When High School Baseball Finishes

Once my high school season finishes I’ll try to get back to this as much as possible.  I don’t have time to even watch the big league team right now as crazy as it seems. 

Barret Loux Signs with Texas

“The Rangers gave Loux $312,000.”

I was disappointed to see this little nugget role across my Twitter feed.  By the way, I just signed up for Twitter a few days ago to get all those breaking stories.  I think this is my feed.

I was really hoping KC would take a shot on Loux.  I know he needs the shoulder cleaned out and he may never come back, but I thought he was worth up to $500K.  And to see him sign for nearly $200K less than that is disappointing.  Well, we’ll see what happens with him in the Rangers organization.  I’ll watch to see how he does with their long toss program.

The Purpose of Wilson Betemit

Some of us felt that Wilson Betemit was a risk worth taking.  A guy that was signed because he had a lot of potential, has never lived up to it, and might flourish in Kansas City.  And he rewarded the Royals with decent production while he was on the field.  If you can look past his tremendous strikeout totals, you’ll find that Betemit posted an OPS 100 points higher than his career averages.  But here is the sole purpose of Wilson Betemit on the Royals ball club.

Bubba Starling 10.23.10

ESPNU gave us a glimpse into the mind and demeanor of Bubba Starling last night by televising a high school football game.  It was very good to see and I’m sure more pro baseball scouts were there last night than anyone imagined.  But, those guys were there to get a glimpse of the kid who a few think has a chance to go number one overall in the 2011 MLB Draft.  That is some high praise so any chance I get to see this kid, I’ve got to take it.  If you missed it, page through the guide on ESPNU and they might be showing it again.  So here’s what I saw from the HS football game.

Twins Position Prospects 2011

The Twins have a lot of athletic guys.  After trading Wilson Ramos this season, one would think they took a hit to their farm, but that really isn’t the case.  The top prospects list is loaded with athletic and toolsy guys.  It is somewhat heavy on the OF side of things, but they will fill that void this season with the draft.

Twins Pitching Prospects 2011

There are two reasons for writing up a report on the Twins system.  The first is that you need to know your enemies.  As a division rival and the team that seems to always compete for the AL Central, we need to know what the Twins have coming up and how we compare to them.  The other reason for writing the Twins up today is that they might be in play for the services of one Mr. Zack Greinke according to Buster Olney and a few others.  It makes sense for the Twins to take on Greinke’s contract with the possibility of Pavano leaving.  ZG would be a solid starter for two years on a contender who needs a power arm and prolific pitcher.  So let’s take a look.

What Do You Do With Zack?

There’s been a lot of discussion on a lot of sites about Zack Greinke and his future with the Royals lately.  I’ll throw in my two cents.

ZG needs to be moved.  I like Zack, but he will help the franchise out in the long term more by being traded rather than staying.  We owe ZG $27 M for the next 2 years.  That money can be saved and reinvested immediately on the draft, international signings, scouting, and filler players for our 110 loss season next year.  And maybe in 2012 as well.

10.16.10

I was running through Baseball America’s list of top ranked college recruiting classes for NCAA baseball.  I noticed that South Carolina signed a LHP named Bryan Harper.  Yup, the younger brother of Bryce.  With our ties to SCarolina, he is destined to be a Royal.  This is interesting to me.  I don’t know why, it just is.

Greg Schaum and I have been doing a Royals Prospects only draft against each other.  It’s been a lot of fun so far and I have a few more players to add.  I need a 2B and a CF still as well as a final starter and a few bullpen guys.

I still can’t believe that Karsten Whitson didn’t sign.  And instead of going to a JuCo, he will be attending the University of Florida.

The Arkansas  Razorbacks have the #8 recruiting class in the nation.  I might be traveling down to NW Ark to watch a few of the Arkansas kids this spring including RHP Ryne Staneck.  I’ll have to get more into Razorback baseball if the Royals are going to keep drafting kids out of the SEC.

I’m looking very much to the pitching matchups of the NLCS.  Lincecum and Halladay.  What a game one!

I should write something out on Lincecum as he doesn’t really have that “odd” of a delivery when you consider the absolutes in pitching.

Base on Balls KILL.  Just ask the Rangers relief core.  I also think the Rangers should have Holland starting and not coming out of the pen in this series.

Updated Top 35

I’ve updated my Top Prospect Rankings.

Rank	Pos	Name
1	1B	Eric Hosmer
2	3B	Mike Moustakas
3	C	Wil Myers
4	LHP	Mike Montgomery
5	LHP	John Lamb
6	LHP	Danny Duffy
7	LHP	Chris Dwyer
8	SS	Christian Colon
9	CF	Brett Eibner
10	3B	Cheslor Cuthbert
11	RF	David Lough
12	2B	Johnny Giavotella
13	RHP	Aaron Crow
14	RHP	Tim Melville
15	1B	Clint Robinson
16	C	Salvador Perez
17	LHP	Tim Collins
18	RHP	Louis Coleman
19	LHP	Will Smith
20	RHP	Robinson Yambati
21	RHP	Yordano Ventura
22	CF	Jarrod Dyson
23	LHP	Buddy Baumann
24	RHP	Jason Adam
25	LHP	Crawford Simmons
26	LHP	Blaine Hardy
27	SS	Michael Antonio
28	C	Ben Theriot
29	CF	Derrick Robinson
30	RHP	Tyler Sample
31	RHP	Willian Avinazar
32	RF	Paulo Orlando
33	RHP	Brian Paukovitis
34	3B	Ryan Stovall
35	CF	Jorge Bonifacio

Alex Gordon and the Uppercut

I’ve studied Alex Gordon’s swing for sometime now.  The biggest reason is I have a player who I think looks nearly identical to Alex in his swing.  This is both good and bad.