Prospect Watch: Wil Myers

Last season the Kansas City Royals had a number of players graduate from their farm system. They include Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Danny Duffy. There's a good chance that they add to that list sometime this year when outfielder Wil Myers gets the call to the big leagues.

Prospect Watch: Anthony Rizzo

The Chicago Cubs went through some big changes during the off-season. Most notably is that they acquired Theo Epstein from the Boston Red Sox. Epstein is currently the President of Baseball Operations for the club. Jed Hoyer also became their General Manager. The Cubs also found their first baseman of the future when they traded for Anthony Rizzo

Prospect Watch: Leonys Martin

Coming into the 2012 season OF Leonys Martin ranked as the third overall prospect for the Texas Rangers according to Marc Hulet of Fangraphs. With Josh Hamilton also headed for free agency the arrival of Leonys Martin seemed imminent. Unfortunately Martin hurt his thumb and is now out for 6-8 weeks. Martin only has a little over a year of experience is pro ball, but if the Rangers opted to not sign Hamilton, he would undoubtedly be the starting center fielder in 2013.

Prospect Watch: Mike Trout

Mike Trout is the Los Angeles Angels prize prospect, and is currently playing for the Salt Lake Bees in the Pacific Coast League. He was taken with the 25th pick in the 2009 draft, and so far has proven to be a major steal. If the Angels didn't have a logjam in the outfield, he would probably be starting.

Weekly Prospect: Travis d'Arnaud

Travis d'Arnaud came over to the Blue Jays in the trade that sent Roy Halladay to the Phillies. Last year he had an OK season in A+ ball but this year in AA he's really starting to take off.

d'Arnaud is posting a very solid .232 ISO, he's always had solid power but this year it's really starting to come on. His .393 OBP is above and beyond what one would ask out of him, as is his .420 wOBA. He could improve his eye at the plate, his BB% is 7.9%. If he could bring it up 2% or so that'd be ideal. His 20.4% K% isn't awful as long as he still supplies power. d'Aranaud's 161 wRC+ is 61% better then his league's average, a crazy number that probably isn't sustainable. It's no secret that he's had help based off his .383 BABIP so regression to the mean is definitely expected.

d'Arnaud is only 22 so he has a little more room for improvement but at the pace he's at he could potentially see time on the big league club in 2012 and if everything goes right he should be the starting catcher in 2013.

 

Weekly Prospect: Miguel Sano

I was talking to one of my friends the other day about my blog and he gave me a few ideas to spice up the blog. One of the ideas that I really liked was a weekly prospect post so here it is! To kick it off I will tell you about a Twins prospect by the name of Miguel Sano.

The Twins signed Miguel Sano as an 18 year old shortstop in 2009 out of the Dominican Republic for a record $3.15 million dollar bonus. Sano is 6'5" and weighs 195 lbs according to https://www.fangraphs.com . I imagine he won't be a SS but rather a 3B or possibly RF when he reaches the big leagues.

So far this season in rookie ball Sano has demonstrated his power potential, posting a .293 ISO and 10 home runs. His .389 wOBA is quite impressive and he's creating runs 34% better then league average. Sano has also produced a 9.3 wRAA. His K% is a little high, 24.9% but has a solid 9% BB%. Sano's .336 BABIP is a little high so he should expect a slight regression as the season goes on. His numbers are much better then last year's when he was at two different levels of rookie ball. If you are curious as to what they are follow this link because I'm not sure how to distinguish the two. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa548088&position=3B/SS

If Sano keeps it up he should get the call to A ball before the season's over and could begin to make an impact on the big league club during the 2014 season.