SB Nation User Blog: klemente

Growing up on the farm

klemente — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:41:02 -0000

Although Fresno and Connecticut are staggering across the finish line in AAA and AA, ALL of the lower affiliates are currently at the top of the standings of their respective leagues. And among the new draftee signings, there are a few players like Jason Jarvis that might prove to be steals in the 2008 draft class.

AAA will, most likely, continue to be weak on talent, but the rest of the affiliates should be even stronger in 2009. How will the new additions be distributed? By position?

Example... Catcher:

MLB: Sandoval and Molina

AAA: Witter, Eliézer Alfonzo and Steve Holm

AA: Buster Posey and Jackson Williams

High A: Jesús Navarro and Michael Ambort

A: Héctor Sánchez and Johnny Monell

PS... I just read today's lineup card: Sandoval will be playing third, a change that makes things much more interesting.

Serious prospect chatter

klemente — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:34:49 -0000

Though the super-quick "haverecords" posted the link to Andrew Baggarly's most recent blog entry several hours ago, deep down in the bowels of the oft-forgotten FanShots section, I feel it deserving of a full FanPost. Interesting stuff that is definitely worthy of more traffic.

Baggarly-- who, as you all know, doubles as a Baseball America correspondent-- offers a lot of information concerning several of the club's top prospects. His source: farm director Fred Stanley. The plan to fast-track Nick Noonan is, I believe, the most surprising piece of information.

A sampling of quotes...

According to Baggarly,

SANDOVAL: He’s ready for the big leagues now. Crushing balls from both sides of the plate, though he’s obviously getting more at-bats from the left side. Energizing that whole Double-A club since his midseason promotion from San Jose. No longer taking ground balls at third base; that experiment is over. Very competent at first base, though, and has some skills behind the plate. A very strong arm, too. (There’s an anecdote about his ambidextrous throwing ability that you’ll see in tomorrow’s Giants notebook.)

ISHIKAWA: Really turned it up a notch this season. Playing with more confidence and appears driven. The organization didn’t need to challenge him; he did it himself. He was indecisive last year and let pitches get too deep on him while trying to figure out if they were strikes. Thus, he whiffed or fouled off hittable pitches. This year, he’s driving them out of the park. Most of his shots are going to right-center, though he hit a ball out to left-center at Round Rock last week

NICK NOONAN: Sorry, I know this will crush some of you San Jose Giants season ticket holders, but Stanley said it’s conceivable that Noonan could head straight to Double-A next season and be within one full year of the big leagues. He already has the best strike zone discipline of any hitter in the system. They expected him to maybe hit .250 in his first pro season, considering that it’s sweltering in Augusta and they play in a pitcher’s park where the wind blows in. Noonan is doing much better than that, hitting .283. He also has 26 stolen bases in 29 attempts. It’s easy to steal bases in the minors, much harder to steal a bunch while posting a success rate of 89.6 percent.

Quote to note: “It’s a tough grind to play in Low A. So you can imagine what it’s like for a kid who’s never played pro baseball grinding it for 144 games.”

Conor Gillaspie's Swing

klemente — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:44:12 -0000

From The Hard Ball Times

Gillaspie's biggest asset is his ability to hit for a high average, which he's able to do for a few reasons:

1. A very short swing.

2. Very fast hands.

3. When contact is made, it is usually of the hard variety.

4. Excellent hand-eye coordination, as evidenced by his excellent 37:21 BB:K ratio in college.

Some have questioned Gillaspie's power potential, and it's true that his swing isn't constructed for power but for contact and line drives. However, there are ways for him to improve his power output.

The best way would be to increase his loading process—he has more than a short enough swing to load his hands a bit more. If anything, there are times when his hands can take over his swing and get ahead of his hip rotation, which an increased loading of the hands may help prevent.

Defensively, Gillaspie should be able to stay at third base, though most observers don't think that he'll become much more than average at the position. However, he is athletic enough to make the switch to second base if needed. In fact, maybe that would be the preferred course, since it would raise the value of his bat.

Given Gillaspie's excellent approach at the plate, I expect him to advance quickly, but his upside is limited because of his lack of plus power.

Garrett Broshius Blog Entry: Sandoval

klemente — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:10:39 -0000

I just stumbled across a blog entry penned by Garrett Broshius at sportingnews.com. Posted on August 5th, he singles out the players he thinks are the best prospects in the Eastern League. According to Broshius, the best hitter in the league is 19 year-old Fernando Martínez of the Mets, followed by the Blue Jays' Travis Snider and Pablo Sandoval. Quoting Broshius, Sandoval is "a ball of energy with a strong arm and a good glove. And he can flat-out hit from both sides of the plate. He single-handedly made us a much better team when he arrived". He also mentions three pitchers: Masterson, Carrasco and Kunz.

If interested, you can e-mail him at gbroshuis@sportingnews.com.