Spaghetti Baseball
By John Sickels

(This is an edited and revised version of an article originally published in March of 2005)

Saturday, June 13, 1976. I was eight years old. My parents decided that it was time for me to spend some time away from home for the first time, so it was off to summer camp at the Episcopal Center for Camps and Conferences north of Des Moines.

The first thing I remember that Saturday morning was walking out of the house into what felt like a blast furnace: it was hot, humid, windy.
Mid-June is the heart of tornado season in central Iowa, and on the afternoon of June 13th the atmosphere would explode.

On the way to camp, we drove through a hellacious thunderstorm including large hail and fierce winds. After awhile, we broke out into a clear area of the storm. And off in the distance, we saw this:

Tornado at Jordan, Iowa, June 13, 1976 (Iowa State University photo)

It was an F5 tornado, and one of the most powerful ever recorded in modern times. Dr. Theodore Fujita, renowned tornado researcher and developer of the famous F-scale for tornado damage, once remarked that this particular tornado was the strongest he had ever studied. The tornado hit a small town called Jordan, annihilating it. Remarkably, no one was killed. The tornado stayed in rural areas, which was most fortunate. A shift of just a few miles would have brought this monster through the heart of Ames, Iowa.

Witnessing this thing had quite an impact on my impressionable young mind. I decided that I wanted to be a "weatherman," a meteorologist. I read everything I could find about severe weather, thunderstorms, tornadoes. It was one of my biggest passions as a child and teenager, along with baseball.

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Greetings!  It's been a while since I've posted anything for John.  He's driving through New Mexico, and has assured me that he will NOT turn left at Albuquerque (rim shot!).

Just a few updates in this post.  First, and most importantly, we have the order site, www.johnsickels.net, set up for the BPB2010.  Yes, it still looks like the work of a drunken monkey, and yes, I would be that monkey.  However, the links work, and I'm hoping that it is pretty simple to use.  The older PDF files and assorted hard copies we have available of past editions are posted on the second tab (on the left side of the site).  I have reached a certain level of acceptance concerning my lack of artistic ability involving, well, pretty much everything.

Our older son has strep throat...he awoke Sunday morning, after an evening of trick or treating with two other families, with a fever of 103, and a really sore throat.  We got the culture, and after the first dose of antibiotics on Sunday, he was already feeling much better. 

So far, John, Jackson (the four year old) and I seem to be clear, as are our friends.  Is it just our circle of friends, or do you guys notice that someone always seems to get sick 12 hours after a get together, so that both families have to be at red alert for a few days waiting to see who else will get the sickness spores.

NOW, for Jeri's Question of the Day...(Not a huge, groundbreaking question, I'm just really curious to see what you think...)

I'm guessing a fair percentage of you are watching the series.  Does it diminish the fun/importance of the series since both teams are from the same geographical area?  How much, if any amount, do you think MLB loses in merchandising and advertising revenue when there is a local series?  Or, am I just a shallow fan for thinking it's a bit boring when the teams are neighbors? 

Catch you later!

If you ordered your book before February 7, it has shipped. 

Many thanks to all our friends and family who gave their Saturday in order to help us out.  Getting the book to you involves way more than writing and editing and printing.  Without these people we would not be able to do it.

John's mom is fine, and he is on his way back to lawrence.

JERI

P.S. If you ordered your book February 7 or later, it will ship the next business day, at least for the next few weeks.  After that we will set a shipping schedule.

P.P.S.  If you want to post a query as to whether or not your book really shipped as stated above, just assume the answer is YES.

Not A Rookie: Justin Upton

Justin Upton was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005, the first overall pick, out of high school in Chesapeake, Virginia. He was a renowned amateur player and the younger brother of B.J. Upton, himself an exceptional prospect. Scouts loved B.J, and most of them thought that Justin could be even better. He didn't sign until January 2006 but I gave him a Grade A- in the 2006 book anyway, based on his scouting reports.

Assigned to South Bend in the Midwest League for '06, Upton had a somewhat disappointing season. He hit .263/.343/.413 with 12 homers and 15 steals, which is actually not bad at all for the Midwest League, well-known for cold weather and poor hitting environments. His OPS came out OK at +10 percent compared to league, and his Secondary Average was good at +31 percent. He continued to impress scouts with his tools, although some felt he was just coasting, questioning his work ethic, especially early in the season.  His makeup was previously considered to be excellent. I gave him a Grade A- in the 2007 book, still considering him an elite prospect but watching to see if the work ethic issue got better or got worse.

Upton began 2007 at Visalia in the California League, tearing it apart with a .341/.433/.540 mark in 32 games. Promoted to Double-A Mobile, he continued crushing the ball, hitting .309/.399/.556 with 13 homers. He combined to steal 19 bases between the two levels. The work ethic problem was apparently not a long-term issue, as he appeared to learn from 2006. Promoted to the majors, he hit just .221/.283/.364 in 43 games and is no longer a technical rookie. However, given his extreme young age his shaky major league numbers don't really concern me. If he was still technically a prospect I'd have him as Number One on my list.

I think all Upton really needs to thrive is more experience. From a purely player development perspective, I would love it if he would get a season of Triple-A under his belt to make final adjustments in his game, then stick him in the majors as a regular in 2009 at the age of 21. That would be my ideal. But I'm generally conservative about promoting prospects, and the Diamondbacks are going to go ahead and use him as the everyday right fielder this year by all accounts. It's not what I would do, but they didn't ask me.

What can we expect? Short run predictions for 2008

James: .278/.353/.496
Shandler: .270/.344/.467
ZIPS: .248/.313/.404
Weighted Mean PECOTA: .271/.349/.471
Me: .259/.325/.429.

Three very similar, ZIPS the outlier. I'm not as optimistic as James, Shandler, and PECOTA, as I think he needs more adjustment time and the short-term performance might be rather mediocre.

PECOTA comps are interesting. Delmon Young is the top one, B.J. Upton second. Other names on the list are a mixture of stars, decent players, and busts: Adrian Gonzalez, Austin Kearns, Ben Grieve, Chad Hermansen (scary!), Dee Brown (double-scary), Ken Griffey Jr (very nice), Shawn Green, Vernon Wells. PECOTA thinks that Upton could be excellent, but that he isn't a sure thing quite yet.

In the long run, I think Upton will be on the upper end of those expectations, perhaps not quite Ken Griffey Jr-in-his-prime good but not far from that. As long as he keeps his head on straight, and doesn't have some sort of catastrophic injury, I think he'll live up to what people expect of him.

The schedule for this coming week

Monday: Not a Rookie: Justin Upton
Tuesday: Secret Something That Is Really Freaking Cool That You Will Love
Wednesday: Assessing Fernando Martinez
Thursday: Not a Rookie: Matt Kemp
Friday: Not a Rookie: Scott Baker
Saturday: Kotchman Projection Results, Community Projection Zack Greinke

I'm going to be quite busy this week and extremely busy the week after that, so things that are less time-consuming are better. We will do an AQA thread during the first week of the regular season.

Next up is Casey Kotchman. Project

Games
At-bats
Runs
Hits
Doubles
Triples
Homers
RBI
Walks
Strikeouts
Batting average (make sure H/AB calc is correct)
Steals
Caught Stealing

Jeremy Hermida Projection Results:

We had 23 entries. The Results:

139 games, 502 at-bats, 75 runs, 145 hits, 32 doubles, 2 triples, 22 homers, 81 RBI, 59 walks, 107 strikeouts, 7 steals, 4 caught stealing, .290/.364/.492

Hermida hit .296/.369/.501 last year, so the community expects his production to remain steady. Shandler has him at .290/.371/.494. James has him at .287/.384/.490. ZIPS has him at .271/.354/.447, much less optimistic. Weighted Mean PECOTA is .283/.378/.483, close to everyone but ZIPS.

ZIPS  .801
Community OPS projection  .856
PECOTA .861
Shandler  .865
James  .874

Not a Rookie: Dustin McGowan

Dustin McGowan was drafted in the supplemental first round of the 2000 draft, 33rd overall, out of high school in Ludowici, Georgia.  He was your basic high school pitching prospect, an athletic kid who threw hard but needed polish. He posted a 6.48 ERA in 25 innings with an ugly 19/25 K/BB ratio in his pro debut for Medicine Hat in the Pioneer League. I would give a similar raw pitcher drafted that high a Grade C or C+ nowadays.

McGowan moved up to Auburn in the New York-Penn League in 2001 and did much better, with a 3.76 ERA and a 80/49 K/BB in 67 innings. His walk rate was still too high, but the dramatic improvement in K/IP stood out, and scouts were impressed with his 92-94 MPH fastball. I gave him a Grade C+ in the 2002 book, writing that he had good stuff but that his career could take any number of directions.

The Jays sent McGowan to Charleston in the Sally League in 2002 and left him there all year. He went 11-10, 4.19 with a 163/59 K/BB in 148 innings. Again an impressive K/IP and this time combined with better control. He gained a tick on his fastball, now at 93-95 MPH, and his curveball was a plus pitch. I gave him a Grade B+ in the 2003 book and ranked him as the Number 38 pitching prospect in baseball.

McGowan split 2003 between Dunedin in the Florida State League and Double-A New Haven, pitching very well at both levels. He went 7-0, 3.17 with a 72/19 K/BB in 77 innings in Double-A, very impressive. His fastball was now up to 94-95 consistently, his curveball and slider continued to improve, and he was mixing in a better changeup now. I gave him a Grade A- and ranked him as the Number Seven pitching prospect in the game. I noted his steady strong development, but also warned that, like any pitching prospect, injuries were a risk, though he'd been remarkably healthy thus far.

Injuries finally hit him in 2004: he blew out his elbow and had to have Tommy John surgery after six starts in Double-A. I reduced his rating to Grade B- in the 2005 book, pending injury recovery.

McGowan's surgery went well and when he retook the mound in 2005 he had his fastball back, hitting 94-95 MPH again. However his breaking stuff and command regressed, completely  understandable given the circumstances. He was adequate in 11 minor league starts but was hit hard in 45 innings for the major league team, giving up a 6.35 ERA. I rated him at Grade B in the '06 book, still intrigued with him long-term and notingthat he just needed to get his command and confidence back.

That didn't happen in 2006: he was mediocre in Triple-A and was hit hard in the majors again. But in 2007 he got things back in gear, going 12-10, 4.08 with a 144/61 K/BB in 170 innings for the Blue Jays.

I really like McGowan and as long as he stays healthy, he's got a chance to become an excellent pitcher. I like his development curve, how he made steady improvement each year until interrupted by Tommy John. He's not far off right now, and in my opinion just slight improvement in his command could put him in the elite category.

Will that happen in 2008? PECOTA doesn't really agree with this, forecasting some regression and giving him a weighted mean ERA of 4.60 this year. Ron Shandler is more optimistic with a 3.98 projected ERA. Bill James is closer to Shandler at 4.04. ZIPS has him at 3.97, which makes PECOTA the outlier among these projection systems. We will see who comes closest, but I lean to the optimists.

In long-run terms, comps through age 25 aren't especially optimistic: Sim Score comps include Robinson Tejeda, Russ Kemmerer, Boof Bonser, Jason Davis, Bill Pulsipher, Rich Robertson, Geremi Gonzalez, Tom Hume, Cliff Lee, and Jerry Janeski, hardly distinguished company. PECOTA comps look much better with Dock Ellis, Roger Pavlik, Freddy Garcia, Dick Ruthven, Scott Sanders, Kirk McCaskill, Aaron Sele, Steve Busby, Mike Moore and Jack Morris as notable comps. PECOTA is more sophisticated than simple Sim Scores and I think that list of comps is more accurate. So while PECOTA isn't overly bullish on McGowan this year, it does find him comparable to several guys who had productive careers.

There is just something about this guy that strikes me that even those positive comps could be underdoing it. So I'll throw this out there now. Assuming McGowan starts the year healthy and makes 30+ starts, I think he'll go 15-10, 3.50, with a 185/59 K/BB in 205 innings. I also pick him as a candidate to throw a no-hitter.