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Louisville 2, Scranton Wilkes-Barre 1
25 year-old Josh Hall pitched an absolute gem, going 6 innings allowing just 3 H, 0 ER, and 0 BB. Hall, the 7th round pick in the 1998 draft, struck out 6. For the season, Hall now has a 4.11 ERA.
25 year-old Ray Olmedo went 3 for 4 with 2 2B, with a R. Olmedo, who signed as an undrafted free agent out of Venezuela in 1999 is now hitting .346/.396/.433.
AA
Chattanooga DNP
HIGH A
23 year-old Drew Anderson, from THE Ohio State, went 2 for 4. For the season he is hitting .280/.349/.449. Anderson, the 13th round pick in the 2004 draft, actually played 13 games at AAA last year, but really struggled. He hit just .154/.154/.256 in 39 plate appearnces.
LOW A
19 year-old Jay Bruce went 3 for 5 with 2 2B, a R, and RBI. For the season, the 1st round pick from the 2005 draft is now hitting .276/.332/.552.
23 year-old B.J. Szymanski went 2 for 5 with a HR, 2 R, and 2 RBI. For the season the 2nd round pick of the 2004 draft, is hitting .242/.325/.474.
Saw the Bats play on Monday, and I was very impressed with Olmedo defensively. I look for him to have a solid MLB career one day, especially if he keeps hitting.
I was looking at some MWL stats…Jay Bruce is 6th in the league in OPS and 4th in slugging. He’s younger than everyone in front of him. Kyle Blanks is 19 also, but he’s a little older than Jay, the rest are 22 minimum.
I read somewhere that the average age in the MWL this year is between 21 and 22.
I’ve never really followed the details of the baseball draft, and I also find it difficult to get excited about guys doing well in A-ball, especially pitchers. Something Chris Welsh said in his interview really spoke volumes….DOB’s best players were always in A-ball. That is what we have today. A lot of good players a LONG ways away from the majors.
How many of these pitchers will really pan out? A rotation trio of Zito-Hudson-Mulder all coming up at the same time is rare. I remember a few years back when San Diego had a very well regarded AA rotation of Peavy-Perez-Howard-Tankersly. Only two of those 4 are pitching in the majors – Perez doing poorly in Pittsburgh and Peavy unable to pitch a full season in San Diego (though doing well when healthy.) There are a lot more San Diego stories than Oakland success stories in major league organizations.
Why do I bring all this up? Because if the Reds are still in this thing in July, I would seriously consider moving Homer Bailey as part of a package deal for Barry Zito or Dontrelle Willis. Will Bailey ever make the majors? Will he ever make it to AAA? If they could trade and sign one of those lefthanders to a long-term deal, I’d make the trade in a heartbeat. If it were just a rental deal, I’d still have to seriously consider it.
Those are all valid points Greg, and I might consider moving Bailey for Willis (but not for a 2 month rental). What is important that we look at is the AGE of these A pitchers. I would agree with your assessment if These guys were 21 or 22 doing this at single A. Guys like that do make it to the majors and are productive, but not very often. The difference for us now is Bailey, Wood, and Cueto are all performing very good at A, at a young age. I am certainly not ready to annoint any of them Major leaguers, but I don’t think I would trade them for a two-month rental. Now of course if we could get a signed for “2 or 3 years” Willis or Zito, I would move just about anybody in the system.
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Bill,
Bruce is a stud. He has a very high ceiling. The average player in the MWL is 21 or 22. The average player in the MWL will never make it to the majors.
I agree that age at level is important. But there is just SO much in the way of an A-ball pitcher making it to the majors, let alone being a good pitcher in the majors. If you’ve got a shot at doing something special at the major league level, you’ve got to consider your options. A discussion like this with the Marlins would certainly have my attention (and surely they’d want more than Bailey). I really think a deal like this would have to be heavily dependent on locking up Willis to a long-term deal.
Enquirer reports on Jay Bruce’s 3-5 night, says he has a 6 game hitting streak in which he’s 10-25.