Minor League Thread

50PoundHead said:
The international market is a roll of the dice in a lot of ways as you have pointed out. It's difficult enough to judge a prospective stateside draft candidate at age 17 or 18 and it almost gets to be geometrically different when a scout is looking at 15- and 16-year-olds in the international realm. Differing rates of physcial maturity simply mask where a kid will truly end up. My guess with Maitan is that he was ahead of his cohort in terms of physical development and that when the rest of the cohort caught up physically, he was no longer that special. He's not that rare of a case when you look at highly-publicized international signings who didn't perform up to expectations, but the fact that he was at the center of the sanctions and he didn't get above AA puts him in the spotlight to a greater degree.
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Looking back I feel Andy Marte was the same way.
 
thewupk said:
Looking back I feel Andy Marte was the same way.
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Yes and no. Marte was Austin Riley-esque in the minors. I think averaging around 20 hrs a year, although his strikeouts were above 100 each year. There was a reason he was a top ranked prospect during his minor league career. As is the case with most high ranked prospects, MLB will find holes. They exposed Marte. He also played in the majors (with little success), but Maitan will not sniff the majors and he'll have to watch mlb via TV. Marte was also a hard worker, just didn't pan out. I loved watching him. I hated that he passed away. RIP.
 
Deester11 said:
Yes and no. Marte was Austin Riley-esque in the minors. I think averaging around 20 hrs a year, although his strikeouts were above 100 each year. There was a reason he was a top ranked prospect during his minor league career. As is the case with most high ranked prospects, MLB will find holes. They exposed Marte. He also played in the majors (with little success), but Maitan will not sniff the majors and he'll have to watch mlb via TV. Marte was also a hard worker, just didn't pan out. I loved watching him. I hated that he passed away. RIP.
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Marte was ranked as high as we was because he had good production while being younger than everyone else. That was his biggest calling card while moving up the prospect lists. In the end his skillset wasnt that special. Which is what we were talking about with Matian. Clearly they weren't 1 to 1 prospects.
 
thewupk said:
Marte was ranked as high as we was because he had good production while being younger than everyone else. That was his biggest calling card while moving up the prospect lists. In the end his skillset wasnt that special. Which is what we were talking about with Matian. Clearly they weren't 1 to 1 prospects.
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Young or not, the comparison of the two is perhaps not the greatest comparison. Marte hit 60 home runs between 2002 and 2004 with 242 RBI and a respectable .281 avg. The relation was in regards to Maitan and where the comparison ends is that they were international players. However Marte ended up, his skillset was absolutely special at one time. He was a top ten prospect in all of baseball. I was crushed when they traded him. He, Alejandro Machado and Ozzie will always be my favorite minor leaguers. Acuña is obvious.
 
I recall some Marte for Jason Bay/Brian Giles trades being thrown around on the scout forum. I also recall at least a couple posters proposing we either move Chipper to 1b or trade Chipper to a contender and let Marte take over at 3b.
 
Carp said:
I recall some Marte for Jason Bay/Brian Giles trades being thrown around on the scout forum. I also recall at least a couple posters proposing we either move Chipper to 1b or trade Chipper to a contender and let Marte take over at 3b.
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Chipper replacement theory was prevalent and dangerous. Thank god John S had his better judgement.
 
Deester11 said:
Yes and no. Marte was Austin Riley-esque in the minors. I think averaging around 20 hrs a year, although his strikeouts were above 100 each year. There was a reason he was a top ranked prospect during his minor league career. As is the case with most high ranked prospects, MLB will find holes. They exposed Marte. He also played in the majors (with little success), but Maitan will not sniff the majors and he'll have to watch mlb via TV. Marte was also a hard worker, just didn't pan out. I loved watching him. I hated that he passed away. RIP.
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Marte just destroyed every league he played in before hitting the majors. Like you say, the minors and majors are in different galaxies and once a player hits higher levels, they will have to make adjustments. Some guys can do that and some guys can't. Still and all, I was extremely surprised that Marte did not do better. Bill Shanks had him fast-tracked to the Hall of Fame.
 
2023 draftees hit the field in the FCL. Drake, Ceballos, Grady, Verdung, Magee, and Kern all in the starting line-up. UDFAs Compton (Georgia Tech) and Godman (Oral Roberts) also in the line-up. Verdung hits a 3-run HR in his first AB.
 
50PoundHead said:
Marte just destroyed every league he played in before hitting the majors. Like you say, the minors and majors are in different galaxies and once a player hits higher levels, they will have to make adjustments. Some guys can do that and some guys can't. Still and all, I was extremely surprised that Marte did not do better. Bill Shanks had him fast-tracked to the Hall of Fame.
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Lmao. Ol Shanks. Talk about infamy.
 
Deester11 said:
Lmao. Ol Shanks. Talk about infamy.
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I got along with Bill fairly well because I just didn't engage him when I disagreed with him. The thing that always made me laugh is that every Braves' prospect was headed for the Hall of Fame. Elvis Andrus going to be the "next Alex Rodriguez." I will say this for Bill. He did have some channels into the Braves' scouting and player development departments, so he did have some inside information (that he forced us to pay for if we wanted to see it).
 
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