- All Bumgarner, all the time. Madison’s been putting up ridiculous stats, and the baseball world is noticing. Here are write-ups from MiLB.com, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus. What’s your guess on where he’ll end up on the end of season prospect lists? I would venture somewhere in the 15-20 range.
- The medium matters. Here are two different takes on the recent promotions of Sandoval and Rohlinger by Connecticut newsmen. (A sneak preview. One is measured. The other, not as much.) It must be hard to be a fan of a minor league team with all that turnover. Luckily I’m a fan of a terrible major league team so I get to follow terrible players for the whole season.
- This is a couple of weeks old, but Project Prospect updated its list of top 25 prospects not in the top 100. The list features Pablo Sandoval at number 6 (or is that 106?) He must be even higher now.
- In happier affiliate news, the Augusta Greenjackets and San Francisco Giants extended their affiliation for two more years. Even though the only hope for me to see some Giants minor league ball was for them to move to the Midwest League, I am happy about this extension. Augusta is a very well run organization with a growing fanbase.
- Not Giants related, but here’s an article on the Hardball Times profiling knuckleballers in the majors. I’ve never heard of Banks or Dickey before, but I’ll be following their careers more closely now.
- You’ve probably all read this, but I forgot to link this with all of the draft madness last week. Andy Baggarly posted an update on some top prospects in the Giants system. some of the Nick Noonan stuff baffled me. I’d be pretty surprised if they sent him to Connecticut, and very surprised if he hit well there. There’s no need to rush him, as the Giants have quite a few second basemen in the upper minors, albeit not of his quality. And the best plate discipline in the organization line? Smacks of Farm Director embellishment to me.
- Those are all of the links for now. I’m off to make some creamy onion soup. Till next Wednesday, sportsfans. (Prospect Watch will resume after soup is made and ingested.)
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August 21, 2008 at 6:36 pm
15-20 range sounds about right. If he keeps this up through the remainder of the season, and in Augusta likely playoff run, probably more 15 ish. It is really hard to rank him, as one has to temper the excitement over low A performance, but then again, his dominance has been such that one is inclined to rank him even higher. No doubt he`s one of the best pitching prospects in the game, though. I hope the giants keep him at San Jose next year, and then start him at AA the one after, as he could be moved from AA to MLB whenever the giants want to. At this rate, that seems to be his trajectory, anyhow. That San Jose team of next year should be absurdly fun to watch: Madbum, Villalona, Noonan, Neal, Crawford, Gillaspie, and probably Posey. Lively and Jarvis might be there too. I suspect Kieshnick will end up at Salem as he is only starting with instructionals, and I`m not at all sure where Sosa will end up, given the injury. I wouldn`t mind starting him in San Jose and moving him up if all is well.
August 21, 2008 at 10:13 pm
That San Jose team does make me wish I was back in the bay. I think Bumgarner’s progression might be limited by his offspeed pitches. If he develops refines his slider during the offseason you might see him get promoted to AA midseason ala Matt Cain.
August 22, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Hey James,
So what are you studying, in grad school, btw?
I also think the giants are going to take the development of his offspeed pitches as the mark for that, as they (rightly) seem to have very little interest in moving him quickly–no need to rush, as he’s on the 2010-11ish track like much of the better prospects are. The thing with Bumgarner is that he might not have really *have* to develop his offspeed stuff until the majors, as a lively fastball with control can get you quite far on its own. He does seem to be progressing well with the offspeed stuff though, but not magically so, so no rush.
August 23, 2008 at 12:27 am
Good point on the fastball, though I would be much less nervous if he has even an average offspeed pitch.
I’m a graduate student in creative writing, in the second year of a three year program. It’s a pretty sweet gig. I get to write and hang out with writers and get paid to teach writing. Sadly it’s not a degree that ensures any future jobs. But for the present, it’s a good situation to be in.
August 24, 2008 at 5:38 am
Hey James,
His slider might actually rate close to average at this point. It is generally a little to rather sweepy, and thus below average, but it flashes *plus*, so on the whole he seems to be doing okay with it. Certainly still needs work. I haven’t been able to get any reliable information about his change, and from what I gather he only recently started throwing it with any consistency. There are some things that suggest nice arm action and movement on the change, but I’d like to get a good look at it.
Ah, M.F.A.?
What do you write, mostly? I did my undergrad in English lit (should have been comp lit instead of english, but that is another story).
August 24, 2008 at 9:11 am
Do you live close to Augusta? If so, that trip sounds like a must. Also there’s been some misinformation on the web, as I’ve read that Bumgarner is developing a curve not a slider. Your sweepy comment makes me think curve, though perhaps slurve may be the best way to describe it.
Yes indeedy. I’m mostly interested in short stories (reading and writing) so my thesis will likely be a collection. I wanted to do comp lit in undergrad, I never could swing it as I am terrible at languages. Comp lit classes always seemed to have more interesting reading material.
August 27, 2008 at 4:30 am
Hey James,
I live in the bay area, actually, but I travel a lot, so I’ve made it down Augusta way this year, but earlier on. What I saw was pretty slurvy, so I’m not surprised people are saying a couple of different things. From what I have heard, it is a slider, and has shown some good snap, at times, of late. I haven’t seen it when it does that, though, so I don’t really know what it is looking like when it is working well. I think people are over-focused on the slider with him, due to the Randy Johnson comparisons (and unfortunate projections on that basis). Johnson’s slider was a WMD, and I don’t think he’ll ever get it to be like that. However, I think the change is going to be the pitch for him. It has looked pretty good when he’s thrown it, and the change is definitely a pitch that one can improve on by working on it. People haven’t said much about it because of the Johnson/slider thing, but it is something to watch, IMHO.
Very nice. I love short stories. Short stories and poetry are what I naturally gravitate to (only poetry do I write, though). I’m a sucker for the intense, quick complexity both forms allow for. Languages was what kept me from it, though I’m actually pretty good at languages. I was a transfer student, and when I came to consider comp lit, I didn’t have enough unit space (or time) to fulfill the immense language requirements (some 9 or 10 quarter system classes, in succession only!).