Final installment of the Watch List "34 More" list of prospects who didn't make the cut for the Spec66 but are worth keeping an eye on.
We did outfielders first, then infielders, and finally all the pitchers who are not right-handed relievers.
Why separate out RH bullpenners?
Because there are about a bazillion of them, that's why.
And this is after the team already dispatched Carter Capps, Stephen Pryor, Stephen Kohlscheen and Matt Brazis in trade moves with solid payoffs. That was just scratching the surface. There's plenty more where that came from.
These are just the guys who rank between 67 and 100.
As with the other lists, guys in red were at or younger than their "MLB Track" level (on track to reach AAA by age-23). Guys in black were older than "MLB Track" level (which does not rule them out, as we say, but makes their stats less interesting).
| Name | Age | Age Arc | G | BF | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | HR% | BB% | XBH + BB% | ISO | K% | PSA+ | Conv+ | Comp |
| Goal < 1% | Goal < 6% | Goal < 14% | Goal < .100 | Goal > 20% | Strong prospect > 100 | |||||||||||
| Aaron Brooks | 22 | +2 | 40 | 309 | 0.282 | 0.318 | 0.404 | 0.722 | 1.62% | 4.21% | 11.33% | 0.122 | 16.50% | 116 | 96 | 113 |
| No relation to the former Saints QB of the same name, nor the RHP in the Royals organization also of the same name. Identity crisis notwithstanding, Brooks was one of the best in the organization at preventing walks. | ||||||||||||||||
| Hawtin Buchanan | 21 | +2 | 19 | 135 | 0.239 | 0.385 | 0.376 | 0.761 | 2.22% | 17.78% | 23.70% | 0.137 | 31.85% | 67 | 111 | 77 |
| The 6-foot-8 Buchanan was both "effectively wild" and "ineffectively wild," with massive K-rate and massive BB-rate. He led the whole organization in K-rate actually. Unfortunately, when guys made contact, it was harder contact than you'd like to see from this type. Moreover, I watched his Ole Miss team go deep into the College World Series, and they did not use Buchanan once. I can see why they didn't trust him with their season on the line. But oh boy there's some interesting potential there. | ||||||||||||||||
| David Colvin | 25 | +3 | 19 | 116 | 0.217 | 0.267 | 0.321 | 0.588 | 1.72% | 5.17% | 11.21% | 0.104 | 22.41% | 129 | 110 | 139 |
| The Californian just keeps marching up the ladder with solid all-around results every year after being drafted in 2011. That would put him on target for Tacoma this year, if there's room for him. If there isn't, it's not his fault. | ||||||||||||||||
| Oliver Garcia | 23 | +2 | 28 | 221 | 0.218 | 0.299 | 0.381 | 0.680 | 3.62% | 8.60% | 15.84% | 0.163 | 28.96% | 113 | 104 | 117 |
| Garcia was converted from infielder to pitcher at 19, so he's been figuring it out as he goes. He finally got is BB-rate down to tolerable levels, but he did it at High Desert, so unfortunately he got blasted by a large number of HR. If he can keep the BB-rate down while getting the HR-rate back to normal, then his 10-K/9 will look a lot more interesting. | ||||||||||||||||
| Kody Kerski | 22 | +3 | 25 | 178 | 0.244 | 0.320 | 0.344 | 0.664 | 0.00% | 9.55% | 15.17% | 0.100 | 25.84% | 118 | 112 | 129 |
| The development crew loves to take guys from smaller college programs (particularly from the northeast) and then set them loose in the low minors and see what happens. Maybe because Scouting Director Tom McNamara came out of a small college (Dominican) in New York? Maybe. Kerski is from Sacred Heart in Connecticut, and the 5-foot-10 righty shut down hitters in the Northwest League quite well, thank you. | ||||||||||||||||
| Seon Gi Kim | 22 | +1 | 30 | 407 | 0.277 | 0.338 | 0.399 | 0.737 | 1.47% | 7.86% | 14.99% | 0.122 | 19.16% | 99 | 96 | 95 |
| Kim has been an enigma ever since coming over from Korea with his countryman Ji-Man Choi in 2010. Sometimes he looks absolutely brilliant, and most of the time he doesn't. It all kind of averages out to nothing too special, but there's always the chance he'll figure it out. | ||||||||||||||||
| Andrew Kittredge | 24 | +2 | 46 | 403 | 0.268 | 0.326 | 0.421 | 0.747 | 2.73% | 7.69% | 16.13% | 0.153 | 29.03% | 121 | 103 | 124 |
| Funny how Kittredge and his former UW teammate Forrest Snow both get bounced around to different levels, racking up high strikeout totals but never really getting much traction toward the majors. Kittredge spent most of 2014 at High Desert, a demotion after spending time in Jackson and Tacoma the prior year. But when he goes out and puts up 12.2 K/9, you can't completely ignore him. | ||||||||||||||||
| Kevin McCoy | 22 | +2 | 18 | 126 | 0.202 | 0.315 | 0.288 | 0.603 | 0.00% | 13.49% | 18.25% | 0.086 | 24.60% | 88 | 115 | 103 |
| McCoy got our attention with a 13.1 K/9 performance in 2013 that earned him a cameo at AA Jackson. He followed up quite nicely at Clinton, but not without a BB-rate that is still disconcerting. Zero HR allowed in '14 and two straight years of sub-.100 ISO-against indicate that guys do not hit the ball hard against him. That's the Yoervis Medina high-wire approach (high-K, high-BB, low-ISO), but sometimes that works. | ||||||||||||||||
| Jochi Ogando | 21 | -1 | 26 | 345 | 0.314 | 0.416 | 0.467 | 0.883 | 1.74% | 14.20% | 22.03% | 0.153 | 18.84% | 51 | 82 | 33 |
| Ogando got a brief promotion to AA at age 21, despite laboring to a 7.71 ERA at High Desert. Obviously, the club likes him since it keeps pushing him up the ladder, but so far he's given up way too many hits and walks without enough strikeouts to compensate. | ||||||||||||||||
| Rohn Pierce | 21 | +2 | 18 | 176 | 0.217 | 0.310 | 0.355 | 0.665 | 2.27% | 7.39% | 14.20% | 0.138 | 31.82% | 137 | 124 | 161 |
| What were we saying about guys from smaller college programs in the northeast? This time it's Canisius (in Buffalo). Pierce was at Pulaski, so his competition was a level below what Kerski faced, but the 11.9 K/9 was 4th-best in the organization. | ||||||||||||||||
| Rafael Pineda | 23 | +2 | 45 | 382 | 0.277 | 0.321 | 0.384 | 0.705 | 1.57% | 5.50% | 12.04% | 0.107 | 16.23% | 108 | 97 | 105 |
| No, not that Pineda. This one's a Texas A&M Aggie, and his climb up the ladder, as you can see from the stat line, is due to preventing walks and hard contact, not the big K totals that some of the others run up. It's a good sign that he survived five games at High Desert and his BB-rate and HR-rate didn't suffer. | ||||||||||||||||
| S Shackleford | 25 | +3 | 44 | 272 | 0.245 | 0.341 | 0.339 | 0.680 | 1.10% | 11.03% | 15.81% | 0.094 | 25.74% | 104 | 116 | 120 |
| Now I'm repeating myself again, again. Shackleford, like McCoy, uses the Medina Method -- allowing a lot of walks, but surviving on strikeouts and inducing weak contact (low HR-rate and XBH-rate). Medina has his spot in the majors, but these guys have to break through a pretty thick logjam. Shackleford's already been at AA Jackson for one-and-a-half seasons. No pitching in this video, but it will get you acquainted with the art-school alum (art school with a baseball team, that is). | ||||||||||||||||
| Ugueth Urbina | 19 | 0 | 20 | 182 | 0.323 | 0.409 | 0.437 | 0.846 | 0.55% | 10.99% | 19.78% | 0.114 | 18.68% | 77 | 90 | 66 |
| The son and namesake of the '90s Expo closer made some progress over his age-18 season, but still has a long way to go. The more pressing issue is: Did he and Gabriel Guerrero meet as toddlers? | ||||||||||||||||
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