Tucson Mexican Baseball Fiesta
I hope everyone had a good holiday. Last week, Prospect A-Z wrapped up with Tyler Skaggs, the lefty Arizona received from Anaheim in the Dan Haren trade during the 2010 season. Skaggs has emerged as a very good pitching prospect and has advanced through the minors quickly. Just three years after he was drafted by the Angels, Skaggs could make his ML debut sometime in 2012. He was a part of a rotation at...
Outfielder Oscar Taveras was the subject of yesterday’s Prospect A-Z. His breakout season helps strengthening a Cardinals farm system that’s starting to look much stronger compared to recent seasons. That being said, everyone saw a number of homegrown players chip in contributions to their World Series run, and sometimes it’s hard to argue with results. With Albert Pujols signing elsewhere, St. Louis will need to look to its farm system to fill the void,...
Ocean City (NJ) High School’s Kolya Stephenson (I keep wanting to type Kostya Kennedy; I blame the book excerpt that I read in Sports Illustrated earlier). Stephenson is a right-handed pitcher who told MLB.com that he had planned on attending college, but may reconsider given the circumstances: “I was actually in the pool with a few friends. The Phillies called and told me that I had been drafted, and I didn’t know what to...
6:36 PM – Last year, I wowed the internet with my knowledge of the players and personalities involved in the Rule IV Draft. This time around, I tried to get Scott to put a little something together, since he actually knows a thing or two about the sport, but it turns out he’s actually doing something crazy like going to a live baseball game or something, so once again, anyone who happens upon this...
For the third part of my I-Don’t-Know-How-Many-Parts-It-Will-Eventually-Be series on the draft, I took a look at where current Hall of Famers were taken. As an added bonus, I used Baseball-Reference.com to look at the other players from that draft position who played in the major leagues, and included their career WAR. Comments are included below, where necessary. Reggie Jackson (1-2, Kansas City Athletics, 1966) – 74.6 Played In Majors: Will Clark (57.6), J.D. Drew...
The story I did last year on Kevin Rusnak, who was chosen by two different teams in the 1970 draft, got me thinking: how many times in the history of the draft has a selection been voided? As always, Baseball-Reference.com had the answer. The list you see below contains all the picks that included the citation “Selection Voided” or some variation. I tried mightily to figure out how these came about, but The Google...
One of the great things about writing in a relaxed atmosphere like Bus Leagues is that we try not to paint ourselves into a box as far as topics are concerned. Sure, sometimes we’ll attempt something relevant around Memorial Day or the day the Hall of Fame inductees are announced, but the way we generally run things is if inspiration strikes regarding a certain topic, even if it’s technically out of season, we’re free...
Earlier today I decided to take a look back at Montreal’s picks in the 2004 draft. It was the organization’s last draft before moving to Montreal and I was curious to see how many of the players chosen were still knocking around in the professional ranks somewhere. (Chances are someone has covered this already, though a little Googling didn’t turn anything up. Someone did do a post earlier this season on the dwindling number...
As noted last week, Western Kentucky catcher Matt Rice was selected by the Yankees with the last pick in the 2010 Rule IV draft. I spoke with Matt for a few minutes earlier this afternoon. Were you following the draft at all? I followed the beginning of Day Two a little bit, but after that I stopped following it. Were you expecting to go earlier? Yeah, I thought I was gonna go at some...
10:34 – And here’s Alan Benes to close it out. Exciting times. Days Two and Three will be conducted via conference call. I’ll be on vacation all week, so maybe I’ll see about following along and passing on any interesting names. 10:31 – The team reps are the most exciting thing in my life right now. Jeff Russell just picked for the Rangers. 10:28 – Dante Bichette played for the Nashua Pride when I...
