The Bill Shelley Memorial Farm Thread

Torge, FYI, here's a media interview on Loons players by a local sport's writer. For some reason just picked out the part about Robert Boothe:

".....Robert Boothe - had the best K rate on the team at 12.5% but his walk rate was also high at 4.6%. What did you think of him?

There were nights when he was unhittable and others when he couldn’t do anything right. The guy has a power arm and can blow hitters away when he’s right. There are some language problems since he speaks very little English. Midland is home to Dow and has a large international workforce, but Boothe probably didn’t see a lot of people from Tokyo. His fastball is in the mid-90s and is impressive. He’s got the kind of arm that will get chance after chance after chance with the hopes that it will all come together at some point. If it does, he has closer potential....."

He's in the Advanced Instructional League in AZ now.

2009 MidWest League Top 20

02. SS Dee Gordon – 5’11” 150 – L/R – Age: 21 – Drafted: 2008 (4th Round)

A transcript mixup left Gordon ineligible to play in the spring before the 2008 draft, but the Dodgers learned about him because his father Tom, the big league all-star, tipped off Los Angeles farm director DeJon Watson, a former teammate in the Royals system. Smaller but just as athletic as Hicks, Gordon is still raw yet hit .301 in his first full season and stole a league-high 73 bases.

"He's just touching what he can do," South Bend manager Mark Haley said. "He's got a lot more in the tank. He's just learning to play the game."

Gordon crowds the plate and is a free swinger, but he consistently barrels balls and drills liners to the opposite field. He's working on drawing walks and bunting so he can get on base more to take advantage of his top-of-the-line speed. He's still learning to steal bases after topping the minors by getting caught 25 times. More than a slap hitter, he should have decent pop once he gets stronger.

A defensive work in progress as well, Gordon led MWL shortstop with 34 errors. He needs to charge more balls and keep his elbow up on his throws. With good actions, plus range and a solid arm, he has the tools to stay at shortstop, and it's also easy to envision him as an above-average defender in center field.

538 96 162 17 12 3 35 43 90 73 25 .301 .362 .394 .756

AB-R-H-2B-3B-HR-RBI-BB-SO-SB-CS-AVG-OBP-SLG-OPS

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10. RH Ethan Martin – 6’3” 195 – R/R – Age: 20 – Drafted: 2008 (1st Round)

The first high school pitcher drafted in 2008, Martin tweaked his knee during a postdraft minicamp, delaying his pro debut until this spring. He has an electric arm but is still figuring out how to use it, no surprise considering that he was more highly regarded as a third baseman until his senior season.

Martin has an explosive 93-95 mph fastball that touches 97. His heater features good sink at times and cuts in on lefties at others, though it also flattens out on him. He'll spin some hard, nasty curveballs, though he struggles to throw his breaking ball for strikes. His changeup is less refined, and his long arm action in back has some scouts wondering if he's destined to be a power reliever.

27 19 6-8 1 3.87 100 85 55 43 4 61 120 .232

GP-GS-W-L-SV-ERA-IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO-BAA

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17. RF Kyle Russell – 6’5” 195 – L/R – Age: 23 – Drafted: 2008 (3rd Round)

Russell shared MVP honors with Gordon after leading the league in homers (26), RBIs (102), extra-base hits (72) and slugging (.545). He also paced the MWL with 180 strikeouts, the second-highest total in the minors.

In other words, he was the same old Kyle Russell. In high school and while setting home run records at the University of Texas, he always was a streaky boom-or-bust hitter. He has the size, strength and leverage to drive balls great distances, but he also has a long stroke, a pull-conscious approach and little discipline. He'll draw walks but won't tone down his swing with two strikes.

Russell isn't a one-dimensional player however. He has good speed and athleticism for his size, and he plays a solid right field with a plus arm. Gabella compared him to Russell Branyan, and scouts who saw him in the MWL gave him a chance to be a platoon player or a regular in the majors.

481 90 131 39 7 26 102 72 180 20 2 .272 .371 .545 .916

B-R-H-2B-3B-HR-RBI-BB-SO-SB-CS-AVG-OBP-SLG-OPS

2009 California League Top 20

04. RH Chris Withrow – 6’3” 195 – R/R – Age: 20 – Drafted: 2007 (1st Round)

A first-round pick in 2007, Withrow worked just 13 innings in his first two pro seasons because he had elbow problems. His rust showed this year, but he wowed scouts with his pure stuff.

Withrow averaged 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings with Inland Empire before his promotion to Double-A Chattanooga. His 92-96 mph fastball and curveball are both plus pitches, and his heater was clocked as high as 99. He throws with an easy arm action, which bodes well for his future health.

Withrow needs more command to be a front-line starter, and he'll have to hone his changeup to give him something to play off his power stuff.

19 16 6-6 0 4.69 86 80 50 45 3 45 105 .252

GP-GS-W-L-SV-ERA-IP-H-R-ER-BB-SO-BAA

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15. CF Trayvon Robinson – 5’10” 175 – S/R – Age: 22 – Drafted: 2005 (10th Round)

Robinson was a hot topic of conversation among scouts at the Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic at Petco Park in August. When told Robinson would be on our Cal League Top 20, one National League scout said: "He'd better be! And no one was sure he would hit coming out of high school."

A graduate of Los Angeles' Crenshaw High, Robinson brought remarkable speed, a volatile temper and questionable bat into pro ball. He's still a plus-plus runner progress and retains some rough edges, but the overall transformation has been remarkable.

A career .266 hitter coming into the year, he batted .306 with Inland Empire and finished one steal behind Gillies with 43. He has some surprising pop, though it gets him into trouble because he gets power-conscious. He's a fine defender in center fielder with a fringe-average arm.

"Robinson gets better every year," another scout said. "The ball jumps off his bat, but he strikes out too much. He is way too good an athlete to strike out that much. He should look to go gap to gap more."

470 82 144 28 9 15 54 50 125 43 18 .306 .375 .500 .875

AB-R-H-2B-3B-HR-RBI-BB-SO-SB-CS-AVG-OBP-SLG-OPS

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TrueBlueLA (Los Angeles): Scott Van Slyke finally made some progress, was it enough to put him back on the prospect map or simply a Cal League illusion? Was Preston Mattingly the worse high draft pick by Logan White? He doesn't appear to have any skills offensively or defensively.

Dave Perkin: Van Slyke is a different player than his Dad. Andy was lithe and wiry, an incredible athlete with plus speed and a plus arm—a terrific CF. Scott is much bigger but not quite as athletic. I am going to have to reserve judgement on him as a hitter—let's see how he does at AA. As for Mattingly, he struggled. He had a hard time recognizing pitches, and had a tendency to get out on his front foot and committed too soon. The Dodgers will be patient with him, but he needs to correct those shortcomings.

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Michael Stern (Rochester NY): How close was OF Trayvon Robinson to making the list. He showed very nice offensive ability - hitting for average, power, and stole 43 bases before being promoted up to AA. Is he a future major leaguer in the Dodgers plans?

Dave Perkin: Actually, Trayvone is on the list, at number 15. Another guy I scouted in HS, he went to Crenshaw—which also produced Daryl Strawberry. Robinson is incredibly fast—one Dodger scout timed him in the 6.2-6.3 range. He has accomplished what we scouts look for in a minor leaguer—work on and improve your weaknesses. Robinson hit very well lefthanded this year, plus he has become an excellent CF, running down balls in the gaps by getting terrific jumps and taking good routes. His base stealing still needs improvement. Base stealing is not so much about speed as it is about the read and the jump. Robinson got caught a lot this year, which tells me he is still struggling reading moves. I think he'll get it eventually, particularly if the Dodgers have him work with Maury Wills.

Greji:

Torge, FYI, here's a media interview on Loons players by a local sport's writer. For some reason just picked out the part about Robert Boothe:

".....Robert Boothe - had the best K rate on the team at 12.5% but his walk rate was also high at 4.6%. What did you think of him?

There were nights when he was unhittable and others when he couldn’t do anything right. The guy has a power arm and can blow hitters away when he’s right. There are some language problems since he speaks very little English. Midland is home to Dow and has a large international workforce, but Boothe probably didn’t see a lot of people from Tokyo. His fastball is in the mid-90s and is impressive. He’s got the kind of arm that will get chance after chance after chance with the hopes that it will all come together at some point. If it does, he has closer potential....."

He's in the Advanced Instructional League in AZ now.

That sounds very good, Glenn. You know he is one of my favorite pitchers and I love his potential. If I remember correctly, he was a starter when the Dodgers signed him and going from starting to relieving can be a hard process. Still, mid-nineties stuff is plenty impressive and he does miss lots of bats. I am hoping he ends up in Inland Empire, next spring. That might give me some impetus to take in some 66ers games.

As for his struggles, the language thing is hard as I am sure you know. I can remember reading about Hong Chih Kuo and his language problems his first few seasons in America. My wife, who has been in this country for over thirty years, still has issues with English. Luckily, I have learned enough Portuguese to help her through the rough spots.

Greji:

Thanks for your kind comments Torge. The biggest problem he has faced is that growing up as a pitcher in Japan has it's throw backs if you're a power pitcher. They don't have many, so their approach to pitching over here is all on breaking stuff and they have a different style of delivery for the most part. When Robert arrived in the states they began changing his motion and are still doing it which has given him some control issues. This year in the latter half he has finally gotten a fairly proper delivery perfected. Chavez has changed it a bit during Advanced and he still working on that. They will keep him over about a week after Advanced Instructional ends to throw some more.

One thing he told me today when I asked him how the other pitchers were doing is that Kenley Jansen impressed him greatly and can be just "awesome!" As you know they are working on the idea to convert him from a catcher to a pitcher. Robert said that he is a great catcher with a better arm than any catcher the Dodgers have, majors included. As a pitcher, he is steady at 96-97 with great stuff, but simply lacks basic pitching skills, which they're working on now. He thinks that which ever position Jansen ends up at, he could fast track with probably the "best arm" in camp. That just changed a lot of my thoughts on some of the prospects. : )

Many of us felt that Jansen would be better as a pitcher due to the fact that he hits like my dead grandfather. After watching him play in the WBC, his arm played well from behind the plate and he is really too tall to be a catcher, but as a pitcher, he could be special. I am sure the kid knows that his path to the show is from the pitching rubber. 96-97 is plenty impressive and one would think those numbers will increase as he becomes more adept at pitching.

Regarding Robert, I am expecting big things from him in 2010. I hope the Dodgers let him close some, but I have to think that with Cole St. Clair likely on the same team, he will be a set up guy. But, who knows, the Dodgers don't always do what is expected.

BLUEFAN:

2009 Southern League Top 20 Prospects

18. 1B/OF Andrew Lambo – 6’3” 190 – L/L – Age: 20 – Drafted: 2007 (4th Round)

The Dodgers' No. 1 prospect entering the season, Lambo played briefly in Double-A last year shortly after turning 20. He returned to the SL in 2009 for the full season and might end up repeating the level in 2010, as he posted mediocre numbers even in one of the league's more hitter-friendly parks.

Scouts who have followed Lambo the last two years said he didn't show the same power and liveliness in his bat that was present a year ago and worry that he might be a future fourth outfielder. Some scouts still liked his swing, as he has an advanced ability to drive the ball to the opposite field for a player his age. He has some raw power, though it showed up more as doubles (he finished third in the league with 39) than homers (11).

A well below-average runner, Lambo already is confined to left field. He does gets decent reads in the outfield and has an average, accurate arm.

492 70 126 39 1 11 61 39 95 4 3 .256 .311 .407 .718

AB-R-H-2B-3B-HR-RBI-BB-SO-SB-CS-AVG-OBP-SLG-OPS

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Frankie (Casper, WY): Do Scott Elbert and Andrew Cashner best project as starters or relievers, and did either get consideration?

Ben Badler: I already hit on Cashner, but yes, I think both of them end up in the bullpen. Elbert was a close call to make the list, but I just worry about his durability and his command, which is why I think he ends up in the bullpen, but I think he could be an excellent reliever.

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On another note, former Dodger Prospect was ranked #10 in the Southern League and per the Eastern League chat, he would have been at #8 in the EL if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.

Are you talking about Josh Bell?

Because last night was so painful I decided I was going to check on the Fall Leagues and some of our prospects have gotten off to hot starts in the AFL. Specifically, Andrew Lambo, and all of our pitchers (Aoron Miller) on the Javelinas http://www.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&sid=l119&cid=490

Additionally, it looks like there is no more Hawaiin Winter League but something replaced it.

Great article on Lambo hot start in the AFL.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091020&content_id=7507724&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Notes from the AFL

Hitting

06 25 05 07 0 2 0 03 3 7 4 0 .280 .379 .440 0.819 (CF - Trayvon Robinson)
10 33 06 08 5 0 1 08 4 9 0 0 .242 .308 .485 0.793 (C - Lucas May)
11 47 09 19 2 1 2 11 2 5 2 0 .404 .440 .617 1.057 (OF - Andrew Lambo)
14 52 15 19 7 0 5 22 8 7 0 0 .365 .459 .788 1.247 (CI - Russell Mitchell)
08 21 02 05 1 0 0 02 2 5 0 0 .238 .304 .286 0.590 (SS - Justin Sellers)
06 17 04 03 0 0 0 00 4 5 0 0 .176 .333 .176 0.510 (C - Jessie Mier)

GP-AB-R-H-2N-3-HR-RBI-BB-0SO-SB-CS-AVG-OBP-SLG-OPS

Pitching

1 0 0 2.70 3 2 10.0 07 3 3 0 6 10 .212 (RH - Travis Schlitting)
0 0 1 4.26 6 0 06.1 10 5 3 0 4 08 .357 (RH - Eric Krebs)
0 0 0 0.00 1 0 00.2 00 0 0 0 1 01 .000 (RH - Kenley Jansen)
0 0 0 0.00 6 0 06.0 06 1 0 0 4 06 .250 (RH - Javier Guerra)
0 0 0 2.08 3 0 04.1 03 1 1 0 3 05 .188 (LH - Aaron Miller)

W-L-SV-ERA-GP-GS-IP-H-R-ER-HR-BB-SO-BAA

Mike Scioscias tragic illness:

bp:

Sleeper Alert!

Kenley Jansen, RHP, Dodgers (AFL: Peoria Javelinas)
Yesterday's stats: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K

When last we checked in, Jansen was catching for the Dutch team that was the surprise of the World Baseball Classic. A 6-foot-2, 220-pound beast behind the plate with plus-plus raw power, Jansen had one big problem with his game, namely that he couldn't hit a lick. With a career .229/.311/.337 batting line in 258 pro games, the Dodgers convinced him to take his big arm to the mound, where he struck out 19 in just 11 2/3 California League innings, but also walking 11. He gets up to 98 mph and has no clue where it's going, but he's worth keeping an eye on.

If you're in the batter box, better keep BOTH eyes on him!

grabarkewitz:

I would think that his control would not be an issue after watching him throw the ball around the infield in the WBC. 98 sounds good, but I have to think that once he gets the pitching thing figured out, he could hit triple digits. Someone best teach this kid an off-speed pitch because even a 98mph fastball can be turned around.

Good points. I was also suprised to see that he had "plus-plus" power, which is excellent. Hate to give up on that, but I suppose this is his best chance of success.

grabarkewitz:

I don't know where they get the idea the guy has plus-plus power. I don't think he has even hit more than two bombs in any season. Granted, the kid is big and strong, but that doesn't always translate to power.

Grabs I saw this kid hit a bomb a couple of years back in BP down in Vero that was nearly 500 hundred feet...that being said you are right that he didn't hit many.

They had some kind of Arizona Fall League all star game on several days ago. The only Dodger I saw during the introductions was Javy Guerra. Get this. He was wearing a Dodger uniform with #32 on it. How the hell did that happen?

Baseball America lists the 536 minor leaguers that were granted free agency. The Dodgers had 34 players, more than any other team. The classification identifies where the player ended the season. The list is as follows:

Los Angeles Dodgers (34)
RHP: Carlos Alvarado (AAA), Kendy Batista (AA), Henry Bonilla (AAA), Travis Chick (AA), Hyang-Nam Choi (AAA), Tim Corcoran (AAA), Nick DeBarr (AAA), Joselo Diaz (AAA), J.D. Durbin (AAA), Francisco Felix (AAA), Harvey Garcia (AA), Dwayne Pollok (AAA), Jordan Pratt (Lo A), Zach Schreiber (AA), Scott Strickland (AAA)
LHP: Marlon Arias+ (AAA), Greg Miller (Hi A), Erick Threets (AAA), Joe Torres (Hi A)
C: Danny Ardoin+ (AAA), J.D. Closser (AAA), Gabriel Gutierrez (AA), Mike Rose (AAA)
1B: Brett Harper (AAA), Gaby Martinez (AA), Vinny Rottino (AA)
2B: Sergio Garcia (AAA), Juan Gonzalez (AA), Luis Maza (AAA), Ramon Nivar (AA)
3B: Hector Luna (AAA)
OF: Dee Brown (AAA), Andres Perez (Hi A), James Tomlin (AA)

Brookster:

Baseball America lists the 536 minor leaguers that were granted free agency. The Dodgers had 34 players, more than any other team. The classification identifies where the player ended the season. The list is as follows:

Los Angeles Dodgers (34)
RHP: Carlos Alvarado (AAA), Kendy Batista (AA), Henry Bonilla (AAA), Travis Chick (AA), Hyang-Nam Choi (AAA), Tim Corcoran (AAA), Nick DeBarr (AAA), Joselo Diaz (AAA), J.D. Durbin (AAA), Francisco Felix (AAA), Harvey Garcia (AA), Dwayne Pollok (AAA), Jordan Pratt (Lo A), Zach Schreiber (AA), Scott Strickland (AAA)
LHP: Marlon Arias+ (AAA), Greg Miller (Hi A), Erick Threets (AAA), Joe Torres (Hi A)
C: Danny Ardoin+ (AAA), J.D. Closser (AAA), Gabriel Gutierrez (AA), Mike Rose (AAA)
1B: Brett Harper (AAA), Gaby Martinez (AA), Vinny Rottino (AA)
2B: Sergio Garcia (AAA), Juan Gonzalez (AA), Luis Maza (AAA), Ramon Nivar (AA)
3B: Hector Luna (AAA)
OF: Dee Brown (AAA), Andres Perez (Hi A), James Tomlin (AA)

I would not be surprised to see the Dodgers resign Threets (especially if we deal Sherrill) and Tomlin. I am cheered to see that Jordy Pratt, his upper nineties fastball and lack of command are on the way out. The guy has great stuff but can't find the plate and never developed a secondary pitch. Time to cut bait.

Miller does sadden me, though. I think it is safe to blame the crack Dodger medical staff on that one. Took the team too long to diagnose his injury and then the team screwed around, ruining what could've been a great career. While I understand your hope, LM, I have to think that his career is likely over. What a waste.