- 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 Fukudome wowed 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.
- Twins RHP Nick Blackburn finally gave up a run. The youngster hadn’t given up a run this spring, until surrendering 3 ER in 3 IP today.
Posts Tagged ‘Nick Blackburn’
Daily Pepper: Maybin, Fukudome, Price, Velez & Blackburn
Thursday, March 13th, 2008Prospect Watch: Nick Blackburn
Sunday, March 9th, 2008Top Twins prospect Nick Blackburn is making a strong push for the starting rotation. Blackburn pitched 2.2 scoreless innings on Friday, making it 4 scoreless innings total on the spring. During that span he’s only allowed 1 hit, and has the Minnesota coaching staff raving about his results.
Apparently Blackburn has corrected an over-reliance on his fastball, a problem that plagued him during his September call-up last season. The exit of Johan Santana, Matt Garza and Carlos Silva from the Twins rotation has opened up a few spots for newcomers. If Blackburn makes the rotation he could be a sleeper to watch in mixed leagues.
AL Roundup: Moore, Perez, Blackburn, Hochevar, Parra
Thursday, March 6th, 2008Around the Grapefruit league:
- Roch Kubatko of the Baltimore Sun reports that Scott Moore, the 8th overall pick in the 2002 draft, has been working at third base, first base, left field, and even gotten some time at second. Combining his utility on defense with a .571 BA and 4 RBI this spring is giving the 24-year-old a good shot at making the Orioles’ 25-man roster.
- Interesting background on speedy, switch-hitting Rays prospect Fernando Perez. Joe Smith of the St. Petersburg Times seems to think that Perez, who has hit over .300 in his past two seasons of class A ball, could start the year in Triple-A.
- Twins prospect Nick Blackburn only needed one inning of work to impress manager Ron Gardenhire on Wednesday, retiring the side in the fourth inning while striking out two. It’s a good thing he did, because the Twins’ skipper has a lot of pitching to choose from.
From the Cactus League:
- 2005 No. 1 overall draft pick Luke Hochevar has been impressive in Royals camp, retiring 11 of 12 in two two-inning appearances. This bodes well for his chances to make the club, although manager Trey Hillman has indicated that Hochevar may not be a candidate for the starting rotation.
- Manny Parra threw 3 scoreless innings with 4 strikeouts Wednesday, furthering his case for a spot in the Brewers’ rotation.
Twins Prospects: Nick Blackburn and Carlos Gomez
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008- The Star Tribune reports that Twins top pitching prospect Nick Blackburn is looking to make the starting rotation this year. The 26-year-old is battling back from cartilage problems dating back to 2002 which forced him to get 90 percent of the cartilage removed from his knee in ‘03. After his weight blew up to 260lbs, he used cycling to get back into shape and dropped 30 lbs. Now his knee is healthy, if his numbers from last season are any indication. Blackburn went 10-4 with a 2.36 ERA at Class AA New Britain and Class AAA Rochester, including a 44-inning scoreless streak at Rochester. Manager Ron Gardenhire likes the way he throws the ball, and if Blackburn breaks into the rotation he could be a deep-sleeper candidate for 2008.
- Carlos Gomez is competing with Jason Pridie and Denard Span for the job of Twins starting center fielder, but its definitely his job to lose. Kelly Thesier of MLB.com says that Ron Gardenhire plans to use all of spring to let the race play out before selecting a winner, however it would appear that Gomez has the upper hand. Through the 4 games he has appeared in he is batting 2-for-8 with 2 runs, 2 RBI, 1 walk, and 2 stolen bases. He also would have had a stand-up triple on Monday if he hadn’t slipped and fell face-first in the dirt rounding second. Gardenhire didn’t seem too worried, saying:
“Sometimes, when you go that fast, you lose your step, I guess. I never went that fast, so I wouldn’t know.”
Gomez should be a shoe-in for CF this year, and could be very productive in the stolen bases category with his blazing speed.
