Minor League Ball Gameday, June 10

Good morning prospect watchers. Let's get right to it.

***Draft hangover continues here. I posted the NL West Draft Review this morning and will keep knocking those out until they are all done. AL West will be next. Tomorrow I will do Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates as Prospect of the Day since he is scheduled to make his major league debut. By Wednesday we should be back to normal operations around here and will be turning our attention to the international signing period which begins on July 2nd.

***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday Thread has lots of highlights for you.

***The Minnesota Twins promoted third baseman Miguel Sano and second baseman Eddie Rosario from High-A Fort Myers to Double-A New Britain today. The move is justified in both cases. Sano was hitting .330/.425/.655 with 16 homers, 29 walks, and 61 strikeouts in 206 at-bats. It will be interesting to see if his strikeout rate becomes at issue at higher levels, but there's no way to know unless he gets there. Obviously his power is tremendous. Rosario tends to get overlooked in favor of Sano, but he's a fine prospect in his own right, hitting .329/.377/.527, while showing greatly improved defense at second base this spring.

***Baltimore Orioles outfield prospect Henry Urrutia continues to rip for Double-A Bowie, 5-for-9 in his last two games wiht an overall line of .350/.410/.554. He didn't get the attention accorded to fellow Cubans Jorge Soler and Yasiel Puig last year, but right now it looks like his $778,500 bonus was money well-spent by the Orioles. He's 26, so I have to imagine that a promotion to Triple-A or the majors will come soon if he remains this hot.

***Twins pitching prospect Alex Meyer was placed on the disabled list at Double-A New Britain with a sore shoulder.

***Someone asked me yesterday why Oakland Athletics prospect and 2012 second-rounder Nolan Sanburn hasn't pitched this spring. Answer: he injured a muscle in his shoulder during extended spring training. It is not supposed to be a serious injury, but we'll monitor the situation.

***Does anyone remember being disturbed by Xander Bogaerts not immediately hitting the snot out of the ball back in early April? He's on a terrific tear right now for Double-A Portland, hitting .471 in his last 10 games and holding an overall line of .308/.403/.507, with 33 walks and 49 strikeouts in 211 at-bats. He's put to rest any concerns about his strike zone judgments. I'm still waiting to see if he lands at third base or can stick at shortstop, but the bat should not be doubted at all.

***Mariners prospect Brad Miller continues to rake at Triple-A Tacoma, going "just" 1-for-4 yesterday but hitting .417 in his last 10 games and .361/.412/.574 overall in 14 games since being promoted.

***James Gentile at Beyond the Boxscore looks at prospects who were promoted really early to the major leagues and studies how they tend to fair historically. You have your Willie Mays and Nolan Ryan and Bert Blyleven types, but you also have our Jack Heidemanns and Kevin Bells and Dee Browns.

***Grant Brisbee looks at 2013 draftees to root for.

***Here is an interesting interview with St. Louis Cardinals prospect Carson Kelly.

***Today's slate of minor league baseball games.