2011 Sleeper Alert! List Review, Part Three

2011 SLEEPER ALERT! LIST REVIEW, Part Three

Every year in the Baseball Prospect Book, I point out players who I think are particularly good sleepers who could break through unexpectedly. Sometimes then pan out (Dan Hudson for example), sometimes they don't, but I try very hard to get ahead of the curve on players like that, especially pitchers.

Let's review the Sleeper Alert! list from the 2011 book (which you can still order by the way!). Here is the third group of 15 alphabetically. We will finish this up tomorrow.

I'm including a brief mention for each player of the reasons they were on the list, if it was stats, scouting reports, intuition, or some combination thereof.

Brett Marshall, RHP, New York Yankees: 3.97 ERA, 77/40 K/BB in 100 innings for High-A Tampa, 100 hits, 1.73 GO/AO. Not great, not terrible. Age 21, rating was based mainly on scouting reports.

Jarrett Martin, LHP, Baltimore Orioles: 4.35 ERA, 67/44 K/BB in 70 innings for Low-A Delmarva, 59 hits, 1.38 GO/AO. Still showing live arm like last year, but command hasn't taken the step forward that I hoped for. Age 21. Rating was based on scouting reports and K/IP ratio.

Kyle McPherson, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates: 3.02 ERA with 97/16 K/BB in 110 innings combined between High-A and Double-A, 99 hits. A very fine season so far. Age 23, transitioning well to Double-A. Rating based on stats and scouting reports.

Zach Neal, RHP, Florida Marlins: 4.40 ERA with 77/34 K/BB in 102 innings for Low-A Greensboro, 109 hits. Adequate season but nothing special Age 22. Rating was based on stats and scouting.
Juan Oramas, LHP, San Diego Padres: 2.35 ERA with 47/16 K/BB in 54 innings for Double-A San Antonio, 49 hits. Got killed in one Triple-A start but overall a good season. Age 21. Rating was based on stats and scouting reports.

Brad Peacock, RHP, Washington Nationals: 2.01 ERA with 129/23 K/BB in 99 innings for Double-A Harrisburg, 62 hits. Just promoted to Triple-A, lost first start. Huge breakthrough season overall. Age 23. Rating was based on scouting and the fact that his component ratios were always much better than his ERAs.

Benino Pruneda, RHP, Atlanta Braves: 4.50 ERA with 44/27 K/BB in 42 innings for Double-A Mississippi, 37 hits. Still has good K/IP and H/IP ratios but command problems give him blah numbers overall. Age 22. Rating was based mostly on stats.

Bruce Pugh, RHP, Minnesota Twins: Horrible in Double-A (9.69 ERA, 12/14 K/BB in 13 innings) but much better after demotion to High-A (3.90 ERA, 39/9 K/BB in 32 innings, 11 saves). Still interesting but inability to transition was disappointing. Turned 23 yesterday. Rating was based on stats and scouting reports.

J. P. Ramirez, OF, Washington Nationals: Hitting .229/.283/.354 with 21 walks, 54 strikeouts in 297 at-bats for High-A Potomac. Very disappointing season. Age 21. Rating was based on scouting reports and stats.

Neil Ramirez, RHP, Texas Rangers: 3.68 ERA with 85/35 K/BB in 73 innings for Triple-A Round Rock, 63 hits. A fine breakout season at age 22 despite skipping two levels. Rating was based on stats and scouting reports.

Henry Ramos, OF, Boston Red Sox: Hitting .276/.302/.392 with eight walks, 32 strikeouts in 181 at-bats for Low-A Greenville. Still quite raw, but very young at age 19 and remains promising. Rating was based scouting reports and stats.

Austin Reed, RHP, Chicago Cubs: 8.37 ERA with 12/10 K/BB in 24 innings for Boise in the Northwest League, 32 hits, 2.06 GO/AO. High school pick from '10 draft just getting started with his career. Age 19. Rating was based mostly on scouting reports.

Andre Rienzo, RHP, Chicago White Sox: 3.83 ERA with 86/50 K/BB in 85 innings for High-A Winston-Salem, 87 hits. Strong K/IP ratio but big spike in his walk rate this year, just went on DL. Age 23. Rating based mainly on stats with some scouting input.

Donn Roach, RHP, Los Angeles Angels: 3.97 ERA, 43/14 K/BB in 48 innings for Low-A Cedar Rapids, 51 hits, 3.76 GO/AO. Unusually high ground ball rate and he'll pick up some strikeouts too. I'm disappointed they are using him as a reliever given his success as a starter in junior college. Age 21. Rating based on stats and scouting.

Nate Roberts, OF, Minnesota Twins: Hitting .295/.434/.415 with nine steals for Low-A Beloit. On-base machine with doubles power, could hit more homers in time. Age 22. Rating based on stats and scouting reports.

This looks like a stronger group than the first batch of 30. Peacock was the big hit here, with Neal Ramirez second and Oramas, McPherson, and Roberts also performing well.