While being away from live baseball for the 2012 season, I’ve had to look a little harder for things to write about. Fortunately, within my first week in Afghanistan I met Air Force Tech Sergeant Marc Leistico and oddly enough our conversation drifted towards minor league baseball. A few days later, TSgt Leistico was nice enough to sit down with me and answer a few questions for Bus Leagues Baseball.com. Bus Leagues Baseball: So...
In an effort to milk this list as much as possible, I made a post that has all 100 prospects in just one list with their Opening Day assignments. At the bottom, I have a handful of stats that show the distribution of the top 100 by organization, position and classification. 1. Bryce Harper, OF, Washington- Syracuse (AAA, International) 2. Matt Moore, LHP, Tampa Bay- Tampa Bay (MLB, AL) 3. Mike Trout, OF, Anaheim-...
Early last week, the Toronto Blue Jays announced that Brett Cecil, a left-handed pitcher who has started 65 major league games over the past three seasons, had been sent down to Double-A New Hampshire to begin the season. The news drew a strong reaction on Twitter from former Blue Jays pitcher Dirk Hayhurst, who questioned the decision to send Cecil to New Hampshire instead of Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas. One of the...
Welcome to Bus Leagues Express. Every morning, you’ll be able to stop here for a quick summary of the previous day’s minor league action, what’s to come, and interesting links the staff wants to share. While you’re eating cereal getting ready for the day, you can check out the notable stories from each league and some of the top performers at the plate and on the mound. Since this is the first day of...
I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. The short week wrapped up with Washington lefty Bryan Harper. It was a poor attempt at baseball humor because obviously his brother is the real prospect, not Bryan. Most of the post focused on a couple other things: the Harper brothers’ teammates at the College of Southern Nevada in 2010 and other teams that have drafted or acquired brothers of their highly paid draft picks. It’s...
The first week of Prospect A-Z wrapped up on Friday with Edwar Cabrera, MILB’s strikeout leader in 2011. He doesn’t have the top of the rotation stuff like previous leader Matt Moore does, but his great changeup allowed him to dominate A-ball this year. That’s not to say he doesn’t have ML potential, but at his best he’ll be pitching at the back of a rotation and not the front. AA will be a...
Yesterday, I broke away from the typical format for this feature and analyzed where Yoenis Cespedes might land. In my mind, there are 5-7 serious contenders, acknowledging that all 30 teams would love to have him. Cespedes probably gained a lot of cache with fans for his entertaining scouting video, but he’s had that same cache with scouts and front offices for years with his impressive tools and athleticism. I ended up writing twice...
Yesterday, we reviewed one of the Rockies’ top prospects, third baseman Nolan Arenado. He’s been a solid, above average hitter throughout his minor league career so far, and his defense on the hot corner is improving. In an ideal world for the Rockies, he develops into a middle of the order slugger to complement Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. While that’s probably a couple years away, today’s player could reach the majors sooner than...
In most states around the country baseball has come to an end until spring. But in Arizona baseball is just heating up. This past weekend the Tucson Padres hosted a 3-day event “Fiesta Mexicana De Beisbol” at Kino Stadium in Tucson, Arizona. The San Diego Padres Future Stars competed against three teams from the Mexican Pacific League. The Naranjeros of Hermosillo, the Aguilas of Mexicali and the Yaquis of Ciudad Obregon all made the...
It’s Awards Week here at Bus Leagues, that annual event in which we unveil the seasons that our voters determined to be the best in Minor League and Independent baseball. This year, we have nine awards to give out: Player of the Year, Starting Pitcher of the Year, and Relief Pitcher of the Year for Full-Season Minor League Baseball, Short-Season Minor League Baseball, and Independent Baseball. The awards so far: Independent Player of the...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
