THE STATE OF THE FARM
All seven affiliates had losing records and missed the playoffs. Obviously, that’s not the only measuring stick or even the most important one. But I’ve long felt that the reflexive, “stats are meaningless in the minors” trope by baseball folks to be disingenuous. I’m sure many of you had this reaction at least three times a week when looking at the daily rundown. Like a taxi on a rainy night, offense (age-appropriate or not) was hard to find. A lot of you are pinning your hopes on the influx of talent from the D.R. and I have little reason to disagree.
BA TOP 20 LISTS
Victor Robles was named the #2 prospect in both the GCL and the NYPL (remember Baseball America loves to double-dip) and was joined by Erick Fedde (#4). That, of course, means there’s a small chance that Fedde will make the cut for the Sally Lg., too. Aside from Lucas Giolito, I have little confidence we’ll see many more.
THE 2015 WATCHLIST
The logical inference from the previous two items is that the watchlist has become a depth chart. This has always been my worst fear, and it makes me less interested in creating a 2016 edition. This is not necessarily a result of a disappointing season; a year ago I wrote that I knew the list will become smaller and less comprehensive, but I was hoping not to scrap it altogether. Perhaps I’ll feel differently in a few weeks, or someone can make a case in the comments for a way to preserve this.
THE DSL NATIONALS
After years of being one of — if not the — oldest teams in the DSL, the 2015 edition had the youngest set of position players in the league (average age: 17.6 vs. 18.3) and the fourth-youngest pitching staff (18.3 vs. 19.0). But being young is only a part of the equation; were they any good? In the 38-team DSL, the bats were 29th (4.46 R/G vs. 5.02) and the arms were 33rd (5.74). The defense was also below average with a .947FA (.952).
So, no, not really.
The million-peso question is how many of these guys will repeat, with the follow-up of how many will be let go. We won’t know until next May. But the hope is that those that do repeat — and are still age-appropriate — will improve dramatically.
Without further ado…
| TOP 5 BATS | TOP 5 ARMS |
| 1. Aldrem Corredor, 1B/OF, .289 GPA, 39 BB | 1. Pedro Avila, RHSP, 2.26/1.87/1.06, 13.1 K/9 |
| 2. Luis Perdomo, LF, .275 GPA, 16 2B | 2. Francys Peguero, RHRP, 1.82/1.99/0.84, 13.5 K/9 |
| 3. Edwin Ventura, RF, .265 GPA, 15SB | 3. Yonathan Ramirez, LHSP, 2.75/2.91/1.12, 1.7 BB/9 |
| 4. Roberto Medina, C, .278 GPA, .442SLG% (34G) | 3. Gilbert Chu, RHRP, 2.55/2.90/1.09, 11.0 K/9 |
| 5. Juan Evangelista, CF, .258 GPA, 108 TB | 5. Warner Duran, RHRP, 2.67/2.35/1.22, 0HR in 33⅔ IP |
Honorable mentions go to 17-y.o. Omar Meregildo, who led the team in slugging at .443 (but also faded badly, .450 OPS in August vs. .643 in July and .885 in June) and 18-y.o. RHRP Angel Guillen, who had a very respectable 3.02 FIP and an extremely unlucky .423 BABIP, which can be obscured by his ERA (6.08) and H/9IP (10.8). Folks interested in seeing the entire team’s stats can find them here.