Anyone an ESPN insider?
artistlost
Posts: 2,242 ✭✭✭
I would love to read the front page article on the baseball site called
10 Young Players The Future Is Now
Thanks in advance
mathew
10 Young Players The Future Is Now
Thanks in advance
mathew
baseball & hockey junkie
drugs of choice
NHL hall of fame rookies
drugs of choice
NHL hall of fame rookies
0
Comments
As baseball has gotten younger, more and more often contending teams are relying on burgeoning players in important roles -- like Neftali Feliz, the closer for the Texas Rangers.
This again will be the case in 2011. Ten young players who will need to produce for their respective teams this year:
1. Craig Kimbrel, Braves
The Phillies have the best on-paper rotation in the majors, while Atlanta's advantage might be in its late-inning relief. Venters may have the best pure stuff of any left-handed bullpen guy in the sport, and last year he struck out 93 in 83 innings, while allowing just one home run. With Billy Wagner retiring, Venters may get some save chances in 2011, but Kimbrel figures to get more.
Don't look for the Braves to anoint either guy as the closer any time soon -- Kimbrel said he has yet to speak to Fredi Gonzalez, Atlanta's new manager, and it's pointless to put that kind of pressure on the pitchers in the middle of the winter. But Kimbrel's performance at the end of last year demonstrated that he is ready to finish games in the majors: In 20 2/3 innings in the regular season, he struck out 40 and allowed just nine hits.
Kimbrel, 22, also walked 16, but 10 of those came in his first eight appearances, in the first half of the season. By the time the playoffs rolled around, Kimbrel had made progress; he allowed one hit and one walk in 4 1/3 innings against San Francisco, with seven strikeouts.
"I learned to control the game, not let the game control you," Kimbrel said over the phone Monday. "I learned from Wagner and being around the game and watching guys that you can make the game go too fast. And you can slow it down."
Kimbrel had heard through his years of pitching as an amateur the mantra of focusing on each pitch, rather than on an at-bat or an inning. But in his time in the majors last year, he learned to apply that -- by stepping off the mound, by resetting emotionally, by not looking ahead.
He also learned from Wagner, Scott Proctor and others the importance of being mentally ready no matter the situation, because inevitably, there will be games when the adrenaline won't be inherent. A four-run lead for a closer who needs some work. The inning that a reliever sometimes has to eat in a blowout. The recovery from a blown save situation.
"You have to have the same mindset every time," said Kimbrel, who has started throwing but won't begin working off a mound until later this month. He is not going to spring training, he says, focusing on the closer's role; rather, he's going to spring training looking to pitch well enough to make the team.
The Braves would love for that to happen, and for Kimbrel to eventually step into Wagner's old job. Given the challenges they face in the NL East, they need for that to happen.
2. Mike Stanton
He did unbelievable damage in his first 359 at-bats in the majors last summer. At the age of 20 Stanton clubbed 21 doubles and 22 homers, but also struck out 123 times. Even if the Marlins hadn't traded Dan Uggla, Stanton was going to play an important role for Florida, but now that Uggla is gone it figures that Stanton will hit somewhere in the middle of the lineup, either fourth or fifth.
His challenge now -- the same faced by a lot of young sluggers -- is to refine his strike zone. He must learn more about getting a pitch to hit in a certain part of the zone and doing something with it, as opposed to just taking advantage of mistakes. And if Stanton's history tells us anything, there is a clear indication that he is a rigorous learner, a fast learner.
Stanton has kept a log on opposing pitchers in the past to help him understand the history of what each pitcher tries to do against him. When he was in the minors, folks within the Florida organization say, he would sometimes ask Marlins minor league hitting coach Corey Hart to go out to the field with him after games and use a special machine designed to spin sliders -- the pitch that troubles Stanton the most. He would stand in the box and watch slider after slider, to help him learn to recognize the spin on the ball, and differentiate between the sliders that went out of the strike zone and those that went to the edges of the strike zone.
Stanton has the look of a megastar. Given the departure of Uggla, the Marlins need for that to happen sooner rather than later, if they are to contend.
"He has been the leader of every club he has been up [while coming up through the minors]," said one member of the organization. "He has fun, but he is serious about his work."
3. Ivan Nova, Yankees
It's been awhile since the Yankees have gone into a season knowing they need production from a young player the way they know they will need it out of Nova, who turns 24 on Wednesday. The right-hander pitched in 10 games last season and demonstrated that he has a high upside, but Nova is raw: He walked 17 in 42 innings, and surrendered 44 hits. If the Yankees knew they could get a 4.50 ERA over 200 innings from Nova in the upcoming year, they would sign up for that in an instant. They don't need him to be great; they just need him to be steady.
4. Derek Holland, Rangers
The talented left-hander been around a couple of years and pitched in the World Series in 2010, but it's easy to forget that he doesn't have a ton of experience in the big leagues -- less than 200 innings, including 57.1 regular-season innings last year. With Cliff Lee gone, the Rangers will need one of their young pitchers to contribute more innings, and Holland is the best candidate.
5. Logan Morrison, Marlins
The young outfielder was excellent in his debut for the Marlins, posting a .390 on-base percentage, and given the structure of the team, more of the same is needed.
6. Madison Bumgarner, Giants Remember last spring, when there were concerns about Bumgarner's velocity? So much for that.
Now the Giants are counting on Bumgarner, 21, to be a productive member of the rotation this year, and his incredible performance in Game 4 -- in which he seemed to get stronger and better by the inning -- gave us another hint that the left-hander is capable of excellence.
7. Desmond Jennings, Rays
Carl Crawford is gone, among many other Rays, and now the team's future is being placed in the hands of Tampa Bay's next wave of young players. But questions did start to come up last year about whether Jennings, at age 23, was ready to play a major role. Jennings is 24 now, and in what was probably his final stop in Triple-A before he gets his first full shot at the big leagues, he posted an OPS of .756. A mere blip? Something to be concerned about? A sign that his bat speed might be an issue against better pitchers? We'll see.
8. Mike Leake, Reds
Cincinnati will be favored to win the NL Central by a lot of folks because of the Reds' exceptional starting pitching depth -- Bronson Arroyo followed by Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Travis Wood, etc. -- and Leake is a part of that. Leake was one of the NL's best pitchers early in the season, but by midseason, his time as an effective pitcher in 2010 was over: He posted a 6.91 ERA in 28.2 innings after the All-Star break before being shut down.
He is 23 years old, and the Reds love his competitiveness and his athleticism, and they will need him to bounce back.
9. Aroldis Chapman, Reds
The rangy lefty was a fun little pitching weapon for Dusty Baker at the end of last season, with his praying mantis body and overpowering stuff. For left-handed hitters, facing Chapman is a nightmare, and for right-handers, it isn't much better; in 33 at-bats against Chapman last year, right-handed hitters racked up 14 strikeouts.
But Chapman was a supporting cast member last season, and now, with Arthur Rhodes headed off to Texas, the Reds need Chapman to contribute consistently. They need him to continue his work in limiting the extraneous motion in his delivery, to help his fastball command.
10. Cameron Maybin, Padres
He had a .302 on-base percentage last year for the Marlins, who gave the young outfielder about 600 plate appearances in the big leagues before deciding he wasn't going to stick with Florida. Now he's getting another shot with the Padres, and it's a wide-open opportunity for him; the Padres need a ball-hawking center fielder for their ballpark, and they need Maybin to be that guy, and to become a more credible offensive player. If you look at his performance in the progression of his at-bats -- as the ball-strike count develops -- a clear picture emerges: When he had some control of the count, he had some good results. But when he fell behind in the count, he was virtually helpless:
-- After the count went 1-0: .815 OPS, with nine extra-base hits in 113 at-bats.
-- After the count went 0-1: .454 OPS, with six extra-base hits in 149 at-bats.
Notables
• The grieving Dallas Green thanked the baseball community for its support, in the aftermath of the shooting of his granddaughter.
• The Rangers' interest in Jim Thome is serious, and while Texas executives are not saying much about what they have in mind for the slugger, there is an issue of balance with their lineup. Ian Kinsler is right-handed, and so are Michael Young and Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz and Yorvit Torrealba and Matt Treanor and Elvis Andrus. The right-handedness of the lineup was particularly clear when Josh Hamilton was hurt last September; some left-handed pop was needed.
And Hamilton was the only hitter who did more damage against right-handed pitching last year than Thome, who posted a staggering 1.154 OPS in 189 at-bats. After Justin Morneau went down, Thome helped step in and fill the gap. I talked to him late in the season and he spoke about how he had reached the stage in his career at which he understood that he could be a better player by resting regularly -- that getting days off was a good thing at age 40.
Vladimir Guerrero is apparently not at that stage. At the outset of the offseason, Guerrero was looking for a two-year deal, and while the Rangers theoretically could have pursued him on a one-year deal, the fact is that with Beltre signed and Young ticketed for a lot of at-bats at DH, they wouldn't have 600 plate appearances for Guerrero.
But they could find 200-300 plate appearances for a left-handed part-time player, and while there is winter hand-wringing over whether the at-bats would come at the expense of Mitch Moreland or David Murphy, the real-time reality is that guys get hurt; depth is needed. Young's flexibility provides the Rangers with the opportunity of signing someone like Thome, and if somebody gets hurt -- Kinsler or Beltre or Moreland or Andrus -- then Young could be used in the field. Thome could get at-bats at DH, the same way opportunity popped up for him after Morneau got hurt last summer.
Thome is a great clubhouse guy; he's 11 homers shy of 600; he brings the potential of high-impact at-bats (and a heightened risk for injury, as well). Last winter, the Twins invested $1.5 million to sign Thome for a part-time role. With Morneau apparently ready to come back and Minnesota now deep into expensive negotiations with Carl Pavano, we don't yet know whether the Twins will compete with whatever the Rangers and other teams are offering. And the Twins, more than any other team, would have a sense of how much Thome's back was bothering him at the end of last season.
We'll see.
There are some potential sticking points for the Rangers, as Anthony Andro writes. The Twins would still like to sign Thome, writes Joe Christensen.
• If Thome signs, presumably this will help break the logjam in the DH/1B/lumbering outfielder market, because Thome might be the most coveted in that group -- with Vladimir Guerrero, Jason Giambi, Russell Branyan, Johnny Damon, and yes, Manny Ramirez still waiting for deals.
As the dust is settling, this has become evident: Damon probably made a mistake in not following up on the Yankees' overtures last winter about a two-year deal.
• Pablo Sandoval says he has lost 17 pounds, writes Henry Schulman.
Moves, deals and decisions
1. As we heard from Bill Shaikin last week, Frank McCourt has been lobbying Major League Baseball for help with a money plan going forward, and the financial pressure on McCourt is real and immediate, according to sources. The other owners really can't force him to sell, but if MLB doesn't lend a hand, the circumstances might squeeze him out -- and you wonder if this could help solve another problem for the commissioner, down the road.
It's been awhile since Bud Selig formed the committee to study the Oakland ownership situation, with no resolution in sight for his longtime friend and former fraternity buddy Lew Wolff, the current Athletics owner. What Wolff and the Athletics want is a ballpark in San Jose, and Selig might feel as though he can't give that to him.
But if McCourt eventually has to sell the Dodgers, providing Wolff -- who lives in L.A. -- an opportunity to buy the Dodgers would be a heck of a compromise move for Selig, who is, above all else, a deal-maker. In a similar way, he ushered John Henry and Tom Werner -- previously connected with the Marlins and Padres, respectively -- into control of the Boston Red Sox.
And Wolff, of course, could bring along GM Billy Beane, who could leave the Athletics in the hands of the next owner and heir apparent David Forst.
It's all speculation. But it all could make a lot of sense, depending on which way the dominoes fall with the Dodgers.
2. Heard this: As of late Monday night, it appeared that Brad Penny was going to work out a deal with the Detroit Tigers.
3. Heard this: Carl Pavano continues to make progress in his negotiations with the Twins, and it's very possible that a deal will be done by the end of the week.
4. The Phillies traded for a second baseman.
5. Heard this: The question of what role Rafael Soriano will play for his next team is very much secondary to what his salary will be. In other words, if some club was willing to pay him to be its bullpen catcher for $45 million over the next three years, Soriano would consider it; he is looking for a lucrative deal, which is absolutely his prerogative.
6. Luis Sojo will manage in the Yankees' system.
7. R.A. Dickey is arbitration-eligible, as Steven Marcus writes.
8. Jim Leyland's son will be in the Tigers' camp, as Gene Myers writes. It will be fun for Leyland to pencil in his son's name into a lineup card, for sure.
9. The A-Rod contract could be a blueprint for the Albert Pujols deal, writes Derrick Goold.
10. The Reds plugged a couple of roster holes.
11. The Rockies signed a reliever for bullpen depth, writes Troy Renck.
12. The Mariners signed Adam Kennedy.
13. Jason Bartlett has worked out a two-year deal with the Padres, a contract that could become a three-year deal.
Other stuff
• A ballistics test in the Alfredo Simon shooting is to be released today, writes Dan Connolly.
• There is sad news about a former Tiger.
• Paul Hoynes addressed the question of whether Omar Vizquel is a Hall of Famer.
• Two of the prospects acquired in the Garza deal now rank among the top 10 prospects in the Rays' organization.
• Clint Hurdle opened his first minicamp preaching fundamentals, writes Colin Dunlap.
• Francisco Rodriguez's rebound will impact the Mets' future, writes Dan Martin.
• To repeat, we'll be doing some hot stove talks and book signings for "How Lucky You Can Be" in New England at the end of next week. The schedule: First, at Northfield Mount Hermon School, in Massachusetts, at 7 p.m. on Jan. 21; at Gifford Hospital in Randolph, Vt., on Jan. 22; and in Burlington, Vt., at Burlington Bay, from 1:30-3:30 on Jan. 23.
Latest blog review of the book here.
• The SEC is home to the king of college football, as it should be. But I wish they'd give Vanderbilt a turn, occasionally. The Vanderbilt players try to do stuff together, as Joseph Duffy blogs.
And today will be better than yesterday.
Authorized wholesale dealer for BCW, if you need any supplies let me know and I will get you a quote
drugs of choice
NHL hall of fame rookies