Innehållsförteckning för July 2020 från Baseball America

The world is different now. In the three months since the coronavirus pandemic hit, so many things have changed. Social distancing became an important concept, and as information from health officials rapidly changed, something as simple as going to the grocery store became a potentially life-altering decision. We began working from home, home-schooling our children and experiencing a world without sports for the first time in our lives. Just as many things changed after 9/11, we may never go back to “normal,” even when the coronavirus is gone and we have a vaccine and proven treatments for the virus. But my guess is we will appreciate many of the things we took for granted before, like sports. I know I will. Sports are slowly coming back and it feels wonderful…

While international players have a long, rich history in the major leagues, their prominence has never been greater. A total of 251 players born outside the United States were on Opening Day rosters or injured lists in 2019, the third-highest total since Major League Baseball began releasing such data in 1995. The two highest totals came in 2017 (259) and 2018 (254). The rise of so many international players has led to increased awareness of and attention to the international signing period, which begins annually on July 2. Instituted shortly after the entry method for players from Puerto Rico was changed from free agency to the draft in 1989, the July 2 calendar introduced a formal period of signing eligibility to what had previously been a largely unregulated international market.…

This top 50 ranking provides an overview of the top international prospects eligible to sign during the 2020 period. It is not a talent ranking, but instead a board sorted by the expected top signing bonuses in the class, with reports on every player that include where they’re expected to sign. It would not be fair to players, clubs or our readers to publish a talent ranking yet, given the reality of how players are now being scouted in Latin America. Players are often committing to teams multiple years in advance of when they’re eligible to sign, so many of them are no longer being rigorously scouted by 29 other clubs. That’s a continuation of an evolving trend in the industry. For at least the last six years, teams have…

If the Cubs sign 16-year-old Dominican shortstop Cristian Hernandez as expected when the international signing period opens, they will be adding a player many scouts consider the best player available in this class. Recent history indicates that’s a smart move. The top two shortstops from five of the last six international classes have turned into excellent prospects, one of whom—budding Yankees star Gleyber Torres—has already begun producing in the big leagues. Like Hernandez is expected to be, Torres was initially a Cubs signee. He was part of one-two punch at the top of Chicago’s class, along with outfielder Eloy Jimenez. The Cubs eventually dealt both players—Torres to the Yankees and Jimenez to the crosstown White Sox—as they pursued the franchise’s first World Series championship since 1908. The plan worked. The…

ATLANTA BRAVES Under general manager Alex Anthopoulos and scouting director Dana Brown, the Braves have shifted from a prep-heavy approach to a college-heavy one. A year after taking nine college players among their top 11 picks, Atlanta’s four picks this year were all collegians. The Braves’ draft could produce a couple of solid major leaguers, but there’s not a draftee who has star potential. Jared Shuster took significant steps forward in the short 2020 college season. If his improvement this spring is for real—his fastball gained two to four ticks to pair better with his plus changeup—he is an excellent pick at 25. Similarly, Bryce Elder is an excellent pick in the fifth round, though he’s more of a polished pitcher than a dominant one. The Braves have drafted more…

HOUSTON ASTROS The Astros were the last team to draft after losing first- and second-round picks due to their sign-stealing scandal. They still got good value with their first selection at No. 72. Alex Santos was a fringe first-round candidate who could have three plus offerings if he develops. Houston stuck to the college ranks after picking Santos, taking another righty in Tyler Brown. Brown has spent almost all of his time in the bullpen for Vanderbilt, but because of a legit four-pitch mix and solid control, many scouts think he has a chance to start in pro ball. Zach Daniels started to answer questions about his natural feel for hitting this spring by hitting .357/.478/.750 with four home runs. He has plus-plus raw power and good speed, and some…

Kale Emshoff woke up June 14 not knowing what to expect. The Arkansas-Little Rock catcher was one of more than 1,000 players who would have been drafted in a normal year but was passed over in this year’s five-round draft. The March agreement between Major League Baseball and the players’ union that shortened the draft in response to the coronavirus pandemic also placed restrictions on nondrafted free agents. Undrafted players could not be contacted until three days after the draft, June 14, at 9 a.m. Eastern, and their signing bonuses would be capped at $20,000. Emshoff, a redshirt junior, was ready to turn pro even with those restrictions. He just hoped to get a phone call once teams were allowed to contact him As soon as the clock hit 9…

BILL ANDERSON JR., who played in the minor leagues for the Padres organization in 1994 and from 1997-99, died May 13 in Queensbury, N.Y. He was 49. BRAD BABCOCK, who served as head baseball coach at James Madison from 1971-89 and led the Dukes to the College World Series in 1983, died June 2. He was 81. Babcock retired with a 558-251-4 record and four NCAA Tournament appearances under his belt. KEN BANDI, who played in the minor leagues for the Pirates organization in 1947 and ’48, died May 2. He was 83. MICHAEL BARI, who served as head coach at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., from 1993-96 and posted a 53-93 record, died May 14 in Alexandria, La. He was 58. BOB BENNETT, who coached Fresno State from 1970-2002…

The significance and visibility of the international signing period increases each year as young players from Latin America burst onto the major league scene. The 2015 international signing class underscored this point by making headlines in 2019. World Series champion Juan Soto, American League Rookie of the Year Yordan Alvarez and preseason No. 1 overall prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. all signed in 2015. So too did Fernando Tatis Jr., who finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting—and might have won the award if his season hadn’t ended in August with a back injury. Time will tell if the robust 2015 signing class will be viewed as an outlier or turning point in fans’ perception of the international signing period, which traditionally opens on July 2 but may…

The romantic notion about the draft is that it is all about dreams. When Spencer Torkelson’s phone rang just before commissioner Rob Manfred announced the Arizona State slugger as the first pick in the 2020 draft, he became the 56th player ever to fulfill a dream that fuels thousands of young kids playing on Little League fields. It’s also about fans’ dreams. No matter how dire the state of one’s favorite big league team, the draft provides hope for brighter days ahead, whether one cheers for the Tigers, Orioles, Marlins or Royals. All of that was still true in the 2020 draft. Dreams turned into reality. Players became pros. Fan bases were given hope. But in what has been a brutal year for the world and for baseball, the dreams…

CHICAGO WHITE SOX The White Sox landed Garrett Crochet in the first round and Jared Kelley in the second, meaning this class can officially be dubbed “Chicago Fire.” Crochet and Kelley earned scouting directors’ nods as having the best fastballs in the college and high school classes. Both Crochet and Kelley come with an element of volatility. Crochet has struggled with control, command and injury history, while Kelley is part of the extremely mercurial high school righthander demographic. Kelley also needs to work to further develop his breaking ball to complement his electric fastball and excellent changeup. All in all, scouting director Mike Shirley and his staff probably were doing socially distanced cartwheels after both high-end pitching prospects fell to them. CLEVELAND INDIANS The Indians took a more balanced approach…

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS The D-backs didn’t take a single up-the-middle athlete with hitterish qualities this year, instead packaging plenty of arms around an emerging, position-heavy system. Arizona jumped on the fastest-rising college arm in the country in Bryce Jarvis at pick No. 18. He showed a big jump in stuff and command, and could have three above-average offerings to go along with plus command. Slade Cecconi has pedigree dating back to high school with a big fastball, deep mix of secondaries and pro-ready frame. Arizona’s final college arm, Brandon Pfaadt, has a solid fastball/breaking ball combination. The D-backs paired a few upside preps with their college arms, taking lefthander Liam Norris and betting on his upside potential. Norris at his best has a mid-90s fastball and hammer breaking ball but has…

Entering the summer of 2009, the Twins were a mid-level player on the international market. They had some history of success, namely in Australia and Venezuela, but they rarely spent big money and rarely competed for top players. In the Dominican Republic, in particular, the Twins were a virtual non-factor. “We were shackled in the D.R. for a long, long time because we never had a facility,” said Twins vice president of player personnel Mike Radcliff, who oversaw the club’s international scouting for more than two decades. “For a long time, going back to the ’90s and early 2000s, we had nothing. We had essentially rotating places where we would run tryouts in the D.R. We were basically just running tryouts wherever scouts could find a field.” It was in…

On March 8, after a 4-3 win against Texas Christian to wrap his team’s time in the Southern California College Baseball Classic in Los Angeles, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin was recounting some of the positives he took away from the weekend, a frustrating 1-2 showing for a Commodores team that still hadn’t quite found its footing. One was that his team played some quality competition on the road on a natural grass surface, and if that last detail sounds trivial, consider that the Commodores play all of their home games on a very fast turf surface, and to that point, they had played all but three of their games at home. “There’s so much value to going on the road,” Corbin said. “Getting out of your comfort zone, playing on…

July 2 is usually a big celebration date for 16-year-old players in Latin America. Not this year. Major League Baseball informed teams in June that the 2020-21 international signing period, scheduled to open on July 2, will now be delayed to until Jan. 15, 2021. MLB had the ability to move the start date back after reaching an agreement with the MLB Players Association in March. The players themselves who are eligible to sign—anyone who turns 16 before Sept. 1 this year—are still the same, but they will need to wait another six and a half months to sign. So the start date is delayed, but the reality is that we don’t have to wait until January 2021 to let you know who the big names for the next signing…

One of the top players available in this year’s international class, Cristian Hernandez has earned plenty of accolades for a swing that has drawn comparisons with Manny Machado and an all-around game that reminds some of a young Alex Rodriguez. Even so, Hernandez said his most memorable moment in baseball came not in the batter’s box, but on the mound. Playing as a 12-year-old in a tournament in the Dominican Republic, Hernandez—who was a do-everything utility player back then—was on the mound late in a game when his coach gave him the hook and sent him to second base. The pitcher who relieved Hernandez gave up the runs that eventually cost his team the game and its spot in the tournament. Years later, the moment still stings. “That’s something I…

BALTIMORE ORIOLES Rumors heading into the draft indicated that the Orioles would be willing to pass on Austin Martin in order to get an underslot deal at No. 2 overall and spread pool money around to later picks. That’s exactly what the Orioles did by selecting Heston Kjerstad. While Kjerstad is an accomplished hitter, he presumably will sign for a significant haircut for the $7,789,900 slot value. However, we expected the Orioles would get more aggressive considering some of the talent still on the board. A lot of Baltimore’s pool money is heading toward two upside prep picks in the fourth and fifth rounds. Coby Mayo has big power potential and a massive arm at third base, while Carter Baumler is a classic projection-type righthander with a clean delivery and…

CHICAGO CUBS The pairing of Ed Howard, the best prep shortstop in the class, and his hometown Cubs is a seemingly perfect match. Howard is arguably the top defender at the position in this class and has a strong, athletic frame that should continue to fill out. Chicago took a pair of live-armed lefthanders who could impact the bullpen. Burl Carraway is the more polished of the two and was the top-ranked reliever in the class. His control comes and goes but his fastball/breaking ball combination is big league-ready. Luke Little has even scarier strike-throwing questions but a fastball that regularly gets to triple-digits. The Cubs’ last two selections are athletes. Jordan Nwogu has a strong frame, plus-plus raw power and plus speed, but an unorthodox swing that might get…

On the Monday following the draft, Major League Baseball lifted its ban on scouting—though it did limit teams to three scouts per event—which meant amateur departments could begin covering the yearly showcase circuit in advance of the 2021 draft. And in preparation for what looked like a severely shortened major league season—at press time, the negotiations between MLB and the players’ union looked like they would result in a season between 60 and 70 games—the league instructed teams to begin selecting sites within 100 miles of their home parks where their taxi squads could train. Though the number of players wasn’t official, the aims of the taxi squads were to provide a group of reinforcements for the big league team in case of injury or ineffectiveness, and to keep some…

Each offseason, promotional directors from minor league teams around the country meet to brainstorm—among other things—ways to utilize their ballparks on days without baseball. With the 2020 season currently suspended and highly unlikely to begin at all, executing those ideas has become paramount. No games means no fans, which means almost no revenue for each of the 160 minor league teams above the Rookie complex levels. Layoffs and furloughs have been commonplace across the industry, but the employees who remain are hard at work trying to make the most of their facilities as states and cities begin easing the social-distancing restrictions that were put in place to try to quell the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. In most years, these types of events were supplementary. Now, with a probable 19…