OK, so maybe I’m being a little coy. Everybody knows who’s the #1 prospect in the South Atlantic League — Bryce Harper — the real drama is who else might get named. That would be A.J. Cole.^ranked #11 Before Manno’s minions (see update below) storm the offices in Durham, NC, don’t forget that Baseball America …
As mentioned last week, Baseball America has been running its Top 20 Prospect Lists and after getting shut out from the GCL, Matt Skole becomes the first Nationals farmhand to get recognition as the #13 New York-Penn League prospect.
Skole was the Nationals’ 5th-round pick out of Georgia Tech and led the NYPL in doubles and RBIs while posting a .290/.382/.438 line. He was the starting desginated hitter for the N.L. affiliates in the league’s All-Star game last month.
I was fortunate enough to see Skole twice on my midsummer jaunt to upstate New York and couldn’t agree more with Sean Hogan’s one-sentence analysis of Skole having “the bat to be an average major league 3B [and] the glove to be an average major league 1B.” He’ll be 22 entering the 2012 season, just four months younger than Hagerstown’s 3B-SS Blake Kelso, but the best guess is that he’ll start at Hagerstown while Kelso moves up to Potomac.
I’m still here, waiting for the parent club to finish out a fine September. With any luck, the rains will hold off tomorrow afternoon so I can catch just one more baseball game this year. I typically make it out to Nationals Park just once or twice a season. Sounds funny, I know, but I’m …
It’s raining right now as I begin to write this; how apropos for looking back on anything related to 2011… As mentioned in the comments, I’ve frozen the 2011 watchlist and cleaned up the mess associated with the new design that I was forced to choose when my previous theme was no longer compatible with …
The accolades keep coming for the Washington Nationals minor-leaguers, as six farmhands (five current and one former) were named by Baseball America in its roundup of All-Star Teams.
Brad Peacock was named to the first team of the 2011 Minor-League All-Star Team as one of the five starting pitchers, while Bryce Harper was named to the second team as one of three outfielders. Unlike the league awards, this a higher honor because the pool was all of minor-league baseball.
At the classification level (AAA, AA, Hi-A, etc.) the following Nationals were named:
AAA
Tommy Milone, SP
AA
Peacock, SP
High-A
Jeff Kobernus, 2B
Low-A
Harper, OF
Chris Manno, RP*
*Manno was traded along with Bill Rhinehart for Jonny Gomes to Cincinnati
Short-Season A
Matt Skole, 3B
Late last week, the invitees to the Florida Instructional League were announced, broken down by pitchers and position players. One of our commenters (markfd) broke down the ’10 invites into three categories or buckets, if you will, and for ’11 it still holds water (dear Liza, dear Liza)… 1. Very Young 2. Changing Roles/Position 3. …
The Staten Island Yankees took a 2-1 decision from the Auburn Doubledays, sweeping the best-of-three New York-Penn League Championship Series two games to none. Nathan Karns was the losing pitcher, giving up a solo home run to Zachary Wilson in the second inning as one of the two hits he allowed over three innings. He …
The Gulf Coast League announced its postseason All-Star team today, which included perennial GBI guy Wander Ramos as one of the outfielders.
Just 11 players are named to the team — the eight positions, a designated hitter, a starting pitcher and a reliever.
Ramos was one of two ’09 DSL “graduates” to get significant playing time in ’10 in the GCL, but repeated the level for 2011. The 21-year-old saw his power rates jump dramatically (2010 SLG .308, 2011 SLG .653) while improving both his OBP (.303 to .401) and BA (.253 to .313)
Team Pitching Star Hitting Star #1 Hitting Star #2 Potomac L, 3-2 Trevor Holder 3⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 4K Brian Peacock 1-4, R, HR, RBI Zach Walters 1-4, R, 2B Auburn L, 9-2 Manny Rivera 1⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 2K Billy Burns 2-4, R, 2B, SB Wilfri Pena 1-4, 2B, RBI The Frederick …
Team Yesterday Today Probable Pitchers Harrisburg Lost, 2-1 ELIMINATED N/A Potomac Won, 6-1 @ Frederick, 7:00 p.m. Paul Demny or Mitchell Clegg vs. Nick Haughian or Jacob Petit Auburn OFF DAY vs. Staten Island, 7:05 p.m. Wirkin Estevez (6-3, 4.01) vs. Taylor Morton (0-1, 5.40) The Harrisburg Senators were swept from the Eastern League playoffs …