colbyjack

Pogo, thanks a ton for sharing these. I can see why you like Taylor Green so much. He's got pretty good bat speed and overall a nice stroke, and he like Lefave looks to be on the smallish side.

Is this the first year with the revised performance percentages? Good call Peavey. This year I believe the Type A classification changes from the top 30% to the top 20%, with Type B moving from the top 30-50% to the top 20-40%. And I believe the ratings are still based on the player's last two years in the big-leagues, as I'm not sure where Gagne would fit since he missed almost all of last year.

Nelson would be a throw-in to any deal, Dillon would be an even bigger throw-in, with all due respect to both of those players. Meaning, I doubt their inclusion would really help all that much, unless the Rangers GM is all about getting those extra nuggets.

I'm going to adjust this thread title to talk about all of this summer's action at both the high school and college levels as it pertains to the talent that is on display as part of the numerous showcase and tournament events for the high school players and the summer college leagues. First of all, I just discovered this site today. I receive a lot of inquiries about how people can get a start in the scouting industry. If you don't have previous experience as a player at the college and/or minor league level, I always suggest that you really need to be proactive and get out to see as many players as humanly possible while sharing your opinions and thoughts with the professionals involved in the industry in an attempt to make your mark on them. The guy that runs the site linked below is doing about as good of a job as one can with similar aspirations: www.capeprospects.com/index.html Solid reports, and video for everyone to see. Quite simply, a must stop for anyone interested in following some of the top players available for the draft. And if you want to see a future MLB hitter, one who Blazer25 has pimped a few times before, check out the video of David Adams. That's a big-league swing, and his production this summer (.295/.379/.430 with 14 doubles -- 1st in the league, 3 triples -- tied for 1st in the league, 44 hits -- 2nd in the league) is supporting his case. Yonder Alonso might be my favorite prospect on the Cape, and you can check out his video as well. He too is having a big summer. You can check out all of the Cape league's stats via the league's official website: www.capecodbaseball.org/ Team USA is having a rather disappointing summer. While there are plenty of big names to follow, the talent on the Cape has been more impressive. You can check the stats here: mlb.mlb.com/usa_baseball/...073007.txt I am currently in the process of contacting the Northwoods League managers and area scouts covering the league to come up with the top 25 prospects. That list will be psted on PG Crosschecker when it is completed, although for subscribers only. The talent in the NWL isn't anywhere near the level of the Cape, particularly this year, but there are still plenty of interesting players that will be worth noting. An early head's up, this year's Aflac All-American Classic will once again be televised. Check out the details for the game and view the rosters via the official website: www.aflacallamerican.com/

What a start for LaPorta. That's Fielder-esque. Thanks for the thoughts overall pogo, but especially on Hellickson. I had a chance to see him a couple of times when he was in high school, and now that I have seen both of them, he reminds me now (at least my memory of him) of Tim Lincecum. Smaller and slighter with electric stuff. Obviously according to your report he doesn't have Lincecum's stuff, but I have seen him up to 95 with a pretty wicked breaking pitch. Your comment about his age is dead-on, as he'll probably be 40+ years old and people will still make comments about how it looks like he's never shaved a day in his life (and not because of a giant beard or anything like that). Looking forward to the videos. I know you were relatively inspired by Brewer's play at SS earlier this season. Did his performance tonight change that opinion at all? I personally never thought he was a long-term SS, so again, I'm curious to get your thoughts on him defensively.

LaPorta tonight facing his former Gators teammate, Bryan Augenstein. The announcers mentioned that LaPorta put on a show in BP today. Certainly an exciting day, especially since there is no Brewers game this evening. Pogo, thanks in advance for your thoughts on the Power, but I'm hoping you got a good look at Jeremy Hellickson as well. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on him too.

It's tough to get a good read at this point in time. I think everyone always has a better idea after the major showcase events at the High School level and after the summer college leagues have wrapped up, which is typically mid to late August. I think the first round will favor the college players, particularly the hitters. There could be several big bats taken early including Justin Smoak, Yonder Alonso and Pedro Alvarez, and there are quite a few solid bats after them (Jemile Weeks, David Adams, Gordon Beckham, Conor Gillaspie, David Cooper, Jordan Danks, Buster Posey, Jared Prince, Brandon Crawford). Alvarez is probably the top '08 prospect overall, a left-handed hitting third baseman that plays for Vanderbilt, but San Diego's Brian Matusz may have something to say about that when I formulate my own rankings in the month of September as part of my annual draft recap/early draft preview story. Alvarez and Matusz may just be my 1A and 1B prospects similar to how Price & Wieters were to open this past year's draft eligible talent. The high school ranks don't have the same number of awe-inspiring power arms that last year's class had, but there are still quite a few good ones that are making names for themselves this summer. After the East Coast Professional Showcase, the Area Code Games and the Aflac All-American Classic, I'll have a much better feel for who is the best among the prep players. Right now the best prep player appears to be a first baseman by the name of Eric Hosmer, who looks to be the best all-around first baseman since Casey Kotchman. Equally smooth at the plate and around the bag, with a natural swing and very good power potential. Although it does say something when a prep first baseman is any year's top prospect, as scouts typically are looking for the world-class athletes at the top of the draft. That honor goes to Aaron Hicks and Isaac Galloway, a pair of OFs from SoCal. Hicks also is an impressive pitching prospect, but I think his overall athleticism will cause scouts to favor him as a CF.

I didn't see anyone bring this up before, but Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus did an updated positional rankings for minor league catchers last week and Salome didn't make the top 15. He actually had Lou Palmisano in the "Honorable Mention" area, but no mention of Salome. I thought it was a little strange, but maybe scouts don't think as highly of him as we do around here. I would chalk this up more as an oversight than as Kevin Goldstein having a strong finger on the prospect pulse. While I respect Goldstein's insights, he doesn't exactly have the strongest track record when it comes to prospect evaluation at the minor league and amateur levels. Although Salome's height really hurts him in the eyes of scouts.

Steve Chapman's got a good bit of power...so does Mike Bell...all those guys need to do is walk more and they'll both be serious prospects in a hurry...that said, i think the guy in the low minors with a ton of power is more projectable than the guy who walks alot...here's hoping both walk more as they move up.. While I do agree that power is more appealing than walks (you can't teach power), as Bill Hall and Corey Hart have proved, among others, that patience can be learned, I believe it is one's ability to hit that will eventually make or break them. Which to me means Chapman and Bell are going to have to hit a lot better than .262 and .267 respectively before I consider them serious prospects. Chapman's K rate (107 in 343 ABs) is particularly concerning. Of course Bill Hall really didn't hit outside of High Desert, although he is an example of a player that you should never overlook based on his pure athletic ability. Chapman has that kind of ability, but he really needs to start putting his entire game together since he has spent a few years in the lower levels of the system. Again, the power has been incredibly exciting to see, as I don't mean to sound too hard on the guy (keep in mind I was a big proponent of him garnering some MVP consideration last summer in the Pioneer League).

That's a good call DHonks, and in hindsight, knowing that Perez hadn't played baseball for two years before the Brewers signed him, putting him at AA was an aggressive placement. And here I thought he was a darkhorse to make the big-league team as a utility infielder http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif . Unfortunately he and Alcides Escobar swapped spots in more ways than one.

When Salome's coach shared those pictures, I remembered that he proudly stated that Salome's physique was 100% natural, the byproduct of hard work. I'm sure coach will be just as disappointed as everyone else when he hears of this development. I'm waiting to pass judgement until we (hopefully) hear more about this, but it is really hard not to be really disappointed.

Final: Casper 4, Helena 10 The H-Crew have now won nine in a row. The Orem Owls did their best to help the Brewers add to their one game lead over Great Falls by scoring a run in the bottom of the ninth to send that game into extra innings, but Great Falls went on to win 3-2 after 10, despite the Owls making things interesting in the bottom of the final frame, to keep Helena's lead at one game. Helena Box Score: As noted above, Caleb Gindl stays hot with a 4-4 night. Evan Anundsen with a good, not great start, while continuing to induce ground balls, Bryson with three more dominant innings and Lee Haydel continues to be effective atop the lineup. Steffan Wilson hit his fourth home run of the year. web.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_helrok_1 Helena Game Log: In addition to the ground ball outs Evan Anundsen recorded, take a peak at the game log to see that a few of the singles he allowed also game on the ground. Anundsen just doesn't seem to allow opposing hitters to elevate the ball against him (aside from the home run he allowed, only the second he's given up this year). web.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_helrok_1

It may not matter how well Gindl hits this summer, as a high school draftee he may play the entire summer with Helena. Plus, he's only been back in the lineup for a few games now, and the OF glut ahead of him doesn't exactly allow for an easy fit. It would take a chain reaction of promotions for an OF spot to become available at WV, and a chain reaction of promotions relating to OF prospects in the system already took place over a month ago (and no one above him is really deserving). In addition, Helena has a one game lead entering this evening over Great Falls, with five more games left to play before Helena rounds out the first half of the season, the last three of those coming against Great Falls. The second half of the Pioneer League schedule starts a week from today on June 30th. If it happens for Gindl, I doubt we'll see it before then. EDIT: And if anyone is deserving of a promotion from the Helena squad, it has to be Rob Bryson, who has been absolutely dominant so far. I having a feeling he too will spend the remainder of the season with the H-Crew. EDIT #2: I also should add Pasma as a candidate to be promoted before a certain Pasma fan jumps in http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif .

I don't think people were wrong about him being a potential elite hitting prospect. Everyone that saw Nelson when he was in the Midwest League thought he was going to be a stud, and I heard that from quite a few different people. I also don't think his prospect status had anything to do with him being the best prospect in a weak system at the time. Sometimes players with a world full of talent just aren't able to put things completely together, and things for Nelson really seemed to go off track when he broke his hamate bone. Who knows, without that injury he could be part of the Brewers right now, hitting like many thought he would way back when. Hopefully he still has it in him, but as Jim noted, my bet is that he's with some other organization next year.

Final: Delmarva 6, West Virginia 4 West Virginia Site Game Summary: EIGHTH INNING CURSE HAUNTS POWER One night after snapping a 4-4 tie with a four run eighth inning, the Delmarva Shorebirds scored five times in the eighth inning of Sunday?s game at Appalachian Power Park and erased a 3-1 deficit to beat the Power 6-4. The Power took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Andrew Lefave, Chuckie Caufield and Taylor Green ripped three consecutive two-out singles. Green?s base knock plated Lefave and Caufield scored during the play on an errant throw from Danny Figueroa. Victor Castillo?s Sacrifice Fly plated Paul Winterling in the top of the second to put the Shorebirds on the board. West Virginia answered in the bottom of the second on Charlie Fermaint?s RBI single. It remained a 3-1 game until the Shorebirds scored five times in the eighth inning. Billy Rowell doubled in the first run and scored along with Miguel Abreu and Winterling on David Cash?s two out double. Cash scored later in the inning on Michael Pierce?s base-hit. The Power plated their final run in the ninth inning on Martin Maldonado?s second single of the game. Chad Thall struck out Andrew Lefave with runners on first and second to end the game. Ryan Ouelette (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings of relief to get the victory, Chad Thall (17) got the save and Omar Aguilar (7-3) was tagged with the loss after surrendering all five runs on four hits in the eighth. Jeremy Jeffress pitched six strong innings, allowing just a run on three hits. The Power fell to 63-36 overall and 15-16 in the second half, while the Shorebirds improved to 48-49 overall and 14-16 in the second half with the win. The Power have now lost five in a row, and they?ve been outscored 16-0 in the eighth inning during the streak. Steve Chapman, Taylor Green and Martin Maldonado all had two hits for the Power. The Power will continue the four game series against the Delmarva Shorebirds at Appalachian Power Park on Monday night. The Power will start left hander Brae Wright (6-5, 5.53) and the Shorebirds will counter with right hander Tim Bascom (1-0, 1.78) . The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM. ***West Virginia Box Score:Jeffress continues to impress, with six scoreless innings to drop his ERA below 3.00. Unfortunately Omar Aguilar had a disastrous eighth inning. No extra base hits for the Power. www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1 West Virginia Game Log: That eighth inning started well enough...the Power had a couple of chances late in the game to score, particularly in the bottom of the eighth, but couldn't make it happen. www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

Final: Idaho Falls 5, Helena 7 MiLB.com: Brewers take down Chukars Lee Haydel and Steffan Wilson drove in two runs apiece as host Helena held on to defeat Idaho Falls, 7-5, on Sunday. Wilson, who is hitting .433 in his first 67 at-bats with the Brewers, laced a two-run triple in the first inning and Haydel ripped an RBI double in the second and a run-scoring single in the third. Jonathan Lucroy and Caleb Gindl each had two hits and an RBI for Helena (22-10), which won its eighth straight. Brewers starter Jose Garcia (5-1) allowed two runs on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts in six innings. Chad Robinson and Brock Kjeldgaard combined to surrender three runs on four hits over the final three frames. Rubi Koko and Anthony Seratelli went 2-for-4 with an RBI apiece. Devery Van De Keere and O.D. Gonzalez chipped in an RBI each for the Chukars (19-13), who have lost seven straight. Idaho Falls starter John Leonard (2-1) gave up seven runs -- five earned -- on seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. --Michael Avallone/MLB.com ***Helena Site Game Summary: Brewers Take Over First Place HELENA-- The Helena Brewers took care of business by sweeping the Idaho Falls Chukars while Great Falls dropped its second game in a row. Helena now jumps into first place in the Pioneer League North Division with six games to go in the first half. The heat persisted throughout Sunday afternoon in Helena, but the Brewers proved just as hot to win their eighth game in a row. Helena scored all of its runs in the first three innings and held on to sweep Idaho Falls by a score of 7-5. The Brewers scored three runs in the first and second innings, and added a lone run in the third to take a 7-0 lead. Although the Helena offense faltered in the latter innings, the Brewer pitching staff proved effective much as it has during the team's winning streak. Starter Jose Garcia went six innings and gave up two runs on four hits for his fifth win of the season. Garcia (5-1) now ties Luis Montano of Billings for a league-high five wins. Reliever Chad Robinson pitched two innings of one-run, one-hit ball while Brock Kjeldgaard closed out the game after allowing two runs. Idaho Falls scored two runs in the ninth inning and brought the tying run to the plate, but Kjeldgaard held on to secure the Brewer win. Offensively Lee Haydel and Steffan Wilson led the way for the Brew Crew. Haydel finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs while Wilson ended the day with a 2-for-3 and two RBI performance. Five Brewers combined for 11 hits; each had a multi-hit game. Others with multi-hit days included Jonathan Lucroy, Caleb Gindl, and David Fonseca . The Brewers have now swept two consecutive series and will look to extend their win streak to nine games on Monday night when Helena plays host to the Casper Rockies at 7:05 p.m. ***Helena Box Score:19-year old Jose Garcia quietly is having a nice season. Take a peak at his groundout-flyout ratio for this game. 14-0 doesn't seem real, as the entire H-Crew staff seems to do an excellent job inducing groundballs. web.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_helrok_1 Helena Game Log: Helena broke this game open early with three runs in each of the first two frame. In the first it all started after two outs when Steffan Wilson hit a two-run triple and then scored himself on an error. web.minorleaguebaseball.c...k_helrok_1

This story talks about the players that were selected to participate for the two Brewers teams: ssbaseball.rivals.com/con...CID=691327 One perk about this is seeing photos of some of the top players from California over the next year dressed in Brewers gear. Isaac Galloway, Aaron Hicks, Gerrit Cole and Kyle Skipworth at this point in time are the top prospects from CA for the '08 draft.

Most international free agents sign a contract for the next year, so I'm guessing Guzman signed an '08 deal and will likely attend instrux in the fall.

Thanks for sharing 0729, that's great news (so much for the Brewers not being active http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ). I'm happy to see the Brewers jump in and spend some $$$ on one of the more exciting prospects available. Guzman is already 210 pounds at 17 years of age, and is expected to get a lot bigger. BA's report on him, which included comments from an AL scout, noted that the biggest concern with him are his long arms, and how he likely would be susceptible to inside fastballs if he's not able to shorten his long swing. Big-time power potential, and profiles as a prototypical RF. Another name for serious P50 consideration...

2) Too high for Anundsen(for now) Sorry for being so late to the conversation, but I remembered reading this a week or two ago and wanted to get back to it. I'm not going to get into the other comments, but this one stood out to me. Anundsen deserves some love, and it's not like he's ranked all that high. Just take a look at his numbers, not only this year, but his composite numbers over the first 64+ innings in his pro career. He's a ground ball machine, he throws strikes, doesn't allow the long ball, and has good size to go along with solid stuff. I typically don't like doing this, but take out his first start of the year and here's his line since (over 5 starts) 3-1, 2.33, 27 IP, 22 H, 25 K, 4 BB I know there are pitchers at a similar age with as good or better numbers and possibly better stuff, but personally I feel Anundsen is one of the more intriguing sleepers in the lower levels of the system worth getting excited about. How many prep pitchers have we seen only walk 14 batters through their first 60+ pro innings outside of Will Inman? I'm sure people will toss a few names out there, but I've been very impressed with Anundsen so far, and I hope some of our H-Crew readers will chime in and let us know what he's been throwing this year.

The International Free Agent signing period began at the first of this month, and once again GlobalBaseball.com is a good resource to stay up to date on the lot of the early activity. Here's another site that has been updating what players are signing with which teams: www.freewebs.com/internat...ningpe.htm No surprise, the Yankees and Red Sox are leading the way, with the Braves, Mariners and Mets in the mix. This isn't the greatest year for international prospects, at least not on the level of last year's talented group, and given how much the big boys are squeezing the market, spending big money without thinking twice, I wouldn't expect the Brewers to be very active this year. Speaking of the free spending Yankees and Red Sox, word has it both teams have signed quite a few of their draftees, both teams again taking quite a few players that had fallen due to signability concerns in later rounds. They're waiting to announce these signings due to the commissioner's office involvement, but once again both teams are making sure money is not getting in the way of their budding minor league systems.

Chad Robinson makes his pro debut this evening. So far, so good. Nice to see his name in the box score.

Ford has been a lot of fun to follow, but I am concerned with the Ks. Yes, he's young and has plenty of time to improve (although he hasn't shown much improvement in this area yet), and yes, strikeouts don't matter as much as a lot of people think, but for his style of play it just bugs me that he strikes out as much as he does as he could be creating a lot more problems for opposing teams by putting the ball in play more than he does. I have heard that he is the fastest players in all of the minor leagues, which is exciting in itself.

The article kind of talks about it, but the Brewers scouting staff is responsible for selecting the best players from California to field two teams (grey and blue I believe) that participate in the Area Code Games, one of the most pretigious summer showcase events. The scouts also coach the players on the field. This experience gives the scouting staff a natural advantage because not only do they get to see these kids up close, but they also get to know these kids fairly well in the dugout and on the field. I believe the Rangers host the team from Texas, the White Sox usually host the midwest team, I believe the Mariners host the Pacific Northwest team, and there are a couple of other teams sprinkled in. For the most part, teams aren't involved with the selection process of other showcase and All-Star events around the country, such as the Perfect Game National, Aflac All-American Classic and the East Coast Professional Showcase. Those events are coordinated by the events producers, such as Perfect Game. EDIT: I forgot to mention this, but despite what would seem to be a natural advantage for the Brewers scouting dep't., they haven't been overly active selecting players from California since they took over these responsibilities. Ryan Babineau is one draftee that participated with the Brewers at Area Code Games that comes to mind, but of course he didn't even sign with the club (he's at UCLA). The Brewers remain active in the Southeast (Weeks, Fielder, Braun, Gamel, Brewer, Palmisano, Brantley, Fermaint, LaPorta etc.) and has been hitting the Northeast pretty hard in recent years (Garrison, Salome, Braddock, Rogers etc.). The more notable west coast guys they have taken early and/or given larger bonuses to are from college or JC's (Gwynn, Gillespie, Errecart, Parra).

We have enough guys that we could play football amongst oursevles if we can't find a league. 10 guys actually is a good number, five per team, if we don't worry about an o-line/d-line and just play more loosely, basically just for kicks and exercise (which I sorely need). I played with a group of guys a few years ago every Saturday this way and it was a lot of fun.