Minor League Ball Gameday, May 29

Good afternoon prospect watchers. I spent most of the morning trying to figure out why my computer mouse wouldn't work. I eventually traced the problem to malfunctioning PS2 ports. They aren't getting any power, and given the age and sickly condition of my computer, I doubt it is something worth fixing. So I'm writing now on my backup Mac laptop, which is much less convenient to work on (I'm sorry, I hate Macs, the interfaces are a giant pain and much less intuitive for me than a PC system) but at least it is there. I have all important files from the main system backed up or transferred over so no important data has been lost at least.

It is an unwanted distraction and poor timing with the draft coming up. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...almost every major appliance in our household has died in the last nine months. The only things left are the dishwasher and the AC system (which are old but seem stable) and my dying cellphone. Getting a new cellphone is way down the priority list right now and even a new computer is going to have to wait for awhile.

Anyway, bitching done about First World problems. On to baseball.

***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread.

***Nate Karns of the Washington Nationals will be Prospect of the Day tomorrow. Friday will be Michael Wacha of the St. Louis Cardinals.

***I am working on the Integrating Baseball Knowledge piece. The old "sabermetrics vs. traditionalists, stats vs. scouting" argument is rearing up again, the latest example being Eric Wedge blaming sabermetrics for Dustin Ackley's problems. What I'm trying to do with this piece is draw a map of how all these things are linked together. I've been working with this idea for over a year but it is finally coming into synch. No ETA but I hope to have it done before the draft next week.

***Pirates prospect Stetson Allie continues to rip, 2-for-4 yesterday, .488 over his last 10 games, and a .344/.426/.630 line overall in 50 games for Low-A West Virginia. He's also fanned 62 times in 192 at-bats. Discussion question: at what point do you promote him to High-A? The strikeouts are concerning, but Sally League pitchers can't get a handle on him even with a contact issue. Do you bump him up to the Florida State League now and challenge him, or do you let him build his confidence for another few weeks and promote him in July or August?

***Royals prospect Bubba Starling hit a home run yesterday for Low-A Lexington. His season line stands at .208/.292/.352 and he hasn't hit any better really since returning from lasik surgery. On the other hand, six of his 16 walks on the season have been drawn in the nine games he's played since returning, so maybe he's seeing the ball better and it just hasn't shown up in the other numbers yet.

***Two more homers for Rays prospect Wil Myers yesterday, who has knocked five in his last six games.

***Skunk on the field delays Double-A game.

***Schedule of games for today.

***Grant Brisbee says that the baseball draft is a necessary scam.

***Cormican over at TheGoodPhight (SB Nation's Phillies site) has a good roundup on scouting information for Stanford outfielder and likely first-round pick Austin Wilson.

***RIP Dr. Lewis Yocum.