Innehållsförteckning för November 2, 2018 från Baseball America

WAR stands for wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference.com. DNS indicates a draft pick who did not sign. Round number is included in parentheses for top draft picks selected after the first round. ORGANIZATION TALENT RANKINGS Last Three Years ORIOLES NOTABLE GRADUATIONS: C Chance Sisco (3), LHP Tanner Scott (6), OF Cedric Mullins (9), RHP David Hess (15) and 3B Renato Nunez (20 in Athletics system). TRENDING: Austin Hays took a giant step back, but Sisco, Scott, Mullins and other youngsters got their feet wet in the big leagues. Trading veterans such as Manny Machado, Kevin Gausman, Zach Britton and Jonathan Schoop kick-started a rebuild, but expect more youth—and more losing—for the foreseeable future. RED SOX NOTABLE GRADUATIONS: RHP Hector Velazquez (20) and LHP Brian Johnson (23). TRENDING: Preseason No.…

1. JUSTUS SHEFFIELD, LHP BORN: May 13, 1996. B-T: L-L. HT: 6-0. WT: 200. DRAFTED: HS—Tullahoma, Tenn., 2014 (1st round). SIGNED BY: Chuck Bartlett (Indians). TRACK RECORD: Growing up in Tennessee, the Sheffield brothers were quite the one-two combination of pitchers. Older brother Jordan went to Vanderbilt before signing with the Dodgers, while Justus signed with the Indians out of high school as a first-round pick. Justus was traded to the Yankees with Clint Frazier in 2016 to help the Indians acquire reliever Andrew Miller. Sheffield quickly made a splash in his new organization. In the playoffs, he pitched the first half of a no-hitter against Binghamton before handing the ball to righthander Taylor Widener for the final four innings. Sheffield missed time in 2017 with an oblique issue and…

@STEVERUSHIN Like jazz pianists or night watchmen, big league baseball players work the graveyard shift, especially in October, when the biggest games are played at the smallest hours, and the National Pastime becomes—in the words of the late journalist Jane Bachman Wulf, writing 26 years ago in Sports Illustrated—the national past-bedtime. This isn’t a complaint, or not entirely at least. To judge by the TV commercials—for pharmaceutical companies, retirement planners and sensible cars—baseball’s aging audience is up anyway, to pee. And the drama is almost always sufficient to keep younger viewers awake on the East Coast, where the World Series is the exception to mom’s warning that nothing good happens after midnight. There’s an illicit thrill to the latenight cable series that postseason baseball has become—Throwtime After Dark. And yet…31…

@BaseballAmerica @BaseballAmerica BaseballAmericaMag ReadBA WHERE IN THE WORLD ⃛ ⃛ ARE BAÕS WRITERS? @jnorris427 @carloscollazoba Baseball never sleeps—and neither does Baseball America. RIPKEN SELECT CAMP Carlos Collazo attended the second annual skill-development camp for mid-Atlantic high school players. They learned hitting and fielding the Ripken way, directly from Cal and Bill. ARIZONA FALL LEAGUE Josh Norris saw many of baseball’s brightest prospects shine in the desert, where they added the finishing touches needed to impact the major leagues in 2019. BEFORE THEY WERE STARS…THEY WERE TOP PROSPECTS With four decades in the prospect-ranking game, Baseball America has an unrivaled archive of information. We bring that archive to bear in our new title, Before They Were Stars, which is available in late November. The book includes contemporary scouting reports for more…

1. YUSNIEL DIAZ, OF BORN: Oct. 7, 1996. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-1. WT: 195. SIGNED: Cuba, 2015. SIGNED BY: Ismael Cruz/Miguel Tosar/Roman Barinas (Dodgers). TRACK RECORD: An impressive prospect as a teenager in Cuba, Diaz, signed with the Dodgers for $15.5 million after the 2015 season. He began 2018 with Double-A Tulsa, put together a strong first half, and was fresh off a two-homer performance at the Futures Game in July when the Orioles made him the centerpiece of the Manny Machado trade. Diaz overdid it a bit trying to show he was worthy of that distinction at Double-A Bowie, but his low batting average did little to dampen expectations. SCOUTING REPORT: Diaz has a pretty well-rounded skill set, but the Orioles are working to continue the refinements he was…

1. WANDER FRANCO, SS BORN: March 1, 2001. B-T: B-R. HT.: 5-10. WT.: 170. SIGNED: Dominican Republic, 2017. SIGNED BY: Danny Santana. TRACK RECORD: Franco models his game after that of his Bani neighbor Jose Ramirez. Scouts who watch Franco play see many similarities. Like Ramirez, Franco is also a switch-hitter with a similar approach. But unlike Ramirez, who has emerged as a star, Franco was the No. 1 prospect in the 2017 international signing class who signed for $2.8 million. The Rays aggressively pushed him, and he responded by being the best hitter in the Appalachian League as a 17-year-old. Some scouts believed he could have jumped straight to high Class A with few issues. His dominance at the plate reminded many of what Vladimir Guerrero Jr. did in…

@JCRASNICK Shortly after Freddie Freeman swung through a 92 mph cutter thrown by Kenley Jansen for the final out of the National League Division Series, Braves manager Brian Snitker sat on a podium in the interview room at SunTrust Park and engaged in the customary postmortem. Snitker is an earnest and unpretentious sort—you can picture him pleasantly discussing lug wrench options from behind a counter at the local True Value hardware store—and every sentiment he expresses is straight from the gut. “I have a great sense of the future,” Snitker said after Atlanta’s 6-2 loss in Game 4. “I think it’s very bright. We took a huge step forward this year. We had some very young players get a lot of great experience, both during the regular season and the…

HAVE A QUESTION? @jjcoop36 askba@baseballamerica.com Q Yankees rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar performed in the pressure of a pennant race under the glare of the New York media spotlight. Am I right in thinking it’s those pinstripes that kept him from winning BA’s rookie honor? —JAKE CROUSE, CLEVELAND HEIGHTS A We selected Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani as our Rookie of the Year, but even if we took the award voting to three places, Andujar would not have cracked the top three. Our finalists also included Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. and Nationals outfielder Juan Soto. The 23-year-old Andujar had an excellent season, one that might have earned him our ROY in a different season, but this year’s rookie class was stacked. The singular nature of Ohtani’s excellence, both as…

1. BOBBY DALBEC, 3B BORN: June 29, 1995. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-4. WT: 225. DRAFTED: Arizona, 2016 (4th round). SIGNED BY: Vaughn Williams. TRACK RECORD: A two-way player at Arizona who dominated on the mound in the 2016 College World Series, Dalbec has had a pro career of extremes. He had a tremendous pro debut with short-season Lowell in 2016, then struggled severely in his first full season in 2017, which was interrupted by surgery to remove a broken hamate. But with health in 2018, Dalbec turned heads with top-of-the-charts power to all fields as well as plus defense at third base. He set a high Class A Salem record with 26 home runs before his promotion to Double-A Portland. SCOUTING REPORT: Between his power, glove and arm, Dalbec has…

1. VLADIMIR GUERRERO JR., 3B BORN: March 16, 1999. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 225. SIGNED: Dominican Republic, 2015. SIGNED BY: Ismael Cruz/Sandy Rosario/Luciano Del Rosario. TRACK RECORD: Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr. was one of the most dynamic players in baseball history, with a dazzling combination of power, speed, arm strength and ability to hit any pitch type. Vlad Jr., who signed with the Blue Jays for $3.9 million at age 16 in 2015, doesn’t have his dad’s athleticism, but he has the hand-eye coordination, bat speed, power and strike-zone discipline to rival any teenage hitter who has come along in years. Guerrero began his 2018 season by hitting a walkoff home run against the Cardinals in an exhibition game at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, where his father began…

@TRACYRINGOLSBY Haron Judge’s cameo appearance with the Yankees late in the 2016 season raised a few eyebrows of concern. Touted for his offensive explosiveness, the 24-year-old Judge was a dud in his big league debut. It’s not just that he hit .179 in 27 games. It’s how he hit .179. To go with 17 hits in 84 at-bats, he struck out 42 times. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The competitive nature of Judge, and hard work of the Yankees’ development department, combined to address the areas of concern, and by the time he got through the following spring training, the foundation was in place for his emergence as one of the most feared hitters in the game. More than that, a reaffirmation was in place for…

DAVID CHRISTIANSON, a minor leaguer who played in the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League for the Pirates organization in 1950, died July 4 in Middleton, Wis. He was 86. JOHN LANG, a minor league righthander who pitched in the Indians and Orioles organizations from 1952-53 and 1955-57, died July 2 in Oconomowoc, Wis. He was 84. BRUCE MAHER, a righthander who pitched in the Carolina League for the Tigers organization in 1961 and also played in the NFL for the Detroit Lions and New York Giants from 1960-69, died July 6 in Wauwatosa, Wis. He was 80. DAVID NIX, a lefthander and outfielder who played in the Gulf Coast League for the Astros organization in 1990 and ’91, died June 27 in Miami, Ohio. He was 46. WALTER “WALT” NORLEY, a minor league…