Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Quick MiLB notes

I don't want you to miss Paul's photography post here - you should click the links and poke around. Remember, 8x10s for $15... perfect for getting signed at Cheney. That's what I'm doing...

Apparently, the secret to beating the RiverCats is playing them in Sacramento. Clint Nageotte had a nice bounce-back game, limiting the potent RiverCats line-up to 1ER in 5 1/3IP. The rest of his line (5H, 3BB, 2K) isn't exactly overwhelming, and the whole extreme GB thing didn't quite work out on the day (7:6 GB:FB ratio), but hey, it's a solid win against a good team.
The game featured a head-to-head match-up of two big-time prospects that just happened to get an in-depth feature over at JAC's Prospect Insider today: Sacto's Daric Barton (1b, L) and the Rainiers' Adam Jones (CF, R). Today's game showed why both have moved up the MiLB ladder so quickly.
Barton, as Churchill notes, has exceptional plate discipline, and he grabbed another 2BBs today. That pushes his season K:BB to 12:5. The only question with this guy (currently sporting a .324/.500/.529 line on the young season) is his HR power.
Jones hit another HR today (after hitting his first two yesterday), and though it was a solo shot in the 9th, he got it off star reliever Santiago Casilla (the artist formerly known as Jairo Garcia), who is just filthy - he's got career MiLB averages of 7.3H/9 and 11.6K/9. First, this corroborates the scouting report that he's got a quick bat. Second, I hope it shows that Jones is learning and making adjustments. He faced Casilla on 4/12, and grounded out. I wasn't there, so I don't know if he hit a mistake pitch or what. Still, it's obviously a positive.
Churchill's got the scouting scores for these guys, and he's obviously seen them a lot more, but I keep thinking that Adam has a decent shot to be a Torii Hunter-level MLB player. He'll never have great plate discipline, but I think his batspeed will push him up to 30HRs at his absolute peak. That's a lofty goal, but Jones is way, way ahead of Hunter for his age.
Barton could be either the next Jason Giambi (whose minor league numbers look somewhat similar, but remember: Barton played each level three years younger) or an allergic-to-leather doppleganger for John Olerud.

It'll be interesting to see how this year plays out for these two uberprospects... I'll keep checking in on them, as will JAC, Baseball America and the rest of the usual suspects.
Detectovision has a little 'POTD' feature on Steven Kahn, so check that out...
Much more minors, as always, here and here.

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