50th-rounder pitches seven perfect innings

wcw — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:29:23 -0000

Yeah, it's short-season A ball, and he's a four-year college player who's only two years younger than Matt Cain and didn't even make it out of rookie ball last year. Still, you have to give the man props. His line tonight: 7 innings, 7 strikeouts, 7 ground balls, 7 fly balls. No walks, no hits, no wild pitches, no nothing. And his season thus far looks pretty impressive: 29 innings, 27 strikeouts, 8 hits, 2 home runs, 3 runs total.

He has not walked a batter. Including last year, he has walked one (1) batter in 45 professional innings. It's like he saw wood bats and said to himself, I can just pound the strike zone against these things. (His walk rates in college are fine, but nothing like this.)

I'm a sucker for these names. 50th rounders don't usually go anywhere (Brian Horwitz, who went undrafted, has managed a cup of coffee), but after performances like tonight's, you have to give it up.

So, go Mike Loree. Tonight, you are the man.

Pablo Sandoval and small sample size

wcw — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:57:12 -0000

Now, I liked Pablo Sandoval last year. Not as a real prospect, but as someone interesting. He played catcher, at least sometimes, and after he hit 338/346/581 in June and 304/309/543 in July at age 21, I figured, hey -- even in the Cal League, a name worth watching.

This year, he wasn't promoted, then hit like Babe Ruth in April. Et voila, he was, perhaps justly, seen as a real prospect in a system almost entirely bare of hitters. Promote the man now, cried the assembled masses. He's clearly too good for high A.

Since that incredible April, he hit a merely solid 321/385/431 in May and a disappointing 243/263/378 in the short portion of June we've played. Neither of which worries me. Both of which remind me that anything can happen in a hundred plate appearances.

Now, Sandoval did step up in the spring and 453/500/895 for a month. That's a good thing, and portends more hope for future performance than a Giants fan can usually expect from a non-overaged hitter in its farm system. I have hopes. Still, until he puts up more months like that, there's no rush to promote him, and he won't be much of a hitting prospect outside this very thin system.

SB Nation User Blog: wcw

50th-rounder pitches seven perfect innings

Pablo Sandoval and small sample size