2022 Minor League Thread

[Gson]

I have 0 faith in BABIP unveiling anything useful and what is his average exit velocity? Even when you look at Pilkington who has the highest BB9 of the group you'll notice it was significantly better with his promotion. I believe I read somewhere(please correct me if I'm wrong) that Pilkington's spin is up there with the best of them. I wouldn't be afraid at all to give him an opportunity should there be an injury, trade, or underperformance. He's a workhorse too. He could damn near give you a full seasons worth of IP in 22. Once he establishes himself, if he ends up pitching like anything less than a 3 or a 4 then I'll be disappointed.

Morris developed a cutter that is filthy. If there's a pitch to cut deep into a pitcher's BABIP it would be the cutter as it induces weak contact. Doesn't hurt that he frequently hits the upper 90's with his FB and has a filthy breaking ball while tunneling all of them well.

Myers was only 22 last season and what he has done is nothing short of impressive to me. I don't know who they'd go to first if needed Pilkington or Myers.

Battenfield has been consistently good since being drafted. Scouts thought he was a reliever so hype on him was diminished. Good thing Cleveland's scouts are better than the freelancers. I'm still astonished that we got him for Luplow.

You might as well add Curry and Burns to the list. Their numbers aren't any less impressive really. The ball really jumps out of Burns hand. You don't expect to see that as he's going through his motion. Curry just looks more polished than his age and level suggest.

We need to remember that we have Hankins and Torres returning from TJS as well. These 2 are super talented.

Even if some of these guys can't handle a starters load.. it's pretty clear, the depth is there to cobble together a piggyback grouping that will eat some innings.. All tolled, about 13 including Bieber, Civale, Quantrill, McKenzie & Plesac..

As far as the order.. who's on the 40 man?.. who has more than one option?.. who gets traded if a trade happens.. etc..

 

[NorthCoastBias]

Keith Law of The Athletic has released his list of Top 100 prospects ($):

22. Brayan Rocchio
29. George Valera
51. Daniel Espino
68. Jose Tena

 

[sportscoach]

Keith Law of The Athletic has released his list of Top 100 prospects ($):

22. Brayan Rocchio
29. George Valera
51. Daniel Espino
68. Jose Tena

That's a different looking list...

 

[KluberSociety]

Keith Law of The Athletic has released his list of Top 100 prospects ($):

22. Brayan Rocchio
29. George Valera
51. Daniel Espino
68. Jose Tena

I like Rocchio and Valera but if we can get #22/#29 value out of them I wouldn't mind listening to offers...

 

[petes999]

I like Rocchio and Valera but if we can get #22/#29 value out of them I wouldn't mind listening to offers...

I get what you are saying ... but we finally will have good hitter in OF by sometime in early 2023 and we are going to trade him? For what? MIFs or pitching???? That would be perfect Guardian philosophy Sarcasm of course ...

 

[petes999]

I have 0 faith in BABIP unveiling anything useful and what is his average exit velocity? Even when you look at Pilkington who has the highest BB9 of the group you'll notice it was significantly better with his promotion. I believe I read somewhere(please correct me if I'm wrong) that Pilkington's spin is up there with the best of them. I wouldn't be afraid at all to give him an opportunity should there be an injury, trade, or underperformance. He's a workhorse too. He could damn near give you a full seasons worth of IP in 22. Once he establishes himself, if he ends up pitching like anything less than a 3 or a 4 then I'll be disappointed.

Bit confused, Pilkington wasn't promoted last year (stayed at AA after trade). So, I would expect his BB to continue to decline over the year (especially last year) as the rust from 2020 gets knocked off with more game situations. And, his promotion in 2019, resulted in an increase in BB

And, I know that BABIP means nothing in short stints, other than for short trends that bettors look at for hitters having bad luck (hitting liners right at people). I just look at it as things to potentially look deeper into. Thus, when Battenfield can throw 142 innings over 2 separate seasons with 4 different teams and keep his BABIP right around .240 (.220 to .260 range ... with .220 in each AA team/league with league averages around 300), it starts to be meaningful and less probable to be just luck (starts to be outside the standard deviation of what could be luck/expected variation). That's reason I said, Allen had .265 BABIP but need more info to see if it was skill or just luck (could be better fielders that hustled). Wish I could get that exit velocity info for minor league players readily... if you know where to find it, I am all ears (better than just looking at generic info to just make a hypothesis).

 

[Gson]

That's a different looking list...

yeah.. Tyler Freeman & Gabriel Arias are omitted...

 

[Criznit]

Keith Law of The Athletic has released his list of Top 100 prospects ($):

22. Brayan Rocchio
29. George Valera
51. Daniel Espino
68. Jose Tena

This is the highest I have seen Tena so far... Our 4th best prospect? Hmmm. Top 10? Probably.

Personally I think he is not a top 5 guy, will need another year to see if the bat is legit or not.

 

[CATS44]

I get what you are saying ... but we finally will have good hitter in OF by sometime in early 2023 and we are going to trade him? For what? MIFs or pitching???? That would be perfect Guardian philosophy Sarcasm of course ...

If we brought in a legit younger MLB OF with three or four years of control, the 'need' for Valera goes down.

Valera is probably more important to the org than any of our MIF prospects, because we have a dearth of OFs (Straw being the only legit one), but we have a big excess of MIFs. That could change somewhat, if we added a legit OF under control for at least three years.

 

[CATS44]

Laws list is interesting, but he is IMO the least accurate of the major rankers.

Tena is surely a surprise, as he is ranked ahead of Freeman and Arias. Freemans injury may have lowered his prospect status. A solid and healthy 2022 might change that a lot.

Nevertheless, having another kid listed on a major top 100 ranking is not a bad thing....

Esp for a team that trades for one, because he can be 'sold' by his new org as an upper level prospect to the fan base.

 

[sportscoach]

Laws list is interesting, but he is IMO the least accurate of the major rankers.

Tena is surely a surprise, as he is ranked ahead of Freeman and Arias. Freemans injury may have lowered his prospect status. A solid and healthy 2022 might change that a lot.

Nevertheless, having another kid listed on a major top 100 ranking is not a bad thing....

Esp for a team that trades for one, because he can be 'sold' by his new org as an upper level prospect to the fan base.

Tena actually is expendable on paper since he is behind Arias, Rocchio, Freeman, etc... if an organization ranks him that high, it's possible to get an MLB upgrade... lol

 

[petes999]

Looks like we have a better OF prospect than Valera ... checkout #13. It's from a guy thats uses analytics but seemed higher on Noel and Valera in another post below

 

[CDAV45]

Bit confused, Pilkington wasn't promoted last year (stayed at AA after trade). So, I would expect his BB to continue to decline over the year (especially last year) as the rust from 2020 gets knocked off with more game situations. And, his promotion in 2019, resulted in an increase in BB

And, I know that BABIP means nothing in short stints, other than for short trends that bettors look at for hitters having bad luck (hitting liners right at people). I just look at it as things to potentially look deeper into. Thus, when Battenfield can throw 142 innings over 2 separate seasons with 4 different teams and keep his BABIP right around .240 (.220 to .260 range ... with .220 in each AA team/league with league averages around 300), it starts to be meaningful and less probable to be just luck (starts to be outside the standard deviation of what could be luck/expected variation). That's reason I said, Allen had .265 BABIP but need more info to see if it was skill or just luck (could be better fielders that hustled). Wish I could get that exit velocity info for minor league players readily... if you know where to find it, I am all ears (better than just looking at generic info to just make a hypothesis).

Sorry, I got my numbers turned around. I should have looked at them again instead of just recollecting. Pilkington's walk rate did increase for Akron, but so did his K rate. I wonder if those increases were due to mechanical and/or pitch changes. I don't think his walk rate is going to be an issue and his K rate has always been strong and got better. He doesn't even allow 6 hits in 9IP.

If I come across any info on exit velocities for minor league pitchers I'll share it.

 

[CDAV45]

Any list that doesn't have Espino as our #1 and in the top 20 in MiLB isn't worth a damn IMO. It's such a no brainer that I'm actually taken back by the lack of respect he's getting. Put Rocchio and Valera at 2 and 3 in which ever order you prefer. After that you can list Jones, Freeman, Arias, Palacios, Kwan, Tena, Martinez, Williams, Naylor, Lavastida, Morris, Battenfield, Allen, Noel, Curry, Burns, Myers, and Pilkington in any order you wish and I wouldn't complain.

 

[BimboColesHair]

This is the highest I have seen Tena so far... Our 4th best prospect? Hmmm. Top 10? Probably.

Personally I think he is not a top 5 guy, will need another year to see if the bat is legit or not.

He is highly regarded league wide right now, gained a lot of fans in front offices this past fall.