May 1, 200520 yr 2005 Kannapolis Intimidators Season Outlook Can great pitching carry subpar offense? Last season the Kannapolis Intimidators had loads of talented young prospects. The rotation featured a deep one through five with Brandon McCarthy leading the group and going on to one of the best seasons in all of the minor leagues. The lineup included many prospects such as Micah Schnurstein, Robert Valido, Thomas Brice, Chris Young, Andy Gonzalez, and Antoin Gray. At various times twelve of our Top 25 prospects played for the Intimidators last season. Despite the talent the team only managed a 69-70 overall record, failing to make the playoffs. This year’s team has a different makeup, whether that is good or bad remains to be seen. Only four current Intimidators found their way onto our Top 25 list, IF/C Adam Ricks (#21), LHP Ray Liotta (#14), LHP Gio Gonzalez (#8), and C Francisco Hernandez (#7). Currently the Intimidators stand at 12-11 in South Atlantic League play, two games behind Southern Division co-leaders Augusta and Charleston. more...
May 2, 200520 yr Cool beans Dan Bham will be going up tomorrow and I think WS will shortly follow. Its now going to be more of a season preview/season update
May 2, 200520 yr At various times twelve of our Top 25 prospects played for the Intimidators last season. Despite the talent the team only managed a 69-70 overall record, failing to make the playoffs. Not good.
May 2, 200520 yr QUOTE(YASNY @ May 2, 2005 -> 01:13 AM) Not good. Why is that? Most of those prospects only spent short stints there or were only in Kanny for short periods after being drafted. Young, Valido, and Schnurstein were the only ones really to spend much more than a month or 2 there. Where are the pitchers? They cycled through...
May 2, 200520 yr Author QUOTE(Randar68 @ May 2, 2005 -> 11:21 AM) Why is that? Most of those prospects only spent short stints there or were only in Kanny for short periods after being drafted. Young, Valido, and Schnurstein were the only ones really to spend much more than a month or 2 there. Where are the pitchers? They cycled through... Yeah, I should have emphasized that point in the article. The point remains that last year's group had more talent than this year's group. It's taken miracle work from Gio and Liotta and great bullpen work to keep them around .500 the way the offense is hitting. Looking at the top 25 guys that played on Kanny last year... Haigwood was inconsistent, we put him on the prospect list because we think that last year's numbers were lower due to his ACL injury that had him miss a full year. Gray, Young, and Schnur were pretty good the entire year for them. Valido had a rough year with the bat. Fabio Castro is a middle reliever, he was solid, but minimal team impact. Andy Gonzalez played around a month with Kanny. Whisler made only a few starts after the draft. BMac was promoted midseason. Gio and Hernandez barely played with them after late season promotions. Again, I probably should have emphasized this a little more. Still though, that's 8 guys that started the season with Kanny while it's hard to see more than 5 or 6 possible solid prospects to start the season on this year's roster.
May 2, 200520 yr QUOTE(danman31 @ May 2, 2005 -> 03:31 PM) Yeah, I should have emphasized that point in the article. The point remains that last year's group had more talent than this year's group. It's taken miracle work from Gio and Liotta and great bullpen work to keep them around .500 the way the offense is hitting. Looking at the top 25 guys that played on Kanny last year... Haigwood was inconsistent, we put him on the prospect list because we think that last year's numbers were lower due to his ACL injury that had him miss a full year. Gray, Young, and Schnur were pretty good the entire year for them. Valido had a rough year with the bat. Fabio Castro is a middle reliever, he was solid, but minimal team impact. Andy Gonzalez played around a month with Kanny. Whisler made only a few starts after the draft. BMac was promoted midseason. Gio and Hernandez barely played with them after late season promotions. Again, I probably should have emphasized this a little more. Still though, that's 8 guys that started the season with Kanny while it's hard to see more than 5 or 6 possible solid prospects to start the season on this year's roster. The problem with this year's team is they really don't have much positional talent or the players that do have talent are very inexperienced/young. Last year, it was a bit of the opposite except for McCarthy's time there.
May 3, 200520 yr QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ May 1, 2005 -> 11:36 PM) Cool beans Dan Bham will be going up tomorrow and I think WS will shortly follow. Its now going to be more of a season preview/season update It will, as soon as I get in gear enough to write out the pitching. I've been really busy lately.
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