This past Saturday night, I was on hand in Hickory to take on my first Crawdads game of the season. The Crawdads are the reigning 2015 South Atlantic League Champions and their current roster is filled with quite a few of the Texas Rangers Top 25 prospects. None are hotter than second baseman Andy Ibanez.
Keep reading for more on the Hickory Crawdads hottest hitter.
Blake Swihart was once the future at backstop for the Boston Red Sox. Last season, not only was he one of the Red Sox top prospects, he was widely regarded as the top catching prospect in all of baseball. Now he is a man without a home.
Perhaps that’s not fair. His home is still in the Boston Red Sox organization, at least for now. It may, however, no longer be behind home plate. Swihart is one year removed from being a consensus top-20 prospect in baseball by nearly every minor league expert, but now his future seems like a huge question mark.
The Los Angeles Angels are struggling in the pitching department. Between injuries and inconsistency, they could be looking to stir things up as this veteran team is in a win-now mode. They don’t need to look too far for that spark, as one place they could look is in Triple-A.
April did not end in a pretty way for the New York Yankees. The only victory they were able to salvage was when Nathan Eovaldi took a no hitter into the seventh inning. It seems the only way this anemic offense can win is if the starting pitcher doesn’t allow a hit.
A few years back, the Colorado Rockies were led to believe that the saviors to their rotation were on the horizon. A year apart, the Rockies drafted two “can’t-miss” pitching prospects when they snagged Eddie Butler 46th overall in 2012 and Jon Gray third overall in 2013.
The Chicago Cubs witnessed a coming of age in 2015. Their highly acclaimed farm system saw the true rookie seasons of Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Addison Russell and Jorge Soler as well as the debut of players like Carl Edwards. Somehow, the Cubs farm system is still deep and still quite elite.
While many people eagerly await the arrival of Albert Almora and the return of Duane Underwood, two former first round picks are starting to heat up on the farm for the Cubbies.
Ian Happ, Myrtle Beach Pelicans, 2B
Looking to follow in Bryant and Schwarber’s footsteps, Happ was selected as the Cubs next great hitter ninth overall in the 2015 MLB Draft. He came to the Cubs with quite the resume, posting a solid three-year career at Cincinnati and two strong All Star campaigns in the prestigious Cape Cod League.
Happ became known as a smart hitter with a good bat and plus base stealing ability. He real strength, however, showed great awareness of the strike zone. He posted an insane 116 strikeout to 128 walk ratio in 574 career collegiate at bats, and even led the Cape Cod League in walks in his second season with the Harwich Mariners. He also showed modest home run pop with great base path awareness, showing off the tools that could one day make him a perenial 20-20 threat.
The 21-year old switch-hitter has a balanced, compact swing that looks nearly identical from both sides of the plate. He plants his front foot moments before the pitch arrives and his bat moves quickly through the strike zone. The result is often good contact and surprising power.
Happ’s professional debut showed his ability to get on base (40 walks in 295 plate appearances or 14-percent) and his balance in power and speed, but may have shown more of the reality in his average. Whereas Happ was a lock to hit .320 yearly in college, his consistency in contact was down in his debut. While it isn’t necessarily fair to judge a 21-year old in his first small sample size, he may be more of a .280 to .300 hitter in the bigs, hitting .259 over two levels of A Ball last season.
This year, Happ is already swinging a hot bat. He is slashing .313/.450/.547 and is coming off of a week that saw him belt three home runs and drive in eight while walking nine times. He is a perfect 3-for-3 on the season in stolen bases, while striking out 18 times and walking 15. Of his 20 hits thus far, eight are for extra bases. Simply put, offensively there seemingly isn’t anything that Happ can not do well.
It looks as if he has permanently switched from the outfield to second base. He already has committed five errors in his first 14 games as a second baseman, but a learning curve can be expected. While it may slow his ascent to the Majors in the short term, it could accelerate his arrival to the big leagues in the long term. Happ wasn’t expected to see Chicago this season, but as Ben Zobrist isn’t getting any younger and Billy McKinneyand Albert Almora are on the pipeline in an already overcrowded outfield, a successful switch to second could see Happ’s MLB debut as early as next season.
Pierce Johnson, Iowa Cubs, RHP
While Duane Underwood has stolen the thunder as the Cubs top young arm on the farm, Pierce Johnson my be proving he is the most Major League ready. What has held Johnson back thus far is his injury history.
The 24-year old righty was selected 43rd overall by the Cubs in the 2012 Draft. While he has posted an impressive 2.47 ERA and 1.22 WHIP since then, he has also had serious question marks about his durability. He’s made only 62 starts entering this season (that’s a mere 15.5 a season), which hardly is reliable for future top of the rotation consideration. A lat strain was his most recent ailment, and it delayed his season nearly two months in 2015.
For more on Pierce Johnson’s arrival time and progress as well as video footage of both Happ and Johnson, head on over to Minor League Ball for the full article:
The Minnesota Twins made some headlines this past weekend more for what they didn’t do as opposed to what they actually did. Ervin Santana was scratched from his Sunday start with back stiffness, and instead of calling up their top prospect — the red-hot Jose Berrios — they went with Tyler Duffey.
The decision was not met with cheers from the Twins faithful. It was, however, the absolute right move.
April 13th. It was a start two years in the making. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Jameson Taillon hurled six innings of one-run ball, and when he left the mound healthy and feeling strong, all of Pirates’ Nation breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Taillon is quite possibly the most intriguing Top 100 prospect in baseball because no one knows what to expect. Almost all prospect junkies know what he is — or at least was — capable of, but it has been two years and two major injuries since he has pitched in an actual game against live batters. That is quite the layoff.
If you are unaware of Taillon’s storied past, he was the Pirates’ 2010 first-round draft pick, selected second overall and sandwiched between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. Much like Harper and Machado, Taillon was expected to be a superstar in the very near future. While Machado and Harper have reached those expectations, Taillon’s career has been derailed — albeit temporarily — by injuries.
Standing at 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, the now 24-year-old right-hander was a menacing presence on the mound from his first day in the minor leagues. His 2011 debut season would be a precursor of what to expect: high strikeout totals and low walk totals, the perfect combination of a budding ace. Where he struggled — if you wanted to call it that — was in the perfection of a third out pitch (as his changeup and slider were a work in progress), and his command.
Taillon reached Double-A in just his second season and he was nothing short of sensational. He made three starts to close out the 2012 season for Altoona. The righty went 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA, striking out 18 batters while walking one over 17 innings. Heading into 2013, Taillon was a consensus top-20 prospect in baseball.
2013 was an up and down season for Taillon. He reached Triple-A, but once there, he posted the worst walk rate of his career. Prior to his promotion, his 19 starts in Double-A would see Taillon at his most hittable, allowing more than a hit per inning while posting the highest batting average against (.257) of his young career.
He would head to spring training in Bradenton with the Pirates and be shut down with the dreaded elbow discomfort. It would be determined that his UCL had not ruptured or torn, yet Taillon would opt for Tommy John surgery. He would be shelved for at least a year, likely longer. As if to literally add insult to injury, Taillon returned in 2015 only to be shut down without throwing a live pitch as he needed hernia surgery.
Two full seasons. His age-22 and 23 seasons — highly important in any elite pitching prospect’s development — lost to injury. Would he still have that 90 to 94 mile per hour fastball? More importantly, could he still land it? Would his patented overhead curve with the big break still drop like it used to? Would all the progress he made on his Major-League-ready changeup be lost after not having thrown a pitch in a live game in more than 30 months?
The answers to those questions are extremely positive. So far… so good.
For video highlights, more prospect breakdown and projections for Taillon, head on over to Today’s Knuckleball for the full article by clicking the link below.
A frightening start to the week has quickly turned positive as the New York Yankees are on the verge of a sweep of division foes. I keep insisting that it is not time for fans and the Yankees to press the panic button, and the way this week has ended, it is the right course of action. Is it ugly right now? You bet, but it’s also April.
Trea Turner is off to a hot start for the Syracuse Chiefs. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, because Turner has always handled pitching with ease at every level of the minor leagues. The question arises as to why he isn’t in the majors yet.
Continue on for insights onto what may be holding Turner back.
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