Jack McGeary had a great night tonight:

7 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 10 K.

I've been a big fan of Jack McGeary since I heard his story.  First round talent taken in the 6th round because of signability questions: He wanted to play professional baseball but he wanted to go to Stanford.  He signed at the last minute to a deal with the Nationals that, through some creative thinking by the Nationals brass, includes paying for him to follow both of those dreams.

What intrigue!  He's on the West coast 3/4 of the year, the Nationals are on the East coast.  He's studying for finals, his team is in spring training.  He's working out and practicing, Stanford baseball will not let him practice with them or use their facilities.

He must go to Santa Clara University to find a team willing to let use their field.  He plays catch with his brother, or a friend, or a small net, or a backstop, who knows.  Anyway, I was really curious to see how he would do this year, and how he may progress through the Nationals farm system.  It seems he can't start until June or July every year, then he'll have to go back to school in August or September...not much time to build strength or friendships or get promoted.

This is his first real great game pitched, 10K's are very impressive, no walks is as well.  Over the season he's doing well: 53 IP, 56 K's, 12 BB only 2 HR.  This is by far his best game.  Here's some of the sites I've found with his story.  I don't know why, but I like the one from the Stanford school paper.  It seems like it's got a different perspective, not from baseball people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020403604.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/05/13/SPOM10L4FO.DTL&type=printable

http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2008/3/7/baller

What do you all think?  TINSTAPP obviously applies.  But if he makes the big leagues in 5 years it would be just like getting drafted after his Junior year and spending two years in the minors...without the college experience, but with more professional experience.  I'm certainly intrigued.  Has anyone seen him play?

Interesting trade, I'm curious who will be the perceived winner in this one.  The Sox are the team closest to my heart and though it hurts to move a solid pitcher like Garland, they really needed a shortstop to replace Uribe.  His defense has started to deteriorate and his offense hasn't been good since the league cracked down on steroids (just a time frame, i won't make any accusations).

From the Angels side (and the prospect side) does this mean we see Wood?

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I would like to make a proposal to the group:  Lets pool our Short Season A ball and Rookie ball information in a handy-dandy daily thread.

I don't know about you, but short season leagues always get me confused; with all the new players and so many of these guys are mostly unknown it can be tough to follow them all.  I'm sure the thread will not only allow us to share our hidden gem prospects with others as geeked up about them as we are, but also to follow small trends that take place in these leagues and possible breakout candidates.

First post ideas:
-Guys who have done well in the new leagues so far.
-Players who skyrocketed last year due to great short season league performances. (who are doing well this year/who are stinking this year)
Players you hope to more of due to a great performance in college but a low draft ranking.
High school kids who you expect to do well this year in SS even against more experienced players and guys straight out of college.

just signed with the Padres, was injured in Iraq.  gist of the story on MLB.com goes:

"Brannan was recommended to the Padres by scout Brendan Hause, who worked out the Houston native.

'This is a great opportunity for both parties,' Fuson said. 'He's a young and athletic Marine with a solid build, a promising arm and a great breaking ball. The Padres love taking chances on athletic players, and we're excited to have Cooper in the organization.'"

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070213&content_id=1801437&vkey=news_mlb&fext=. jsp&c_id=mlb

Question is after rehab he's going to be a minor league baseball player.  What do you think his chances are?

At the beginning of this year I had such high hopes for mr. clippard.  I remember someone posting a diary about how well he would do, also that he was a better prospect than Wade Davis (who's last 2 starts should be the subject of another diary altogether).

He's put in some good games, but he's not looking like he's very comfortable.  I'm interested to know what you all are hearing/thinking.

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Just happened to look around for Neil Walker's expected return date.  Rotowire says their first round pick from last year is expected to make his debut Monday the 15th.  MLB.com goes further into detail, it's an exhibition game for the big league club in Cooperstown vs. the Reds.

Andrew McCutchen will be there to play too.

ick, dude got lit up.  4 innings he gave up 13 hits and 5 runs.  maybe lit up is an exaggeration, but compared to what he's done so far this year...

In 5 starts between A+(4) and AA(1), he's given up 20 hits in 27.2 innings and only 4 ER's!!  He practically doubled his previous numbers in ONLY 4 INNINGS!  The good news is he only walked 1.

All this to say, he's probably still good, he's just not exactly ready for Shea.  It will be nice to see what happens next game.

It's interesting to note that he's actually playing for the Hagerstown affiliate in the South Atlantic League, not stuck in the D.R.

I thought I read somewhere that he was not going to play in the US until he turns 18...

-MiLB's site says his B-day is 1/1/1988, so that matches up, but conflicts with previous data I had.
-Just called Hagerstown and they say that they have his birthday on 1/1/1989, so he's only 17...)

here: http://kffl.com/player/12954/MLB
and here: http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/5292324

Anyway, it's news to me.
He went 1/5 with a double, scored a run and struck out twice.

Anyone want to post a projection?  Any new news they have?  Anyone seen him play?

i've got it tivo'd up!  espn at 1:10 CST, and there's a report that fernando martinez may be in the building and available to PLAY!  that sounds crazy, seeing as him being only 16 and not able to play outside the dominican until next year...but it is exibitions so who knows.  and the chance to see pelfrey's stuff, should be a good time.

http://www.baseballnotebook.com/essay.asp?esource=e_122005.asp&topt=Ask%20DL%20-%20Volume%207%20 Number%2021

Saw the question/answer section on Baseball Notebook today.  For those who remember, this is the site that released his top 100 prospects a couple weeks ago.

Many on this site disagree with what he projects including:
Hunter Pence ranked #3
Felix Hernandez as the 3rd best pitcher
No Lastings Milledge, Matt Cain, Howie Kendrick
among others.

And I believe he actually quotes one of the diaries from this site in his answer section and takes exception to the users comment (that when he projected Jason Kubel highly before others did he was like a blind squirrel finding a nut)http://www.minorleagueball.com/story/2005/12/18/0255/4428

Says he'll repost his published top 100 prospect lists going back to '95 along with analysis of the picks.  I'm pretty interested in seeing what he's projected in the past.  Keep a look out.