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2022 Minor League Thread

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BimboColesHair said:
I am talking more the descriptions of players. The "high-effort delivery" being the worst of the worst.

Nothing exposes these places lack of attention to detail or lack of man power to actually see these kids play than saying stuff like that. Like they haven't seen Espino throw in person since High School or pre-draft showcase games.

There is nothing "high-effort" about him at the moment on the mound.
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That really bugged me too. I don't know didley about mechanics and whatnot but if Espino is high-effort, what does that make a Tim Lincecum or Chris Sale?

Almost looks "low effort" to me, if there is such a thing.
 
Criznit said:
That really bugged me too. I don't know didley about mechanics and whatnot but if Espino is high-effort, what does that make a Tim Lincecum or Chris Sale?

Almost looks "low effort" to me, if there is such a thing.
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I have never seen a young power pitcher use his legs as much as Espino has from Day 1. He has had grown man legs since he was 17, which helps.

But people see 98-102 and assume he is just throwing as hard as possible. In HS his arm action was significantly longer than it is now, which made it look like that back then. He has taken a lot of movement out of that action and shortened it as a pro though. Bodes well for the long-term health of his arm even with the eye-popping stuff he has.

How he is able to hold 98-102 60, 70, 80+ pitches into starts, which most young pitchers aren't able to do because they generate more of their power from their arm/core.

He looks low effort because the part you typically pay attention to with a pitcher, their throwing arm, is low effort. What makes him special as a prospect.

He just needs experience to refine his stuff, really the only thing he lacks.
 
@BimboColesHair

Since we are at a boring state in the offseason, i personally would love to hear your off season top 10 prospects, the prospects you think will have the most MLB innings in 22 and any sleepers in the organization... Yes I am greedy lol

I am personally curious about Mason Hickman and how he is developing...
 
sportscoach said:
@BimboColesHair

Since we are at a boring state in the offseason, i personally would love to hear your off season top 10 prospects, the prospects you think will have the most MLB innings in 22 and any sleepers in the organization... Yes I am greedy lol

I am personally curious about Mason Hickman and how he is developing...
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Maybe in a few days, more likely a few weeks.

Just had to travel across country to AZ for work and then have to travel back across country to be with my family for the holidays in a week and a half.

My extended baseball purge kicks in on New Years Day, so might have to wait until then.
 
BimboColesHair said:
Maybe in a few days, more likely a few weeks.

Just had to travel across country to AZ for work and then have to travel back across country to be with my family for the holidays in a week and a half.

My extended baseball purge kicks in on New Years Day, so might have to wait until then.
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That's fine! Just in the mean time expect the bored baseball analysts to post some weird stuff again lol
 
MadThinker88 said:
FYI: It appears Baseball Prospectus will be dropping its Top 10 for CLE on 12/20
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thanks for the heads up..

It's a known that if you put together about 12 to 20 of these ratings.. you'll get some types:

-Old news that has been repeated, ad nauseum.. Example.. the high effort in Espino's delivery.. or information describing the lack of pitch recognition by a seventeen year old prospect being reported as a 22 year old in AA ball... etc.. The historical context of a player that can't hit lefties (hello Mr. Jones) would make damn near 90 % of every prospect a platoon candidate..

-Stat massaging..[counting/historical stats, new/sabremetric stats: wOBA, wRC+, FIP, xFIP, DRS, WAR d & b..etc.. etc..] for a narrative.. Baseball America is notorious about this.. Fangraphs is more analytical.. especially with pitching data.. and could be a LOT better at swing data.. Data without insigtful analyses and conclusions.. is a bunch of numbers in a column..

-Insight and interest.. someone who actually sees and describes what they're seeing.. you can't describe what a restaurant smells like without being in the restaurant.. just like you can't see how a catcher subtly moves their feet in preparation to receive the ball and readying themselves to throw it to the base (measured as "pop time".. but there's a LOT more to it than under 1.9 seconds).. There aren't a lot of these guys out there that know how and what to look for.. Another example of this is insight into why a pitcher is SO effective: An AL Central guy, Christian Colon came to the conclusion that the toughest pitcher he ever faced was Kluber.. because he couldn't figure out what pitch was coming as they all looked the same coming out of his hand (he actually said this in an MLBTr JotCast).. Knowing this.. and showing a pitcher doing this using an overlay is perhaps the most dynamic means to illustrate this insightful understanding of pitching and pitch mechanics.. It's something that @jup does marvelously..

Most lists are interesting and, have some expected information.. biographical.. height, weight.. age bir.. blah blah blah.. but.. give the ones with write ups that include examples of what the author is discussing.. a bit more time.. It may not have any more useful information.. but.. it does have a chance to..
 
@Gson nice post. As someone who understands baseball mechanics and the physical nature a lot less than the other stuff (my background is in stats and business - you'll probably notice my posts focus on organization management strategies) I generally read these kinds of things for the stuff that I don't get. So if someone is going to write that Espino or whoever is "high-effort" I'm likely to just take their word for it rather than trying to scrape up videos and watch to verify. So maybe I'm meant to be a born sucker for those kinds of writeups as long as they use stats responsibly...
 
I'm pretty much a stat scout myself, but try to seek out as much info as I can on the guys I really like...

Which led me to this. Not sure who runs this YouTube channel, but they just posted a lot of vids recently of various MILB Guardians in action for those who are interested.

Future Guardians of THE LAND

FWIW - I suggest watching the Steven Kwan vid... I can't believe I am saying this, but the HR power looks pretty legit to me. He crushed a few of those.
 
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Criznit said:
I'm pretty much a stat scout myself, but try to seek out as much info as I can on the guys I really like...

Which led me to this. Not sure who runs this YouTube channel, but they just posted a lot of vids recently of various MILB Guardians in action for those who are interested.

Future Guardians of THE LAND

FWIW - I suggest watching the Steven Kwan vid... I can't believe I am saying this, but the HR power looks pretty legit to me. He crushed a few of those.
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I personally don't see Kwan with more than 10-15 HRs in a season but at the same time, good swings sometimes adds more power to a player...

Though it sounds like we need to watch some vids since we don't have much to do at the moment lol
 
sportscoach said:
I personally don't see Kwan with more than 10-15 HRs in a season but at the same time, good swings sometimes adds more power to a player...

Though it sounds like we need to watch some vids since we don't have much to do at the moment lol
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He seems to have "Brantley to Naquin" power to me which would be about that, but looks to able to get on a pitch he likes fairly easily. Naquin wasn't supposed to have power, and I giggled when he said he thought he could hit 20 homers in a season.. Still hasn't (can't stay healthy enough to play enough games in a season), but more power than I ever expected.

All the vids are right around 2 min, and are pure game action clips.
 
Alright, I'll do a brief top 10 with no descriptions, since I think I've given enough info on the top 10 over the years as is.

1. Espino
2. Rochhio
3. Valera
4. Freeman
5. Arias
6. Jones
7. Williams
8. Naylor
9. Tena
10. Martinez

7 to about 15 can all be interchangeable, but that top 5 is set in stone. Doesn't matter which order though, you can make a case for each one to be the top guy.
 
Sleepers I'll expand on later.

Hankins, Torres, Jorge Burgos, Richard Paz, Jake Fox, Aaron Davenport, Angel Contreras, Robert Lopez. Just going to stop at 8.

Also the 22 & 23 international signing classes are going to be the 2 most talented groups they've ever brought in, top to bottom. Jaison Chourio and Welbyn Francisca are the 2 big boys, but there is a lot of talent coming in those classes in the OF and MIF.
 
BimboColesHair said:
Sleepers I'll expand on later.

Hankins, Torres, Jorge Burgos, Richard Paz, Jake Fox, Aaron Davenport, Angel Contreras, Robert Lopez. Just going to stop at 8.

Also the 22 & 23 international signing classes are going to be the 2 most talented groups they've ever brought in, top to bottom. Jaison Chourio and Welbyn Francisca are the 2 big boys, but there is a lot of talent coming in those classes in the OF and MIF.
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Any thoughts on Jaime Arias-Bautista? Had really nice numbers especially as an UDFA... Was he just beating up on the kids with his age/polish, or is there something more there for the southpaw?
 
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