k:bb

A-:   10.5k/9ip, 2.375bb/9ip, 4.42k:bb   (72ip)

A+: 9.53k/9ip, 2.02bb/9ip, 4.71k:bb  (62.1ip)

AA: 12.6k/9ip, 1.2bb/9ip, 10.5k:bb (15ip)

granted he'sonly made 3 starts in AA, but the small sample size looks encouraging.

I've heard his fb sits in the low 90s and can touch 95 and rates as above avg/plus(bc of his command). while his slider and changeup are both avg with the chance to be better.

Hi, my 2nd round pick in a 20 team competitive league will be up in a few hrs. I need some help with my 2nd round selection. It's a salary league which is why some of the earlier picks are not necessary talent first. I've posted the picks taken so far. At this point it seems the better talents avaliable are all pitchers, while hitters are a bit slim.

Players that i am considering with my next pick are Jesse Briddle (SP Phi) and Peter Tago (SP Col). I'm looking for some other suggestions, and/or what you think of these two players. Thanks!

1. Bryce Harper OF WAS
2. Drew Pomeranz SP CLE
3. Jameson Taillon SP PIT
4. Christian Colon SS KC
5. Chris Sale SP CHI
6. Manny Machado SS BAL
7. Anthony Ranaudo SP BOS
8. Nick Castellanos  SS DET
9. Delino DeShields Jr 2B HOU
10. Michael Choice OF OAK
11. Matt Harvey SP NYM
12. Deck McGuire SP TOR
13. A.J. Cole SP WAS
14. Josh Sale OF TB
15. Zack Cox 3B STL
16. Christian Yelich OF FLA
17. Mike Foltynewicz - SP - HOU
18. Alex Wimmers - SP- MIN
19. Tyrell Jenkins - SP - STL
20. Matthew Lipka - SS - ATL

Round 2
 
1. Yasmandi Grandal - C - CIN
2. Caleb Cowart - 3B - LAA
3. Zach Lee SP LAD
4. Kolbrin Vitek 2B BOS
5. Aaron Sanchez SP TOR
6. Stetson Allie SP PIT
7. Taijuan Walker SP SEA
8. Asher Wojciechowski SP TOR
9. Jake Skole OF TEX
10. Kellin Deglan C TEX
11. Gary Brown OF SF
12. Kyle Parker OF COL
13. Ryan Lamarre OF CIN
14. Mike Olt  3B TEX
15. Bryce Brentz OF BOS
16. Drew Vettleson OF TB
17. Garin Cechinni SS BOS
18. Chance Ruffin - RP - DET
19. 
20. My Pick

Hi, I’m in a deep keeper’s league (16 teams and about 400farm players taken).

My farm pitchiing has been depleted due to call ups / trades, so now I’m looking to re-stock.

Since April, I’ve added the following pitchers to my farm team. I don’t know too much about them except that they all seem to have around no.3 type ceilings. Was hoping I could hear more about what pitches they throw, and what type of ceiling they might have and if I should drop any of them.

Thanks in advance!

Charlie Morton AAA (back end starter)

Dan Hudson Hi-A

Evan Anundsen Hi-A

Jeremy McBryde Hi-A

just thought i'd share with all of you a farm draft the results so far for the farm draft in my league. avaliable players are 2008 amateurs, 2008 intl signees (to minor league deals) and the odd prospect that wasnt hyped up until past the pickup deadline in 2008 (i.e. holland, flowers). it's a 16 team league, deep league, h2h, pts (sabathia  and lincecum was more valuable than pujols last yr, but unless they're having a cy type of year good hitters have more pts than most aces).

players taken:

1. Justin Smoak

2. Pedro Alvarez

3. Eric Hosmer

4. Tim Beckham

5. Gordon Beckham

6. Yonder Alonso

7. Buster Posey

8. Brett Wallace

9. Dayan Viciedo

10. Aaron Hicks

11. Brett Lawrie

12. Kyle Skipworth

13. Yorman rodriguez

14. Brian Matusz

15. Derek Holland

16. Michael Inoa

17. Conor Gillaspie

18. Casey Kelly

19. Tim Meville

20. Ethan Martin

21. Rafael Rodriguez

22. Tyler Flowers

plz note that the first 13 picks were between 3 teams, two who dislike pitchers. gillaspie was taken by an owner who was not prepared (as drafted was with only 6hrs notice pushed forward 2 weeks).

anyone know if moustakas has an injury or bad conditioning over the winter or anything?

he's hitting a dissapointing .172/.226/.172 line in low A.

5/29 2bb, 6k.

he's strikeout rate isn't bad, but the lack of extra base hits is a discomforting.

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hey guys,

i was just offered cameron maybin for josh vitters. who do you rather have in their prime. i think maybin has a higher ceiling- floor of garthright, ceiling of h-ram, avg non-bust expectations of mike carmon/chris young.

while vitters has spent less time in the minors, i think he'll have better plate discipline, and a better chance of producing avg numbers or better for his position. i've heard his hitting style is like howie kendrick, but with power. anyone got more info on either player, and who would you prefer for their prime?

Hey guys,
Was wondering if you could help me out a bit with some information regarding Lars. I know he it a rather promising prospect whot the Red Sox really like. I don't doubt his power potential, but does anyone have an idea on whether he'll bat for avg? He struck out a lot last yr, and I've been trying to find information if it's because of his inexperience, or maybe because his swing is too long/too much of an uppercut, or other possible factors.
Thanks in advance!

hey all,

i have a few questions on 20-80 scale ratings and would appreciate it if any of you could help further my understanding on this.
i know it's based on standard deviations, 50 +/- 3SD

so my first question is: i often hear a player has a plus pitch, or a plus plus pitch. what score would a plus pitch rate? how about a plus plus?

second question, since the pt scale is based on standard deviations then it should be possible (but rare) for a person to have tools or a pitch rated higher than 80 (1sd=68%, 2sd=95%, 3sd=99.8% if memory serves me right). who would you say has a tool or pitch higher than 80?

thanks everyone!

hey guys, i was talking with some of my league mates about pitching prospects and we started discussing what type of pitching traits/characteristics jump out at us when we look at prospects. obviously an all-around package is ideal like david price. but what about the hundreds of other pitchers? when you have a farm draft, what makes you pick one pitcher over another when they seem almost identical? basically what's your pitching prospect fettish?

nowadays we count a-rod, pujols, big papi, guerrero, holliday(?), as among the best pure hitters in baseball. but what about the next generation of hitters?
in 20-25yrs from now who among these players do you think will be the best pure hitter. basically monster stats in extra base hits, r, rbi, .avg. fielding, sb not included.

Hi all,
I was reading Goldstein's comments on Desmond Jennings in his top 11 TB propsect entry he sounds like a stud in the making, another Crawford type player. How would you rate Jennings compared to the top hitters in the 2007 amateur draft? Also I read that Jennings had minor knee surgery. I was wondering if anyone knew more about this and if it'll affect his speed or any aspect of his game as well as his injury status now.
Thanks!

Hey,
First of all let me start off by thanking you for reading this post.
I'm in my first year in a deep keepers salary-cap league where you can keep players up to 5years (or more if they are farm players). I'm taking over a team that is balanced in hitting and pitching, and has a decent farm system, but would like suggestions as to which top prospect I should build my team on.
I hold the 3rd pick in the upcoming farm draft and the two guys ahead of me are set on picking Price and Moustakas.

That leaves me with players like Porcello, Vitters, Heyward, Wieters, Parker, Dewilters, Laporta to select from.
My question is should I build my farm around a top notch pitcher like Porcello or stick to a top hitter?
Normally in fantasy baseball leagues I build around the hitter, but there appears to be a sizeable gap between the talent levels of Porcello and the top hitters.

Other things you might need to know about my league is that the scoring format tends to favor hitters, unless the pitcher can rack up crazy strikeout totals (high 200s or more), but there is a bigger drop off between good pitchers to avg pitcher than there is to good hitters to avg hitters.

Don't get me wrong here, I think it doesn't make sense that most owners do not make as much profit as top baseball stars earn in salaries...but I think the Marlins situation is absurd. They will be fielding a team that has a good chance of not even topping a 10mil payroll. I think it's time MLB establishes a salary floor. It doesn't have to be high, but it has to at least make the Marlins "dumping" salary, especially as they can certainly afford any salary increases.
Heck they could have afforded to have signed Cabrera to a long term deal (I think their net profit was over 45mil last yr) as well as sign an extra player or two and make a run for NL East title.

Was just thinking about the top players drafted in the 2007 amateur draft and who they would compare favorably (production-wise) to if they stay healthy. This is based on my magic eight ball that I just bought and from what I've read on them. I'm not too good with pitcher comparrisons so any opinions will be helpful. Please feel free to add others!

David Price- a healty Mark Prior comes to mind
Mike Moustakas- Jeff Kent, but breaks out earlier
Josh Vitters- For some reason Adrian Beltre pops into mind (minus that one season)
Matt Wieters- Joe Mauer with less .avg, plate discipline and more power
Matt Laporta- I'm tempted to say Manny-lite. Maybe Justin Morneau???
Jason Heyward- David Justice
Rick Porcello- Beckett is often used as a comparisson.

Wish all of you early seasonal tidings!

all this talk about trades of top players, i.e. santana, bedard, haren, blanton, miggy make me wonder what the cardinals could get if they traded pujols.
pujols is signed through 2011, at an average salary amounting to around 1/2 of what he's worth (100mil 7yrs + 11mil team option).
Who would be the ideal teams to trade to?
What package would you expect in a fair deal.

i think if i was the red sox i'd offer something along the lines of:
buchholz/lester, lowrie, bard, crisp, youkilis?

My farm entering the next yr:
C: Jeff Clement
1B: Jesus Montero
2B:
SS: Reid Brignac, Jed Lowrie
3B: Brandon Wood, Angel Villalona, Eric Campbell
OF: Justin Upton, Chris Marrero, Engel Beltre,
SP: Joba Chamberlain, Adam Miller, Scott Elbert

I'm planning on gutting Orenduff, Romero, Melillo, D'arby Myers

I'm in a 16 team league and i hold 6 first round picks and a second round pick in the next farm draft. as of now i hold picks 1,2,3,5,6,11. who should i draft/target from the 07 amateur draft in the 1st round?
Currently my top 6 short list is:
Price, Porcello, Moustakas, Wieters, Vitters, Heyward.
Who should I take as 1,2,3? I've read up on all of them, but would appreciate all insights or comments about those 6 players.