Braves have kind of extended the middle finger towards East Cobb this year. Guess Freddie Freeman is the new hometown hero.
Braves have kind of extended the middle finger towards East Cobb this year. Guess Freddie Freeman is the new hometown hero.
Bridges said they love multi-sport guys.Originally Posted by weso1
Odd pick with such a small sample to evaluate on. I trust the scouts thoughand look forward to seeing how this kid responds while he diverts all of his attentionto baseball.
Natural Immunity Croc
Just a hunch, but watch what happens around round 10. The Braves should have a boatload of draft money left to spend and might start taking some real chances.
This year, Justin Maese and Anthony Guardado, high school pitchers from El Paso, Texas, and east of Los Angeles, respectively, are making the scouting industry scramble to evaluate them ahead of June 8. That's the first night of the Draft, with live coverage coming at 7 p.m. ET on MLB Network and MLB.com (preview show at 6 p.m. ET) of the first two rounds. Day 2 coverage starts at 1 p.m., with live pick-by-pick coverage of rounds 3-10. Day 3 starts at noon on June 10.
Maese and Guardado are the best 2015 examples for what is generally known as "pop-up" guys, amateurs previously not on the radar who have forced their way into the conversation with their performances this spring.
Maese was the first to arrive on the scene, sending scouts running to get to El Paso, which is tucked into the western-most part of Texas. It's an area typically covered by area scouts who cover the Four Corners states (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado) and not Texas, but word spread pretty quickly about a 6-foot-3 right-hander at Ysleta High School who came out of the gate hitting 96 mph with a mid-80s slider.
Cross-checkers were flying in and out of El Paso to get a look at Maese, who was also his high school's quarterback in the fall. His stuff did back up a little bit, losing a little velocity and with less sharpness to his breaking ball. But in Maese's last start of the season, he was between 89-93 mph and showed glimpses of that better slider.
"You have to have people on your staff you trust," one scouting director said about how to handle a situation like this. "You have to be able to say, 'Can you go in there, there's a fire spreading? Can you fly in and see this guy?'
"You can't hold it against a guy for being a pop-up guy. The word sleeper? They're out there. I've been told there's no such thing as sleepers anymore, but every year there are pop-up guys who are good."
Guardado popped up about as late as possible. Also a QB at Nogales High School in La Puente, Calif., Guardado did play on a scout team this fall, but didn't make an impression, likely because of his football commitments. A shoulder injury kept him off the mound until April 23, but it happened to be in a matchup against Peter Lambert, currently No. 53 on the Draft Top 100 list, so there were a lot of scouts on hand when the 6-foot-1 right-hander came out touching 94 mph.
"It was a surprise to everyone," said an area scout who was at Guardado's 2015 debut. "It was like 'Who is this guy?' Up to 94, pitching at 90-92, consistently, with an out-pitch hard slider, show-me change and a curveball, distinct different pitches. He was a little bit of a thrower, but getting after it."
Like Maese, Guardado hasn't been quite as consistently impressive, hitting a dead-arm period in his third start. But reports of him bouncing back to 89-93 mph in start No. 4 had evaluators who had perhaps moved on trying to figure out how to get back to see him again.
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On the positive side, Guardado does live in Southern California, so higher-ups can come in and see more than one player in a couple of days -- something that can't be said for Maese in El Paso. But there are only so many days left until June 8 and time is of the essence, and Guardado's shoulder issues of the past are sure to raise some red flags.
"This situation is really late," a second Southern California area scout said. "It's one of the later guys who've been around. You have to see a guy like that. It's more on the scheduling piece where it does cause a problem. It's never a fun situation when you get a pop-up guy this late."
Scouts will get at least one more shot at seeing Guardado in game action. He will start on Thursday in Nogales' playoff opener at Arroyo Grande High School. Maese's season is done, but he will be throwing to junior college hitters at a Big 12 pre-Draft workout on Friday in Tulsa, Okla., as well as some private workouts.
From there, it will be up to the decision-makers to figure out what to do given the limited amount of looks given to these pitchers. Maese's name has been mentioned as high as the second round. Teams are still trying to get a sense of who Guardado is, using a skeptical eye for both.
"I would have concerns, especially pitchers, especially if they are in remote areas," a second scouting director said. "Where have they been? Why the new-found velocity?"
"What is the success rate of the pop-up guys?" the first scouting director asked. "I don't know how good it is."
That director did see one positive for both of these previously unheralded high school arms.
"These guys are football players," he said. "I like football players. They're not going to complain about Minor League Baseball in the dog days. They're used to double sessions."
http://m.tigers.mlb.com/news/article...nsion-to-draft
Ivermectin Man
thethe (06-09-2015)
Good point and I forgot about that. It is important to note that fangraphs rankings are based on potential FV. They also mention not to look at specific numbers, but to look at the prospects as a tier. There were 51 prospects rated at 55 FV ranging from the number 29 to 80 in no real order. Fangraphs also doesn't lower a prospects rating based on how far away they are from the majors. For example, Albies is on the same tier as Souza; despite Souza playing in AAA/Majors while Albies was in A ball whereas other lists would put Souza higher because of the likelihood of reaching the majors. Encouraging for sure, but I don't think we are going to see him in the top 50 next year and certainly not right now.
"Yes, I did think Aldrich was good UNTIL I SAW HIM PLAY. "- thethe
Agree to disagree. Albies is one of those universally highly regarded prospects by just about everyone. I'd be shocked if he isn't in both Fangraphs/Law's top 50. Not sure how BBA does there rankings but he should be in the top 100 as well.
Natural Immunity Croc
Eh, they still take likelihood of making it to the majors and minor league level into consideration. They're quicker than others to jump a guy with a high ceiling up, but they had nobody in this draft with better than a 55 FV. Obviously there will be at least a few that they end up giving a 60 or better rating to, but they'll wait to see them in the minors first.
Just because Albies' FV right now is a 55 doesn't mean they're saying his ceiling won't ever be higher than that.
Cabbage is off the board. I know some of you thought he was a good baseball name, but veggies never work out. Only fruit names work. Strawberry, etc. The closest we had to a decent veggie name was Eric Karros.
thank you weso1!
Alonzo Jones still on the board...would be a steal at this point.
And we just took another pitcher. A college guy. How about that. Another potential 2017 reliever.
thank you weso1!
Welp, another pitcher.
Honestly, the fact that we've taken almost exclusively West Coast guys is more surprising than the amount of pitchers.
Braves1976 (06-09-2015)
Are we outthinking ourselves? WTH is going on here?
Braves1976 (06-09-2015)
The west coast thing is extremely weird.
435. Oregon JR RHP/C Josh Graham: 92-95 FB, 96-97 peak; 84 SL; 84 split-CU with serious sink, above-average upside; really good approach; above-average raw power; easy plus arm; needs reps defensively, but lots of upside; BA comp: Jason Motte; 6-1, 215 pounds
thank you weso1!
Maybe because we've taken some FO guys from teams like the Padres? They may have scouted these guys pretty well already? I don't know.
jpx7 (06-09-2015)
Makes a lot of sense. I believe Tom Batista and Roy Clark were with west coast teams as well.
jpx7 (06-09-2015)
Aside from JD Drew what legit offensive player have we brought in via trade that was acquired with our surplus in pitching? The 90's offensive core aside from McGriff and Big Cat was all developed internally.
He was a catcher before this year, so I guess the above-average raw power and really good approach is in relation to his hitting? His college numbers offensively are really, really bad, so I have to assume we drafted him solely as a pitcher.
Yep, Clark had been with the Dodgers, and Battista was the Red Sox's California scout. There's our answer.
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