NorthSideSox72

Keenyn Walker's last 8 games, hitting .320, .469 OBP, 7-for-8 in steal attempts, and more walks than K's. Ravelo continues to do pretty well for a 20-year-old. I still can't find any info on his D though.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 11, 2012 -> 11:48 AM) No word on whose place he takes. KW Jr

When I said he'd likely see AA "at some point", I apparently meant to say "tomorrow".

Boxes... Toledo 2, Charlotte 0 Greene with a double in his AAA debut, Ozzie2 2 doubles (avg now .171), Phegley a double, Leesman with a nice outing (ERA now 3.09) Tennessee 4, Birmingham 1 KW Jr 3-3 w/ 2 2B, Mitchell with 2 hit, rest of team no hits. Bayne mediocre. Winston-Salem 9, Frederick 2 (7 inn) Semien still on fire, Thompson nice game, everyone in the starting lineup with a hit except Shoemaker. Arroyo looked good. Winston-Salem 11, Frederick 7 (7 inn) Sanchez and Shoemaker both 3-4 w/ 2B, Shoemaker and Early HR's (Shoemaker now 1.003 OPS), Bachanov and Collop both hit around. Delmarva 7, Kannapolis 3 Haddow 3-4 (now .938 OPS), Wilson 2-4, Jaye very solild.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 10, 2012 -> 08:02 PM) Looks like Justin Greene has been moved up to Charlotte. Jose Castro down to BIRM? Not sure what the moves were. Why is it a big game for Thompson? Just because he's been struggling recently? Mitchell 1 for 1, at .295. Why is Gilmore hitting clean-up with a .483 OPS? And KWJR had his 5th double (.180). It was noted in the Minor League Catch-All, I think. Greene and Garcia went up. J Castro and Dubler went down.

Filling in for the missing poster... Leighton was a nnice surprise for a 40th round pick in 2009, putting up high averages and a little power in Bristol in 2009, and Great Falls in 2010. But that all go sidetracked in late 2010, when he broke his arm in an altercation off the field, missing some time that year. 2011 he spent mostly repeating Great Falls, putting up numbers that were actually a little worse than in 2010. He was in Kanny for 19 games as well, and seemed overmatched. Here in 2012, having just turned 21, Pangilinan is in Kanny. He started off on fire, but has fallen off since, and currently has a .252/.328/.400/.728 line. For a firstbaseman, he needs to do better than that, and he's striking out a fair amount too (35 K in 124 PA). He's still young, but a 40th round pick with a history of off-field issues really needs to make more happen with the bat to be taken seriously as a prospect.

League doesn't seem to visit the board anymore, so... Kyle had a whirlwind 2010, making stops in Kanny (A-), W-S (A+) and B-Ham (AA). His A-ball stops were very impressive, posting a combined ERA well below 2, striking out more than a man an inning, and inducing plenty of ground balls. The 2009 5th round pick was looking like a fast-mover. But he struggled in Birmingham, his walks blew up, and the next the we knew he was injured. He missed all of 2011. Here in 2012, Kyle is at Winstom-Salem, and is doing pretty well so far: 15 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 5 BB, 14 K. At age 24 he is now a little old for level, but he's got too much talent, pedigree and results to give up on him. He may see AA this year, and if he does well, there, it may be time to start talking about him again. It would be good to hear some scouting info from this year, to see how he is doing after the injury.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 10, 2012 -> 12:53 PM) I was Director of Stadium Operations and Public Relations for the Augusta GreenJackets from 1994-1995. I think I do have some rights to make judgements about minor league players. While it's true most minor league staff persons don't work directly for the major league affiliate, I was very close to the coaching staff and also spent a ton of time with Latin American players because I speak Spanish. But fine, whatever. There's really no point in having this forum because just a handful of people who post here have actually seen any of the players play or watched them consistently through MILB.com feeds. Other than JPN, who has seen Saladino play more than 10 times? No one said you had no "rights" to make judgments on players. Not sure if you noticed, but, everyone who posts in here does that. You just need to accept that, like everyone else, your opinions may be countered and disagreed with. Have you seen Saladino play more than 10 times?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ May 10, 2012 -> 11:54 AM) Dubler and Jose Castro to Birmingham. Maybe Dubler will actually get to play this year.

Picking up for OB... Infante was seen as a future part of the Sox bullpen not long ago. He even made an appearance with the big club in 2010, appearing in 5 games. 2011 he posted a mediocre season at Charlotte, and he's in Charlotte again this year (his 6th in the system), but has only been in 4 games, in setup roles. He seems to have dropped off the radar, and I am unsure why he's pitching so rarely.

Since OB has disappeared... Upchurch is repeating Kanny in 2012, his 5th year in the system. Results are less than stellar this year: 16 H and 8 BB in 14 IP, only 10 K, 4.50 ERA, .291 AvgA. He's likely organizational filler at this point.

Brian Omogrosso is still in the Sox system - at Charlotte, for his 7th year in the organization. His injury in 2009/2010 throw off this development, and the now-28-year-old is just doing mop-up work at AAA. He's got a 5.74 ERA this year, his walk numbers are OK and he has struck out quite a few (6 BB, 19 K in 15.2 IP). Anyone in AAA can't be fully counted out, but his chances of being a major leaguer probably went out the window after his surgery.

Since the thread owner is MIA... Leroy Hunt has spent 2008-2012 switching back and forth between A- and A+. He's now 24 in High A, and this is his 6th year in the minors, so he's a minor league FA at the end of this season. He's been outright dominant this year so far in W-S as the closer (in 14 IP, 1.93 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and 20 K vs 3 BB), so he may see AA at some point. But calling him a prospect would be a stretch.

Also, per seanjon21, Terance Marin is being promoted to W-S.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 10, 2012 -> 11:27 AM) Mark Gonzales ‏ @MDGonzales Sox promote infielder Drew Garcia (Dave's grandson) and outfielder Justin Greene from AA Birmingham to AAA Charlotte. Hm I wonder what the corresponding moves will be.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 9, 2012 -> 08:20 PM) Jared Mitchell was on a 6 for 36 string with 14 K's mixed in. Got a base hit today, and an RBI, currently at .288. Castro and Hernandez down at BIRM have definitely been the two most impressive pitchers so far, at least among the "prospect-status" starters. Pedro is also the highest ranked prospect in the system for which no one has started an AAP thread yet. Anyone want him?

Thus far in B-Ham, Rem has put up numbers pretty similar to what he did there in 2011 before the promotion to AAA. He's pitched in 9 games, in a variety of closing and GF roles. He had two bad outings (consecutive, in April), but was unscored upon in the other 7. His numbers so far... 13.2 IP, 10 H, 4 ER, 4 BB, 17 K 2.63 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 11.2 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, .204 AvgA His K rate isn't quite as dominating as 2011 (12.3), but otherwise hsi numbers are pretty similar. At this point, the only reliever in B-Ham who is having a better season is Ryan Kussmaul (another NDFA by coincidence), but Ryan's walk rate (5.7 BB/9) is a little alarming. So as slots open up in Charlotte, especially given Dan's age, I'd think he's one of the two top candidates for a promotion.

Since its been over a year... Kevin Dubler is organizational filler at this point. He is on Charlotte's (AAA) roster, but has yet to appear in a game, so he's a 3rd string catcher at best. Not sure why they even put him there, since he isn't playing, apparently.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 10, 2012 -> 07:07 AM) Doesn't everyone pretty much universally trash our minor league system? There's a difference between being in favor of KW in a generic sense (for the moves which mostly impact the big league roster) and having admiration for our minor league system. Before this situation with Sale, I defended him pretty consistently the last 2-3 years here. As far as my judgment, the very first day I saw Jose Guillen play for our team in 1995 (the Augusta GreenJackets), I told everyone with the Pirates they couldn't send him back down to Bradenton. At that time, there have been a knifing incident in the Florida extended spring dorms and I argued it was worth the risk to take a chance on him...that I would personally look after him in Augusta and keep him out of trouble (of course, that didn't last in the big leagues, but he had a long and pretty productive career). When you are around minor leaguers every day, you can see when the likes of a Jermaine Dye, Andruw Jones, Magglio Ordonez, Jaret Wright, Richie Sexson, Sean Casey or Vladimir Guerrero just have that extra something that it takes to make it...I've seen video, tape, highlights, I can make an informed judgement from watching baseball religiously the last 30+ years. What is that last graf from?

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 9, 2012 -> 03:49 PM) But didn't you just in the Sale thread take 3-4 counter-examples that ran contrary to what you were arguing and refuse to admit them as evidence? So now if I'm getting pounded for something, the "group think" is right, but if a number of posters in that thread are disagreeing with you, you still feel you're right and entitled to your opinion, correct? Do you not see why many on the board are upset, without needing confirmation from Chris Rongey that therefore validates their right to be upset or confused? It was funny, in that thread, no one did provide a quote that fit what I asked for - until I did. And even then, everyone forgot that I never said it didn't happen - I said I hadn't seen it. I was questioning the leap being made, seemingly without evidence, since no one provided it. This is what this is all about - the yell and scream crowd. You did it as a perfect example here. So did the people with the OMG THEY ARE FUKEING SALE AROUND WHAT THE HELL ARE THE DOING THEY HAVE NO PLAN OMG WTF BBQ reactions about Sale going to the pen. Have whatever opinion you'd like, but if you make a statement that makes an unfounded leap, then you will gete called on it. That's one of the great things about this board. I knew I'd get called out about Sale, so I just kept asking for proof of inconsistency. I finally found it myself. What you did was the opposite - you made the leap without evidence, and haven't been able to find any evidence the leap has any foundation in reality.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ May 9, 2012 -> 03:33 PM) Fine, then why did Gonzales even bother to report this? Why is it noteworthy enough to include in a column? How is it significant? Until someone can show the actual quotes in Japanese, then I can sit here and argue that Mark Gonzales knows more what's going on in that clubhouse than we do and maybe there is an issue there, who knows? Everyone is simply commenting on the English translation of what was said. It might have been 3-5 minutes of conversation boiled down to a one-sentence English translation. It might have been something perfectly innocuous, that's also true. "Fukudome, if possible, would like to play more, if the opportunities are made available to him by the manager, whose line-up decision-making process has to be respected." Okay...lol. Including you... except you turned it into the most extreme, controversy-creating possibility there is. That is why people pounded you for it. Do you not see that?

QUOTE (seanjon21 @ May 9, 2012 -> 02:42 PM) Terance just got the call headed up. Wnston Salem High A Wll there ya go! Figured that was due soon. What I'd love to see is a little more depth in scouting info on this guy. You could check out the blog called "scouting the SALLY" to see if that guy knows anything, or can find out. All I have been able to find is, fringe-velocity fastball, plus slider, small frame. Not a lot to go on.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 9, 2012 -> 02:27 PM) His approach right now looks nothing like the April to July approach. You can tell that from the strikeouts. Brent Morel is not supposed to be a strikeout machine. Last year, April to July, he struck out 27 times. This year, he has struck out 33 times. Morel turned the strikeouts up last year when he started swinging more aggressively and focusing less on making contact. This year, he's neither putting an aggressive swing on the ball (August/September) nor is he making weak contact (April to July). I can't figure out what the deal is, I don't even have a guess. He's stopped making solid contact but kept the strikeouts. That seems like a particularly bad combination. I don't know if a stint at Charlotte will help or if keeping him with Manto will help, but at some point, the manager and GM have to make that call, and the clock has to be ticking. I didn't say numbers, I said approach. He looks tenative and in-between to me, which is what he looked like early last year. I don't honestly know why that approach resulted in high contact but low power and average last year, but now results in more strikeouts. Maybe the league's pitchers adjusted to him.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 9, 2012 -> 02:46 PM) The puzzling thing is how would pitching 3 times a week possibly throwing maybe 50 pitches during a week salvage his arm as opposed to a start with 100 pitches? Seems like a very fine line. In relief, he pitches maybe 70 innings per year. As a starter, 180-200 innings. That isn't a fine line, that is a big difference.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 9, 2012 -> 02:39 PM) I'll give the organization a lot of credit if they show they're not stubborn and actually are willing to put him back in the rotation or on the DL, etc. I have no problem with an organization reversing course so quickly if they feel it's in the best interest of the team. That's pretty much my thought. If they think it was just too quick an increase in workload, then let him relieve for a while, then start again later, maybe in 2012 when someone else goes down, or in 2013. If it is mechanical and something that is going to happen either way, then DL him when it becomes necessary. If it is a situation where he can handle reliever innings but not starter innings, then make him a reliever. That appears to be their plan, so I am fine with it.