If interested, it would be most helpful if you were available Sunday night. (see below)

Here is the post I posted on January 26:

This league was formed specifically by long-time readers (and posters) of this site, and of course named for John. Naturally, it has alot of emphasis on minor leaguers – we have 30-man major league rosters and 15-man minor league rosters. We have 20 teams in our league, so that means we’ve got 300 minor leaguers on our teams – so it really helps to know your prospects in this league, which is why I post here. We also have daily transactions so it does require a fair amount of time involvement, and we’ve got some pretty sharp owners. If you think this league sounds interesting, send me an email at kennyholl@verizon.net, or reply with an email address of your own, or other contact info.

(Update:)

We are starting our "slow draft" on March 1.

The team you'll take over has the following players:

MLB - Tulowitski, RHoward, Markakis, BPhillips, Moustakas, Francouer, Iannetta, ASoriano, Heisey, and pitchers Cain, Billingsley, Pomeranz, Collmenter, Leake,Zito, Paulino, ABailey, Clippard, MAdams, Crow.

MILB - MPerez, YGrandal, MTaylor, Eibner, Colome, ASalcedo, Hechavarria, BShaw, SPimentel, Kepler-Rozycki.

If interested please email me at kennyholl@verizon.net.

This league - the Super Sickels Keeper League - was formed specifically by long-time readers (and posters) of the Minor League Ball website run (and named for) John Sickels. Naturally, it has alot of emphasis on minor leaguers - we have 30-man major league rosters and 15-man minor league rosters. We have 20 teams in our league, so that means we've got 300 minor leaguers on our teams - so it really helps to know your prospects in this league. We also have daily transactions so it does require a fair amount of time involvement, and we've got some pretty sharp owners. If you think this league sounds interesting, send me an email at kennyholl@verizon.net, or reply with an email address of your own, or other contact info.

Do we know - was he in fact signed by the Mariners or not.  I'd like to get him in the midseason minor league draft for my AL-only fantasy league, but I first want to know that he has indeed signed with an American League club.

And since I have to get to 75 words anyway, how do you see him as a prospect, versus Elier Hernandez, Nomar Mazara, and Ronald Guzman.  My list goes Hernandez, Martinez, Mazara, Guzman.  Other thoughts? 

Just trying to follow up on some of the minor leaguers on my fantasy teams.  I see that Stetson Allie, Sammy Solis, and Ismael Guillon haven't played this year.  I haven't heard about any injuries for these guys.  Are they just being held back for cautionary reasons? 

(That is really all I have to ask.  But it seems I'm still a few words short of posting. This last sentence should just about do it.  Dang.)

Who should I keep for next year and who should I deal away before next week's trading deadline?  This would seem like an obvious question, but given Kelly's struggles this year, I'm looking for people's thoughts on this.  I currently have six minor leaguers I'd like to keep and I can only keep five of them.  I've decided I definitely want to keep Mike Trout, Dustin Ackley, Martin Perez, and (rightly or wrongly) Manny Machado.  That leaves Kelly and Colon for one spot.  I'd suppose Kelly is rated higher, but on the other hand, I could probably actually get some value for Kelly, whereas I don't think I'd be able to get much return for Colon.  What do others think?

I know, I know, I know - This is not the place for posting fantasy league openings.  The reason that I am doing this, however, is that this league was specifically formed by and for readers of this particular website.  We've got three or four openings in a very deep league.  It is very heavy with minor leaguers - we have 20 teams with 30 major league and 15 minor league players per team, so we're looking for people with the depth to be able to know and care about literally hundreds of minor leaguers.  This is a keeper league with daily transactions and we are looking for committed owners who plan to stick around for years doing this.  There is no cost and no prizes - just the pride of winning and the fun of playing.  If interested in joining, please contact deweyfinnbaseball@hotmail.com.  Dewey is the commissioner of the league, so be sure to let him know some of your fantasy experience.

I am interested in finding out what this community knows about possible Japanese players coming to the US.  Forget Aroldis Chapman – I really want to see Yu Darvish (2nd MVP award in 3 yrs., and he’s only 23) come to MLB, but frankly I doubt that’ll happen in the next few years, if at all.  I’d also love to see Nori Aoki, a fine all-around hitting 27-year-old outfielder, but I also don’t know if he’ll be posting for another couple years.

Ryota Igarashi looks sure to come over.  He had Tommy John surgery in 2007, but pitched well in 2008.  Supposedly he can throw in the upper-90’s, but he is strictly a reliever.  Another reliever I have some interest in is Kyuji Fujikawa, 29, who has posted lights-out numbers the last five years (era’s all under 2.00, with two years under 1.00, and K rates around 13/9), but I don’t know if he’s coming over or not.

Hisanori Takahashi also looks like he’s MLB-bound.  He’s a 34-year-old lefty who went 10-6, with a 2.94 era for the NPB champs.  Meh.

There are a couple young guys, a la Junichi Tazawa who could come over.  18-year-old Yusei Kikuchi was entertaining thoughts about it, but I think he signed in Japan.  Yuki Saito, 21, nicknamed the Handkerchief Prince, could come over.  He’s said to have Koji Uehara type stuff.  I don’t know if he has the same control as Uehara.  Also I hear Shota Ichinoseki, 20, is looking to try out for major league scouts, but I think his fastball tops out around 90, and I don’t know how great a prospect he is.

All in all, it doesn’t look like there’s anyone’s bandwagon to jump on.  Any other thoughts or comments from the peanut gallery?

I'd assume Strasburg would be in everyone's top few.  Where would Ackley go on the list - is he top 10 or 20?  Who else from the recent 2009 amateur draft should go on a list of top 50 or so prospects?

And to get to the 75 word minimum, I'll just cut and paste what I just wrote...

I'd assume Strasburg would be in everyone's top few.  Where would Ackley go on the list - is he top 10 or 20?  Who else from the recent 2009 amateur draft should go on a list of top 50 or so prospects?

What exactly is the rule on how a player runs out of minor league options?  Is it determined by the total number of times he is moved to the minors.  I would hope not since so many teams capriciously send down fifth starters during the AS break, just to give them extra work.  I would hate it if doing that moved the player closer to being out of options.  Can anyone out there explain the rule to me?

In our AL-only league, for our minor league draft we can draft amateurs or players from Japan/Cuba,etc as long as they have not signed with an NL team.  One they sign with an NL team, we lose them.  Considering that at this point, it would appear Strasburg will go #1 to the Nats, who are other top amateurs?  More specifically, of BA's Top 50 prospects, only five are available - and three are catchers (and I already have Wieters) - and none in the top 25.  (The five available are: CSantana, DHolland, AHicks, JMontero, &JPArencibia.)  What amatuers, or what international players who might come over, would you rank above those five guys?

So he had pretty mediocre stats in college, but in two years in the minors he has been absolutely lights out.  102 innings pitched with 159 strikeouts (14.0 per nine), 60 hits allowed and 34 walks (0.92 whip), and era of 1.23, and he has not given up a single homer in those two years!  I guess part of it he's a man among boys, as he was a 24-year-old last year in High A ball, but that can only explain so much of it.  Why does a guy have such incredible numbers, but no one seems to know who he is?  What am I missing?

I am new to this site, but recently posed this question on a different site geared more towards prospects.  I'm curious if a site geared towards established major leaguers would yield a different result.  In my fantasy league, hitters compete in the following usual categories - avg, hr, rbi, sb, but also in walks and fielding percentage.  Given that, who would you rather have, both for this year, and perhaps the next two or three years - Jhonny Peralta or Alexei Ramirez?

I know this is supposed to be a minor league blog, but my problem is that I haven't found other sites with as many intelligent and serious fans as this site.  So, my first question is: what blogs are out there with good discussions with reasonable and reasoning fans of major league baseball.  And the specific question I pose is who would you rather have - Alexei Ramirez or Jhonny Peralta?  In my case I have a fantasy league with the following categories: avg, hr, rbi, sb, bb, & fielding percentage, and they'd be at a price where I could keep them for up to three years or so.  That's for the poll, but for the sake of discussion, let's not limit it to fantasy baseball, but real baseball with the various parameters in real life...

If the Angels spend money on signing some of their other free agents, might they let Francisco Rodriguez walk and try the unproven Arredondo, or would that be too much of a gamble for a rich-market team like them?  It sure looks to me like he could do the job.  Or if they let K-Rod go (and by the way - what's the deal with "K-Rod"?  His name doesn't begin with K, and I suppose it refers to his strikeouts, which is equally dumb since strikeout doesn't start with K either?  How about now that he has the saves record we call him S-Rod?  Or after he signs for a bajillion dollars this year, he could be $-Rod?  Oops, no - already got one of those.  But I digress...), might the Angels go with a crappy veteran knowing they got Arredondo in reserve?  What do others think?

Like many other fans, I had never heard of Brad Ziegler til about a month ago.  Now he's closing games for Oakland with that unbelievable run of scoreless innings.  (Another run tonight - ouch - that brings the ERA way up to 0.44 or something.)  With Huston Street pitching in the 7th inning, it certainly looks like he's Oakland's new closer.  I know he had some pretty awesome stats in the minors this year (0.37 era, 0.78 whip), but the guy's 28, almost 29, and he'd never done anything until this year.  so the question is, can he keep it up, and will he be closing next year, too?  (Okay, I guess that's two questions.)

I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the results of my league's midseason (i.e., give us a reason to look up baseball stuff during the all-star break) supplemental minor league draft.  Our league is AL-only, and we already had four minor leaguers to start with, so most of the big names are already gone.  These names are the ones who are moving fast up the lists, I guess.  I thought it interesting that there were just six positional players versus 12 pitchers.  Anyway, here they are:

In my fantasy league, to help pass the down-time during the all-star break, we have a supplemental minor league draft.  We start the year with six minor leaguers (which could also include players from Japan, college/HS players, etc - anyone not signed to an NL-organization, since we are AL-only), then at the break, we can drop up to two of them (unless you already had some called up to the majors, in which case you wouldn't have to drop them) and get new ones.  My current "minor leaguers" are Wieters, Price, Moustakas, Smoak, Tabata, and Japanese player Yu Darvish.  (I don't want this to be a discussion on Darvish or Japanese players as a whole - let's just assume I'm holding on to him.)  Tim Beckham's not available, and remember we're AL-only, so which players from the draft would you take over any of the players on my list?  I'll probably drop Tabata for one of the top players in this year's draft (Hosmer, Matusz, GBeckham), but would you drop anyone else?  And would you drop Tabata for anyone other than those three?  And of course, whether or not a draftee signs with that team is also a consideration...

P.S.  There are a couple other actual minor leaguers who are still available that I'm considering, but since there are a couple guys in my league who read this, I'll not mention them :)

This doesn't exactly fall under minor league information, but it does affect how to determine prospects.  The Washington Post today published a chart titled "Lowest Batting Averagge on Balls Put in Play, Career".  Good - this is a good way to tell if BABIP shows luck or skill.  When I look at the top six for the American League: Jerrod Washburn, Tim Wakefield, Paul Byrd, Steve Trachsel, Mark Buehrle, and Brett Tomko, I don't see too many stars (Halladay was 7th and Mussina 8th), and think that once a ball is hit, it's all luck as to whether or not a pitcher is successful.  But then I look at the top six of the National League: Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tim Hudson (followed by Moyer and Park), and with four Hall of Famers and two guys who've made a few all-star games, you gotta think that BABIP is a reflection of skill.  I still don't know.  What do you guys think?

It's not often Joey Gathright would be compared to Justin Smoak, is it?  Let me explain:

I am in an AL-only league, with six hitters categories (avg,hr,rbi,sb, and two weird ones - bb and fielding pct).  We have six minor league slots, and this year we passed a rule saying we could draft, as a minor leaguer, anyone not in an NL franchise, including Japanese or collegiate players.  If they signed with an AL-team you keep him - if they signed with an NL team, you lose him.  I already had Longoria, Wieters, Price, and Tabata.  I had two open spots, which I wanted to fill with (1) a current minor leaguer, (2) a Japanese player, and (3) a college player.  Since I wanted to get three players, but only had two slots available, after our major league draft (and before our minor league draft), I called up Longoria to the majors, dropping Joey Gathright.  This enabled me to get my three minor leaguers.  I got Moustakas and Yu Darvish with my first two picks, then picked Smoak with the extra pick.  Had I not brought up Longoria this would have been the end of it.  But since I made the move, it essentially became a trade-off of Gathright for Smoak, who may not even sign with an AL-team.  (By the way, my other outfielders are Swisher, Cust, Wilkerson, Quentin, and Teahen - need 3 - and I already have Figgins and Lugo for steals, and Figgins could move to the OF, if I want to start Longoria.)  So my questions is, would you have made this move?

In our league, positions are determined by the number of games played at a position the prior year, but I don't know where to find that information for minor leaguers.  Does anyone know a webite I could use to find out the games played last year, by position, for a minor leaguer.  (For that matter, some of our minor leaguers didn't play in the minors last year - what do I do with Alexei Ramirez, or players who only played in college?)

Just wondering - if I'm going to be calling out any of these names, I'd like to know the correct pronunciation:
Longoria: long-GORE-ee-ya or long-uh-REE-ya
Porcello: por-SELL-oh or por-CHELL-oh
Moustakas: moos-TOCK-us?
Brignac: BRIN-yak or BRIG-nak
Jair Jurrjens:  uhhh??
Kalish: KAY-lish?
Balentien: bal-EN-tee-yen?
Hochevar: I think I heard it's ho-KAY-ver?

As part of our upcoming draft, in the minor league portion, we are now allowed to draft college players or foreign (i.e. Japanese) players.  Does anyone know of any top Japanese players that will probably come stateside in the next year or two that would be a top commodity?  I don't really know what college players would be hot property either, but I don't see a college player being instantly successful.  But if I could get a Dice-K, or an Ichro for the price of a minor leaguer, I'd certainly love that!

I'm in an AL-only keeper league where it costs a bit extra each year to keep players from year to year and I'm in a quandary about whether or not to trade Andrew Miller.  I have been offered Aaron Hill for him, which would be a slight upgrade from my current SS, Brendan Harris.  But here's the issue - I'd be dealing him to my arch-rival, and I would hate to have Miller starring on his team for several years.  I have had an incredible slew of injuries, so it's tough keeping a minor leaguer on my team for so long (we have 26 players on our roster with 18 starters and eight bench spots).  I've tried trading him to the rest of the league, but no one else in the league has much interest (maybe that's why the other guy and I have dominated the league the last several years :) )  I guess my real question here, is when do you think Miller will get called up to Detroit.  If I think he'll get called up in May or June, I think I'd rather hold on to him.  Other thoughts?