Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Baseball America

Twice a month at BaseballAmerica.com, subscribers get exclusive access to BA writers to ask any question they want. Below is a BA Mailbag excerpt from July. The Astros seem to be getting six to seven innings from their starters and using their bullpen less. Has the pendulum shifted away from giant pitching staffs? Bryan Ramsey from Carrollton, Texas At the all-star break the Astros led MLB with an average of 5.7 innings per start. By contrast, nine teams were averaging fewer than five innings per start. Houston was able to get away with less bullpen reliance, but I think that speaks more to the quality of a rotation that includes Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier. If the Astros are able to stay at this rate for…

Baseball America hit pause on July 1 and took stock of midseason Minor League Players of the Year for all 30 organizations. The criteria we used was simply best performance by a prospect. This is not a listing of best overall propsects by organization. All statistics cited are through June 30. ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS Corbin Carroll, OF Double-A Amarillo A 2021 season largely lost to shoulder surgery at High-A has done nothing to slow the 21-year-old Carroll. He hit .313/.430/.643 through 58 games in the Texas League with 16 home runs and 20 stolen bases. ATLANTA BRAVES Kyle Muller, LHP Triple-A Gwinnett A system thinned by graduations and trades had fewer options than usual, but the 6-foot-7 Muller frequently looked dominant in the International League. Through 12 starts he logged a…

The Orioles appear to have turned the corner on their rebuild and now have postseason contention within their sights. If not this season, then next. But the road from there to here involved losing. Lots of losing. Over the course of the five preceding seasons, as the organization rebuilt its prospect foundation and fielded uncompetitive major league rosters, the Orioles lost at a rate rarely seen. From 2017 to 2021, Baltimore had a winning percentage of just .357. Few teams have won at a rate that low for that long since the dawn of the expansion era in 1961—and the only team to lose more frequently was, in fact, the hapless expansion Mets. TOP 10 LOWEST WINNING PERCENTAGES OVER A FIVE-YEAR SPAN SINCE 1961 Note: An asterisk (*) denotes expansion…

Westburg Continues Shining At Triple-A The first four-hit game of Jordan Westburg’s professional career on June 24 became his first five-hit game with a double in his final at-bat. Success is coming quickly for Westburg, the 30th overall pick in the 2020 draft out of Mississippi State. The Orioles promoted Westburg from Double-A Bowie to Triple-A Norfolk on June 6. He made the jump with friend and fellow shortstop Gunnar Henderson. In 79 games at the two levels, Westburg hit .272/.342/.513 with 16 home runs. “Westburg’s been really good,” Norfolk manager Buck Britton said. “Mr. Consistency is what Westburg is. Smart baseball player.” Westburg played shortstop in college, but he’s also been used at third base and second base in the Orioles’ system. Britton is tasked with providing ample starts…

BRITO OPENED A PIPELINE TO MEXICO FOR THE DODGERS Mike Brito spent 45 seasons as a scout for the Dodgers and was a pioneer in scouting players from Mexico. He signed Fernando Valenzuela, Julio Urias, Ismael Valdez, Joakim Soria, Antonio Osuna, Dennys Reyes and many other players from Mexico, helping lead the Dodgers to decades of success and shaping the franchise’s cultural identity to become the favorite team of generations of Mexican and Mexican-American fans. Brito also signed Cuban émigré Yasiel Puig in 2012 after making a scouting trip to Mexico. All told, Brito signed 32 major leaguers in a scouting career that lasted from 1978 until his death on July 7. He was 87. Brito was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 and was named…

Josh Norris asked scouts which pitcher had impressed them most this season. Eury Perez “The body control for someone that age and that tall, it’s amazing. The thing with him being so tall and being able to command the zone as well as he does at 19 years old and throw the strikes that he does—the consistent strikes—that’s the thing that’s amazing.” Taj Bradley “He’s got the weapons. It’s just a matter of sequencing and factoring in all those weapons, not just totally relying on the fastball. But he’s still young and athletic. I think once he gets the idea of sequencing, I think he’s really going to blossom.” Ricky Tiedemann “When you see big, athletic lefties like that, they’re usually closers. To me, this guy has a chance to…

1. NATIONALS: DYLAN CREWS, OF, LOUISIANA STATE Crews had first-round talent out of high school in 2020 but withdrew from the draft just before it kicked off. He has only cemented his first-round talent in his first two years at LSU, showing an exceptional blend of power, hitting ability and athleticism in the outfield. 2. ATHLETICS: MAX CLARK, OF, HS—FRANKLIN, IND. Clark might be one of the toolsiest all-around players in the 2023 draft on top of being one of the best pure hitters. He has a center field profile, has consistently turned in 70-grade run times and has earned Jacoby Ellsbury comparisons from scouts. 3. REDS: CHASE DOLLANDER, RHP, TENNESSEE Dollander currently stands as the top overall pitcher for 2023 and has exceptional “now” stuff to go along with…

Small Tweak Leads To Big Results For Nelson Triple-A Reno righthander Ryne Nelson told himself to be shorter, to stay on top of the ball. Almost immediately he rediscovered his best stuff. The seemingly small mechanical adjustment in his arm stroke allowed Nelson to bump his fastball velocity closer to where it sat for most of last season, and it has helped him find success in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Over a nine-start stretch beginning on May 29, Nelson logged a 4.38 ERA with 54 strikeouts in 49.1 innings. His fastball went from sitting around 92 mph to sitting 94 during that stretch—and he said his delivery is easier to repeat and his arm is recovering better after outings. Nelson said his arm stroke had gradually become long in…

Mike Bianco has been a coach for 32 years and a head coach for 25 years, the last 22 coming at Mississippi. Over more than three decades, Bianco had seen just about everything the game had to offer. Then the 2022 season delivered a whole new challenge for him and the Rebels. Ole Miss ranked No. 9 in the Preseason Top 25. It returned what was expected to be one of the best lineups in the country and got off to a hot start, ascending to the top of the rankings in mid March. A top 10 showdown against Tennessee at home in Swayze Field awaited, and it was with that series that the season changed for the Rebels. Tennessee swept Ole Miss in Oxford, outscoring the Rebels 26-7 on…

@JJCOOP36 The 2022 Futures Game was a blast. Just like it always is. Yankees center fielder Jasson Dominguez starred by hitting a two-run home run. He also struggled with a two-base error when a fly ball clanked off his glove in center field. Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers and Twins outfielder Matt Wallner each showed off their power with home runs. Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn showed off one of the best infield arms we’ll ever see. The American League topped the National League, 6-4, in the 23rd Futures Game. It was a day for diehards, who were treated to the best prospects in baseball facing off at Dodger Stadium. But floating around this game for several weeks was a fear shared by a number of people inside the game. They worry…

THE BEST HITTER I’VE SEEN THIS YEAR Josh Norris asked scouts which hitter has impressed them most this season. Corbin Carroll “I would say the most impressive thing about him is the quality of plate appearance and ability to get to power. Small guys always get labeled as having sneaky power, but it’s not sneaky. He shows it to you on line drives to the gap and he shows it to you on over-the-fence power. The ability to hit the ball hard and put himself into situations where he’s able to do that. It’s pretty impressive.” Jordan Walker “The ability to make a lot of hard contact, and his bat-to-ball skill, it’s exceptional. He’s always had the bat-to-ball, the bat speed … I just think it’s the sum of all…

The 2022 Futures Game in the books. Now it’s time to set our sights on who might be in the game in 2023, when all-star weekend shifts to Seattle. In this piece, we highlight nine players who are beginning to bubble at the lowest levels of the minor leagues. Today, these players are active on Arizona and Florida Complex League back fields, playing in front of very few fans. But in a few years, they could be lining up on a big league field preparing to introduce themselves to the world in the Futures Game. JARLIN SUSANA, RHP, PADRES Susana is by far the biggest riser in any of the complex leagues—and not just because he’s 6-foot-6. The 18-year-old towering righthander signed out of the Dominican Republic in January and…

When Marlins manager Don Mattingly walked to the mound in the ninth inning of a June 29 game against the Cardinals, he had every intention of removing starter Sandy Alcantara. Alcantara had already completed 8.1 innings and thrown 115 pitches. The Marlins held a 4-3 lead and had a reliever ready to go. Most pitchers would have considered it a job well done, handed the ball to their manager and walked off the mound happy to be in line for the win. Alcantara, the Marlins’ ascendant 26-year-old righthander, isn’t most pitchers. Two outs away from a complete game, he told Mattingly in no uncertain terms that the game was his finish. After a brisk conversation, Mattingly walked back to the dugout with Alcantara still on the mound. Two pitches later,…