Good afternoon prospect watchers. Let's get down to it.
***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread, chock-full-o'information and vitriol-free for your enjoyment!
***My main project right now is revising the Top 2013 Prospects List. I will have this done by the end of the week. Other large projects include a review of the Futures Games rosters, and an origins report for the National League and American League All-Star teams, looking at where each player came from. Someone also requested a Shawn Green prospect retro and I will try to fit that in, but the other projects have higher priority at this time. If any trades involving prospects occur, we will cover those too as usual.
***I noticed today that Arizona Diamondbacks third base prospect Matt Davidson has some unusual statistical splits down at Triple-A Reno. Overall he is hitting .289/.348/.489 with 12 homers, with a 115 wRC+, not terrible but not super-impressive for the Pacific Coast League and Reno in particular. The right-handed slugger is striking out a lot, with his whiff rate going from 21.9% last season to 26.4% this year, high enough to be worrisome. He's not drawing a large number of walks, either, just 7.6% of plate appearances. This is typical stuff for a young power hitter trying to adapt to advanced breaking stuff.
The thing that stood out to me was this: a strong reverse platoon split. He's hitting right-handers well at .303/.350/.538, but his performance tails off against lefties at just .244/.340/.333, the lack of power standing out. Given the sample sizes it could be a fluke; he had a sharp split last year in Double-A but in the opposite, normal direction.
***Right-hander Matt Loosen threw a nine-inning no-hitter for the High-A Daytona Cubs in the Florida State League yesterday, fanning nine and walking two. He was a 23rd round pick in 2010 from Jacksonville University. Otherwise I don't know much about him. He has a decent-enough record as an A-ball strike thrower but got lit up during a trial in Double-A earlier this year.
***Houston Astros pitching prospect Asher Wojciechowski was the other big pitching star last night, throwing a one-hitter for a nine-inning complete game for Triple-A Oklahoma City against the Omaha Stormchasers Round Rock Express. I dunno where I got Omaha. Apparently my subconscious wants to go on a road trip.
Woj now has a 3.06 ERA with a 66/29 K/BB in 79 innings since moving up to the PCL, with 58 hits allowed, holding opponents to a .199 average. If I were the Astros, I'd be looking to give his fastball/slider/changeup combination a major league trial come August. He's been consistently effective in the high minors since being acquired from the Blue Jays last summer.
***Today's schedule of minor league games.
***Kenneth Arthur wonders if, of all the top hitting prospects in the game,Oscar Taveras has enough caution flags (granted in a small, injury-plagued 2013 sample) for us to be more careful in our evaluations and expectations of him for the future.