The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year. Promoted: Evan Longoria, 3B, Durham (AAA) to Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) Luke Hochevar, RHP, Omaha (AAA) to Kansas City Royals (MLB) Max Scherzer, RHP, Tucson (AAA)...
You may have noticed that last week I kind of skipped the whole “Spotlight on” series. I realized that doing a link dump every other day was overkill, and also noticed that nobody was clicking on the links. So, instead, I’ll be doing something a little more fun – looking at specific teams and prospects that grab my interest. Today, I’m checking out the Huntsville Stars (Brewers) as suggested by reader Andrew. They have...
Every Thursday, Extra P shares with us the triumphs and travails of 25 of minor league baseball’s best prospects. From Jay Bruce to Eric Niesen, every player who appears on the Z-Meter has a realistic chance at making the major leagues, even if the likelihood is great that at least a few won’t pan out in the end. A level beyond the Z-Meter, in an area that we haven’t really covered much, are the...
The Z-meter tracks the story arcs of 25 top prospects (or players we just like) on their way to the bigs. It is named after current Washington Nationals star Ryan Zimmerman, who made the transition from anchoring the University of Virginia to starring in MLB in one year. Promoted: Evan Longoria, 3B, Durham (AAA) to Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) Luke Hochevar, RHP, Omaha (AAA) to Kansas City Royals (MLB) Max Scherzer, RHP, Tucson (AAA)...
A couple days ago, I noticed that Clinton’s Ian Gac was leading the Midwest League in batting average (still is), homeruns and runs batted in, and wondered out loud if any player has ever won that league’s Triple Crown. An article on MiLB.com talked about Moe Hill, who was the first to take all three titles in 1974, and another source mentioned Joey Meyer in 1984, but I wasn’t sure if those were correct, or...
Extra P put Ian Gac and his nine homeruns on the Z-Meter last week, but the pressure was apparently too much and Gac-Man immediately stopped hitting the ball out of the park. Until tonight. Gac homered twice and drove in six runs, adding to his league-leading totals in both categories (11 and 32, respectively). His 32 RBI are second-best in all of minor league baseball, trailing only Jesus Guzman of AA Midland. The game...
At the LoHud Yankees Blog last night, Peter Abraham wrote about Yankees minor leaguer Jose Tabata, Baseball America’s 37th ranked prospect, who left AA Trenton without permission during a game last weekend and was subsequently suspended for three games. Tabata is hitting .186 with no home runs and 12 RBI over 26 games for Trenton. “The expectations of who I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to do finally got to...
I really need to get my butt up to Manchester to see Blue Jays prospect Travis Snider in action. From The Union Leader’s Kevin Gray: At times, it’s been almost painful to watch the youngster through his first 10 games at Double-A. Snider, batting .135 strictly as a designated hitter, has struck out 22 times in 37 at-bats. He fanned four straight times against Bowie earlier in the week. Frustrations mounted in that series...
The Los Angeles Angels recalled their top prospect, 21-year-old righthander Nick Adenhart, from AAA Salt Lake last night. Once one of top high school pitching prospects in the nation and now Baseball America’s 24th-rated prospect overall, Adenhart was off to a very good start for the Bees, posting a 4-0 record and 0.87 ERA in five starts. He takes the place of Dustin Moseley in the rotation and is expected to make his major...
Last week, OMDQ wrote a piece about the former MLB players who are hanging around the Independent leagues. That inspired the Gary RailCats to tell us about their successes in that area. We received the following email touting Tony Cogan and the rest of the RailCats roster: “Tony Cogan is our only current RailCats player with Major League experience, but currently we have two players that used to be RailCats that our on Major...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
