SB Nation is pulling together a video to honor veterans for Memorial Day. We are soliciting video submissions from servicemen and women regarding their favorite sports memories while deployed overseas. Matt Ufford, who served during the Iraq War, is leading the effort for the network. You can find out more information from Matt here.

If you were in charge of the Baltimore Orioles farm system, what would YOU do with phenom Dylan Bundy? How long would you leave him in Low-A, and what would you do about managing his workload?

The topic comes up frequently among people who follow the minors, but it is a good item for discussion, not only because Bundy himself is such a fascinating prospect, but also because it gets at the heart of the philosophy behind pitcher development. Is it better to baby a prospect along? How do you manage the balance between building physical stamina, avoiding injury, and the simple need to gain professional experience on the mound?

Bundy is an extreme case, of course, given his remarkable combination of stuff and pitchability, and perhaps the regular rules shouldn't apply to him. What do you think? What would you do with Bundy if you were the Orioles, how do you think pitchers in general should be developed, and would you do anything different with Bundy that you wouldn't do with a more "normal" pitching prospect?

The biggest story in baseball this morning is Brett Lawrie's emotional outburst and ejection from last night's Toronto Blue Jays/Tampa Bay Rays game and the suspension that will likely result. Interestingly enough, I was thinking about Lawrie just before this happened. I was going to use him as an example in my upcoming article about the nature of personality and makeup in prospect analysis. Everyone is going to be talking about Lawrie's makeup for a few days at least, so it is a timely topic and I'll have more to say about this in the coming days.

As for the bat-throwing incident itself, here are my thoughts

1) Lawrie was right to be irritated; those were a couple of bad calls.

2) It is common for umpires to "show up" rookies and young players. I don't think this is right and the whole "different rules for different players" thing has always rubbed me the wrong way, but it is what it is.

3) Lawrie was too aggressive about running over to first base on a possible walk. After he got called on that and was visibly irritated, he should have swallowed his temper and said something like "sorry" to the ump before the next pitch was thrown. This may have increased the chance that the ump would give him a fair call. Instead, he stayed visibly irritated and made exactly the same move, increasing the chance that the ump would show him up.

4) I don't think Lawrie was trying to hit the ump with his helmet. His temper exploded and he threw the helmet down and it bounced.

5) Intention matters, but Lawrie should still be suspended. I think the circumstances should mitigate against a huge suspension, but the point needs to be made that Lawrie has to get a better hold on his temper. I'd suspend him for 10 games, not enough to cripple his season but enough to make the point that he needs to control himself.

The ump was being a jerk and I don't think it is right for an ump's emotions and desire to prove some sort of a point to impact the outcome of the game. But that doesn't excuse what Lawrie did. You just can't throw equipment like that; somebody could get hurt. The guy with the bat and the helmet absolutely must stay in control of his emotions, even if he's being baited.

About a year ago, I wrote a scouting report about Lawrie after seeing him play in Triple-A. You can find it below the fold, and it makes some still-relevant observations about his defense, about his personality, and even about how he dealt with a similar bad call by an umpire in the minors.

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Courtney Hawkins, RHP/OF Mary Carroll High School 2011 Perfect Game All-American Classic (via rkyosh007)

Most of the collegiate arms look like future relievers past Heaney but there is some high upside talent on the high school side at the top.

My Floor and Ceiling ratings are given to help place them into tiers. This way you can see how they stack up against each other. You can find my rating on nearly every prospect you can think of here to compare as to what type of player they are or who they are similar to. The grades change as prospects are ever evolving but this is as good of a way to categorize them as I have found.

If you have specific questions about a player or if I am missing someone you think should be here, let me know. I'd like to use these as discussion topics to talk about the players here instead of posting one by one. This is a learning process, so let me know how I can improve this as well.

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Prospect of the Day: Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals outfield prospect Oscar Taveras is ripping Double-A pitching in the Texas League, hitting .315/.364/.643 thus far for Springfield with 10 homers, 11 doubles, 10 walks, and 19 strikeouts in 143 at-bats. He's one of the best hitting prospects in baseball, yet he's only started to receive proper attention within the last year. Let's remedy that.

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Minor League and Prospect Notes, May 15, 2012

**Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Nate Eovaldi threw seven solid innings for Double-A Chattanooga yesterday, allowing one run on three hits and three walks against Mobile, fanning four. On the season he has a 3.72 ERA with a 25/9 K/BB in 29 innings with 27 hits allowed. He spent a couple of days on the major league roster (without appearing in a game) in late April and will certainly be a candidate for more promotions later this year. It is very interesting that Eovaldi is pitching in Double-A; he was excellent at that level last year and held his own in a major league trial. Normally a guy like that would be in Triple-A, but Albuquerque is what pitchers find in Room 101 of the Ministry of Love.

The starting rotation for the Isotopes currently consists of 26-year-old John Ely, 27-year-old Will Savage, 25-year-old Stephen Fife, 29-year-old Mike Parisi, 26-year-old Mike Antonini, and 29-year-old Fernando Nieve. A couple of those guys are capable of contributing some on the major league level, but none of them are in Eovaldi's class as a prospect.

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We haven't had one of these in awhile, so, like, make some suggestions or something.

Byron Buxton, of, Appling County HS (via BaseballAmericaVideo)

Many of the best players in this years' draft are from this region. College arms and high school bats are the strength here.

My Floor and Ceiling ratings are given to help place them into tiers. This way you can see how they stack up against each other. You can find my rating on nearly every prospect you can think of here to compare as to what type of player they are or who they are similar to. The grades change as prospects are ever evolving but this is as good of a way to categorize them as I have found.

If you have specific questions about a player or if I am missing someone you think should be here, let me know. I'd like to use these as discussion topics to talk about the players here instead of posting one by one. This is a learning process, so let me know how I can improve this as well.

Continue reading this post »