Milb for April 29, 2012: Aka, the minor leagues on a lazy Sunday

But his BA was .386. That’s a walk rate of 5.8%. That would be an acceptable figure, but it has dipped so significantly this year that it is worrisome. He isn’t going to hit .386 in the majors, obviously. He should be able to consistently post .300+ batting averages, if he really hits his ceiling then he could post some years in the .320-.330 range, I won’t dispute that. However, that puts his OBP where? Do you really think his walk rate from Low-A ball can be extrapolated out to the majors? Right now his AA walk rate is under 2%. If you want to use his other AA numbers as evidence in your pro OT argument, I don’t see why that figure wouldn’t be admissible. Even if he does hit .320, which I don’t really think it’s fair to project anybody to do in today’s MLB, his OBP will sit under .350 barring a change in approach, which is just a shade above league average most years. He NEEDS to make strides with his approach. That can obviously be done, but I want to see it happen before I rank him too high.

I can see where you are coming from on Oscar. But Danika? Seriously?

Not hot. Not even that close to hot.

I’m totally uncomfortable with a post that concerns “casejud”, “Oscar Taveras”, and “creaming”

I’ve been plenty high on prospects who didn’t walk that much while I’ve been down on guys who walked a ton. I mean, why would I love a guy like Andrelton Simmons who barely walked at all last year if it was all about walks? It’s not about walking, it’s about plate discipline and controlling the strike zone. I worry about someone who barely walks at all while also striking out at a significant rate like Taveras is/was doing.

At least in full season ball. And when Lopez was doing that at Double A, OT was in Low A at the same age, so it’s not exactly a fair comparison.

He OPS’ed .824 in High A as an 18 year old, and as I mentioned .848 as a 20 year old in Triple A. He then went for .860 in 44 more games as a 21 year old in Triple A. I guarantee you he had a 20 game stretch as a 20 year old where he OPS’ed .981, which is what OT has done.

I agree overall OT is a better hitting prospect than Lopez was, but Lopez at one point offered a ton more potential defensive value as an above average defensive SS. He obviously failed to live up to that.

All I’m saying is that there are enough question marks about OT that it’s reasonable for people to rank him where they have. You clearly value upside over floor, so based on your methodology a high ranking makes sense. But you can’t expect everyone to see things the same way.

You’ve referenced this many times. How big of a percentage is "huge"? What is this list? Are you assuming, or have you actually researched? And what makes a player a "good" player in AA?

This sounds like a really, really subjective statement that you’re not expecting anyone to actually call you on. If you actually have the data, I’d love to see it.

I’ll assume you ignored it because you don’t have any data.

But saying you wrote a ton of other lines and act shocked as to why they chose to respond to the OT/Gyorko rant is a bit annoying. It’s clear why this was responded to and the others werent. If you post OTs line and don’t make it a controversial comment, we wont rehash the same discussion every day.

We’ve had the same discussion about Taveras every day since the 24th. I agree he’s intriguing, and I really do love his upside as a player. There is no reason to take up 50 comments about the exact same Taveras argument every night, in my opinion - it’s overkill.

It is a small sample, but something to keep an eye on as he matures. The Cards don’t have a pressing need so I assume he gets all of this year and half of next year to keep at it. He isn’t as all-around as Trout or Harper to warrant the April call.

People were questioning how it would translate once he started facing more advanced pitching. So far, the results are mixed at best. You shouldn’t completely ignore those questions simply because he is hitting the ball with power right now. Unless you’re watching all his games, you don’t know what that power is a result of. Is he taking advantage of lesser prospects and mistakes to rack up his numbers, or is he hitting everything off of everyone? Just because some people aren’t willing to name him a top 10 prospect yet doesn’t mean they aren’t still very impressed by what he’s doing.

How do you know that people didn’t account for age? We account for age all the time - that’s why the best prospects in the Midwest League aren’t the 24 year olds who can pitch around the kids with aplomb.

Altuve was a solid contact hitter with gap power, an aggressive approach that didn’t lend itself to drawing walks, and limited defensive utility. It’s not like he was ignored by scouts as there were quality prospects in the Cal who didn’t even make it to the top 20 list. He has shown signs of improving upon that profile, but then again, it’s not even May yet. It’s just really crazy to me that you’re criticizing people for giving their honest opinions about a player, even when those people are those who got to watch him in person all the time and compare his talents to those he was playing around.

Still, given a 3 inning count, I would be very surprised if these guys aren’t seeing a bump in their sustainable (and I mean start-to-start) velocity of 1-3 mph. I mean, Nicolino threw 32 pitches . . .if he’s not airing it out with that kind of pitch count, then I’m starting to get very curious about the rest of the Toronto plan for building the arm strength of their prospects.