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=== Tanned, Rested, and Ready Dept. ===
At age 17, Morban had a very exciting season, and then at age 18, was out with a torn thumb ligament. - Dr. D.
I/O HQ: The notorious "9E" ranking: a 10% chance of becoming a major league franchise player and making $100 million bucks.
After 2009, they said that Morban "projects to an offensive juggernaut" (!) and though he was "as raw as any" player in baseball's minor leagues, he "could launch his way to elite status in a few years."
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This year, HQ follows on with:
After 2009, HQ had the 17-year-old Morban as the #4 in the M's organization! Here, ladies and gentlemen, is HQ's adopt-a-player in the M's minors. They see him as conceivably the next Jason Heyward type, although granted, Morban might not weigh 275 lbs.
(Morban is listed as 6'1, 190, which projects to real good size later on. Ken Griffey Jr. was about 190 at age 18.)
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I/O The Rest: Just about everybody was high on Morban after 2009. Why shouldn't they have been: a .500+ slugging percentage at age 18 when he was "as raw as any player in the minors."
Given an involuntary year off, Morban is now outside of Sickels' top 38, outside of PI's top 30, etc etc.
Only The Hardball Times is surgeon-cool at the table: they've got Morban as honorable mention #11-12 along with Guillermo Pimentel, who some consider the best M's prospect other than their three celebrities.
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Morban's Results: As mentioned, Morban's age-17 season was smashing. Along with everything else he did, he blasted 7 triples in 46 games -- a pro-rated 25 triples in a season.
Sabermetrically, Morban's junior-in-high-school season wouldn't have been out of place on Junior's baseball card, or Heyward's, or anybody's. It's tough to exaggerate the accomplishment of slugging .500+ in pro ball at that age.
Would like to see a list of 17-year-olds who recently (like, 2000-2008) played as well as Morban in the AZL. We did that with Nick Franklin and his critics went deathly silent...
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Any interest in playing fantasy baseball this year, Dr. D (and any other SSI'ers)?
Yahoo updated their scoring formats to include head-to-head points leagues like AOL Grandstand used to, and I'm running a 20-team league (this will be the sixth season) that will only require weekly lineup changes.
Email me for the details if you're interested - hope to see BABVA XIV make an appearance this season....
1. Working three jobs right now
2. Why don't you comment on this site, you feeb?
3. Sounds very enticing, especially the AOL-type format
4. If you could get Mikey Jay, I couldn't say no
5. Is there room for Pitch, TopCat, Padna, 10Pins etc?
6. How long can you keep a spot open for me?
Good to hear from ya champ.
Can I get in on this? Would love to against Mikey Jay again too. :-)
Responses....1. Very lame excuse2. I'd come up with an explanation, but it would be a lame excuse3. Yep, which is exactly why you should play4. Do you have Mikey's contact information? I've lost touch with him5. Sent an invite to Pitch (but possibly an old email address), I remember TopCat being a poor fantasy player, Padna's in the same situation as Pitch, no idea who 10pins is.6. The draft is Saturday, March 12th at 10 AM Pacific. Would prefer if you'd join as soon as possible so we can lock down the owner list, but would have no problem kicking out someone last minute if it came to that.
You're definitely in - I think you might have actually played in one of the prior seasons. The league is on Yahoo, LeagueID 73761, password gorillajuicehead.
Thanks, I'm in Justin. :-)
Cool, should be a good one! I think you've won pretty much every league I've played with you, so now it's on....
Just need Dr. D, Gmoney, and Matt to sign up, and the DOV division will be all rounded out.
4 last I heard it was mikeyjay@aol.com; 5. Padna reads the blog, but his wife doesn't let him post on it ........ 6. As long as we can kick Taro out, I'm good.
If G-Money would play, that would be about as good a compensation for the loss of Mikey as we could hope for.
Can I give you an answer by Monday?
Sounds good, Dr. D - shot an email invitation to MikeyJay. Monday would be fine, and keep in mind this league has weekly roster changes so there's not the demanding commitment of a daily league.
Hey Justin...
As I was trying to clear the decks for a Mar 12 draft, several other projects hit my desk the last two days... hence the lack of SSI posting...
I have no clue even who the starting 2B's are in the *AL West,* much less the kind of war charts it would take to finish .500 in a league with you guys ... :- ) For me to develop the charts in five days while doing all this other stuff is not possible this side of a UFO time warp...
But if we have any options to move the draft back any, then I will commit rain-or-shine and play with whatever prep I have by then...
In either case, thanks mucho for thinkin' of poor ol' toothless Dr. D, who can only gum his roto opponents any more...
I was already thinking about pushing back the draft day anyways so that we'd have a chance at a few more teams. I've officially set it at Saturday, March 26th at 1 PM EST. No excuses now!
Also, I'm disappointed you're planning on draft prep. Back in the days of the wild west, we would just wing it. You lose the thrill of the draft if you're not making panic picks in the first five rounds....