Prospectus prospect props
Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein released his list of his top 11 White Sox prospects:
Four-Star Prospects
1. Daniel Hudson, RHP
2. Jared Mitchell, OF
3. Tyler Flowers, C
Three-Star Prospects
4. Jordan Danks, CF
5. Dayan Viciedo, 3B
6. Brent Morel, 3B
7. Clevelan Santeliz, RHP
8. Trayce Thompson, OF
Two-Star Prospects
9. Santos Rodriguez, LHP
10. David Holmberg, LHP
11. C.J. Retherford, 2B
The top six are no surprise, of course, but he has some interesting names ahead of C.J. Retherford (and he talks about four more beyond 11). Santeliz has a chance to break camp with the big-league club, but the rest are pure projection. That said, he also took questions in a chat, and wasn’t so eager to compare Trayce Thompson to Mike Stanton.
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Christian Marrero Reading Room:
*The White Sox are interested in Henry Blanco, according to his agent. Anything that keeps Tyler Flowers from being A.J. Pierzynski’s backup is fine by me.
*The Cheat received an advance copy of The Bill James Handbook 2010 and notes Ozzie Guillen is continuing his path to normalcy.
*The Sun-Times guys had fun responding to yesterday’s trade rumor, with Joe Cowley and Chris De Luca sniping via Twitter.
*Rob Neyer responds to De Luca’s notion that Gordon Beckham was snubbed.
*De Luca was named the Sun-Times’ sports editor.
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Arizona Fall League:
- Peoria Javelinas 24, Peoria Saguaros 15
- Jordan Danks went 3-for-6 with two doubles, three RBI, a walk and two strikeouts.
- Brent Morel had four hits, including his first AFL homer, and three RBI.
- Sergio Santos allowed two runs on three hits and a walk over 1 1/3 innings. He struck out two.
But wait, there’s more! A guy at MinorLeagueBall.com shares AFL video. There’s footage of Jordan Danks there, but we’ve seen him before. Here are two guys new to video:
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/7674477[/vimeo]
Brent Morel – Arizona Fall League – 2009 from David Pratt on Vimeo.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/7676286[/vimeo]
C.J. Retherford – Arizona Fall League – 2009 from David Pratt on Vimeo.
why, exactly, would flowers as a back up to AJ be such a terrible idea?
anytime you drastically alter a promising young players development its a terrible idea
blanco provides a perfect 1 year stop gap solution
Well, you could say they did that with Beckham’s positional changes, and so far he’s survived.
More to the point, A.J. bristled at the notion of giving up any playing time when had a couple years of security ahead of him. Now that he’s entering a contract year, he’d likely be even more opposed to sharing time, or knowledge that would lead to Flowers getting PT.
And if Flowers spends a year picking up scraps of playing time behind AJ, it’s a waste of service time. Especially when he’s not a guarantee to hit better than a Blanco (it’s been said that catchers struggle offensively more than other positions out of the gate).
Since he didn’t mash at Triple-A yet, he still has stuff to learn in the minors. And if they wait one year — or at least more than half a year — they can give Flowers the bulk of the playing time at a premium defensive position, which makes any offensive adjustment period far more tolerable.
Also, there is always the possibility that Kenny would keep him in AAA to showcase him for potential trades (Dexter Carter). If he hits well there his value will stay high as opposed to the hit it might take if he gets to the majors and struggles (ala Saltalamachia [sp.[?]).
I would say I’m neutral about trading him, but if it’s in the right deal then I wouldn’t be opposed. (especially since, according to his chat yesterday, Greenstein thinks his swing is full of holes) A.J.’s aged well thus far and I could see him coming back while they develop another catching prospect. (possible the Venezualan kid)
Flowers swing did look fairly long to me, but that observation is based on a very small sample size.
Anyway, if Greenstein declared Tylers’ swing as flawed, why did he list him as a four star prospect?
Forgive me if you know this already, but Goldstein uses a five-star system. So Flowers is knocked down a star, but because he:
1. Has shown plate patience and power to make up for the lower contact rate so far
2. Hasn’t stumbled on his climb through the minors
He’s a good four-star candidate.
Because Flowers doesn’t need any help learning how to watch college football, which is probably all that AJ would provide.
I’m guessing Flowers ain’t a Florida fan, so he probably wouldn’t even get help there.