James Jones:
Pre All-Star: .205/.319/.364/.683, 220 ABs
Post All-Star: .321/.387/.487/.875, 271 ABs
His BB:K was basically identical between the halves, and was 62/122 in 490 ABs. I really like Jones and a lefty Mike Cameron-lite would be a great thing to have.
Chavez:
Pre All-Star: .293/.362/.521/.884, 259 ABs
Post All-Star: .335/.410/.629/1.039, 275 ABs
His BB:K went from .32 to .49 between halves. I agree with the potential Dye upside and happen to like him as well.
Jo will be 22 in January and will hit AA in April with a great supply of power. Chavez's power is not park dependent, and he has far more of it (HR power) at the same age than Jones has (14.6% HR rate in A-ball, 19% in A+ compared to Jones' 5.9% in short-season last year and 10.3% this year in A-Ball).
But Jones has what is commonly referred to as a doubles stroke: 25% fly-balls and yet a 34% XBH rate thanks to his very good doubles and triples rates. He hits a LOT of grounders, but he's got a very interesting game. A lot of the time doubles power in the early 20s is projected to be HR power later, but I don't see that happening with what I've seen of Jones' swing. Still, from a potential center fielder I would take 40 2B/3B and 10 HR a year.
And I'd love to see him be able to make the trek to AA next year. Poythress, Seager, Franklin, Chavez, and Jones would be a very interesting offense.
Most of our "interesting" minor league hitters have either taken giant leaps forward (Mangini, Franklin, etc) or are taking full advantage of their home parks (the Cal League guys) in such a way that it's hard to see their stars tarnishing before next Spring.
The system is ripe for a trade. We have Smoak, Ackley, Saunders and Moore all scheduled (or at least very likely) for the starting 9, along with a black-hole at SS no matter which Wilson is playing. If we wanted to trade for a hitter to complement (or replace someone in) that lineup instead of trying to pay crazy millions on the FA market, we should have the minor league hitters to swing such a trade.
Could you pry a disgruntled Colby Rasmus out of SL for Saunders/Seager/Varvaro or thereabouts? I don't know, but I would try. We've had a great rising of the tides with regard to hitter performance in the minors. If we could cash some of it in for already-producing talent still under club control for several years, I would.
Which guys go? Well that's a totally different conversation. :) But Jones and Chavez are not the lone strong performances this year. If you compared our likely 2011 list of top 20 minor leaguers to past years I'd think you'd see a whole lot better performances to go with the ratings.
Which means we should get stronger trade options out of our extras that we'll have no way of using on our own club in the next few years.
~G