I wasn't even going to post tonight, but then I saw a couple performances that really merited a post. So here you go.
Lehigh Valley 2, Gwinnett 7
Tim Hudson is moving right along on his rehab assignment and I am impressed with the amount of control he had in this start. He threw 41 pitches of which 27 were strikes and as you can see he issued no walks. Brooks Conrad appears to have brought his experience from Atlanta with him
West Tenn @ Mississippi - RAIN
The Southern League summons the gods of rain in order to keep Heyward off the field.
Myrtle Beach 9, Potomac 14
The sad thing here is that this game wasn't nearly as close as the scoreboard says. The Pelicans scored 8 of their runs after the start of the 8th inning (6 in the 9th). They didn't hit until the last 2 innings, they committed 4 errors and obviously the pitching was incredibly weak. This team has not been playing well in their past few games. On the bright side Cory Gearrin has been lights out and Gerry Rodriguez has been the best hitter on the club since his promotion.
These are the games that make you think Randall Delgado could be our best pitching prospect. Neither of the runs that he allowed were earned which helped improve his ERA to 3.00 for the month, which makes July his best all around month this season (though the walks could still use some work). Adam Milligan is hitting .472 in his last 10 games with all 5 of his HRs coming in the last 6 games. His K% at this point is actually only 21% in 81 ABs for Rome which is just fine for a young slugger his age. Milligan was a two sport guy in high school who started to develop quickly when he began to focus solely on baseball and now that he is getting game experience he could really take off.
Burlington 1, Danville 2
Mycal Jones doubled with one out in the 9th inning, advanced on a ground out and then scored the walk off run on a wild pitch. I think that is the second time in the last week in which one of the rookie teams pulled this off. Brett Oberholtzer has been the best all around pitcher on this team so far (regards to Tyler Stovall and Julio Teheran).
0 recs | 58 comments
Soooo...
Is Oberholtzer a real prospect? Or is he just off to a good start and will never become of anything?
esadb - July 28, 2009
Lets see what BA has to say:
yondaime4 - July 28, 2009
Yes,
God>Heyward>Southern League
Let’s say Milligan becomes a 30HR guy with .290 AVG and .330 OBP while Cody becomes a 35HR .230 AVG .350 OBP guy. Who would you take as your cleanup hitter?
bbxxj - July 28, 2009 via mobile
Cody will never walk that much
But if those numbers are the choices, then I’d go with Milligan
esadb - July 28, 2009
I’m sure he won’t, that was just a what if question. Do you take the power contact
guy or do you take the power OBP guy?
bbxxj - July 28, 2009 via mobile
power contact
he’ll drive a ton of guys in for you. 30hrs .290avg. is border line superstar if he does it consistently
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009 via mobile
thats Carlos Lee…basically
Swo12bv - July 28, 2009
except Lee doesnt stike out htat much
Swo12bv - July 28, 2009
Power contact
esadb - July 28, 2009
You’ve gotta take the guy that makes less outs while hitting for more power. 35 HR and .350 OBP is more valuable than 30 HR and .330 OBP. I’m no rocket scientist, but I know which numbers are bigger than which.
timmy3 - July 28, 2009
give me the guy with more doubles.
yondaime4 - July 28, 2009
Lawd knows this team needs another doubles hitter with warning track power.
timmy3 - July 28, 2009
thats not even close to what I said or meant. If it was a choice between a guy with 30 or 35 homers i take the guy who hits more doubles.
yondaime4 - July 28, 2009
uhhh milligan by a ton. id take a 60 point higher batting average over 5 more HRs and a 20 point obp anyday. CJ would be (bad) andruw jones version 2.0.
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009 via mobile
You’d take average over OBP? You understand that part of what makes up OBP is average right?
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
LOL
It’s a difficult concept.
timmy3 - July 28, 2009
Hits > walks
esadb - July 28, 2009
Less hits + walks < more hits + walks.
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
Sorry, a little unclear:
Less (hits + walks) < More (hits + walks)
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
True
But more hits usually equals more RBI, which are what a cleanup hitter should have. I guess its just opinion
esadb - July 28, 2009
Cbwilk, it had to do with a CLEANUP hitter
Sure, i’d take the .350obp if its a leadoff guy. maybe even a 2nd hitter.
But a cleanup hitter? i want the average.
If all your #4 hitter does is walk, how do you expect him to drive in runs? a .230 average is HORRIBLE. he would have more runners LOB than Jeff Francoeur in 2008 and 2009.
the difference between .230 and .290 avg is probably 40 or 45 hits over a season. you’re telling me you dont want an extra 45 hits from your #4 hitter? thats offensive suicide for your lineup.
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009
How is the guy who actually gets on base more, thus producing more offense, killing the lineup? And, in the scenario you created, Cody’s hitting more home runs, which would lead me to guess his slugging is also higher, meaning that his OPS is higher, meaning that he’s even more productive. By sheer percentage he’s being more productive and thereby driving in and causing more runs to score.
This nonsense about where a guy hits the in lineup dictating what kind of counting stats (which are silly to even talk about) he should have is ridiculous.
And Adam Milligan has 31 games of pro baseball under his belt. Let’s not write the guy into the future major league lineup just yet. He’s probably a fine player, but getting this excited makes no sense. Anybody remember this time last year when folks were touting Brandon Hicks as Chipper’s future replacement? Yeah, not a lot of that going on now.
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
i never said he was a part of the future
i didnt even know about the guy until a week or two ago.
JMO, in response to your point, is i want the most hits out of my middle-of-the-lineup guys. Its just how i like baseball.
i love having my 1,2 and 8 hitters with a good OBP. But my 3, 4, 5 hitters? I’d take a better average anyday of the week.
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009
This chart shows the correlation between team rank in each of these stats to their rank in runs scored over the last five seasons…
OBP is simply more important.
timmy3 - July 28, 2009
For a team, yes.
for a cleanup hitter, no.
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009 via mobile
No.
Making less outs = better offense
get swoll yunel - July 28, 2009
I just dont like guys who hit .230
no matter this obp. Im not saying obp doesnt matter.
esadb - July 28, 2009
Me too
I don’t care if it’s babe ruth. If he’s hitting .230, I don’t want him in my lineup.
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009 via mobile
what
esadb - July 28, 2009
Woudn't that defeat the purpose
of it being Babe Ruth?
VivaLosBravos - July 28, 2009
How dare you make sense in crazy-land!
Bronn - July 28, 2009
Take the Joe Carter pics out of your spank bank.
lineup construction is over-rated.
You take the better hitter every time. The better hitter is the guy that makes less outs, and hits for more power. It’s really not offensive suicide because you’d be getting about 50-60 more walks and about 15 less outs. That’s 15 more innings that are extended, which is worth a game or two right there. That’s before the part where you’re also accepting 5 fewer HR.
timmy3 - July 28, 2009
35 hits assumign 550 ABs
Swo12bv - July 28, 2009
If your going to go that route
I think it would be more fair to project Cody as a 40 HR hitter. He was basically on that pace earlier this season then started faltering lately. As he grows, recognizes pitches a bit better, and gets a bit stronger I would expect him to hit more HR’s. Basically Adam Dunn
drumzalicious - July 28, 2009
Cody hasnt shown the patience of Dunn…just yet….or at least i dont think he has
Swo12bv - July 28, 2009
i will admit Cody’s nbrs have jumped to a very acceptable 13% BB rate (still not the 16-17% Dunn posts regularly)
Swo12bv - July 28, 2009
of course
i know he isnt there yet but the OP was saying projections and you would only hope that the guy would start progressing in his taking of walks among other things like his defense.
I think Cody will be an almost exact replica of Adam Dunn someone that should be a DH but is mobile enough to cover the left field corner lol
drumzalicious - July 29, 2009
Soo no Heyward tonight and a boring, pathetic game at chase field between the phillies and Dbacks
Boooo! heres hoping tomorrow night is better.
p.s. why the f*¢k is conrad still at gwinett?
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009 via mobile
We signed him cause hes got some pop. He earns some time in Atlanta and gave us some pop. We decided that exactly what we wanted/needed wasn’t cool and send him back down to Gwinny.
All in all, I think he made a good impression on Bobby and will almost certainly be back in Atlanta at some point this season…
bwellnjonesco - July 28, 2009
Why did Gearrin get demoted? He was pitching pretty well for Mississippi.
timmy3 - July 28, 2009
I talked to him today and he said it really just was an organizational shuffle thing. Valdez goes down to Gwinnett so Gunderson goes down to Mississippi so Gearrin goes down to MB. Really doesn’t make sense from a development standpoint though. He was lights out tonight and looks a lot better than A ball hitters. I love his attitude though; it’s like, whatever, I’ll pitch and things will work out.
Also, I think I’m picking up royhobbs’ bad luck, since Danville got whooped the other night when I saw them and MB got shalacked tonight. Also also, royhobbs, Erik Cordier liked your From the Beach to Baltimore post.
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
Milligan
Where does he fit in the future plans? Our OF looks to be jammed up long-term (Heyward/Mclouth/Shafer), and 1B has Freeman taking aim. If Milligan shoots through the system, where might he fit in? Trade bait?
ATLandUNC - July 28, 2009
probably. and we all know Frank Wren and co. isn’t afraid to deal prospects for players to help the team short term.
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009
*probably refers to trade bait
Scott Coleman - July 28, 2009
We’re making an awful lot of noise about a 6th round draft pick who really hasn’t played a lot of baseball. I’m not saying the kid might not be great, but getting this excited about him seems really premature.
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
+1
was385 - July 28, 2009
Did you hear that we drafted this Milligan guy three times? If we are willing to eat three salaries for one player, then he must be a damn quality ball player. I might have premature issues, but Adam Milligan is the greatest baseball player on this fucking planet.
bwellnjonesco - July 28, 2009
good thing you are here to tell people who is worth getting excited about.
yondaime4 - July 28, 2009
Alright, it’s fine to be excited about the kid, but these folks who are putting him in the Atlanta lineup already are really jumping the gun, you have to admit that.
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
welll…the fact is he is hitting right now…and everyone knows the Braves really like him… For some poeple thats enough to start projections…
Personally, I have him in a ridiculously deep keeper league and I need him to suceed to make me look smart
Swo12bv - July 28, 2009
Wow. That fantasy baseball stuff always baffled me. You’re not only banking on the fact that 4 or 5 years from now that Adam Milligan will be good, but also that you’ll still be playing fantasy baseball.
cbwilk - July 28, 2009
ok I’ll accept that.
yondaime4 - July 29, 2009
Our mutual love of catchers is never in question though.
cbwilk - July 29, 2009
Prob Trade Bait
Or they might trade McLouth and just put him in LF
drumzalicious - July 28, 2009
Milligan to Atlanta!
It’s not rushing him if he’s ready.
VivaLosBravos - July 28, 2009
And the reason that people think Jason Heyward is ready is because the guy is posting a 2:1 BB:K rate in his first taste at AA as a 19 year old and he has an excellent idea of what he is doing at the plate. Its cool that you don’t get it, just try not to keep bringing it up.
yondaime4 - July 28, 2009
I do
I am all for advancing Heyward, FTR.
VivaLosBravos - July 28, 2009
The Pelicans could probably use Milligan’s bat, and he’s at an advanced-enough age where he doesn’t seem as great a prospect for Low A.. Right now he’s tearing up the lower levels worse than Heyward did last year. I know it’s a small sample size, but the K rate isn’t outlandish for a player at his level, and his overall line is extremely good. He’s probably a bit over the heads of the guys he’s playing against.
Bronn - July 28, 2009
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