Some highlights from Mayo’s article (draft position in parentheses):
David Price (No. 1, LHP, Tampa Bay Rays): His elbow injury did not require surgery; he will make his pro debut in Class A, probably this May.
Ross Detwiler (No. 6, LHP, Washington Nationals): Brought up late last September, Detwiler will start the year in the minors but looks to be moving up quickly.
Tim Alderson (No. 22, RHP, San Francisco Giants): His unorthodox delivery made some clubs shy away from drafting him, but an impressive performance out of high school has the Giants starting him in Class A Advanced ball.
Aaron Poreda (No. 25, LHP,Chicago White Sox): He can get his fastball into the high-90s, but the White Sox are having him spend time in the minors this year to develop his secondary pitches.
Yesterday we brought you news that top overall pick in last year’s Rule 4 Draft, David Price, had left a game with stiffness in his elbow. Well today comes news that Price will miss 6 weeks because of the injury. Executive VP Andrew Friedman said that the injury was definitely not serious, but that the Rays’ medical staff determined that Price would need this amount of time to work his way back into playing shape. It sounds like the stiffness Price experienced was simply a result of Price not having pitched a game since last May with Vanderbilt before starting a few spring games. Cross your fingers Rays fans.
2007 top overall draft pick out of Vanderbilt, David Price, left a minor league game with stiffness in his throwing elbow. The left-hander will see a specialist today. MLB.com’s Bill Chastain mentions that Price did not throw in a game situation for a long time between his last game with Vandy and beginning work with the Rays. Rays officials are optimistic, hoping that it is a minor setback, and will start Price in the minors for a while before considering moving him to the big league club.
After hitting two long balls yesterday, Cameron Maybin came through with another home run today. Looks like the youngster is making a push for that CF job. Maybin had come into the game as a pinch runner earlier in the game.
Kosuke Fukudomewowed fans with his defense today, making a spinning acrobatic catch to save an extra base hit. Piniella also batted Fukudome in the 5 hole today, wanting to put a solid bat behind Aramis Ramirez.
As we reported a few days ago, David Price has been cut from the big league squad. It was announced today that Price will be starting the season at Class A. This is pretty standard for first year players, but Price proved this spring that he isn’t a standard prospect. It had been speculated that Price might start a little higher than Single-A ball. Regardless of where he starts, Price should end up at the big show in no time.
Jonathan Mayo of MiLB.com released his list of the top five farm systems. Mayo had the Rays at #1 (no surprise there), the A’s at #2 (okay, that’s surprising), the Rangers at #3, the Reds at #4, and the Red Sox rounding it up at #5.
The Giants are trying speedster Eugenio Velez at 3B. Two weeks into March and the Giants still don’t really have a leading candidate for the 3B spot, so Velez definitely has a shot. The Giants have been reported to be surveying the trade market for a third basemen, but if Velez wins this job, look out. With a little bit of playing time Velez is definitely a fantasy sleeper to watch for his SB totals.
Spring training with the big league club has come to an end for the top overall pick in last year’s first-year player draft, David Price. The Rays announced on Tuesday that they notified Price he was optioned to the Minor Leagues. It was a short spring for Price, but he certainly took advantage of the time he had. He finished with a 0.00 ERA having retired six of the seven hitters he faced. He frequently touched 99 on the radar gun with his fastball, but what really impressed was his consistent command keeping the ball down in the zone.
The Rays haven’t yet announced which level they will be sending Price to. But it’s safe to assume that after the impression he made with the big club, his ascent through the system could be a fast one.
Great day for the Dodgers’ prospects today. In a heated competition for 3B with Nomar, Andy LaRoche stepped things up today. He hit a solo home run in the 2nd inning. He finished 2-4 on the day, and is now batting .385 this spring.
In the same game, top prospect Clayton Kershaw saw his first action with mixed results. He allowed a HR to Luis Jimenez and loaded the bases on two cheap hits and a HBP. But he then buckled down and proceeded to strike out the side. No surprise with the stuff he has. He probably won’t be up this year, but when he does look out. Future ace on any staff.
Rookie import Hideki Kuroda pitched two scoreless innings today as well. He has impressed everyone in the Dodger camp with his pitching and especially his toughness, according to this great piece on Kuroda by Ken Rosenthal.
David Price’s scheduled start was canceled today, but it wasn’t because of his shoulder. It was because of bad weather. We’ll definitely have to watch his start on Saturday to see how he responds to the shoulder that was bothering him.
Astros backstop prospect J.R. Towles went a long way today towards putting a nail in the coffin on the starting job. He hit a bomb, two doubles, and had 4 RBI on the day. Definitely a sleeper at the shallow C position in fantasy drafts this year.
The Rockies 3B prospect, Ian Stewart, continues to struggle a bit with the transition to 2B. He’ll need to figure this transition out if he plans to make it in Denver any time soon; Atkins has 3B nailed down for the foreseeable future, as does Tulo at SS.
Max Scherzer, The DBacks top draft pick in 2007, pitched two innings today and gave up a monster bomb to Joe Crede. But, it was the only hit he gave up.
Mariners’ OF prospect Wladimir Balentien had quite a game today. He hit 2 HR with 3 RBI. In the same game, Padres 3B/OF prospect Chase Headley hit a 2-run HR with 4 RBI.
After skipping his scheduled intrasquad start on Tuesday, Rays LHP David Price said he felt good on Wednesday and the tightness in his shoulder had subsided. Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey insisted that it was just a precaution for last year’s #1 overall draft pick out of Vanderbilt. Price is listed as day-to-day. Price is expected to start the season as high as AAA-Durham and should be on your fantasy radar as the season goes on.
Here is a video of Price on his first day in a Rays uniform:
MiLB.com put together a compilation of the best Q&A’s from their recent MLB.com Mailbags. We’ve summarized some of the prospect-related news below:
Rockies’ prospect Greg Reynolds has been throwing well this Spring. If he keeps it up he could find himself starting at Triple-A Colorado Springs. If all goes well this season and he doesn’t suffer any setbacks after shoulder surgery, he could potentially be up in 2009. BA has him ranked at #98 overall in 2008.
Two top pitching prospects in the Angels’ organization more than likely won’t be called up this year. The article describes Nick Green’s changeup as the best in the entire organization, with no lack of confidence to boot. Meanwhile, Nick Adenhart looks like the makings of a future staff ace. We probably won’t see either one up in 2008, though.
With Yovani Gallardo probably starting the season on the DL, Carlos Villanueva could find himself in the starting rotation for the Brewers. This would put hot prospect Manny Parra either in the ‘pen or back at Triple-A. The writer suggests the Brewers might use Parra the same way they used Gallardo last season, as a mid-season injury replacement. Pay attention to this Parra kid; with almost a K/9, his stuff is nasty.
Dbacks’ fans have been spoiled with some fantastic hitting prospects the past few years. Well now they can look forward to a few years of fantastic pitching prospects as well. The article says to look out for Max Scherzer (RHP, #66 on BA), Esmerling Vasquez (RHP), Jarrod Parker (RHP, #46 on BA), Hector Ambriz (RHP) and Brooks Brown (RHP).
Folks in the Rays’ camp are so impressed with David Price, he has them “breathing in brown paper bags”. Even so, he is expected to start in high Single-A, but progress very quickly. This is definitely a prospect to watch. There is also note that both Jake McGee and Wade Davis will probably start the season at Triple-A. These three pitching prospects were ranked 10th, 15th and 17th respectively. That with James Shields and Scott Kazmir could be a pretty filthy rotation.
