I was perusing some minor league stats when I noticed that Shane Lindsay is back from labrum surgery.  He had a bit of a rough go of A-ball, but upon his first career promotion to A+, he racked up 56 K in 47 IP and a 3.99 ERA.  That's not too bad for a first try in the Cal League.

Is his velocity creeping back to where it used to be?  Is he expected to move fast now that he's back?

This guy seems to be flying way under the radar.  Stats this year.  Does anyone have info on what he throws?  Either way, he's coming off of TJ surgery and has made the AA transition with little effect on his K/9, BB/9 or H/9.  He's 24, so he's a bit old, but I think his stats compare favorably to Erik Bedard's, who also was coming back from TJ around age 24.

If he really has the talent to K/9 13 and BB/9 2.5 in AA, he's a great prospect who deserves more hype.

Euclides Viloria was a pretty interesting prospect about a year ago; a 17-year-old who struck out over 1.5 per inning in the AZL.  He was a pretty well-regarded international signing with the Padres, and reports are that he's got an impressive changeup and good velocity. 

But he hasn't pitched at all this year, and I can't find any updated info on him on Google News or anywhere else.  Does anyone know what's up with Euclides?

Anyone know anything about this guy's stuff?  I've heard he has a nice breaking ball and one of the really good fastballs in the minors.  His K rate seems to support the idea that he has good stuff, and his BB rate isn't too bad, but the ERA is pretty nasty at this point.

I've never seen him pitch, so it would be interesting to hear what he throws and how he throws it from someone in the know.  And maybe some insight as to his ceiling or why he's struggling so much right now.

Straight out of college, the Braves promoted him to the Sally League and he put up more walks than strikeouts with a .925 OPS.  This year he's hitting for power at Myrtle Beach, one of the nastiest parks to hit in in the minors.  The strikeouts seem to be a concern now, and they weren't before, but he's still walking a lot and crushing the ball when he does hit it.

Where do others see Hicks ending up defensively?  He's a moderately sized guy for a shortstop, and I haven't heard much about his defense.

Not a bad third-round pick, that's for sure.

I know that one's a 22 year old college pitcher who went straight to AA the the other is a little-known A-ball pitcher from high school, but I was really struck by the similarities in numbers and scouting reports of Mulvey and Burnett.

Both are GB-inducing righties with mid 90s fastballs and decent-not-great K rates.  Both have great control and feature a curve and a change in addition to the FB.  Both are shorter righties as well.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else sees this comparison.

48 flyballs (17 infield flies)
33 ground balls
33 strikeouts
14 line drives
11 walks
0 hit by pitch

Upton is showing the classic signs of a good hitter struggling on his first exposure to big league pitching.  His strikeout rate is pretty bad, but what's really hurting his average are 17 infield flies.  That's not typical of his minor league record, and probably indicates that he's getting fooled by major league stuff.

That being said, I love the 15 more flyballs than groundballs and I like the not-sickly LD% and BB%.  There's plenty of room for improvement in these numbers, and nothing sticks out as particularly alarming.

Strikeouts: 17
Groundballs: 14
Flyballs: 10
Walks: 3
Hit by pitch: 1
Line drives: 1

His minor league numbers indicated that this would happen, and it did.  Now let's hope he can make the adjustment, because any question about whether he could hit a grounder or strike out 2/3 of the time at the Major League level has been answered.

In a John Buck thread nearly four months ago, Uncle Charlie said

"Does anyone know how to tag posts like this for future reference?  I don't have a position one way or another on Buck, but there have been a few of these sorts of predictions (some of Dr.B.'s glowing comments on Russ Ortiz and Zito spring to mind, as does Shamus's comment on--I think--Hirsh).

I think it would be fun to collect these somewhere."

So here's a thread for pulling up old predictions and gloating or shaming.

The power and stolen bases haven't been there since August, but who cares?  He's hitting .403 with only 9 strikeouts in 62 at bats.  Quite a few doubles as well.  It's pretty obvious that Kendrick is a special hitter.  So far, he's batted at least .327 in months of 40+ at bats this year.