F-Mart started the year dead cold, but he has a 5 game hit streak with  a .440/.652 obp/slugging line over those last 5 games.

Just 5 games, obviously, so could be as insignificant as the first week of the season when he barely got a hit. but, still, nice to see him put a good streak together, been a long time (for a 19 year old!) since he's put up numbers that make one raise an eyebrow.

 

 

 

 

Five-Star Prospects
None
Four-Star Prospects

1. Adam Miller, RHP
   
2. Wes Hodges, 3B
   
3. Beau Mills, 1B
   

Three-Star Prospects

4. Chuck Lofgren, LHP
   
5. Nick Weglarz, LF
   
6. Aaron Laffey, LHP
   
7. Jensen Lewis, RHP
   
8. Josh Rodriguez, SS
   

Two-Star Prospects

9. Jordan Brown, 1B
   
10. Trevor Crowe, OF
    
11. David Huff, LHP

Just Missing: Brian Barton, OF; Jared Goedert, 3B; Scott Lewis, LHP; Matt Whitney, 1B

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The Kinston Indians 3Bman vs their SS. Read in the prospect diary below that the Indians have moved Rodriguez over Hodges in their 3B ranking (on the assumption that Rodriguez won't stick at SS, I guess), based on his superior hitting.

That's kind of contrary to the numbers, as i see them:

year of birth: 1984

experience: Rodriguez is in his 2nd year as a pro, his first year in A- was okay, with an .802 OPS and a .337 OBP. Hodges had an extra year of college. Coming into the season, John ranked Hodges as the Indians 6th best prospect, and Rodriguez as their 20th best.

defense: Rodriguez as a SS convert would presumably be good so long as he has the arm. On the other hand Hodges was voted best defensive 3Bman in the Carolina Lg in the recent BA poll, so would seem to have answered any questions about how he'd come off of his injury.

offense: Hodges is at .378/.478 vs .338/.458 for Rodriguez.

To me, none of this gives me a sense as to why the Indians would like Rodriguez more than Hodges. Rodriguez has been red-hot in August  with a 1.261 OPS -- but a hot streak of 14 games doesn't seem to make up for an otherwise solid but uninspiring resume. Hodges, on the other hand, in his first pro season seems to have the better bat and, at a minimum, the defense you'd want.

What am I not seeing that the  Indians reportedly do see in Rodriguez over Hodges?  Or is that report just bogus?

Wilson gets the call up, per roto world:

"Giants recalled RHP Brian Wilson from Triple-A Fresno.
Wilson had a 2.10 ERA for Fresno, but that came with 24 walks in 34 1/3 innings. While the Giants were hoping he'd be their closer by now, there's still little reason to think he's ready to aid the pen."

What Rotoworld misses is that, per the log of Wilson's last 10 outings, he has a 13/2 K/BB ratio during that period. Any Giants fans know if something clicked? Or is that just a small sample size fluke?

God knows the guy has the stuff to be a great reliever, just needs to limit the walks. Be interesting to see how he works out.

catchers are tough to rank, but I thought BA's top ten catchers was particularly confused. They had Clement 1st, Conger 2nd, Anderson 3rd, Towles 4th, and Teagarden all the way down at 10th. To me this overranks Conger, who has proved little ,and underranks Taylor Teagarden who looks really promising to me.

I''d probably have the top five of the list something like Clement, Teagarden,  Anderson, Towles, Conger, with Max Ramirez heading up the back 5.

Teagarden came out of college touted as a superb defensive C and even coming off of his TJ surgery is throwing out a high percentage of base stealers.

Teagarden had a 1054 OPS in High A ball (Cal Lg, though) and is at .998 in AA (small sample size caveat).

He's catching 2 or 3 days a week as a precaution coming off his injuries. That doesn't seem problematic to me. A broken back is actually better than most back injuries: the bone heals, and you're better, it's not like a chronic back condition. And, as for TJ, about 90% of pitchers not come off of TJ as good or better than before, and for a catcher it seems even less problematic -- particularly given how he's been throwing. It seems smart in the 2nd year off of TJ to limit Teagarden's throwing, but that doesn't throw up a red flag to me -- standard recovery period is 12-18 months, no?

That resume is, to me, far more impressive than others on the list aside from Clement. Conger seems to have an impressive bat, but it's unclear if he'll stick at catcher and he has a lot more to prove.

Am I overrating Teagarden, or am I right that he's being underrated? Any other comments on their catcher rankings?

if anyone wants  to see Joba's start tonight, it's on here:

http://www.cn8.tv/videoplayer/player/player.asp

thru 3 innings he looks pretty amazing. very simple delivery, and not nearly as fat as people say. and incredible life on his pitches...wonderful fade on the change.

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here's what john had to say:

1# Troy Tulowitzki, SS, Grade A- (I go back and forth between A- and B+ on this one)
2# Chris Iannetta, C, B+ (I really love him)
3# Ian Stewart, 3B, B+  (Still very young, have faith)
4# Franklin Morales, LHP, B+
5# Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, B
6# Greg Reynolds, RHP, B
7# Dexter Fowler, OF, B (tools guy making progress developing skills)
8# Shane Lindsay, RHP, B
9# Jonathan Herrera, SS, B
10# Seth Smith, OF, B (I think I like this guy more than anyone else)

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no AAA action tonight, but plenty at other levels.

in afternoon games, Lastings Milledge is 2-4 with 2 home runs. think maybe the report that he'll be the Mets starting LFer after the all-star break cheered him up a bit? maybe just a bit....

personally, I think he's going to explode on the major leagues over the second half. it's his time -- mets are very lucky not to have traded him. (actually, I take that back, they're very lucky they didn't trade him for Rich Harden, the way Blanton has pitched, that's a different story. Think Billy Beane isn't wishing he had given in to the Mets' demands and sent them Harden?)

The Mariners' current regime has received a lot of criticism for pushing their prospects too fast. Under that criticism is a general sense that there is a progression to developing prospects: once they can dominate a level, then advance them, but to do so before that messes them up somehow.

There's no proof of anything in developing prospects, so that assumption is more based on an intuition,  but it's a logical intuition -- it does seem to make sense to let guys go up a level only after they've proven they can handle a lower level, no?

Given how some of their guys  have progressed this year, though, I'm not certain that holds. After struggling with promotions, Clement is doing just great at AAA, Adam Jones has absolutely flourished, as has Balentien. Now in a different organization, but A Cabrera, also, has flourished after being pushed hard by the Mariners.

At a minimum, this seems to show that these guys haven't been hurt by being advanced too fast, and one could even guess -- and, again, it's just a guess, there's no proof of anything -- that they've responded to being pushed.

Was the prospect junkie community too hard on the Mariners? Do they not know what they're talking about when they criticized the Mariners (and the Mets, to a lesser degree) on this score?

here's our top 30?

who is your most overrated and underrated guy on our collective wisdom/foolishness?

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