Scouting Reports on the Rangers and Padres AA

On Saturday July 28th 2012, I watched the Frisco Roughriders (Rangers AA) play the San Antonio Missions (Padres AA).

Missions Notes:

I haven't been on 1st baseman Nathan Freiman in other times I have seen him (his age has a little bit to do with it, his position does as well) but his bat is really growing on me. He has some serious power. He really smashed a hard line drive the other way and just got under a low fastball.
Edinson Rincon is listed as an outfielder but played 3rd base. He didn't show good reaction time or range there. Offensively, he takes some violent hacks and swing and miss is part of his game. He has some pop though and was hitting the ball hard. Here is some video of him homering off of rehabbing Mark Lowe:

Jake Blackwood had a big late whiff on a 3-1 fastball and another whiff later. He stood there looking at a breaking ball as well, part of a not very good day at the plate.
Jeudy Valdez is a skinny infielder with a bit of a strange batting stance where his hands are down. He has a propensity to chase breaking balls but makes solid contact. He has a pretty quick swing, just not great mechanics.
Cody Decker left a lot to be desired as far as plate discipline goes and is slow.
Catcher Jason Haggerty has a decent pull swing (although his bat speed is slow) and laid off breaking balls (catchers with patience always have value). He made some pretty good contact too and isn't too slow at 4.38 to first.
Kyung Min Na had a really bad error in left field and made a nice catch but nearly killed himself on the wall. At the plate, he didn't look good and had his bat shattered in one plate appearance. He is an above average runner though, at about 4:10 to 1st.

The starting pitcher for the Missions was the skinny right-hander Matt Jackson. He has a real easy delivery and was relying on contact. It didn't really look like he had swing and miss stuff but can locate his fastball on the low part of the zone. His breaking ball was thrown mainly against lefties it seemed and he had problems getting it to the plate. He also mixes in a change pretty well, as it looks pretty much the same as the fastball. Profar and Engel Beltre drove low fastballs really well and it seemed that there was just too much hard contact given up by Jackson. He wasn't walking guys though.

Tom Layne is a lefty that brings his arm back for deception. He isn't soft tossing, with a good looking fastball. His changeup got a whiff from Mitch Moreland. He faced 2 lefties, threw 5 pitches, got 2 outs, and then was taken out. Here is him throwing 1 pitch and fielding a comebacker from Engel Beltre:

Frisco Notes:

Jake Brigham started the game with a nice breaking ball to get Reymond Fuentes (Fuentes repeatedly chased breaking balls, which he got because he couldn't do anything with fastballs early in the count) swinging after setting him up with 2 fastballs. He was pitching to contact with his fastball for the most part but later got whiffs with it. His low fastball works as a sinker but his fastball command left him for a while. He broke out a separate curveball later that he can throw for strikes (and also provides some big time speed differential). He really fell in love with it all of the sudden and walked a batter on all curves. In the end, his fastball is his best pitch. Overall, it is safe to say he has big league stuff but minor league command. This can change of course. Here is some video of him.

Ross Wolf started his relief appearance with breaking balls he can throw for strikes and a fastball that didn't look impressive for the right hander. It is especially flat when he threw it high. Maybe if he can throw it down to right-handers he can have some success above AA. Here is some video:

Jurickson Profar got way under a ball (chasing a low pitch) on the first pitch in his first at-bat but later hit one hard that was low probably below the zone. Here is Profar facing reliever Daniel Stange:

 I timed Leury Garcia at 4.05 to 1st base, pretty quick for the middle infielder rumored to be traded. Catcher Zach Zaneski looked bad on breaking balls and was jammed badly on a fastball. While his arm looked weak in warmups, he made a couple really nice throws during the game and blocked balls well.

Here is Mitch Moreland (on rehab) batting:

Low Level Minor League Notes

Some assorted prospect notes:

Alex Meyer of the Hagerstown Suns has a 95-97 MPH (touched 98 MPH in the Futures game as I watched his start before the Futures game and the Futures game) fastball. It has iffy command and he mixes it with a pretty good looking slider at 87 MPH

Cutter Dysktra on the Suns (the Nationals A affiliate) is listed as a 3rd baseman, but played 2nd when I saw him. He made a very good play defensively. Offensively, his long stint in A + last year was horrible, but he has been better (at least as far as K/BB is concerned) in the lower level. Matt Skole leads the league in walks and homers. He has an uppercut type swing, and a fly-ball hitter type swing.

The Tri-City Dust Devils (Colorado Rockies A-) closer Seth Willoughby is a skinny right hander with some swing and miss stuff. He has a good looking straight fastball, along with a moving fastball, and a curveball he can throw for strikes. At this point, he has thrown just 9 innings so it is hard to draw any conclusions, but it has been going well for him. 

Drew Bowlin of the San Jose Giants is a little too old for the level and has just a 90 MPH fastball as a righty reliever. He has struggled so far this year, with a lot of strikeouts, but too many walks and a high ERA. 

Richard Castillo of the AA Springfield Cardinals has a weird arm angle as a right-handed starter. He is pretty short and it doesn't look like he throws very hard. He has a soft moving fastball that tails low and in to righties. This is definitely his feature pitch and he was getting quite a bit of grounders.

Staten Island Yankees:
Saxton Butler is a big first baseman, so it is hard to get excited about him, but he has some really good pull power. He has a good looking swing and can go the other way with authority too.
Fu-Lin Kuo has a good approach and good long at-bats. He has a really good looking contact tool but nothing to suggest he will hit for much power.

Santos Rodriguez is a tall (6-5) lanky (180 pounds) left handed reliever for the Birmingham Barons (the AA of the White Sox). He hits 94-96 MPH on the gun, but even with his frame, at 24 he probably won't gain anymore velocity. He has been a fly-ball pitcher for a lot of his career with some pretty good K ratios (with perhaps too many walks).


Ryan Acosta of the Dodgers system (Rancho Cucamonga Quakes) has a curveball that he can throw for strikes. Despite an inconsistent delivery, he can throw 91-94 MPH as a right handed reliever. Acosta also has a changeup that he throws a lot. It has some break, but he can't really throw it for strikes. This didn't stop him from having confidence in it. This probably didn't help his control problems. He has sort of a starter's repertoire if he can gain command. It looks like he can miss bats.


Peter Hissey of the Portland Sea Dogs (Red Sox organization) is a lefty with a weak uppercut swing. His line drive rate is above league average, but his ISO is well below league average. He is an efficient base stealer but doesn't walk a ton.

Michael Foltynewicz is a former 1st round pick by the Astros currently playing for the Lexington Legends. He has a 94-97 MPH fastball, with pretty good control/command. He doesn't really have a great breaking pitch but has a decent curve that he can throw for strikes. The fastball is his best pitch, as he can locate it low or high. That pitch is why he was a first round pick. He gets some whiffs but doesn't appear to be a real strikeout pitcher (which matches with his numbers). 
Mike Kvasnicka switch hitting catcher with a huge swing. He whiffs a lot and couldn't catch up to a plus fastball. Over the last two years, a 197 game period at Lexington, he is slugging just .368.

Scouting Report on Ogden Raptors

Here are some reports on some players I saw in a game between the Idaho Falls Chukars and Odgen Raptors.

I had already seen Idaho and written about them on this blog, so I only took some notes on 3 pitchers that pitched in the game and I hadn't seen previously.

Zeb Sneed started the game for Idaho and was at 91-92 MPH with his fastball. He was getting a bunch of grounders and got a bunch of bad luck singles in the 1st when his breaking ball was getting hit. He has a curveball with not much command, and it was all over the place. It is a pretty good pitch when he controls it though. His fastball command was also bad early on, but he improved after a shaky start to the game. His velocity dipped a little too, down to 89 MPH. If he can only control it when it is at 89 MPH, then that is a problem. He is a good looking fielder on the mound.

Josh Killen has a 90 MPH lefty fastball. He got a couple whiffs and likes to throw it on the outside to righties. He also possesses a pretty good breaking ball with a lot of movement. He had some control problems and just some bad luck. He is really slow to the plate and easy to run on.

Chase Hentges is another reliever for Idaho. The fastball velocity is at 89 MPH for the righty, but he was mainly relying on what looked like a change that was getting him some whiffs.

Kevin Allen also pitched, I wrote about him when he pitched for TCU here

Odgen (Dodgers):

I have written a scouting report on Pat Stover already, which you can read here.

Devin Shines has a pretty good right-handed swing, and is balanced, as he can pull it and go the other way. He always seemed to always be ahead in the count, has pretty good eye with some pretty good contact. The small 5-9 outfielder out of Oklahoma State has been great in the hitter friendly Pioneer League, but really struggled in the Midwest League.

Justin Boudreaux doesn't have a real power swing and was having some real contact problems. He was not having a lot of fun when pitchers were throwing breaking balls and had some big whiffs when the ball was near the zone.

Jeremy Rathjen has plus speed that should play well in centerfield. The former Rice Owl has good looking size at 6-6. He didn't look great with the bat, but wasn't a wild hacker either. He has a .717 OPS in 16 games, with a better slugging than OBP.

Alex Santana was fooled on breaking ball, but is a good contact guy. He doesn't seem to like the ball on the inside part of the plate, and has good plate coverage on outside pitches. He does this with a reach swing that seems to kill all his power It is pretty clear he will be a slappy hitter with that swing. At 3rd base he booted a pretty easy ground-ball.

Malcolm Holland chased a breaking ball for strikeout. He doesn't have good lefty swing, and sort of starts running as he swings. He is slappy from both sides of the plate, trying to go the other way. He does have good speed though.

Darnell Sweeney has since been promoted to the Great Lake Loons. He did not get a good jump on a stolen base attempt, but he stole another one easily. He made a bad baserunning mistake as he tried to advance from 2nd-3rd on a grounder to short. He has good looking range at shortstop, and is a switch hitter, little bit of a dip in his swing. He probably won't have a lot of power, so he may hit a lot of weak fly-balls, which is especially frustrating with some potential speed.

Eric Smith out of Stanford is a good contact guy but was hitting a lot of weak ground-balls. He has been above league average as far as OPS goes, but is below average according to ISO. He has walked 5 times versus just 6 strikeouts in 16 games. Like I said, he is a good contact guy.

Carlos Frias is a good sized RHP at 6-4 and just under 200 pounds out of the Dominican Republic. He was keeping his breaking balls low but couldn't get many swings and misses with it. He just wasn't fooling anyone with it. There were a lot of balls hit to RF, meaning a lot of hitters were going the other way. A lot of them were hit hard and his fastball looks unimpressive. He has a good pick off move with a lot of movement in his delivery. He also threw a lot of strikes.

Craig Stem:
91 MPH fastball from the big righty, likes to work away from righties. He probably will have to do that  with that fastball. He has a decent looking slider that is hard to make good contact on no matter the platoon split when the pitch is on.

Notes on the USA Baseball Prospect Classic

I watched a couple of games (one online and another one on MLB Network) of the USA Baseball Prospect Classic. Here are some notes on some of the players:

Stephen Gonsalves is a left handed pitcher with a 90-92 MPH fastball. Skinny and tall, he could grow out more and potentially gain velocity. He has a whole lot of motion in his delivery with a big arm swing. It provides some deception and makes his fastball look harder than it actually is. He was fastball heavy early on and got a whiff on his fastball from Michael Lorenzen. His curveball was 72-73 MPH and moves both vertically and horizontally. He didn't have a lot of command but has a good pick-off move. 

Ryne Stanek of Arkansas is considered a potential top draft pick in the 2013 draft. He showed off a 93-94 MPH fastball that occasionally hit 95-96 MPH. It isn't completely flat, with almost has late sink, and he keeps it middle or low. He has a hard curve with some good break at 80-82 MPH and showed off some big break at times. His 86-87 MPH slider looks a lot like the curve, and looked like a better pitch when he got it down, but he made a lot of high mistakes with it. Most importantly, he has swing and miss stuff. He had a long layoff before his 2nd inning and his fastball looked flat at 93 MPH and was turned into a hit. All of his breaking stuff was really inconsistent. At times it looks great, other times, not that great.

Cameron Varga is right hander with a 91-93 MPH fastball and a 81 MPH breaking ball that hung high in the zone. He actually has a couple different breaking balls, one a 78-79 MPH curve that was really effective. His command really wasn't there, especially on his breaking ball and he really struggled.

Keegan Thompson, from the Class of 2013 from Alabama has a 90 MPH fastball with a mainly high breaking ball didn't look good at 85 MPH that looked like the change. He was struggling with control, but had a pretty good curve in the mid 70s. He hit 92 MPH once when he got ahead 0-2 and things around him weren't going well. He has a little bit of a weird arm action and when he was locating the fastball low, it work liked a relatively effective sinker.

Carson Sands out of Florida (Class of 2014) has a 90-91 MPH lefty fastball. He has a decent looking breaking ball that stayed too high. You may get tired of hearing this, but his command and control was pretty raw.

Austin Cousino showed off a not very impressive arm in center. He isn't very big, and was jammed on a 95 MPH fastball. A normal at-bat including him getting jammed then chasing a breaking ball. He just didn't look good at plate but he can run.

D.J. Peterson got around on a couple 95 MPH fastballs, with a foul and then a hard pulled single. Along with the quick bat, he has a weird swing with almost has a hitch in his body. The righty came open a little too quick on a hanging breaking ball, grounding out to 3rd. Peterson also got blown away by a fastball, and looked at a breaking ball in zone. He is a first baseman, and didn't look good there defensively.
Garrett Williams was also blown away by a fastball. He looked bad on the breaking ball as well. His lefty swing is pretty violent and almost one handed. He has a great arm and pitches as well. The left hander was at 89 MPH on the fastball with a 77 MPH sweeping curve and 85 MPH unimpressive change. He is part of the 2013 class out of Louisiana.
Trevor Williams of Arizona State hit 94 MPH on the fastball. He can sink it, and is a groundball guy. His change didn't look very good with a not good movement or location. He was effective though.
Marco Gonzalez hit a high 93 MPH fastball out of the zone for a double to the wall. He also got a bloop hit the other way. He has a good looking left handed swing with good bat control. He pulled a fastball down the middle from a lefty for a line drive single. He can also pitch, and evidently pretty well from what I have heard.
Jose Trevino has good power but looked bad on good breaking balls. He also whiffed on fastball that caught a lot of the plate at 90 MPH. He is just a big, raw hitter.
Bryson Brigman looks like he has good speed, and got a hit the other way. Nathan Conforto is a high schooler from Alabama that DH'ed. He had a bad whiff on a hanging breaking ball.
Reese McGuire is a good receiving catcher with a not necessarily a good throwing arm (even though it looks like he has the arm strength). In the Class of 2013 out of Washington, the left handed hitter has a quick uppercut swing.
Johnny Field has an extremely weak arm in left field. He has a pull swing and is an okay runner.
Trea Turner is a burner that seems to have a good eye. He doesn't have a power swing, but he did hit a ball pretty hard
Timmy Richards from Long Beach (class of 2013) is a Cal State Fullerton commit. The skinny shortstop should fill out a little. He was fooled badly by a not all that good breaking ball. It doesn't appear to handle the bat really well or have a good eye. He has a really goofy swing. He runs okay from what I saw, but isn't a real fast runner. He also made a bad play out in the field.

Cavan Biggio (son of Craig Biggio) is a balanced hitter, and can go the other way and pull it. He has some power and pulled a difficult outside pitch for HR. He is a contact guy that will chase pitches.

 Drew Ward looks good at 3rd base and is a good looking athlete. He is a lefty hitter looked silly chasing breaking balls.
 Jake Reed is pretty short and has a little bit of a low arm angle. He is just 88-89 MPH (touched 90 MPH) as a righty.
Kevin Davis is a righty at 91-92 MPH with a bit of sink. He struggled to throw strikes but has a decent looking soft slider/curve
William Abreu is lefty hitter with good size and speed and plays CF.

Dan Child of  Oregon State has a weird messy delivery with a huge leg kick. He sits at 92-93 MPH with some deception and side to side movement at times. The slider doesn't look very good, and stays high.

Nick Gordon is very raw both defensively and offensively but has elite speed like his brother Dee.

Ian Clarkin (University of San Diego commit) is a left hander that throws 92-93 MPH with a big looping curve at 71 MPH. The fastball rides high and it looks like he has a 82 MPH changeup. He didn't show any command at all of his  breaking pitches.

Dominic Taccolini, a high school right handed pitcher out of Sugarland Texas, is a big guy but is only throwing 90-91 MPH. It also looked like he threw a separate moving fastball that was 1-2 MPH slower and had some decent break, but he left it up too much. He also has a curve and a slider that have decent breaks.

Hunter Green, a lefty from Kentucky with a 87-90 (he hit 92 MPH once, but it was pretty wild) MPH fastball that he can locate low. His curveball is at 73-75 MPH with a changeup at about 80-82 MPH. The curveball looked better than the change, especially when you factor in current command. His velocity is inconsistent on all his pitches, and he was having some control issues.

Reports on Alex Wood, Xander Bogaerts, and Donavan Tate

Alex Wood was drafted by the Braves 85th overall out of the University of Georgia in the 2012 draft. I watched his professional debut with the Rome Braves. The 6'4 220 lefty has a very loud delivery, and it makes you wonder whether he is destined to relief because of it. He threw 2 innings and his first at-bat was long but finished him with a solid slider that dropped off the table. Most of his pitches were high, especially the fastball, but his breaking ball was also inconsistent. He got another swinging strikeout on a big looping breaker. A fastball up and in to a lefty was hit hard up the middle, and looked kind of flat. He got a big whiff on what looked like a plus change-up. He struck out the side in the first, all on breaking balls. After a first pitch ground out in the 2nd, he got a foul on a pitch in the dirt and got a whiff on a high outside fastball to a lefty for a strikeout. A grounder on a high fastball got through the middle but he was out on a caught stealing.

Xander Bogaerts:
Bogaerts was signed by the Red Sox in 2009 as an international free agent. The shortstop is interesting as he has a way below average range factor this year despite having better than average ones the last two years and his fielding percentage has always been below average. Of course, these metrics aren't all that good, and don't tell us the whole story. So I wanted to see how he looked out in the field. The first play I saw him, a routine grounder was hit towards him and he shifted the wrong way as he was too worried about holding the runner. It was a pretty silly mental mistake. The next time a ball was hit in his area, he showed off some range to his right got on the ground to stop the pretty hard grounder and made a great throw to get the runner pretty easily. He definitely has a plus arm, with good looking range. He is one of those guys that could be like an Elvis Andrus or Starlin Castro, who have all the tools to play great defense, make a lot of errors, but still have positive rated defense because of all the plays he makes. He could also turn into Ian Desmond, who scouts insist is a good shortstop but defensive metrics give negative ratings because he makes too many mistakes. At this point, it is hard to say, but Bogaerts certainly has the tools to be a good defensive shortstop. 

I only saw one of his at-bats. He took a breaking ball low but then hit a weak grounder on a pitch in the strikezone for an out. He also had a weak foul in the at-bat, his timing seemed off. He has been a pretty decent hitter in league's that he is younger than average. He has a respectable .833 OPS in the Carolina League (advanced A). He strikes out a little bit too much, and hits less line drives than average, but he has a respectable walk rate and ISO. 


Donavan Tate was drafted 3rd overall by the Padres in 2009 and was given a 6 million dollar bonus. However, he has really struggled at the plate with a career .326 SLG, and .077 ISO. He does have a decent K/BB ratio, as he strikes out a lot, but also walks quite a bit. So I watched his game from June 29th 2012 at Advanced A.
I watched him play on Saturday against the San Jose Giants and took notes on his at-bats:


AT-bat 1: Took high outside fastball, whiffed on fastball on outside part of the plate. He then took a fastball on outside part of the plate, then took another one which appeared to be outside but was called strike 3. His swing looked really slow.
At-bat 2: After a whiff on low fastball, he whiffed on a change low and away. He then took took an outside pitch. Another outside and low pitch lead to another whiff.
It is very easy to see what the problem is: Pitchers won't go inside to him because he will chase the outside pitch. He is struggling with both pitch recognition and bat speed.
At-bat 3: After a low pitch that tailed outside was fouled off, he chased a low slider for a whiff. He then took an outside 91 MPH fastball before fouling off a high fastball. A low and away slider was chased and missed badly for another strikeout. It almost looks like his head is way up and he isn't watching the bat hit the ball. This is really elementary and would be easy to fix one would think. 
At-bat 4: He faced Edward Conception, a hard thrower who doesn't always know where it is going. Tate took a fastball way outside and then took a low outside fastball at 94 MPH for a strike. A fastball came on the inside, the first pitch that had done so in the game, and he watched it for strike 2. Conception threw a breaking ball on the outside corner for strike 3. At this point, he is just overwhelmed at the plate and shouldn't be at this level.
At-bat 5: This was the encouraging at-bat. It didn't start off this way as a high and outside fastball turned into a whiff. An up and in fastball was ball 1 before the umpire continued to make the plate grow outside for a called strike 2 on a fastball. He fouled off the next fastball and took a breaking ball well outside and in the dirt. At 2-2, Tate fouled off another high and outside fastball. Pitch 7 was a slider and it was fouled off. Pitch 8 was outside and fouled off again. Pitch 9 was well outside and a fastball taken.A fastball well outside turned into a walk. 

Scouting Reports on the Reds' AA affiliate

I watched the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, the Reds AA affiliate managed by Jim Riggleman play a few games. Here are a few notes on some of the players:

J.C. Sulbaran very big right-hander at 6'2-220. Good breaking ball that slides from right to left. It looks like a soft slider basically.  His fastball didn't look great, and was really hit pretty hard when it rode high. He did get some whiffs on it high though. Also has what looks like a changeup with decent late break despite not a lot of movement. He can throw that pitch for strikes. He can throw his curveball for strikes, in what is an advanced assortment of pitches, especially considering he is willing to use them all early in the game. He can get whiffs on all his pitches, especially when his slider and his curve breaks out of the zone.

Tony Cingrani has a pretty good fastball at 88-94 MPH and was blowing hitters away early on. He likes to throw it high but can throw it low as well. The lefty blew away the first 3 hitters with fastballs. He has a curveball that looks mediocre, but it looks its best when he throws it for strikes. He also throws a changeup.

 Kyle Lotzkar gave up a lot of hard hit balls but had a good looking fastball with good command. He can throw some nice breaking balls for strikes that he can get whiffs with. After going strikeout crazy, he gave up a lot of fly-balls.

Drew Hayes has a not very impressive fastball with a breaking ball with late break that looks like a fastball for a while. He walked the first batter he faced despite getting a whiff early in the count. He dominated the 2nd inning when he struck out the side.

Tim Crabbe had a control issues but had good looking breaking pitches (he throws a lot of them) to go along with a decent looking fastball. He didn't give up a lot of hard hit balls besides a leadoff homer.

Mark Serrano has a sweeping slider and a 90 MPH fastball. He had problems controlling the fastball and hit a batter. His confidence was in the slider but he wasn't really throwing it for strikes. He is a good athlete on defense and has a good pickoff move for a righty. 

Catcher Brad Peacock did not look like a very good defensive catcher. The opponents ran all over him. He also seems kind of small for a catcher.

Andrew Means had a big whiff on a breaking ball and was jammed on a fastball. He had a long at-bat with some fouls though, and hit a hanging breaking ball to the wall. He had issues with quality breaking balls.

Beau Mills is a big 1st baseman, but he doesn't have much bat speed, at least from what I saw. He didn't show the skills at the plate that you want in a 1st baseman. He looked like a dead fastball hitter, as he was way off when it came to the changeup. He clobbered a low fastball, so while I didn't see much at the plate, there maybe something there. Although he is a decent looking athlete with his size, he wasn't a very good fielder.

Miguel Rojas looks like a good shortstop and has pretty good looking speed as well. At the plate, he had his bat absolutely destroyed. Bryson Smith had an incredible catch in left field. His numbers in the California League (he has just recently been promoted to AA) were unimpressive though with a .807 OPS, which doesn't really cut it for a corner outfielder. Brodie Green had a bad play at 2nd but showed some pretty good contact skills with a decent eye at the plate.

Josh Fellhauer is little but had a few good pieces of hitting and appears to be a good contact guy. He did get jammed and had a weak flail at a breaking ball by a righty. He doesn't have much power or plate discipline, which is frustrating since he is listed as a corner outfielder. He does know how to hit though and can run as well.

Texas League (AA) All Star Game Scouting Reports

I watched the AA Texas League All-Star game and took some notes on some players that played in the game. I didn't include players that I had already written about, and didn't write about everyone that played in the game.

Nolan Arenado good defender at 3rd with plenty of athleticism and glove skills. There are maybe some arm questions as a couple of throws left much to be desired, but it looks pretty average at least.
On offense, he rolled over on a pitch in his first at-bat. He was much more impressive later on, as he took some close pitches. Arenado has some good pop even though he doesn't really have a desirable swing as he reaches out for outside pitches. He seems more worried about contact than power in the at-bats I saw. The numbers also speak to this as well, with not many strikeouts (and a solid K/BB ratio) and not many line drives with more grounders than fly-balls.

Barret Loux has a big curveball, with a sinker, and does a pretty good job of keeping the ball low. One could see him getting a ton of ground-balls, and he has so far this year, getting them 47% of the time. I am not sure he has swing and miss stuff even though he has struck out 9.5 batters per 9 innings.

Josh Rutledge has a good looking eye with contact skills. The numbers don't really bear this out though, as his strikeout rate is about average and he walks less than average. He didn't appear to have much of an arm at shortstop. He was picked in the 3rd round in 2010 by the Rockies out of the University of Alabama. In Alabama, he had a pretty unimpressive .874 OPS.

Kolten Wong bit of a uppercut swing. However, the small 1st round pick of the Cardinals has hit more ground-balls than fly-balls in his minor league career. 

Dan Houston had a good looking fastball but had no real control over his breaking ball. He really didn't have much command though, which is a little weird, as he is usually a control pitcher with less than 3 walks per 9 innings. Since the start of 2011, he has struck out less than 6 batters per 9 innings.

Oscar Taveras may have been the most impressive player in the whole game. He displayed some fantastic contact skills, while playing center field. He can run a little bit and he absolutely cranked a ball that was up and in. He also showed that he could hit the ball the other way with some authority. Taveras was rated as the 74th best prospect in baseball by Baseball America before the year started.

Jacob Brigham brought a hard slider along with a curveball to the game. I didn't really get a good look at his fastball. His SIERA is 3.62 this year, and he gets plenty of strikeouts, with over 8 per 9 innings.

Jean Segura hit a ball hard, despite going 0-3 in the game. Seguera is a top prospect in the Angels organization but has a mediocre .803 OPS in his minor league career. He is hitting the ball much harder this year though with a 19.7 % LD rate, much higher than career norms.

Audry Perez showed off some good defensive skills behind the plate with a nice arm. With the bat, he is a guy who doesn't walk at all, just .6 % of the time this year! He doesn't hit for much power either with a .86 ISO.

Trevor Rosenthal has a hard 95-96 MPH fastball that gets him whiffs and also has good movement. He throws this along with a hard curve that he has decent control over and likes to throw it.

Lars Davis at catcher doesn't appear to have a great arm. Offensively, he had problems getting around on mediocre Murphy Smith fastballs despite having the platoon advantage. The big guy seems to have a decent eye though.


Nick Schmidt is a lefty with a soft fastball and a curveball. He was originally drafted in the first round by the Padres in 2007. Currently in the Rockies organization, he has a decent 3.58 FIP and 3.29 SIERA. As one would expect with that skill set, his best rating according to the Baseball Cube is Efficiency at 73.
Patrick Keating has a good curveball, but has a changeup that didn't look very good at all. His fastball is of the low sinking variety and has some decent velocity but not much control. He was picked in the 20th round by the Royals and has posted good SIERAs despite bad ERAs and FIPs, which may be because of all the ground-balls he gets with that fastball.

Nathan Freiman, a 1st baseman in the Padres' AA made a nice pick. Looks like he has some power and bat skills but his numbers aren't overly impressive.

Ross Seaton has a curve that he couldn't get down. His fastball looked very unimpressive, although he got some sink on some low ones. That was definitely his best pitch. He is definitely a contact guy with that sinker, with just 5.5 K/9IP in his minor league career. He was selected in the 3rd round in 2008 but hasn't gotten very good results at all. He is just 22, but I didn't really see anything in the righties stuff to suggest that he will really develop into anything.

AJ Schugel had a good looking fastball but not a very good looking breaking ball to go with it. He hasn't been very good this year with a 4.16 FIP and 4.56 SIERA. He was drafted in the 25th round by the Angels in 2010 and has split time as both a reliever and a starter. With the breaking ball I saw, I don't see how he could be a starter.

Ariel Pena pretty good fastball velocity but not a ton of command over it. Pena was originally in the Angels organization out of the Dominican Republic. He has already pitched in 107 professional games (99 starts) but is just 23 years old. This year he has a 3.91 FIP so far. If he ever can ever gain command of that fastball, and develop a breaking ball (which I didn't see), the fastball is good enough that he could become a decent reliever.

Jonathan Ortiz good breaking ball with a low arm angle. The breaking ball is his favorite pitch and it doesn't appear he has a very good fastball to go along with it. He is a little old at 26 years old and has just been okay this year with a 3.97 FIP and SIERA. He was signed out of the Dominican Republic and played for the Padres and Yankees organizations before joining the A's organization.

Keith Butler not a bad fastball and he can locate it. Also has a decent breaking ball. Butler was picked out of the 24th round out of a small college and has been extremely effective for the Cardinals organization. In 83 innings, he has a 2.44 FIP and 2.93 SIERA with a 10.84 K/9IP. In AA this year, he has still struck out over a batter an inning and is keeping his line drive rate under 17 %.