Games 36 & 37 + Minors Rewinds
M's lose at Home Run Derby, but Ackley's grinning ... and Young too

 

Sunday:

  • KC's longballs counted more. 

 

  • Farquhar's cutter didn't cut it.

 

  • Ackley is grinning!  Does he always do that?  Does he know something?

 

  • Deeeej!

 

Full article here.

 

Saturday:

  • Chris Young's smoke and mirrors again.

 

  • Smoak and Ackley (no mirrors)

 

  • Kivlehan promoted.  Victor Sanchez coming back.

 

Full article here.

Home page here.

 

Comments

1

Man, Pizzano doesn't even get an "Oh, this guy isn't doing badly, either!" :)
9 for his last 25 with 6 doubles and 1 homer. (w/3 walks) 16 doubles for the year! Only one guy in all of MiLB has more than that. Pizzano did something fairly similar last year. Except right now he's on track for a gazillion doubles. .295-.399-.521 leaves Deej in the dust (I know, I'm not really comparing) and only Kivlehan's 9 homers tip the scale in his direction. Pizzano out OPS's both of them (but trails Jabari Henry). And he's got 22 walks and just 15K's on the season.
I know that we have more sexy guys, but I don't think we have anybody on the farm with Pizzano's mixture of eye and contact skills plus the ability to square the ball.
In Jackson right now we've got Landry and Paolini sharing LF, with Paolini sharing 1B with Wiswall.
Wiswall is hitting .167-.235-.267 and has struck out 27 times in 25 games. Landry is at .163-.226-.184. This is his 2nd AA go-round. Last year at Jackson he hit .216-.262-.302. In 569 AA PA's he's hit .206-.255-.281. They aren't going anywhere.
Our MLB .280-.370-.420, #2 hitting LF'er is playing in High Desert right now and should be in Jackson. He will be what we hoped Ackley would be.
I just did a quick B-R bit of research. Parameter = 40 doubles, part of the year in A or AA, 23 yrs old or less, EYE of One (or nearly so). Went from 2000-2007, figuring that would mean guys were established in their MLB careers, if they made it.
Not THAT many guys fit those parameters: (some guys got close o the Eye thing)
2000--Brad Wilkerson,Josh Pressley (never made it), Joe Lawrence (174 MLB PA's), Albert Pujols
2001--Garrett Atkins
2002-Victor Martinez (Jose Lopez nearly met requirements)
2003--None (But Gabe Gross and Albet Callaspo nearly made it)
2004--Garrett Atkins, Jason Kubel (Omar Quintanilla nearly did so. Had 1162 MLB PA's as a utility IF)
2005--Nick Markakis (Kevin Frandsen nearly did so; 80 OPS in 1180 MLB PA's)
2006--Seth Smith, Chris Nowak (Who? Never made it)
2007--Jed Lowrie, Gabby Sanchez
12 guys did it (Atkins did it twice, which Pizzano is about to do). Of the 12, 2 never made it to the majors. Joe Lawrence was terrible, but made it. So 75% of the guys who did it, made it and were pretty darn good: Wilkerson, Pujols, Atkins, Martinez, Kubel, Markakis, Seth Smith, Jed Lowrie and Gabby Sanchez.
Guys who nearly made the cut were Gross, Callaspo, Quintanilla, Lopez, Frandsen and some guy named John Gall. All but one of those guys was MLB decent.
It's a relatively rare feat and it's rare for the guys who do it to not be successful in the Bigs, to some degree or another. Nine of 18 guys were stars, not counting Lopez, Gross and Callaspo.
I like the Seth Smith comparison. I suppose it could be a meaningless statistics, so then I blew the last hour.
OK, I'll be quiet for a while, Spec. I promise.

2

I went back and looked at years '95-'99 and tightened up the parameters just a bit. Players had to be 23 or less, in A or AA, had 38 doubles or more (down from 40) and had an EYE of AT LEAST 1.0 (I included HBP as a BB). I figured my getting rid of the near things in EYE I could reduce the doubles just a bit.
13 guys fit those parameters in that time span.
'95: Jason Hardtke, Brad Fullmer,
'96: Scott Rolen, Vlad Guerrero
'97: Robert Fick, Luis Lopez, Ben Grieve
'98: Keith Luuloa, Lance Berkman
'99: Bo Robinson, Adam Platt, Brent Abernathy, Eric Byrnes
Of the 13 only Hardtke, Luuloa and Robinson (a Seattle hand who was traded to NYY and flamed out above AA) didn't make it to the Bigs. 77% of the guys did.
Of those 10 guys, Lopez (155 PA's with 3 homers), Piatt (588 PA's w31 2B's and 16 HR's = 95 OPS) and Abernathy (955 MLB PA's as a 2B, one year as a starter were marginal players.
7 guys went on to fairly long, fairly productive careers. Fick (2658 PA's with a career OPS of 95) was on the low end. Byrnes, Grieve, and Fullmer were pretty good. Guerrero, Rolen and Berkman were really good.
In short, it looks like if you can do what Pizzano did last year (and looks to do this year) you have a 75%-80% chance of getting to the majors. Something like 70%-75% of those guys have productive careers.
Keep your eye on Pizzano!

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